Disney’s Avengers Land Could Be as Interactive as Galaxy’s Edge
Following the launch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s plans for Marvel Studios’ Avengers-inspired land and attractions are undoubtedly the most anticipated upcoming phase in theme park entertainment.
As details have emerged about the expansion of the Disney Parks universe through the presence of a new Stark Industries-affiliated organization, the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (WEB), the MCU’s presence has already taken shape in many ways.
Hong Kong Disneyland kicked off the year with its Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle ride, and Captain Marvel made her debut as a character fans of all ages could meet at Disney’s California Adventure and on Disney Cruises in the States.
Google Stadia Hands on with Doom Eternal
At E3 Google was hosting demos of Doom Eternal on its new Stadia game streaming service, and I was lucky enough to go hands-on with Id Software's latest First Person Slayer. As a longtime PC gamer who has always preferred a hardwired connection over wireless, I was curious to experience Google's technology with my own eyes and hands, though I figured since the company was demoing it with Doom versus a slower-paced game, they must be pretty confident about how it works at this stage.
To begin they sat me down on a comfy couch and placed the Stadia controller in my hands. The wireless controller was connected to a Google Pixelbook (I think via Bluetooth), and the laptop was connected to a wall-mounted TV using HDMI. The laptop was also connected to an Ethernet connection, which Google said was about 25Mb/s. They recommend that amount of bandwidth as a good baseline for 1080p and 60 frames per second (FPS). In the future, when they are ready to show 4K gameplay, that number will inevitably go up quite a bit.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Aims for the Moral Gray Area
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward's upcoming reboot of the 2007 classic, will be released on October 25. But it's already generating a lot of mixed reactions, including within our own team at IGN. And that seems to be the developer's intention.
The question is whether or not the new Modern Warfare will have anything to say, and if it does if it'll be able to do so in a way that is respectful to the countless men and women who have served or are serving in the armed forces. We wrote about both missions we saw prior to E3 in our big preview, which we also encourage you to take a look at. But here are a couple of excerpts:
How Marvel’s Avengers Character Customization Works: Skills, Gear and Cosmetics
During E3 2019, IGN met with Marvel's Avengers developers Crystal Dynamics to learn how character customization will work in the upcoming game.
During the interview, IGN's Joshua Yehl sat down with lead combat designer Vincent Napoli, who revealed there will be three main categories of customization: skills, gear, and cosmetics. At this point, we don't know if those are the official names of each category, but those are the player's primary pathways for customization.
Skill Customization in Marvel's Avengers
On the subject of skills, Napoli said, “There's a pretty in-depth skill tree that lets you customize abilities, upgrade abilities, gain new moves. It's a pretty robust moveset for each of the characters. The tree layout is very distinct because the characters don't really fit the similar mold. So while one character has alternate combos, another character might have weaponization stuff, like we did with Hulk.”
You Can’t Play Marvel’s Avengers Campaign Multiplayer
During the Square Enix presentation for Marvel's Avengers at E3 2019, it was said there will be gameplay with one to four players, but they left it at that. IGN followed up with the Crystal Dynamics developers and learned that the entire story campaign is single player only and has no multiplayer option.
After seeing the private Marvel’s Avengers gameplay demo at Square Enix’s E3 2019 booth, it was very clear the campaign was intended to be a single player experience. The demo was essentially the entire trailer shown to the public but they actually played out the full the gameplay sequences where you respond to the attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. As the level progresses, you’re put in control of each Avenger for a different segment and then it ends with a boss fight against Taskmaster. It was heavily scripted, kind of like Uncharted Tomb Raider, and had you switching from one Avenger to another for key story beats, so you can see why that wouldn’t work with two or more players.
Dota 2 Announces Auto Chess Game, Dota Underlords
A new game from Dota 2 called Dota Underlords has been announced, which is a standalone game of Auto Chess, inspired by the Dota 2 custom mod by Drodo Studio.
Dota announced last month that they were working on their own version of Auto Chess, saying more information would be released in the future.
Dota Underlords lets eights players battle against one another for dominance of the city, White Spire.
All Dota 2 Battle Pass owners are able to join in the beta starting Thursday, and an open beta is expected after approximately one week of "stress testing" the servers.
Players in open beta are able to play online against seven other players, practice their skills offline against bots, and join up together while playing against bots or other players in a party.
Marvel’s Avengers Will Have Microtransactions
During the Square Enix presentation for Marvel's Avengers at E3 2019, it was said the game won’t have loot boxes or ways to pay to win, but you’ll notice they didn’t say there wouldn’t be microtransactions. IGN talked to the game developers about it and they confirmed that Marvel’s Avengers will indeed have microtransactions.
As for what those microtransactions will entail, they only shared a few things, while hinting there may be more.
Crystal Dynamics lead creative director Shaun Escayg said, “There will be custom outfits that you can purchase in microtransactions.”
Lead combat designer Vincent Napoli added, “There are other aesthetic ways to customize your player card and your player experience, but there is nothing that affects the gameplay.”
How Much Far From Home Could Make Opening Weekend
As if the MCU hasn't spent enough time dominating the box office in 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home is shaping up to be yet another lucrative release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel is tracking for an opening weekend gross of between $150 and $160 million in North America. Sony's internal estimates currently place the opening weekend gross at $154 million, though insiders predict the gross could swell to as much as $180 million as the film's marketing campaign ramps up.
While Far From Home probably won't be breaking the record set by Avengers: Endgame earlier this year, which raked in $357,115,007 domestically on its opening weekend (according to Box Office Mojo), these figures are significantly higher than those of 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming. Homecoming earned $117,027,503 in its opening weekend. These Far From Home figures are comparable to Captain Marvel's opening weekend gross, which clocked in at $153,433,423 (again, according to Box Office Mojo).
Fallout Shelter Will Be Playable in Tesla Cars
Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard announced that Fallout Shelter will be added to the library of games playable in Tesla's Model S, Model 3, and Model X vehicles.
Howard appeared in an E3 Coliseum panel with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and moderator Geoff Keighley. "We are working on Fallout Shelter for the cars," Howard said. "It'll be free." Fallout Shelter will join Cuphead, first revealed on IGN recently via my own interview with Musk, as well as Beach Buggy Racing 2: Tesla Edition, a cartoony racing game that uses the car's steering wheel and pedals to control the on-screen action, as games available in the all-electric vehicles. A gameplay video showed Beach Buggy Racing 2's avatars all driving Tesla vehicles. These games join the TeslAtari suite, which includes a number of old-school Atari classics like Lunar Lander and Centipede. All games in Teslas can only be played while the car is in Park.
Xbox Head Says ‘E3 Is Not as Good’ Without Sony Presence
Healthy competition is not only good for the consumer; it's good for industry events as well, and Xbox head Phil Spencer said E3 "is not as good" with PlayStation taking the year off.
In an interview with Giant Bomb (via Comicbook.com), Xbox head Phil Spencer said, "I wish Sony was here. E3 is not as good when they're not here."
Spencer spoke further about the current state of the industry, competition, and the future of crossplay. "In the last 20 years, we've tripled the number of gamers on the planet. I think that's such a huge opportunity for us, as an industry. For me, I try to look at things that create artificial boundaries to people enjoying video games."