I was going to talk about Marvel’s Avengers today, but lets save that difficult post for another day. Instead, let’s chat about the DC FanDome event this past weekend and its two big game reveals!
Fans have been waiting years to hear what’s next for the Arkhamverse and to learn what Rocksteady has been up to since its last release, Batman: Arkham Knight. The company has largely been silent, which has fueled the countless rumors, speculation, and supposed leaks. Three years later, fans finally have their answers not only from Rocksteady, but what direction WB Montreal is taking the Batman gaming franchise as well.
Earlier this week, Sucker Punch surprised basically everyone by not only announcing new (and free!) DLC for Ghost of Tsushima, but confirming a multiplayer mode as well.
Ghost of Tsushima: Legends adds a brand new four player co-op mode to the traditionally single player game. Taking place completely outside of Jin’s story, up to four players can band together and become one of four warriors who are from the various folklores told by the inhabitants of Tsushima Island.
Want more? Have a look:
As you can see, this mode fully embraces the Japanese mythology, something the base game completely avoided. You have four classes to pick from and according to the reveal post, players will be able to customize these warriors. But each one represents a certain core class like the archer, samurai, stealthy ghost, and deadly ronin.
Not only that, the mode appears to be a big on the content heavy side, which is fantastic. The post discussed story based missions, wave-based survival missions, and even longer Raid style missions.
Honestly, I’m thrilled that Sucker Punch is tapping into all that Japanese folklore and supernatural elements. I absolutely understand their desire to keep the base game grounded and I think it works fantastically, but Japan has some really cool spiritual and mythology elements as well.
I’m extremely happy to see them push hard into this realm for Ghost of Tsushima: Legends. I think with how chunky this side of the game appears, it’s safe to say Ghost will be launching on the PS5 as well. Don’t be surprised to see a ported version, especially since this big and free mode is launching so close to the PS5.
I figured we’d get new content for Ghost of Tsushima but an announcement this early and something this substantial was a major surprise.
It’s been well documented that Ubisoft has had major issues with how certain employees treated others (especially women) as well as HR not doing all they could for those impacted. As a fan of Ubisoft’s games, this is hard to bear. My heart goes out to the many people who have already come forward to share their story. Stay strong. Hopefully, this leads to significant change in the industry.
Over the past week, another story has come to light that impacts many of the recent Assassin’s Creed games from certain (now former) leaders at that company. I was shocked to learn that in many of the recent titles, the company reduced and minimized the roles of certain female characters.
What’s crazy about this is that a bunch of characters mentioned were ones that I always believed should have had a bigger role in their games. Badass women who, at the time playing each game, I really believed would be featured in some way, either later in the game or perhaps a DLC expansion. According to reports, that may have once been planned for the characters below but was nixed in favor of male leads or a different story direction entirely.
I had a feeling Ghost of Tsushima would be my kind of game. Sure, it’s a Sucker Punch game and I’m a sucker (pun intended) for their stuff. For me there’s a lot to love including the delicately crafted open world, chasing hidden shrines, and just getting lost and coming upon something you had no idea was there.
From a gameplay perspective, challenging enemies to a duel as a samurai or approaching situations in a stealthy way is just a ton of fun.
However, the real standout are the visuals, something that has been well documented. Today, I wanted to share what I’ve been doing with the incredibly powerful Photo Mode tool. All of these shots were taken on my base PS4 and fear not, there are no spoilers for the game.
The tool itself is incredibly powerful and there’s just so much you can do. I’ve started to learn more and more techniques as I’ve played (which is likely why I haven’t gotten super far into the game yet) but I’m continually in awe at what the community has done so far. Definitely inspiring and makes me want to continue to learn and see what I can do. My next adventure is creating some interesting short videos with the tool.
For now, here’s what I’ve managed to capture so far. Enjoy!
Finally, the day has come for Xbox Series X fans. Okay, sure, we got that gameplay event back in May which ultimately ended up in like 90% “in-engine” trailers and didn’t actually have gameplay, but this is the event many were waiting for.
The latest Not E3 2020 event from Microsoft is going to be showcasing all sorts of first party content. With how well Sony was received last month with its own PS5 event, the pressure has seemingly shifted back over to Microsoft in order to deliver. They’ve scooped up a ton of studios so now it’s time to get a peek behind the curtain to see what they’ve been working on.
Here are my Totally Not E3 2020 Predictions for Microsoft. Enjoy!
I’ll admit, I keep going back and forth on this title. Last year, I wrote two articles, basically night and day going from being concerned to then not being concerned.
After the first Ubisoft Forward event, when we got another really good look at the game, I’m starting to have these concerns again. This is something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit since we saw the new gameplay this month. How is Watch Dogs Legion going to draw me in and keep me hooked when you can literally be anyone?
Well, in the past few days, we’ve learned quite a bit as to how crazy November 2020 is going to be for video games. In all honesty, this sudden pileup of games reminds me how things used to be. Last generation, it felt like in October and November, companies were releasing AAA titles every week.
While that schedule has thankfully slowed down in recent years, things have begun to once again heat up very quickly likely due to the current global pandemic as well as the arrival of a new generation of consoles.
So, here’s the timeline we’re basically looking at. I hope your wallet is prepared:
The summer of events and announcements rolls on! Without E3 this year, companies have had to get a bit creative and I for one am enjoying having all these reveals spread out over the course of the summer rather than jam packed inside 5-6 days. Today we’re setting down some predictions for Ubisoft’s not E3 event taking place this coming Sunday, July 12.
