Author: Trafficblast

The DC Universe is gearing up for the return of the fan favorite team up book, Batman/Superman, with the creative team of Joshua Williamson and David Marquez this August–and to celebrate, they’ve released a first look at the first five pages of the first issue, which you can check out below.

Here’s some context if you’ve lapsed on your DC reading over the past year or so. Remember that evil, fanged Robin who just introduced himself as Billy Batson? He’s a member of the Batman Who Laughs’ crew–a team of monstrous, brainwashed youths who run around with crowbars gnashing their teeth at whatever their evil overlord points them at. And, for a while, that’s all their really was to it. The Batman Who Laughs and his underlings are all invaders from an evil alternate reality called the Dark Multiverse (because comics, don’t worry too much about it) so of course, it just went to follow that an evil Batman would have evil Robins, right?

But there’s more to the story now, apparently–and one of the Robins has revealed himself to actually be none other than Shazam, himself: Billy Batson. No, not our Billy Batson–at least, not that we can tell–but a version of Billy Batson from the Dark Multiverse who was corrupted by The Batman Who Laughs. Maybe, at least. From the context of the preview, it’s hard to tell whether or not this is the Billy from our universe or not.ither way, he’s definitely in some serious trouble.

Batman/Superman plans on delving deep into the mysteries of The Batman Who Laughs and the “sleeper agents,” a new Rebirth-era “Secret Six,” who he’s planted across the world–superheroes he has corrupted who continue to live and exist in their normal lives none-the-wiser but who can be transformed into the evilest versions of themselves at any moment. Anyone could be a potential threat and when the truth is finally uncovered, the DC Universe will never be the same. So what does this mean for Billy and his heroic counterpart, Shazam? Only time will tell–but it’s probably nothing good.

Batman/Superman #1 hits shelves August 14.

Microsoft unveiled a surprise announcement during its E3 2019 press conference–after nearly eight years, beloved MMO Phantasy Star Online 2 will finally launch in the West. The news landed on the Xbox stage at this year’s E3, but Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed the game will arrive on other platforms.

Spencer sat down with Giant Bomb co-founder Jeff Gerstmann to talk about the company’s presence at E3 2019. The nearly 50-minute interview saw the two chat about the excitement surrounding the MMO’s Western reveal. “I’m not trying to say this is because of me but I said [to Sega], ‘You know, so many of the constructs in today’s online console games were born in Phantasy Star and 90 percent of the gamers today don’t know what a Phantasy Star Online is,'” Spencer told Gerstmann.

The Western Localization trailer revealed during E3 2019, above, announces that Phantasy Star Online 2 will finally make its way to North America. And while Spencer couldn’t confirm whether the game will appear in other regions like Europe and the Middle East because “Sega’s ultimately responsible for it,” he did say the game isn’t console exclusive. “Yes, it will end up on all platforms.”

There’s no specification on what “all platforms” means, and Gerstmann didn’t press for clarification on this statement, but Spencer is certain the MMO will not just be exclusive to the Xbox family. Spencer “happens to have a soft spot” for Phantasy Star Online, believes “it can be a meaningful franchise,” and is just excited to work with Sega again.

Phantasy Star Online 2 will arrive sometime in Spring 2020.

More E3 news:

Back in May, Pokemon Go developer Niantic announced it would be bringing three Legendary Pokemon back to the game, beginning with Cresselia. If you’ve yet to capture one, however, your time is quickly running out. The Lunar Pokemon is scheduled to leave Raid Battles this Tuesday, June 18, making this your last opportunity to catch it–and possibly find a Shiny Cresselia.

If you’re hoping to add Cresselia to your collection, you’ll first need to team up with other players in-person and take on the Legendary Pokemon in a Raid Battle. Cresselia is a pure Psychic-type, so you’ll want to bring along Ghost, Dark, and Bug Pokemon like Giratina, Tyranitar, and Scizor when you battle it. If you manage to defeat Cresselia, everyone who participated in the Raid will receive a handful of Premier Balls along with an opportunity to catch it.

Immediately following Cresselia’s departure, the Gen 3 Legendary Kyogre will return in Pokemon Go. It’ll appear in Raid Battles until June 27; after that, it’ll be replaced by its Pokemon Ruby counterpart, Groudon, which will be available until July 10. Just as with Cresselia, you’ll also have a chance of encountering Kyogre and Groudon’s Shiny forms when each Legendary returns to Raids.

Niantic’s annual Pokemon Go Fest event is now underway in Chicago. To celebrate the occasion, the Water-type Pokemon Horsea will spawn much more frequently than normal from now until Go Fest ends on June 16. Not only that, but you’ll also have a chance of finding Shiny Horsea. Those who are attending the event, meanwhile, can find Shiny Abra, as well as Alolan Vulpix, a special Eevee wearing a floral crown, and the Mythical Pokemon Jirachi. If you can’t attend Go Fest in-person, you can still participate in Global Challenges to help unlock in-game rewards and bonuses.

