The news of a Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel came just as Nintendo wrapped up its E3 2019 Direct. While information about the game is scarce, Game Informer spoke with game producer Eiji Aonuma to learn a bit more about the direct sequel, and it turns out Aonuma is returning along with Link and Zelda.
It’s fairly uncommon for Zelda titles to receive direct sequels, but Aonuma saw a breath of fresh air in Breath of the Wild. There is something about Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule that makes the acclaimed game producer want to return. “One of the reasons we wanted to create a continuation was because I wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again, while incorporating new gameplay and new story,” Aonuma told Game Informer.
Aonuma isn’t the only returning member. Game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi will serve as the director on the Breath of the Wild sequel. “We’re working together really hard on this game,” Aonuma said.
The Breath of the Wild sequel trailer, above, closed out Nintendo’s E3 2019 Direct. There’s no confirmation on a release date or window, but we do know the game is currently in development for Nintendo Switch. We broke down the trailer and went deep on some theories about the game.
When it comes to superhero origin stories, it’s hard to think of on more iconic than Batman’s. After watching his parents gunned down while he was a child, Bruce Wayne grows up to become a masked vigilante determined to take the streets of Gotham back from the criminal scum that has polluted it. What’s cooler and more compelling than that? Epix found a way by looking at Alfred Pennyworth’s history. Yes, that Alfred–Batman’s butler.
The first full-length trailer for Pennyworth, the upcoming Epix series, has arrived. It shows Alfred has an even wilder ride in his younger years than expected. The mild-mannered butler and former military hero also, seemingly, had a history as something of a high-level security guard and detective before coming to the United States. And coincidentally, that piece of his past is what first brought him into Thomas Wayne’s life, long before Bruce was born.
The two-minute trailer sets the stage for what looks to be an exciting and very British action-packed period drama that, if we’re honest, probably doesn’t need a connection to the larger DC universe to make it work. That said, the small threads in the trailer that hint at Alfred’s future are fun to see.
Pennyworth hails from executive producers Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, who recently wrapped up Fox’s Gotham–which told the story of a young Bruce Wayne. In the new series, The Imitation Game’s Jack Bannon stars as Alfred, while Fleabag’s Ben Aldrige plays Thomas Wayne. Rounding out the cast are Emma Corin as Alfred’s love interest Esme, Paloma Faith as the villainous, and perhaps demented, Bet Sykes, and Ryan Fletcher as Alfred’s chump Dave Boy.
The upcoming Marvel’s Avengers game finally made its debut at the Square Enix E3 2019 press conference, and it’s left a rather noticeable impression on fans who are looking forward to the superhero game. Coming from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, the new superhero team-up game focuses heavily on cinematic, action gameplay that’s playable either solo or co-op. Featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and the Hulk, it lets you play as some of Marvel’s most iconic heroes in a variety of missions. Completing missions allows you to power up your chosen character and customize them with new gear as you see fit. And following its May 15, 2020 release, new missions and heroes will be added in as free updates.
It’s a really fascinating concept, but after the game’s presentation at the press conference, the details about the title’s larger structure and moment-to-moment gameplay are still a bit vague. During E3 2019, we saw Marvel’s Avengers behind closed doors, which focused on one of the game’s early missions. As seen in the E3 2019 trailer, San Francisco is under attack on the opening day of the West Coast Avengers’ headquarters, and the heroes spring into action to fight off Taskmaster and his minions, all of whom are wielding weapons stolen from Tony Stark.
This level is set shortly after the opening of the game, serving as something of an extended tutorial, allowing you to get a feel of how each hero plays and what their role can be in a squad of other players. From this demo, Marvel’s Avengers’ style, presentation, and emphasis on punctuating each encounter with a set piece makes it clear the game is cut from the same cloth as other AAA action-adventure games like the Uncharted series or the recent Tomb Raider reboot trilogy–the latter also helmed by Crystal Dynamics. The demo featured several highly scripted encounters, most of which are punctuated by quick-time-events that give each member of The Avengers their moment. There’s a significant focus on the spectacle of super-heroics, the type of elaborate gravitas and ensuing mass collateral damage that’s become common in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
During an E3 interview with GameSpot, Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos stated that the game is heavily focused on offering a fun Avengers experience, with each hero designed in a way where they could be the lead of their own game.
