Square-Enix recently decided to drop IO Interactive from their portfolio of development studios, which left IO’s series of Hitman (and other games) up in the air. Good news. IO is now the company that owns themselves and also owns the Hitman “Intellectual Property” according to the CEO’s statement. I have a few questions as to who owns the previous games and the right to publish those, and what this means for the remaining staff at IO after they recently had to lay off some, but I’ll be looking forward to playing the next elusive target.
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Inside a Ukrainian Nuclear Missile Base
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Metroid: Samus Returns on September 15th
You wouldn’t have been wrong to think that Nintendo doesn’t care much about Metroid when it gets largely ignored by Nintendo, until today. Nintendo has a fresh team developing a new game in the Metroid Prime series and this 3DS remake of the Game Boy’s Metroid II: Return of Samus due on September 15th.
Very surprising to see Nintendo’s commitment to the 3DS platform continue. Here’s a longer video with Nintendo revealing the game on their Treehouse stream, interviewing the developers, and showing off about 40 minutes of gameplay:
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Nintendo Spotlight: E3 2017 Notes
Nintendo is here to finally tell us the backstory about Walugi and Wario. Are they really just old versions of Mario and Luigi that got really shitty?
Nevermind, Reggie has been hiding in our apartment to jump out and tell us about games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2mZS_p4A7Y
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Xenoblade Chronicles is getting a sequel and it’ll be out for the Switch later this year. The voice acting is real strange in this trailer.
Kirby
Kirby is still Kirby as heck. He’ll be out on the Switch in this sidescroller next year.
Pokemon coming to the Switch
Nintendo paused the trailer storm to let us know that Game Freak is working on a “core Pokemon” game for the Nintendo Switch. No release date but it probably won’t be out for over a year.
Metroid Prime 4
Speaking of games that are in development and don’t have anything to show. Metroid Prime 4 is being developed by a different team, not Retro. I’m pretty excited to hear that, I just got the Prime Trilogy set for the Wii and am looking forward to exploring some good Metroid-ass Metroid games.
Yoshi
Everyone’s friend that they don’t mind dropping into a pit at the end of a Mario level is back to scroll sideways some more. He’ll be on the Switch in 2018.
Fire Emblem Warriors
Where the hell is Advance Wars? This anime bullshit will be out on the Switch this Fall.
Skyrim for the Switch, Zelda: Breath of the Wild DLC
Eiji Aonuma showed up to remind us that Skyrim will be on the Switch with Link’s gear and then to start the trailer for Breath of the Wild’s upcoming DLC:
The Master Trials are coming out June 30th, and The Champions’ Ballad will be out late this year. I’m playing through BOTW on the Wii U and loving it.
Aonuma returned to tell us about more Amiibo coming out based on the champions in Breath of the Wild.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Why the hell does Mario have a gun? I am kind of surprised at how good this strategic and very weird Mario crossover looks. Even if the Rabbid characters are insufferable, it isn’t the kind of game you’d expect. It’ll be out on August 29th for the Switch.
Rocket League
Handheld Rocket League sounds like fun, and it’ll be cross-networked with the Xbox and Steam versions. It’ll be kind of interesting to see platform-exclusive customization items like the Mario hat in this trailer, if they’re displayed on other platforms.
Rocket League will be out on the Switch late this year.
Super Mario Odyssey
Mario‘s Hat being alive is kind of disturbing if you think about it too much, especially when Mario is using it to possess everything in this game including PEOPLE in New Donk City. You can inflict horrors upon the many kingdoms on October 27th if you have a Switch.
Overall
I kind of miss the spectacle of a stage show and seeing people speak live when this entire video is just pre-recorded and made available online. It’s good that Nintendo is putting out games with a perspective and style that you might expect from their 3DS handheld on the Switch, like Yoshi, and I don’t think they have entirely abandoned the 3DS either, which is good because I recently traded my old 3DS in for a New 3DS and don’t have a Switch yet.
Of course, I’m sure anyone with a Switch who didn’t have a Wii-U is ready for something big to play that isn’t Zelda, it looks like they won’t have long to wait.
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PlayStation E3 2017 Media Showcase Notes
Sony has a Sid Shuman pre-game before the press event this year, so you can skip to about one hour in if you want to get to the event.
One of the trailers they opened the show with features a hideous gold PlayStation 4 that’s $249 for a few days. Get it while it’s tacky and cheap?