In other Pokemon news, we learned much more about the upcoming Pokemon Sword and Shield games during E3 2019. Nintendo shared details about the games’ new Dynamax battle mechanic, which can supersize a Pokemon during a battle. We also learned more about how Max Raid Battles work and why you can’t transfer every old Pokemon to the games. Sword and Shield launch on November 15; you can read more about the games in our Pokemon Sword and Shield pre-order guide.

Nintendo showcased much more of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake during its E3 2019 presentation. While the game looks largely like a faithful reimagining of the classic Game Boy adventure, we learned it will introduce at least one major new feature, a dungeon creator, and we got a glimpse of how that will work during a Treehouse livestream demo.

The dungeon creator feature is accessed from the Chamber Dungeon, a new location in Tal Tal Heights that replaces the Camera Shop from the DX version of Link’s Awakening. When you clear a dungeon during the course of your adventure, you’ll earn rooms from it (known in-game as Chambers) with which you’ll then be able to create your own custom dungeons.

It doesn’t appear you’ll be able to customize the contents of these Chambers–it seems each is lifted straight from the game’s existing dungeons–but you’ll be able to rearrange the placement of the rooms in almost any order you please, provided you meet some basic requirements; for example, each dungeon will need to have an entrance, as well as a boss room, and all of the doorways within the dungeon must be connected to another doorway.

Series producer Eiji Aonuma shed a bit more light on the new Chamber Dungeon feature during the Treehouse demo. “I’ve always wanted to create a way for players to create their own dungeons, but I didn’t want to make it anything too hard,” he explained through an interpreter. “Just like solving a puzzle, I wanted to make this Chamber Dungeon easy enough for people to play and feel like they’re solving a puzzle.”

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening launches for Nintendo Switch on September 20. In North America, the game will release in standard and Dreamer editions, the latter of which includes a hardcover art book. In Europe, however, players will be able to pick up an extravagant Limited edition, which comes with an art book as well as a steelbook case that resembles an original Game Boy. You can read more in our Link’s Awakening pre-order guide.

Nintendo is also releasing a new Link’s Awakening Amiibo alongside the game. When scanned into the game, the figure will add a “plus effect” to the Chamber Dungeon. As Nintendo explained, these plus effects “are layered on top of the Chambers and add a new gameplay variant.” The Link’s Awakening Amiibo in particular will add Shadow Link, who’ll chase you throughout the dungeon. The game will also be compatible with any previous Zelda Amiibo figures, which can unlock additional Chambers.

That wasn’t the only big Zelda news to emerge from Nintendo’s E3 Direct. The company also announced a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development for Switch. Nintendo shared an eerie teaser trailer for it to close out the Direct; you can read our trailer breakdown and theories here. The Zelda spin-off Cadence of Hyrule also released on the Switch Eshop this week.

More E3 News:

Japanese developer Atlus, creators of the Etrian Odyssey and Persona franchises, has announced a cross-over between the puzzle-platformer Catherine and RPG Persona 5 during E3 2019. The re-release of Catherine–Catherine: Full Body, releasing this September–will see Joker and the Phantom Thieves enter the platforming action.

Catherine: Full Body includes Persona 5’s main English voice cast and features Joker as a playable character in multiplayer. The Persona 5 characters can be acquired by either purchasing the Digital Deluxe edition of Catherine: Full Body or buying the add-on after the game launches. In a new trailer for the game, Joker is seen scurrying across a mountain of constantly shifting boxes while the rest of the Phantom Thieves cheer him on. Check out the announcement trailer below.

This isn’t Joker’s first cross-over. The Phantom Thieves leader has also appeared as a color swap for Yu Narukami in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, his outfit was a pre-order bonus for Sonic Forces, he most recently challenged Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as part of the game’s Fighter Pass, and more.

In our original Catherine review, we said that the game “doesn’t just challenge your hand/eye coordination: It challenges your intellect and your emotions.”

Catherine: Full Body will launch on September 3 for PlayStation 4.

More E3 news:

The Final Fantasy VII remake is one of the biggest games at E3 2019, and now we know it’s coming to the two highly anticipated next-generation consoles. Publisher Square Enix has all but confirmed the game will be playable on PlayStation 5.

“I believe that our teams have made it so that the game will support both the next generation and the current generation of consoles,” the company’s president and CEO, Yosuke Matsuda, told Game Informer. “I believe it is being developed so that it is going to be playable on both, so I’m not really concerned about that and I believe that the fans are also going to be able to enjoy it on both, including the next-generation of consoles.”

Matsuda did not confirm, however, whether this will be achieved via backward compatibility–which will be a part of both PS5 and the new Xbox console, Scarlett–or if the game will be released on those consoles. In previous generations, games have come to, for example, both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 as developers attempt to maximize sales and simultaneously take advantage of the new hardware’s power. GameSpot has contacted Square Enix for clarification.

Final Fantasy 7 has so far only been confirmed for PS4. We got a much closer look at the game during Square Enix’s E3 2019 press conference, with an extended trailer as well as an extended gameplay and combat demonstration. Square Enix also revealed the game will span two Blu-ray discs when it launches on PS4, and the publisher will offer an extravagant $330 collector’s edition through its online store. The highly anticipated game will finally launch worldwide on March 3, 2020.

More E3 News:

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