Skull and Bones Looks Like a Mix of Black Flag, For Honor and The Crew
Skull and Bones’s 5-v-5 naval combat is the multiplayer that Black Flag deserved, but never got. For years I’ve been waiting for Ubisoft to return to the high seas, and while I’m not sure if the final product will be exactly what I’m hoping for, I’m excited to see more after my brief time at the helm.
After a quick tutorial re-acclimating us to the basic mechanics of piracy and taught me a few new tricks as well. The core controls for maneuvering your vessel will be immediately familiar to anyone who spent time aboard ship in Black Flag: you use one button to hoist and trim your sails, which will allow you to harness more wind power and move faster through the sea, and another button will heave to and slow the ship down. Sail with the wind at your back for a speed boost, and try to avoid turning into the breeze if you’re looking to avoid a watery grave.
Battlegrounds Getting Player-Controlled Zombies
The developer of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds has confirmed via Twitter that the studio is working on a new PvP zombie mode for its hugely-popular battle royale game.
The news was announced alongside some footage containing a brief glimpse of a few early zombie animations and attacks.
Inspired by @PUBGpartners on @Twitch, zombies are coming to PUBG. There's no ETA yet but here's a sneak peek. #PUBGxE3 pic.twitter.com/IKKAZnl4Ml
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Is More Than a Simple Sequel
When Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was announced, it seemed to put paid to the idea that the Xenoblade series would be Monolith Soft’s take on a Final Fantasy-like franchise - each game similar in style and approach, but fundamentally different in story and character. That ‘2’ implied that we’d be be returning to the classic Wii RPG’s strange setting, the backs of the godlike Titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis.
So I put it to Monolith Soft studio head Tetsuya Takahashi: if this is being pitched as a sequel to the first Xenoblade, what will we find inside? “It's a completely different world, with completely new characters. It's a different game.”
Oh.
Gran Turismo Sport Gameplay First Impressions
At E3 2017, a playable demo of Gran Turismo Sport showed off two race tracks, and the accompanying presentation reinforced the racer’s many high-quality visual specs.
The first race was on a standard racetrack while the second took us to a dirt track with off-road vehicles, both without the opportunity to do any customization beforehand. My gameplay experience was quite a bit different than your typical living room setup. I raced against seven other journalists in front of a crowd while sitting in a racecar pod complete with pedals and a steering wheel as a crowd watched and an announcer called the race over the loud speakers.
Still, as removed from a normal gaming environment as it was, the gorgeous visuals and responsive gameplay that GT has made its name on shone through. The impeccable handling allowed me to hover behind the leaders, wait for a gap, and cut between them to get ahead before going back to my lines. Slamming into another player makes a soft clunking noise and slows you both down a bit (without showing any visible damage), so I was rewarded for being patient. The change of traction on the dirt track threw me off a bit (I spent more time grinding against the guardrail than driving on the road) but by the end of the race I got feel for the new terrain and was drifting around corners carefree.
Nintendo Wants the Biggest Third-Party Games on Switch
If it's a major third-party game or franchise players have been asking for, then Nintendo also wants it on the Nintendo Switch.
“We want every high-quality game to have an opportunity to be played on Nintendo Switch," Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's president and chief operating officer told IGN in an interview at E3 2017. "Every single one. Fill in the blank of third-party, high-quality game really wanted on Nintendo Switch; the answer is yes."
In addition to maintaining the flow of first-party releases for the Switch, Fils-Aime said Nintendo wants to supplement that schedule with great third-party games.
“We’ve been very thoughtful in making sure we have a strong cadence of launches that are going to keep our fans engaged, going to drive hardware, and continue to propel us forward," Fils-Aime said. "And certainly as we think back to Wii U, that’s one of the things that we didn’t do as effectively."
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Is a Sadistic Delight
MachineGames has listened to the many who found the opening hours of Wolfenstein: The New Order a chore. The first 20 minutes of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are ridiculous fun, a breakneck slaughter peppered with a cast of hilarious - and sinister - antagonists. From my time with the game, it seems that The New Colossus is doubling down on the sense of brutal glee so omnipresent in its predecessor.
The New Colossus opens with a badly broken BJ Blazkowicz. The grenade blast that closed The New Order has left him crippled, barely able to crawl his way to a wheelchair. And you do spend the first 20 minutes of The New Colossus in that wheelchair, desperately blasting your way through a compound full of Nazis with a machine gun that sits limply on his lap (for this reason, I didn’t get a true sense of the combat in The New Colossus as a whole, but even wheelchair-bound it feels as satisfying as it ever did.)
Agents of Mayhem Introduces a New Villain, August Gaunt
Deep Silver's Agents of Mayhem will be coming to a console near you in just two short months, but the publisher revealed a few more of the open-world adventure game's secrets during a preview appointment I attended at E3 2017. The primary focus of the demo was to give a general sense of the game loop; if earlier previews had focused just on missions in Seoul, this opportunity to view Agents of Mayhem wanted to give a full sense of the gameplay experience, which we previously described as a blend of Overwatch, Saint's Row and Crackdown. But I also got to meet August Gaunt, a newly unveiled member of Legion who is a particular fan-favorite of the staff.
PS4’s Spider-Man Understands What Makes a Great Hero
It’s a classic Spider-Man scene: Peter Parker is chasing after a bad guy. The dude has a decent head start, but Peter is slowly closing the gap. Web over web, turn after turn, he’s catching up. He’s going to get him.
Then, SNAP!, a huge piece of debris disconnects from a building, hurtling toward the streets below. Peter can stop it, but the guy he’s chasing will get away. If he pushes ahead to catch the guy and ignores the debris, hundreds of people below could be at risk. He has to decide what to do. Now.
Decisions like that have always defined Peter Parker, and the choices he makes define the type of hero he is. The mantra has become a cliche, but with great power does come great responsibility. Peter Parker doesn’t take these decisions lightly. And Insomniac isn’t taking them lightly either.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is an Uncharted Game for Me
In just 10 short minutes, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy impressed the absolute hell out of me. From the small character moments between Nadine and Chloe to the break-neck speed at which the demo delivered a huge variety of challenges, The Lost Legacy immediately cemented itself as an absolutely fitting and proper entry into Naughty Dog’s incredible series.
Full disclosure: I, like most of the planet, really loved Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. However, there’s one nagging thing that I couldn’t shake – I felt like a lot of the moments went on a beat too long. Every climbing section, every set-piece, every enemy encounter – they were all wonderful, but after I felt sufficiently full, the game kept feeding me a little bit more. I know it sounds strange, but I fully believe that brevity is the soul of wit, and there’s absolutely the idea of too much of a good thing.
Monster Hunter World Looks Like A Great Step for the Series
Since the series started way back in 2004, the Monster Hunter series has learned plenty of new tricks. The most recent entries have done a lot to speed up the series’ proven (and deep!) action RPG systems. Monster Hunter World takes that existing framework and speeds it up a little more, making it easier to hunt and gather without negatively impacting the tough-as-nails monster showdowns that fans adore as a result. New items like the crossbow and the ghillie suits add fresh layers of depth, but the biggest surprise of MH Worlds is its gorgeous (and seamless) environment. It’s an impressive-looking ecosystem that feels alive, and it adds exciting new ideas that will significantly impact future installments to come.