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It was long expected, but Nintendo finally made it official last fall: A new Animal Crossing game is in the works for Switch. The company announced the news during a Nintendo Direct presentation back in September, after it was revealed that Isabelle would be joining the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster as a playable fighter. And while we didn’t get any more details about the game beyond a vague “2019” release window, the assurance that a new entry was indeed in development was enough to sate Animal Crossing fans, who had been starved for any kind of updates on the status of the franchise.

Animal Crossing for Switch will mark the series’ first new mainline installment since New Leaf, which launched for 3DS back in 2013, six full years ago. Given this long wait for a follow-up, anticipation for the game is understandably high, and with its release still slated for this year, many are expecting Nintendo to pull back the curtain on the title during its E3 2019 presentation next month. With that still a few weeks away, let’s take this time to look back on everything we know so far about the new Animal Crossing game for Switch, and what we can expect to hear about it at E3.

What We Know So Far

Outside of confirming its existence, Nintendo has shared very few details about Animal Crossing for Switch. We know the game is launching sometime in 2019, presumably during the holiday season. The company also described the title in a press release as a “mainline” installment, not another off-shoot in the vein of Happy Home Designer or Amiibo Festival, which suggests it will feature the series’ beloved mix of town management and life sim gameplay elements. It also seems safe to say that everyone’s favorite capitalist, Tom Nook, will return; not only has he been a mainstay of the series since its inception, he was the sole character featured in Animal Crossing Switch’s teaser trailer. In that video, Nook mentions he needs to “make sure everyone has a nice, new place to come home to,” suggesting he’ll once again be the one who provides you with your lodgings in the upcoming title.

What Is Confirmed For E3?

Nintendo typically doesn’t divulge too many details about its E3 lineup ahead of the event, and that certainly holds true heading into this year’s show. All the company has said thus far about its E3 2019 presentation is that it will take place during its traditional time slot–the Tuesday the expo begins at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET–and focus on “Nintendo Switch titles for 2019.” Still, while no games have been singled out specifically, Nintendo has a number of big releases lined up for this year, including Animal Crossing for Switch. While it hasn’t been outright confirmed, it seems likely that Nintendo will use its E3 presentation to officially reveal the first details and footage of the new Animal Crossing game.

What We Hope To See At E3 2019

Given that we currently know next to nothing about the new Animal Crossing game, we’re hoping Nintendo devotes a portion of its E3 Direct to finally giving us a glimpse at the title. Since the game is being billed as a “mainline” installment, it’s safe to say it will feature the usual assortment of activities–fishing, bug catching, fossil collecting, home decorating, et cetera–and life sim elements that have served as the foundation of the series since the beginning. Even with this knowledge, however, there are many unanswered questions about the game. Will it once again place players in the role of mayor, as in New Leaf? What new features will it introduce? And will it incorporate any elements from Happy Home Designer, or even the series’ mobile game, Pocket Camp? Hopefully E3 will give us some answers.

Another big question is what “hook” Animal Crossing for Switch will boast. Each game in the series thus far has introduced some distinctive element to help set it apart from previous installments; in City Folk for Wii, for instance, players could travel to a city area where a variety of shops were located, while the aforementioned New Leaf put players behind the mayor’s desk and let them build public works projects, enact ordinances, and have a greater degree of control over the experience. The upcoming Switch game will undoubtedly have some hook of its own, and Nintendo will make a big deal of it when it does finally unveil the title, be that at E3 or during a different presentation.

Beyond that, we will likely also learn some details about the game’s online features. Multiplayer has been an integral component of the series from the start, and Nintendo will want to use Animal Crossing as a vehicle to further drive Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions. Being able to visit another player’s town is all but guaranteed, but what other activities you’ll be able to do together remains to be seen. In New Leaf, players could gather at a tropical island to take part in tours and minigames–will something similar be featured in Animal Crossing for Switch? And will the game give you new online options, such as the ability to set up a secondary home in another player’s town? One thing is for sure–with Animal Crossing coming this year, it won’t be long until we get a look at the game.

