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‘The Last Night’ is a stunning take on 16-bit games for the 4K generation
Indie darling The Last Night stepped onto the big stage this week at E3. The game was announced as an Xbox exclusive during the same event that Microsoft officially revealed its powerful new 4K console: the Xbox One X. After those proceedings, we sat down with Odd Tales' Tim Soret for an update on the "cinematic platformer" and to discuss the recent controversy about his tweets.
'Dragonball FighterZ' looks dangerously close to the anime
There have been so many Dragonball (Z or otherwise) games that it's hard to tell most of them apart. While the latest Xenoverse titles attempted to spin out Akira Toyama's characters into alternate universes with online play, Dragonball FighterZ is an easier-to-explain premise: a 2D fighter with the anime's top-flight characters, with assistance from the same talent that made BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, both well-regarded competitive 2D fighters.
'Skull and Bones' is about pillaging your friends' ships
Pirates are back. As the Pirates of the Caribbean movie juggernaut refuses to let Jonny Depp rest for more than a year or two, Ubisoft's Skull and Bones takes the ship battles of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and turns them into grand-scale, five-on-five multiplayer naval warfare. It'll be a standalone title when it launches in 2018, but ahead of open-beta testing, I got to enjoy some demo time at E3. Caution: slightly shallow gameplay waters ahead.
'The Lost Legacy' takes 'Uncharted' back to basics
Deep in the mountainous region of India's Western Ghats, Chloe and Nadine are in trouble. The two treasure hunters have a clue to the whereabouts of the Tusk of Ganesha, a mystical artefact, but keep stumbling into an Indian rebel leader called Asav. They try to stay hidden, but are quickly discovered by soldiers out on patrol. Chaos ensues as the pair battle through enemy forces with a mixture of sharp-shooting and air-drop knockouts. It's classic Uncharted combat, the kind Naughty Dog has been perfecting since Drake's Fortune in 2007.
Swing your arms to move in the VR shooter 'Vindicta'
Movement is a tricky thing in virtual reality. If you move too quickly, you risk getting sick and disoriented. Because of that, most developers have opted for teleporting in VR games: the act of pointing to a spot that you can see, and instantly warping there. It's an easy solution, but it also ruins the immersion of VR. Vindicta, a room-scale HTC Vive shooter from Beirut-based Game Cooks, has another idea for movement: just swing your arms.
'Circle of Saviors' made me equal parts hero and dweeb
Circle of Saviors is more fun than it should be. The cooperative hack-and-slash VR game glues you to a single spot, and you wield a shield and sword using HTC Vive controllers. Your buddy is armed with a crossbow (which is actually a Vive controller and a tablet screen). Meanwhile, you're immersed in the battlefield, as a green-screen room digitally maps everything to a TV for spectators to watch. Sure, I've seen this done before, but swords and goblins are way better than teleporting and shooting.
'Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite' and 'Mega Man' at E3 2017
Other than an impressive Monster Hunter World preview, the Capcom booth at E3 2017 is also home to demos for two big releases due later this year. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 picks up where the first bundle left off, jumping into the 16-bit era with Mega Man 7, 8, 9 & 10. The pack will be released on PS4, Xbox One and PC August 8th for $20, and gamers who need an extra dose of nostalgia can dive into the archives of artwork or just play their favorite tracks. For a more modern touch, the booth also has Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite on display. This iteration reverses the change 3v3 hero teams introduced with Marvel vs. Capcom 2, going back to a 2-on-2 tag team format. The story mode I played is also available now as a free demo on PS4 and Xbox One, where players can use the new Infinity Stones against Ultron's minions. The new game has been criticized for its art style and smaller roster of characters -- we could use most of the 24 it will launch with, far fewer than the 48 in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Check out out game play above, along with two trailers embedded below.
Fight Zombies in a 1930s adventure serial with 'Strange Brigade'
There was a time when video games about surviving a zombie horde was novel. They presented an exciting challenge wherein the player was pitted against a seemingly endless stream of mindless enemies. The Resident Evil series, the original Dead Rising and the Left 4 Dead games were hits for a reason -- but the idea eventually grew stale. The Last of Us and The Walking Dead overcame that zombie fatigue by offering strong, character-driven stories. Rebellion games' Strange Brigade takes another approach: throw in a silly announcer inspired by 1930s British newsreels.
Ex-Bungie developers crafted the most promising VR adventure yet
It's hard not to love Quill, the swashbuckling mouse heroine of Moss, an upcoming PlayStation VR game from Polyarc Games. She's adorable, with huge ears, a fetching adventurer's bandana and an ever-so-tiny backpack. And she kicks butt -- thanks to a grass sword, a badass gauntlet and plenty acrobatic skills. It's difficult to create new characters that players can instantly love, but Polyarc managed to do just that.
Axget at E3: Making virtual reality accessible for everyone
Virtual reality is changing gaming. If it works for you, that is. The technology adds a wearable component to gaming input, and this brings new (occasionally insurmountable) challenges to gamers with disabilities. Amy Kneepkens, head video creator at AbleGamers, joined us onstage at E3 2017 to give us a view into accessibility issues affecting virtual reality.
