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It sounds like Microsoft has shelved its Xbox streaming stick
Prior to Microsoft's keynote at E3 this year, a raft of rumors were swirling about. Microsoft's answer to the PlayStation 4 Pro (which we now know as Project Scorpio) and the Xbox One S garnered most of the attention, but loose lips also suggested an Xbox-branded streaming dongle was in the works as well. The Chromecast-like device would've streamed Windows 10 apps and "light Universal Windows Platform" games in addition to content from an Xbox One. It would cost $99 according to Windows Central. Not anymore, however.
'Battlefield 1' reminded me that before war was a game, it was hell
The Battlefield games aren't exactly known for having the best single-player modes. In fact, players ignore the series' solo experiences so routinely that this was actually a reason we didn't see a campaign mode in Star Wars: Battlefront last year. "Very few people actually play the single-player on these kinds of games," EA's Peter Moore said at the time. "That's what the data points to." So, naturally, when I picked up a copy of Battlefield 1 earlier this week, I planned to skip directly to online multiplayer -- but the game didn't let me. First, it had to teach me a history lesson. "Battlefield 1 is based upon events that unfolded over one hundred years ago," the game told me immediately after booting up. "What follows is front line combat. You are not expected to survive."
Does the world need another first-person, team-based shooter?
"I'm not the only asshole who had this idea a few years ago," Cliff Bleszinski says in between sips of a sugar-free Red Bull. He's perched in the lounge area of his studio's E3 meeting space, on the other side of a thin wall where a dozen journalists and internet influencers are playing his latest game, a team-based shooter called LawBreakers. Every now and then, the players beyond the wall suddenly wail and clap as a game comes to a dramatic close. Bleszinski is talking about the market for online, first-person, team-based shooters -- a niche genre that, in mid 2016, is on the verge of oversaturation. Overwatch just came out, and it's been a monstrous hit for Activision Blizzard. It dominates the front page of Twitch, and there are already plans to transform it into a truly competitive, esports-focused title. Other similar games, such as Gearbox's Battleborn or Epic Games' Paragon, are also on the market, but they can't compare in terms of player numbers or hype.
'Vampyr' and the gender politics of 1918 London
Vampyr, the next game from Dontnod Entertainment features a white, male protagonist. For any other studio, this is de rigueur, something dictated by the gaming industry's presumed demographic. But for the team behind Life is Strange and Remember Me, it's the first time they've delved into the male mindset. And it wasn't the result of market research either: It's because Vampyr's story wouldn't have worked any other way.
'Resident Evil 7' is going back to its horror roots
Capcom's Resident Evil 7 brings some substantial revisions to the series. The seventh major installment takes the franchise into virtual reality, but that's just the start of the changes you'll see when it launches on PS4 early next year. The studio is taking the opportunity to rewrite the "survival horror" game concept it helped pioneer, stripping away a lot of schlocky Resident Evil tropes, enemies and characters. Both the demo and trailer show a more terse, psychological kind of horror game, something that several games (including Konami's loudly canned P.T. teaser) are looking to tap into. Action appears to takes a back seat to exploration and plain weirdness. It's a great conceit, but it's still a work in progress. Series producer Masachika Kawata explained to Engadget what's happened to Resident Evil -- and the challenge of ensuring that those playing on PSVR can stomach it.
PS4's 'Detroit' couldn't have taken place anywhere else
"When you set your story in a specific city, it's a very sensitive thing to do," said David Cage, the director of the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human. "You don't want to do it if you're not respectful of the place, of the people living there." Cage's next game with studio Quantic Dream deals with a near-future world where androids aren't a mobile operating system for your phone; instead they're "living" among us with hopes and desires of their own. Specifically? Transcending their circuitry and, as the name suggests, being human.
'Outlast 2' drops you in a desert for a fresh batch of nightmares
The Outlast 2 demo made me jump and shriek in the middle of the E3 show floor, in Microsoft's rowdy Xbox space where I was surrounded by swashbuckling pirates, roaring racing games and joyous fans. With my clammy fingers gripping an Xbox One controller, headphones hugging my ears, Outlast 2 sucked me in. Its setting, a pitch-black northern Arizona desert, was impressively immersive -- not to mention accurate to the actual Supai region that inspired it. I should know: I've backpacked through the area. The Outlast 2 demo is horrifying, wonderful, gruesome and downright marvelous -- in a bone-chilling kind of way.
'Batman Arkham VR' put me inside the Batsuit
Telltale wasn't the only developer that brought Batman to E3 this year: The folks at Rocksteady Studios packed the Dark Knight into their suitcases as well. Batman Arkham VR was a surprise reveal at Sony's keynote earlier this week and drew a huge round of applause when it appeared onstage. Once I strapped on a PlayStation VR headset (it's a timed exclusive to the platform this October), I could tell why the team worked so hard to keep it a secret.
'Battlefield 1' learned a lot from 'Star Wars: Battlefront'
When Electronic Arts and DICE released Star Wars: Battlefront last fall, fans complained that it was far too simple, a shell of a game. The reaction was justified, but as shallow as the game was, it wasn't without merit. A lot of what Battlefront got right (a massive sense of scale, easier to control aircraft and monstrous mechanical instruments of war) has made its way into Battlefield 1. The latter series has always prided itself on being a thinking-person's shooter. But recent releases have become bloated, with a diminished focus on what made the franchise great in the first place. In particular, these recent installments have tended to emphasize spectacle over strategic gunfights, with each player serving a distinct role in combat. Some of Battlefront's simplicity made its way into DICE's version of World War I, but based on what I played at E3, that isn't a detriment -- it's an asset.