Similar to EA, I feel like we already know a lot of what Ubisoft is going to show off. However, there’s still enough ambiguity there where I do believe we’re going to get a surprise or two. I mean, we know they’re well known for their “One More Thing” style announcements.
So without further adieu, here are my totally not-E3 2020 predictions for Ubisoft. Enjoy.
I’ve touched on this a little bit in the past but it seems with the most recent 7/7 update during Season of Arrivals, Destiny 2 has finally created a world that feels alive.
In the past we’ve seen little things here and there attempting to make the world feel lived in, from Ikora building a giant Vex portal week after week, to the threat of the Almighty aiming to strike the Tower. While all that was nice to see, it never made me feel that Bungie achieved the ultimate goal of world based storytelling.
All that changed this past Tuesday. Let’s break it down:
I’ve mentioned this before but I think I’m coming around on not having a dedicated E3. Don’t get me wrong, I love the bombastic energy from the 5 days and the rush of announcements is always fun. As I’ve said, it’s like Christmas for gamers.
Still, there’s so much that happens that it’s easy to get overwhelmed with new stuff and potentially miss something. Without E3 this year, it has allowed companies to spread their content throughout the summer. So instead of a five day rush, wee get pockets of excitement at a constant clip. It’s been kind of nice having new events to look forward to rather than have a news drought from the end of June through August.
As you may or may not have known, both Sony and EA had their “E3ish” events recently and naturally, we have to discuss. Here are my thoughts on both.
After a number of false starts and delays, we’re finally getting that big PlayStation 5 reveal tomorrow. Here’s hoping we finally see the console itself to go along with the controller and tech specs we learned about earlier.
One thing that we know will be showcased are new games. While Microsoft attempted to do something earlier with third party games, it wasn’t smooth sailing as many of the trailers were rendered in-engine and not straight gameplay. Still, it was nice to see new content. I’m hoping Sony can really showcase the power of their new system, especially with first party games this time around.
So like I did with Nintendo, I’m presenting you with my totally not E3 2020 predictions for what I’m expecting to see from the PlayStation 5 reveal event. Enjoy!
While most of the talk around Destiny 2 has been around the Fall expansion and the arrival of the Darkness (after seven years no less!), many people may have forgotten that the current season had a more immediate threat.
For those who took a break from Destiny or generally weren’t aware, the Cabal made one last ditch effort to destroy a place called The Tower, basically the player’s home hub. Their plan was to repurpose the warship known as the Almighty, a sun destroying megaship that players essentially fought Ghaul on in the vanilla campaign, and send it crashing down into the social space.
All season, players wondered what the payoff would be for this story line. While the content portion of the season wasn’t really regarded well by players, the Almighty was seemingly lost behind the emerging threat of the Darkness which players could keep track of in the Rasputin bunkers each week. It wouldn’t be until the final two weeks that the Almighty would again begin to join the conversation.
The ship would progressively get larger in the Tower’s sky box each reset, finally becoming the threat that players were told it was at the start of the season. During the final week of the season, word started to come out that Bungie was planning a live event, then confirmed by the studio a day before it was scheduled to happen. Saturday, June 6 at 1pm ET. Reset time.
While most people probably thought would happen is that they’d log in and see some sort of trailer or cinematic showing Rasputin taking out the Cabal ship. I mean, Bungie wasn’t going for a Fortnite style live event right?
It’s still hard to believe we’re not getting an E3 this year. One of my favorite things to do each year is to try and predict what each company was going to bring to the table at their various press conferences. Even though we may not be getting a show this year, I’m not going to abandon my usual practice of guessing what the future holds.
With that in mind, I’m kicking off my annual E3 2020 prediction posts a little earlier than normal because we still know that announcements are coming, just not when since no one is being held to June anymore.
This week, I’m taking a look at Nintendo, who remains my wild card company considering that we really don’t know their second half plans for 2020. The company, while experiencing record success with the Switch (especially during the pandemic),has largely kept quiet for what its releasing later this year.
Sure, we do know of a few games they’re working on like Breath of the Wild 2 and Metroid Prime 4, but potential release dates have never entered the conversation to this point.
So, let’s try to shed some light on what the company is thinking heading into the summer. Here are my Nintendo predictions for 2020.
It’s fair to say that I’ve been on board with Ghost of Tsushima from day one of its announcement. For me, two things really did it for me.
The first thing was that it is being done by Sucker Punch, a developer I’ve really come to love from the PS3 and beyond days. The other element was that fact that while Ghost is really unlike anything the studio has done before, the foundations of it are built on the actual historical event when the Mongols invaded Tsushima Island. I’m a sucker for games that let me play around inside of actual historical based events.
At this point, it seems my blind devotion has largely paid off as the recent trailers and announcements have all looked fantastic. However, it was last week’s State of Play presentation that simply sealed the deal.
Before we get into today’s topic, I want to give major kudos to Bungie and the work they’ve been doing over the past few weeks to be transparent and open about the current state of the game. Destiny 2 has a lot of issues at the moment and it’s great to know that not only is Bungie aware of it, they’re detailing ways that they plan to fix them.
Having been with the franchise since the Destiny 2 beta days, I’ve seen all of the ups and downs. Believe me, there’s been a lot. However, this current phase feels like the most open and communicative the studio has ever been, which is really nice to see.
All that said, many of the game’s current issues have been significantly highlighted in its current season. The lackluster Season of the Worthy has been an absolute grind for players and not in a good way. Here’s why.