“We’ve made games focusing on one character with Lara Croft, and now, we made a game with like six characters (including Ant-Man),” said Amos. “Then we figured we should make 12, then 30 characters. It is crazy for us to be able to go back and say, here’s all the stuff these other heroes can do on their own. That’s when we started hiring people like Vince Napoli, who did God of War last year, to lead combat for the game. How do we start pulling people together that are experts in these things, and say, ‘now go make this hero awesome’? With access to all these heroes that play differently, you can play the way you want.”
This opening level leans quite heavily on spectacle, both in terms of core combat and action-oriented set pieces with characters moving through the levels at a fast pace. Combat seems quite similar to games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, allowing you to freely move and engage your surrounding enemies while activating each hero’s unique skills. Thor uses his hammer and lightning abilities to pummel goons on the streets, for example. In addition to throwing his hammer Mjolnir–which he can call back after a strike–he can also summon forth massive bolts of lightning on the enemies and even imbue his regular attacks with enhanced energy.
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Marvel’s Avengers Game – Official Reveal Trailer, “A-Day” | E3 2019
Every Big Square Enix Game And Announcement At E3 2019
How Cyberpunk 2077 Got Keanu Onboard | E3 2019
Marvel’s Avengers Combat & Gameplay Features Revealed | E3 2019
The Biggest Nintendo Direct Announcements & Games | E3 2019
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Sequel Presentation | Nintendo Direct E3 2019
Nintendo E3 2019 Press Conference
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After clearing out the enemies on the street, the action switches over to Iron Man, who chases after a set of airborne soldiers. In flight mode, Iron Man can freely move around, firing off missiles and repulsor blasts. On the ground, he’s very much like the character’s appearance in the MCU films, charging up his hand blasts and using them to power up his melee strikes. Iron Man’s super move is the Uni-Beam, a high-powered chest-laser that can destroy vehicles and clear out most enemies in front of him. Next up, the Hulk jumps into the fray. Sticking mostly with close-range attacks, he can grab enemies, slam them into the ground, and toss them aside with ease. One of the Hulk’s signature moves is his Sonic Clap, which wipes out all enemies nearby. His section of the level ends with him picking up a tank, chucking aside its driver, and tossing it at another vehicle.
The action jumps over to Captain America, who fights off enemies in the Avenger’s helicarrier. Similar to the Hulk, Cap is a brawler and sticks mostly with close-range attacks. However, he can still use his shield to strike multiple enemies at a distance. One of his unique skills allows him to target specific foes and send his shield their way for a powerful blow, with his shield returning to him after it hits its targets. The demo culminates in a confrontation between the Taskmaster and Black Widow, who uses a pair of batons and high-tech spy gadgets. The villain quickly adapts to Black Widow’s tactics, using his shield to block her long-range attacks.
This entire sequence, which sets up the larger story of how the Avengers have become outlawed and why they need to come back together, does a fun job of showing off that familiar MCU spectacle. It felt very much like a sequence that could easily be presented as a major set piece in the Marvel films. However, a growing question I had throughout this demo is, what kind of game is this, exactly? One thing that is still a point of confusion is the overall structure of the Marvel’s Avengers, which will apparently open up for co-op play as you take on more missions. Following this linear demo, it’s hard to picture how this will all come together as a games-as-a-service title that features online co-op. During our talk, Crystal Dynamics stated that Marvel’s Avengers follows a “bespoke campaign,” focusing on story and character-driven missions.
“Throughout our history, we’ve done third-person action adventures that are very much intimate, personal stories,” said Amos. “Something of this size, this massive game with all these heroes, it’s a matter of not one of them, but all of them. When we first partnered with Marvel Games and said, ‘Hey, how do we want to do this? What are we good at? What are you guys good at?’ They know about heroism and humanity, we know about third-person action-adventures and character-driven narrative. […] Getting to switch between those heroes, that’s even more fun. With these levels of the bespoke campaign, we want to tell a very specific story here, that’s still open for you to dive into at your own pace. We want to tell a very specific story here. What about going further than that? Once you have these heroes to play with, you can start mixing and matching them in ways, online with your friends.”