Axget at E3: Checking in on indie game development in 2017
The indie-video-game industry is massive, churning out mainstream hits and padding the marketplaces on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, mobile and even Nintendo Switch. But the one thing that makes indie development so flexible, true independence from outside companies or investors, is also what makes it so unstable.
'Vampyr' is more about who you kill than how you do it
Developer Dontnod has taken a sharp turn from its previous games Life Is Strange and Remember Me with Vampyr, but there's more to think about than just another angle on gender politics. We stopped by the booth and got a guided tour throughout a few sections of the game that showed us more about how combat works and what kind of choices your character will have to make. Going beyond mere moody lurking in the shadows, we watched the player's character, Dr. Jonathan Reed, struggle between his role as a doctor in Spanish flu-stricken 1918 London and the reality of being a recently turned vampire who kills humans to survive.
I used E3 to take a very public crash course in 'Arms'
In hindsight, this was a bad idea. I'm rubbish at almost every kind of competitive, multiplayer game, and motion controls are a waggling "am I doing this right?" nightmare. Still, at E3, I couldn't resist the chance to try Arms, the spring-loaded boxing game for the Nintendo Switch. So I recruited my handsome colleague (and Arms player extraordinaire) Sean Buckley to give me a crash course on the Axget E3 stage. The results were, well, mixed. The game is loads of fun, and I love its cast of colorful characters, but I have to accept a harsh truth: I am absolutely dreadful. If you want to see an Arms master ridicule and pulverize a beginner, click on the video player above. I apologize in advance for the random mess of jabs and grabs that follow.
‘Steven Universe: Save the Light’ has all of the show’s charm
Cartoon Network's Steven Universe practically begs for the role-playing-game treatment, with its deep lore, unique characters and gorgeous hand-drawn art style. The show got its first video-game treatment a few years ago with the mobile game Steven Universe: Attack the Light. Now that game's sequel, Save the Light, is finally giving the show's fans the full-fledged RPG they've been waiting for. And after playing it for a bit at E3, I think they have plenty of reasons to be excited.
Axget at E3: Why Konami has high hopes for 'PES 2018'
Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 promises to be the franchise's best title in years, thanks to a combination of smoother gameplay and improved life-like graphics. Then there's the fact you'll be able to play My Club matches as Usain Bolt, the eight-time Olympic gold medalist. Sure, it's a pure marketing move, but that doesn't mean it won't be fun to have him play for your team. We had the game's global brand product and manager, Adam Bhatti, join us on our E3 stage to talk more about these features, as well as whether or not Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 will be getting a Nintendo Switch version. Spoiler alert: That's not a yes-or-no question.
‘Starlink’ blends gaming and toys in a genuinely intriguing way
Following the likes of Amiibo, Skylanders and the rest, Ubisoft's latest take on the physical toy/video-game hybrid, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, already feels like an exciting proposition -- even if we didn't quite get to play the title itself. We saw a hands-off presentation of the spaceship-based gameplay (customizable load-outs, pilot-based superpowers and weird alien threats), as well as how easily the add-on guns and mods appear in-game. We then also got to handle the physical toys themselves. All told, it's clear Ubisoft has done a good job.
The ‘reinvented’ ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’ feels mostly the same
Microsoft gave us the first glimpse of the upcoming Assassin's Creed during its Xbox One X reveal at E3. A day later, Ubisoft discussed the details about how it took a year off from the franchise to "reinvent" the game. Well, after spending some time playing on that newly announced console, what Ubisoft is showing off this week isn't a huge revelation -- it's a continuation.
Logitech's wireless-mouse charging tech feels like a miracle
Logitech's main mission at E3 this year: proving to gamers that wireless mice are just as capable, and sometimes more so, than their corded counterparts. The company revealed two innovations at the show: Lightspeed, its low-latency wireless-transmission technology, and PowerPlay, a way to charge mice while using them on a custom mat. Both solve the main complaints some gamers have around wireless mice: that they're laggy and could lose charge at any moment.
In 'Far Cry 5,' your teammates might be the real stars
Far Cry 5 is one of the most anticipated games at E3 2017, even if it won't be out until 2018 -- like so many other titles previewed this week. That distant launch might be why I felt surprised that the early demo on show at Ubisoft's booth was already so polished. In typical Far Cry style, the environments are lush and detailed (and delightfully colorful too). Cultist fighters also swarm on your location and chase you through the forest, just as you'd expect. The most notable change, then, isn't the series' relocation to Montana, but the company you keep as you battle the cult. Yep, while you are still pretty much a one-man army, at least one person (or canine) has your back this time around, which not only makes things slightly easier but also affects how you play through the game.
‘OK K.O.’ is a brilliant cartoon with a game to match
With his small, boxy stature and pin-thin legs, K.O. doesn't look like much of a superhero. But that's the whole point of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, an animated series from Cartoon Network. The titular character is a powerhouse-in-training, full of naive wonder and a hunger to pummel bad guys. He works in a convenience store run by Mr. Gar, one of the world's greatest superheroes, alongside fellow rookies Radicles and Enid. Together they battle the mischievous robots sent from a factory called Boxmore across the road, learning about friendship and hard work along the way.