Razer's OSVR headset is still a work in progress
When Razer announced the latest version of its HDK ("Hacker Development Kit") virtual reality headset, it positioned it as a competitor to premium devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. On paper, that's very much true: The HDK 2.0 has a 2,160 x 1,200 low-persistence OLED panel, a 110-degree field of view and a 90Hz refresh rate. It also has a low price of $399, which is way less than the Rift's $599 and Vive's $799 (both headsets come with accessories that go a way to explaining the price difference).
These were our favorite games, hardware and toys from E3 2016
Another year, another massive, exciting E3 showcase. The biggest names in the video game industry brought out their newest games and hardware, including two console announcements (and controllers) from Xbox and a ton of fresh games from PlayStation with an emphasis on VR experiences. There was no sign of Sony's new PlayStation 4, but that was just fine.
'World Rally Championship 6' in VR is full of off-road rage
Virtual reality makes everything better, right? Not so fast. I got a chance to play World Rally Championship 6 with an Oculus Rift and a bucking, hydraulic-powered racing rig with a steering wheel and pedals. As you'll see in the video above, I spun out a ton and caught the VR sickness that's been going around. That's because with all the spinning I was doing, my eyes saw it, but my body didn't feel like it was doing 360s. The result was me feeling sweaty and queasy after pulling the headset off. Oh, and I swore an awful lot too. Sorry Mom and Dad.
A tour of Devolver's E3 anti-booth
Devolver Digital sees itself as the punk rockstar of video-game publishing. Although it's never officially had a booth at E3, it has done the conference equivalent of sneaking round the back, setting up shop in a parking lot opposite the Los Angeles Convention Center and next to a Hooters. After our day on the actual show floor, the Engadget E3 crew descended on Devolver's lot to check out what the publisher had to offer.
A one-button wearable defeats the purpose of Pokémon Go
Whenever you ask Pokémon players what they enjoy about playing the games, they usually mention the actual Pokémon in some way. Some enjoy training up their creatures to assemble the ultimate battle team; others really get into the breeding aspects of the game. In some titles you can even enter your Pokémon in beauty pageants, in which you dress them in gaudy accessories. And, of course, there's the thrill of finding as many species as possible in order to achieve the ultimate goal: a complete Pokédex containing every single known Pokémon. These characters lie at the heart of most of Pokémon gameplay.
E3 was secretly terrible for the future of virtual reality
After years of being teased with prototypes, developer kits and tech demos, it's finally happening: Virtual reality is on the cusp of going mainstream. Need evidence? Just look at the events of E3 2016. Over the past week, the first VR headset for a home console got a release date, and we caught a glimpse of virtual reality games from popular franchises like Star Wars, Final Fantasy and Batman. Better still, pretty much every major player in the industry (save for Nintendo) promised to support VR in 2017. On the surface, things are looking amazing. Dig a little deeper, though, and the situation just might be terrible.
IndieCade is the best it's ever been at E3 2016
IndieCade's E3 installment always features a lineup of nifty games from independent developers, but this year it went above and beyond. Multiple games on display used physical objects or installation pieces as part of their gameplay, making the entire IndieCade booth a hub of joyful activity.
'ReCore' is the mashup of 'Metroid' and 'Mega Man' I didn't know I wanted
Several of the games I've written about at this year's E3 have been massive reinventions of huge franchises. That made the all-too-brief time I spent with ReCore (developed by Comcept and Armature Studio) one of the more relaxed and enjoyable gaming experiences I had at E3 this year. Even though it's not remaking legendary games of years past, ReCore still has a lot of fun and unique gameplay elements -- it looks like you'll get to do a lot of Metroid-style exploration, and swapping through your three robotic "bot" companions adds a level of depth and strategy to your encounters.
'Tekken 7' is built for spectacle and spectators
The Tekken series has now reached its seventh major iteration. It's already in arcades, but at E3 2016, Bandai Namco confirmed an early 2017 launch date for both Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The game has evolved to include a gentler learning curve, more cinematic scenes blended into the story mode, as well as adding slow-down to those nail-biting final moments to make them all the sweeter. Oh, and a certain street fighter called Akuma. We asked Katsuhiro Harada, the outspoken producer of Tekken to explain the changes -- as well as the challenges of combining a pedigree fighting series with virtual reality.
'Here They Lie' made a nightmare feel safe on PlayStation VR
The advantage that horror video games have over movies is that you're an active participant in what's happening; you make what happens onscreen that much scarier. But playing these games in virtual reality instead of a 2-D screen is a different proposition: The display is on your face, and in the case of PlayStation VR, costs $400. Ripping the headset off and reflexively throwing it to the ground out of fright is going to be a very expensive mistake. That's why the team at Tangentlemen is taking a different approach for Here They Lie, a psychological thriller drawing from directors Stanley Kubrick and Terry Gilliam, and films like It Follows and Jacob's Ladder for inspiration.
The first 30 minutes of Telltale's 'Batman' are sexy and gritty
Telltale's Batman opens with a bang. A security guard sits quietly in the entryway of Gotham City Hall, when suddenly, bam -- he gets a shotgun blast to the head. A team of criminals in full-body armor and masks walk past his body, murmuring about whether Batman will show up. He will, of course, as will Lieutenant Gordon, Selina Kyle as Catwoman, reporter Vicki Vale, politician Harvey Dent and Gotham crime lord Carmine Falcone. Note that Gordon isn't Commissioner yet and Harvey Dent still has his whole face.