I do like what this superhero team-up game is trying to accomplish, but it seems like it’s retreading ground that’s already been covered by other games. It also doesn’t help that the style and designs of the heroes come off as somewhat outdated and unflattering. In a lot of ways, the new Avengers game gave me similar vibes from the PS3/360-era of licensed Marvel games, from the design and visual standpoint. Still, I enjoyed the spectacle and scale that was shown off in the demo. Though this section focused on a linear level, the full game plans to feature an array of missions that open up and can be taken on at your leisure—and that’s something I’m still looking forward to seeing.
For more on Marvel’s Avengers, Cyberpunk 2077, Dying Light 2 and other games we saw during E3 2019, be sure to check out GameSpot’s E3 hub page for all the latest news.
Bethesda announced during its E3 2019 press conference that it would be making Fallout 76free for this week, through June 17. The studio hopes to win over some people who never tried the game or those who have lapsed before the game issued its series of quality-of-life updates. The game is also offering a special E3 bundle for those who do adopt the game, or just any players who want a good deal.
The E3 Bonus Atom Bundle costs $10 and grants you 1500 Atoms, along with an Elder’s Battlecoat and 6 repair kits. This bundle will be available through July 8, giving you plenty of time after the free trial ends.
100 Atoms is usually roughly equivalent to $1. A 500 Atom bundle costs $5, for example. Some bundles have thrown in extra Atoms, but it’s usually a low number. The usual $10 bundle only gives 100 bonus Atoms rather than 500, and doesn’t include a cosmetic or any repair kits. So on the whole this is a much better deal than usually available, which is why it’s only available to purchase once.
The timing of the free trial came alongside the launch of a new Battle Royale mode, called Nuclear Winter. At its press conference the studio also announced the Wastelanders update coming this fall. It will add human NPCs, dialogue trees, and more story elements. The company was open about the struggles Fallout 76 faced at launch, but recommitted to long-term support and updates going forward.
We’ve already seen footage of the port as part of Nintendo’s Direct, and were even privy to its most infamous image being rendered on Switch thanks to CD Projekt Red’s lead PR manager, Radek Grabowski. Now, the official Twitter account for the game has spilled the beans on some of the technical details concerning Geralt of Rivia’s conversion to Nintendo’s hybrid console.
The Witcher 3 is an exhaustive open-world game that still looks incredible today, four years after its initial release. The fact that it’s coming to Switch sounds like the work of some kind of witcher magic, so compromises have been made to get it up and running as smoothly as possible on Nintendo’s machine.
540p handheld, 720p, with dynamic resolution enabled, on screen.
When asked about screen resolution on Twitter, the Witcher account replied that the game will run at 540p in handheld mode, and 720p with dynamic resolution enabled while docked. Obviously, the visual fidelity isn’t going to be quite as crisp as it is in other versions of the game, but that’s an understandable price to pay for being able to play one of the best games of the generation while sitting on a bus.
The Witcher Twitter account went on to answer more questions, including news that the Switch version will come on a 32GB cartridge–which includes everything, from the base game to its two expansions and 16 additional pieces of DLC, no downloads required–and that it will not support cross-saves.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition is being developed by Saber Interactive in close cooperation with CD Projekt Red, and is due for release at some point in 2019.
At E3 2019, Konami has announced another mini-console, this one modeled after the TurboGrafx-16. The TurboGrafx was the third competitor in the 16-bit console wars–and while it was never as big as the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis, it had a respectable catalog of hard-to-find exclusives.
The TurboGrafx-16 Mini is the American version on the official site. Europe is getting a PC Engine Core Mini, and Japan has a PC Engine Mini. Each has its own color scheme and design to match how the consoles were released in their respective territories.
