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Shadow of the Tomb Raider Doubles Down on Puzzles and Exploration
Of the nearly 150 hours I have in Rise of the Tomb Raider, I spent plenty of them jumping off ledges, investigating corners, staring up at empty ceilings, and trying to get just the right angle to peek into a crack in a room to find the next obscurely hidden collectible. Exploration and all the challenges area that came with it were a great post-game activity in Rise of the Tomb Raider – that is, until exploration eventually became tedious and I realized how bloated Rise was with collectibles and other extra tasks. Shadow of the Tomb Raider touts a bigger and more immersive setting, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider's narrative director, Jason Dozois, and level design director, Arne Oehme, assured me that a focus on building out the game's fictional culture will help keep exploration interesting.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Kicking Butt as the Splatoon Inklings
Nintendo finally revealed the first gameplay from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during its E3 2018 Direct presentation. The reveal included two brand new fighters: Ridley from Metroid and the Inklings from Splatoon. I had an opportunity to go hands-on with the Inklings in Smash Bros. Ultimate to check out just what the squid kids can do and how they hold up against some of the more seasoned fighters on the roster. Simply put, I'm ink-credibly happy with what the squid kids have to offer.
With over six different variants (or costumes) to choose from, there's no doubt that you'll be fighting in style when you play as an Inkling in Smash Bros. Ultimate. That’s not all these Inkopolis natives have to offer, because their standard and special attacks see them switching between numerous weapons from Splatoon 2 including the Splattershot, Splat Roller, Ink Brush, Blaster, and Splasher.
Resident Evil 2 Returns to its Horror Roots in the Best Ways
Out of all of Resident Evil’s many phases – the old-school, fixed camera angled, tank controlled approach of the original three; the less restrained roaming camera of Code Veronica; the over-the-shoulder third-person action of Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6; and the gruesome first-person of Resident Evil 7 (not counting the series’ many, many spin-offs) – my heart lies in the original three’s oppressive survival horror.
I miss the careful, deliberate framing of scenes, the importance of pre-planning routes and inventory management, the near-instinctual understanding of your surroundings developed by smart, productive backtracking, and the obscure puzzle solving that can make something as mundane as a police station feel like a terrifying gothic castle. Based on my 30 minute demo, the Resident Evil 2 remake – officially titled Resident Evil 2 – strikes an elegant balance between these old-school elements and the more modernized format of recent entries.
E3 2018: Trials Rising is “Polished to Perfection”, Even on Switch
Can confirm: Trials Rising is definitely a Trials game. You ride a variety of bikes through some of the most absurd, seemingly impossible obstacles and tracks imaginable, carefully balancing your drivers’ weight distribution and acceleration. Usually, completing a track ends in a ridiculous, over the top death, but that doesn’t make the physics-based journey feel any less rewarding.
If you’re a particularly hardcore Trials fan, you might notice some very subtle improvements to handling and precision, with the developers telling me it’s simply “polished to perfection”. For anyone else who has more casually played any of the Trials games, you know exactly what you’re in for, and it’ll feel just as smooth as it always has. There are some innovations to be had, though, with a lot of it focused on fostering competition, both online and offline.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Director Explains Delay to 2019
Kingdom Hearts 3 finally has a release date of Jan. 29, 2019, but for many fans, it's just a little later than they may have expected. The reasons for it, though, are actually quite practical.
Speaking to IGN during E3 2018, franchise and game director Tetsuya Nomura said the delay from the originally intended 2018 release window came about less so for development reasons and more to be mindful of the game's worldwide launch window.
"The timing of release that we were actually looking at, we were told by many people, including hardware manufacturers, marketing teams, sales teams that it just wasn't a good timing in the year," Nomura said via translation, explaining that the differences in holiday lengths and how stores behave in different regions were a note of concern.
Control Is Like a Supernatural Quantum Break
Yes, Remedy’s first multiplatform game since Max Payne 2 shares a lot in common with their ambitious 2016 cinematic action-adventure, Quantum Break. No, that’s not a bad thing. It’s most welcome, in fact, as it feels like a spiritual sequel, but with a tighter focus. Oh yeah, and supernatural powers too.
You play Jesse Faden (played by Quantum Break’s Courtney Hope), the new director of the Federal Bureau of Control. She’s been promoted there in the wake of the death of the previous director, and with that promotion comes certain...abilities, which will be useful in defending against The Hiss, a strange force that has invaded our reality and corrupted Bureau workers. She can use telekinetic abilities like Shield, which pulls clocks off of walls and chunks of nearby columns and holds them in front of her defensively, as well as Launch, which does the same but turns that debris around as an offensive weapon (at one point later in the demo, Faden flung a forklift at a target). She can also levitate, which became more useful the longer my demo went because the physics-defying three-dimensional transitions that got more and more outlandish the deeper inside the Bureau headquarters Faden went -- a space called The Oldest Place. And she even becomes the keeper of a nifty transforming pistol that only the Director can wield.
Hitman 2 Is More of the Same, and That’s a Very Good Thing
It might have a new publisher, a new release style (no more episodes!) and a snazzy new Flamingo Mascot suit, but the most notable take-away after playing a 40 minute demo of Hitman 2 is how much it feels like the last game. It seems like we’re getting a Season 2 in all but name - and that’s just great.
New content to complement the last game was always Io Interactive’s grand plan for this new incarnation of the legendary assassination simulator and, after a very tangible scare that there might not be any more Hitman at all, it’s a pleasant surprise to find new caretaker Warner Bros. is letting the Danish studio get its way.
The Last of Us 2 is all About Honoring Ellie
Talking to Naughty Dog about The Last of Us Part II isn’t easy. There’s only so much the team can say about the story beyond what they showed us in the trailer, and there are a lot of groans and hair-pulling around whatever NDA they’ve signed or blood pact they’ve made to keep things a secret. The one constant everyone can say aloud, though, is The Last of Us Part II is about honoring Ellie.
Five years have gone by since Ellie and Joel arrived in Jackson. Joel is around - new character Jessie confirms Ellie’s ball-busting ‘old man’ is definitely in Jackson - but he’s not seen. Instead of leaning on Joel in a brutal world of cat-and-mouse survival, Ellie’s settled into a life of regular teenagehood. “It’s kinda normal,” said Druckmann when I spoke to him at the E3 Coliseum. “They go to a festival, there’s electricity, they go to parties.”
New The Last of Us Part 2 Gameplay Details Revealed
New gameplay and story details about The Last of Us Part 2 have been revealed.
Writer and director Neil Druckmann, along with co-game directors Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau, shared new information about the highly anticipated PlayStation 4 exclusive during an E3 Coliseum panel, hosted by IGN's own Lucy O'Brien.
Ellie's ability to move around the environment will be key to survival. The game's expanded traversal and stealth mechanics allow Ellie to interact with the environment in a much deeper way than the first game and add an extra sense of realism to the experience. Unlike the first game, a jump button is included, and the new dodge mechanic shown off in the recently released gameplay demo is an important part of the combat.