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To be honest, it’s been hard for anyone to get a look in this week with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 stomping around in its muddy size-12s. Having said that, there were a few genuine surprises: some major delays are on the cards, Destiny 2 coughed up some loot actually worth getting excited about, and Retro’s apparently injecting its own spin on a classic Ninty IP.
Oh, and Harry and Meghan are getting hitched on Saturday. Just a pity we don’t all get the day off work as a result (cheers Will & Kate).
With that said, here's some major reading to supplement your weekend.
Destiny 2 Warmind puzzle leads to actual real-life treasure cache
Bungie’s shared-world Engram grinder may be a bit of a whipping boy lately for all its perceived missteps, but we can’t recall a game ever including a puzzle that leads to the location of real-life treasure. In this case, a massive replica spear, a coin box, and a bunch of memos. Yes, people actually sat down, solved a series of maddening riddles, and bagged the loot. We’re packing our bags for Upstate New York.
Uncharted’s Nolan North is receiving a BAFTA Special Award
Everyone knows Nolan North. Even if you don’t think you know him, you do; if you’ve played a game in the last 10 years, you’ve heard his voice. Now, the ubiquitous cheeky chappy who helped popularise the half-tuck look with his best-known role is getting well-deserved recognition for his contribution to the industry on June 11. Not a bad way to kick off E3.
Star Fox racing spin-off in development at Retro Studios
No one should have any question about Retro’s pedigree: these are the chaps who made Metroid Prime, after all. However, a Star Fox racing game is pretty eyebrow-raising, considering Nintendo’s brilliant F-Zero series has been on hiatus for around 15 years now and is begging for a revival.
LawBreakers dev Boss Key Productions is shutting down
Cliff Bleszinski’s studio hasn’t had the smoothest of rides the past year or so, largely due to the fact LawBreakers attracted less people than a Kerry Katona book signing. It’s sad news for the industry veteran, as Cliff’s a talented designer whose work on the Gears of War franchise speaks for itself. It’s just a shame that Boss Key’s most recent endeavour, the 80s-inspired Radical Heights, never got a chance to turn things around for the developer.
Rage 2 announced with mental gameplay footage
To be honest, this one sort of surprised us. Rage didn’t exactly set the world on fire back in 2011, and if there was going to be a follow-up we thought it would have happened a few years ago. Apparently not. Breaking amidst a load of fluffy pink Twitter teasing, the balls-to-the-walls actioner is back with id Software and Avalanche Studios at the helm, and it, well, looks like a Rage game. We’re promised open-world combat, upgradeable weapons, and dystopian mayhem.
Metro: Exodus won’t be with us this year after all
Originally pegged for an autumn 2018 release, Metro: Exodus is one of the first major AAA casualties of the year, and probably not the last. Well, it isn’t; Shenmue 3 has also been booted into 2019, although the writing’s been on the wall for a while in that respect. Anyway, Metro’s shaping up nicely, and considering the amount of games out this year, we can probably live without freezing our arses off in Moscow.
PlayStation Vita game cards won’t be a thing for much longer
Considering that PS Vita is pretty much on life support in the US and Europe these days, it’s not surprising game cards are going the way of the Dodo. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I even saw physical games for Sony’s handheld in a shop.
Pokemon Switch will reportedly star Pikachu and Eevee
We know that Nintendo is chiseling away on a new Pokemon game for Switch, but that’s about as far as it goes. Still, if rumours are to be believed, it seems that the Big N is looking to not only have Pikachu and Eevee step into the limelight this time around, but also inject some of the fundamental design choices seen in Pokemon Go. Other murmurs suggest a reveal is imminent, so hopefully we won’t have to wait long to get the fully skinny.
A major 2K game has been delayed and might be Borderlands 3
There’s not really an awful lot of options here, to be fair. Take-Two has described that the title is a sequel to one of 2K’s ‘biggest franchises,’ which seemingly eliminates the possibility of fresh IP. As such, the only real candidates are Borderlands 3 and a new BioShock, though we suppose XCOM might have a shot too.
Microsoft unveils the Xbox Adaptive Controller
Props to the chaps at Microsoft for this one. Sure, it looks like some sort of giant NES pad, but its functionality can’t be faulted. You get two massive buttons that can be fully reprogrammed with a bunch of different features, while you can also plug in a bunch of third-party devices to ensure there’s something for everyone.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 info overload
This is the big ‘un. Activision confirmed a bunch of key details on Black Ops 4 during a livestream event on Thursday evening, with perhaps the biggest revelation being the inclusion of a battle royale mode. It’s called Blackout and features the biggest map that Treyarch has ever made. Zombies mode is, well, Zombies. Disappointingly, there’s no single-player campaign, although it remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have as far as Joe Public is concerned.
There’s an unannounced franchise title coming from Ubisoft by next April
This is an interesting one. Assassin’s Creed, as far as we know, isn’t coming out until 2019 and usually turns up in the fall, while The Division 2 and The Crew 2 have already been crossed off the list as they were mentioned alongside the mystery title. We’re betting on either Watch Dogs 3 (probably going to happen, but not yet) or a new Splinter Cell (sounds likely to us).
