E3 news is coming hot and heavy this year, but between the waves of Keanu memes and screaming audience members, we also got a slew of new information on Daemon X Machina. The third person mech shooter entranced audiences when it was first revealed at E3 2018, but outside of some initial gameplay impressions, details on the title had been light.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition (henceforth abbreviated to FFCC Remaster because my typing skills don't need that much work) will be headed to the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS platforms sometime later this year. The game will still support four player online co-op.
Monday night, Polish developer People Can Fly made their return to the gaming world after what's felt like a long-time silent. After getting acquired by Epic Games, then splitting from them after the release of Gears of War: Judgment, we haven't heard much from them other than the Bulletstorm remaster. At the Square-Enix E3 press conference, they debuted their game: Outriders, a "co-op shooter set in an original, dark and desperate sci-fi universe." Based on the trailer alone (because that's all we've got right now), this is looking like a very interesting game.
In a surprising announcement this week, Funcom revealed that Conan Chop Chop - a game that was teased on April's Fools Day - will be arriving to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch on September 3, 2019. This may be one of the more inventive marketing tactics I've seen in a while as that initial reveal was taken, understandably, to be a joke. However, it seems that that was all part of the plan as Australian developer Mighty Kingdom has been working on this for a little while and they've done their best to keep it under wraps.
This week, Crystal Dynamics and Square-Enix finally pulled back the curtain on their upcoming Marvel's Avengers game... sort of. During Square-Enix's Monday night press conference, some time was spent to talk around the title a whole bunch without saying much of anything really substantive. The few details we got from it all is that it will have four player online co-op, it looks like a third-person action game, there are plans in place for continued content updates after its release (it sounds like it may be similar to Destiny or Anthem), and it'll be out May 15, 2020.
With all of the excitement of E3 and the thrills brought on by Project Scarlett, Microsoft’s next generation gaming platform, there was some bittersweet news as well. Microsoft announced the next batch of games that are now available via Xbox’s Backward Compatibility program will be the last. The team over at Xbox is now looking forward to the future of the platform with Scarlett, and in turn will be looking at how to help gamers' libraries stay with them moving forward, which means no more games coming to the Backwards Compatibility program from now on.
So much news, so little time! Rod Fergusson, studio head for The Coalition, took the stage during Microsoft's E3 press conference this year to talk about the newest entry in the Gears franchise, Gears 5. The last time we heard anything much about this game was during last year's E3, and it was a little surprising that not only did they have a new mode to show off and talk about, but a release date: September 10, 2019.
Back in 2011 we saw the release of the first Dead Island and a sequel was stated to be in development soon after. While Dead Island Riptide did follow with a 2013 release, a proper sequel, Dead Island 2, was also revealed to be coming through a very memorable announcement trailer that came out in 2014. Since then there has been periodic news that made it seem like the game would never see the light of day, but as of this writing, Dead Island 2 now appears on the Xbox Marketplace as an item available for pre-order with a slated December 2019 release date.
As part of Microsoft's E3 2019 conference, they announced LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, a new video game in the LEGO series that will encompass all 9 of the Star Wars movies. This game will likely feature the signature co-op gameplay that the LEGO games have kept with the brand. While there is no release date aside from the ‘Coming 2020’ stated in the trailer, this will be a nice way to experience the thrill of the films after the ninth and final one is released later this year.
With the upcoming release of Borderlands 3, Gearbox announced at the Microsoft E3 panel that their previous title, Borderlands 2, will be receiving DLC that bridges the story gap between the two games. The catch is that it's only available on current-gen iterations of the game, which means you'll need to own Borderlands: The Handsome Collection on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 (PC players, you're fine with just Borderlands 2). However, the DLC is free to snag that until July 3; after that it's $14.99.
About a year and a half ago, we heard that Asmodee Digital was working on bringing Fantasy Flight's The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game to PC and Mac sometime in 2018. It was delayed a bit, and has a new name, but The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game will be arriving soon on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch this August!
Bethesda released a hell of a trailer for Wolfenstein: Youngblood at E3 2019 this year. The first from the ground up co-op Wolfenstein puts players in the roles of BJ Blazkowicz's daughters as they attempt to rescue him in an alternate history 1980s Paris.