The company has also announced the first six games for each territory. So far the American and European consoles have the same library of pre-loaded games: R-Type, New Adventure Island, Ninja Spirit, Ys Book 1 & 2, Dungeon Explorer, and Alien Crush. The Japanese version also has Dungeon Explorer and Ys, but swaps the others for Bonk’s Adventure, Dracula X, The Kung Fu/China Warrior, and Super Star Soldier.
The site says more titles will be revealed over time. Bonk generally served as the TG16 mascot, akin to Mario and Sonic for their respective titles, so those games may be revealed sometime in the future.
Pricing and release details have not been announced.
With E3 2019 in full swing, it’s somewhat of a weird time for PlayStation fans, as Sony made it clear it won’t be attending. We’ll still see PS4 games there, and we recently got a new look at Death Stranding, but Sony’s first-party stuff won’t be out in full force. Luckily, Sony does still have something for PlayStation 4 owners–and prospective owners–to get excited about in June: its annual Days of Play sale, which is live now.
Days of Play began June 7 and will run through June 17, which overlaps conveniently with E3. During that time, you can snag a PS4 Pro for $350 / £350, and all DualShock 4 wireless controllers will start at $40 / £35. A limited-edition PS4 is also on sale, but unfortunately, it’s not a PS4 Pro. The steel black console features the four PlayStation shapes embossed in silver on the top and comes with a matching DualShock 4 controller. You can buy it for $300 / £280.
Limited-edition PS4 console – available for $300 / £280
If you’re considering taking the plunge and getting PlayStation VR, some bundles are considerably cheaper during the 11-day sale. PSVR bundles start at $250, a full $100 cheaper than their usual price. The bundles each come with a pair of games, such as Trover Saves the Universe and Five Nights at Freddy’s; Borderlands 2 and Beat Saber; or Everybody’s Golf and Blood & Truth. In the UK, the PSVR Starter Pack is selling for £180 and PSVR Mega Pack will sell for £210.
This is a great time to stock up on your PS Plus membership as well, as it’s currently significantly cheaper at multiple retailers (plus, June has a very nice lineup of free games to take advantage of). The cheapest option is currently at Green Man Gaming, where you can get a year-long subscription for just $37.59. Elsewhere, the 12-month membership is available for $40. In addition, you can grab a 12-month PS Now subscription for $70. As a reminder, you can stack subscriptions, even if you’re already a member.
See all the most notable deals from the Days of Play sale below; plus, check out our full list of the best E3 2019 gaming deals for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Participating retailers
Days of Play spans multiple retailers’ sites, so you have some flexibility in terms of where you want to shop.
Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition – available for $10
Game deals
Our top picks:
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey — $23
Astro Bot Rescue Mission (PSVR) — $20
Bloodborne — $10
Days Gone — $40
Detroit: Become Human — $8
God of War — $20
Horizon Zero Dawn – Complete Edition — $10
Kingdom Hearts III — $25
The Last Guardian — $10
The Last of Us Remastered — $10
Marvel’s Spider-Man — $20
Marvel’s Spider-Man – Digital Deluxe Edition — $30
MLB The Show 19 — $40
NBA 2K19 — $3
Nioh — $10
Nioh – The Complete Edition — $20
Ratchet & Clank — $10
Resident Evil 2 — $36
Uncharted 4 — $10
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection — $10
Until Dawn — $10
Premium memberships
PlayStation Plus (12 months) — $37.59
PlayStation Now (12 months) — $70
PlayStation VR: Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Moss bundle – available for $210 at Walmart
Gaming hardware
PlayStation 4 Days of Play Limited-Edition Console (Steel Black) — $300
PlayStation 4 Pro Console (Jet Black) — $350
PlayStation Classic Console — $30
PlayStation VR: Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Moss bundle — $210
PlayStation VR: Blood & Truth and Everybody’s Golf bundle — $300
PlayStation VR: Trover Saves the Universe and Five Nights at Freddy’s bundle — $250
PlayStation VR: Borderlands 2 and Beat Saber bundle — $300
PlayStation Dualshock 4 wireless controllers — $40