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
A new Uncharted game coming out just a year after the last. I had fun with Uncharted 4 last year, and this time we’ve got no Nathan Drake. Instead it’s Chloe and Nadine’s adventure in India and it’ll be out on August 22nd. At least Sony doesn’t feel the need to have some deep voiced “exclusive” before every trailer, even when this is.
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds DLC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xsS1WZA54
It’s DLC for a game I haven’t played yet. The Frozen Wilds will be out some time later this year.
Days Gone
This post-apocalyptic zombie game was announced last year. The gameplay in the trailer is pretty interesting if the game actually gives you different options for getting stuff done. No release date yet. Another exclusive.
Monster Hunter World
Capcom’s been making Monster Hunter games for a long time, but I don’t ever remember them looking like this. It’ll have four-player co-op online early next year on PS4, Xbox One, and Windows. They actually had pyrotechnics on stage at the end of the trailer.
Shadow of the Colossus Remaster/Remake
Hell yes I’d play Shadow again. It’s kind of a surprise Sony are doing this after doing an HD remaster on PlayStation 3, but this looks more like a remake than a remaster. It’ll be out some time next year on PS4.
Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite
September 19th for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One. The art is real weird on some of these characters. There’s a story demo out now. I think I’d rather play Ultimate MvC 3.
Call of Duty: WW2
Last year’s Infinite Warfare was an unexpected delight, and I was surprised at how little the other journalists I follow enjoyed it. Some still thought that Advanced Warfare was the best game from the triad of developers switching off on the game every year. I felt that going back to the same ship between missions in IW added a slice of life that I hadn’t seen in other Call of Duty games. If WW2 is as far back to its roots as it appears, it won’t be much like Infinite and even though I am sure I could still enjoy playing through it and some multiplayer, it’ll be worse for it. Call of Duty: WW2 is due out on November 3rd for Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Skyrim VR
It’s Skyrim VR’s trailer for PlayStation VR. While I’m sure it will be a very different experience, and it’s good that VR is getting more full games, I’m not that psyched to replay it. Still no release date, and it’s going to be on Windows as well.
Star Child
A curious kind of sci-fi side-scroller for PSVR without much other information. No release date given.
The Inpatient
The idea of playing a horror game in VR is particularly terrifying. According to the game’s description The Inpatient is a prequel for another Playstation exclusive game, Until Dawn. No release date.
Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV is a strange RPG. This fishing spin-off is hilarious and will be out this September. It isn’t clear if this will be exclusive to PlayStation 4 and its VR platform or not, but until there’s an official VR solution for the Xbox One it’ll probably be exclusive by default.
Bravo Team
Another PlayStation VR exclusive. This looks totally unremarkable. No release date.
Moss
The thing I like about Sony is their tendency towards the weird. That PlayStation VR gets a solid shot of that weird is good, too. I’m a little concerned about the collectible card images depicted on the game’s website, but Moss looks good and weird and the developer promises it’ll be out late this year.
God of War
God of War is a series that I spent the most time with on the PlayStation Portable, but adding Kratos’ son to the game could convince me to try playing more of it on a console. This dadventure is due out on the PlayStation 4 next year.
Detroit: Become Human
Quantic Dream’s games are amazing. Sometimes the gameplay is awful, sometimes it’s the terrible voice acting, sometimes the story is atrocious like a bad TV movie on the Syfy channel, but I enjoy going wherever David Cage takes me whenever I play these games. I look forward to whatever Detroit has in store as it liberates androids. No release date yet.
Destiny 2
I used to wonder if Bungie was disappointed about losing the Halo games to Microsoft, and I bet they are, but Destiny is clearly their own thing and it’s good that they had the opportunity to leave Halo behind and do something different. Destiny 2 will be out on September 6th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and on October 24th for Windows through Blizzard’s Launcher. That delay for Windows kind of sucks, and it looks like Sony’s PlayStation 4 will have a bunch of exclusive stuff.
Spider-Man
Spider-Man has a very long history with games and I’m looking forward to see Insomniac’s take on the wallcrawler. The combat looks fun and watching Spider-Man take out guys with guns feels like a refreshing change from so many shooter games. He’ll be on the PlayStation 4 next year.
Overall
This event was strange because Sony didn’t have a presenter to give context between the trailers, only bringing out Shawn Layton sparingly at the beginning and end. There was spectacle in the live music and pyrotechnics, but people clearly didn’t know when to leave after the show was over.I am happy that Sony hasn’t abandoned virtual reality. For some of 2017 it has felt like the air around VR got stale without more hardware updates and fresh software, but there is clearly still interest and development going on for most VR platforms.