News of the next PlayStation console gets more enticing the more we hear about it. This time, in talking about backward compatibility, Sony’s looking to bridge the gap between the PS4 and the PS5, possibly allowing owners of each to play PlayStation 4 titles together.

As part of a recent investors meeting (where the PS5’s impressive load times were showcased), Sony discussed both backwards compatibility and the prospect of PS4 and PS5 players being able to play certain games together. “Backwards compatibility, in a networked era, becomes something that is incredibly powerful,” newly appointed Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO and president Jim Ryan said (via GamesRadar). “Because the gaming community is somewhat tribal in its nature, backwards compatibility gives us the opportunity to migrate that community from PlayStation 4 to next-gen using the ability to play the PS4 games they have on their next-generation console. We think it’s incredibly important.”

As for cross-platform multiplayer between the two consoles, SIE deputy president John Kodera noted: “Cross-generation the community can enjoy the games together.” Given the vagueness of the quote, it remains to be seen exactly how this will function.

Sony wants you to buy a PS5, sure, but the company seems to be taking steps to ensure the PS5 isn’t just another PlayStation console. Instead, Sony’s assuring that at least some of your PS4 games will play without a hitch and that you’ll be able to play with your friends who have yet to upgrade, all while supplying faster load times.

There have been numerous rumors circulating since Sony first unveiled details about the PS5. There’s no word on a release date, but if former SIE boss John Kodera’s “three years away” quote from 2018 is to be believed, we may not see the next-gen PlayStation console until 2021. As of right now, though, we do know the PS5 will use solid-state drives and will support PSVR. As far as price goes, Sony’s lead architect Mark Cerny told Wired writer Peter Rubin that the PS5 will have an “appealing” price point: “I believe that we will be able to release it at an SRP [suggested retail price] that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set.”

CD Projekt Red has begun outlining its Cyberpunk 2077 plans for E3 2019. Unfortunately, the upcoming RPG won’t be playable during the show, but it will be on display for all to see. No exclusive closed-door presentations this year; even the public will be able to see everything new CD Projekt Red is bringing to E3.

“To answer many questions about the demo and whether or not [Cyberpunk 2077] will be playable at E3–we are going to be hosting gameplay presentations (game played by us) in that cinema,” CD Projekt Red global community lead Marcin Momot wrote in a tweet. In a follow-up tweet, he clarified that “these showings will be different” from what’s been seen before, but that he won’t “go into details now” about what fans can expect.

CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński seems excited to show off what the studio has planned for E3. In a blog post, Kiciński said, “We will be taking part in the upcoming edition of E3, which is shaping up to be the most important fair in CD Projekt’s history. We want to be even more prominent in Los Angeles than we were last year.”

Ahead of the release of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red opened an online retail store. The shop sells merchandise themed after the developer’s latest titles, such as The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. Cyberpunk 2077 items are live on the store as well.

Though it was initially teased back in 2013, it took years for CD Projekt Red to reveal anything concrete about Cyberpunk 2077. We finally got our first good look in 2018. The nearly hour-long demo showcased Cyberpunk 2077’s interactive open world, as well as the game’s mission structure, character customization, choice-driven narrative, boss battles, and high-tech weapons.

CD Projekt Red has yet to reveal what exactly it will showcase at E3 this year, but we’re hoping a release date is announced. The developer might also reveal what contribution Digital Scapes–a well-known multiplayer-focused studio hired by CD Projekt Red to work on Cyberpunk 2077–has contributed to the game.

The era of Marvel shows on Netflix is almost over–while the existing seasons of Daredevil, Luke Cage, and The Punisher will remain on the service, production on the shows has been cancelled over the past few months. But there’s one new batch of episodes still to come, and that’s Jessica Jones Season 3. Netflix has now revealed that the final season of Jessica Jones will arrive in June.

The one thing we don’t know is when exactly we’ll get the new season. While Netflix has revealed a release date for a variety of shows and movies, Jessica Jones Season 3 is included at the end of a promo for its June releases with no specific date. But at least we know it’ll be here in the next few weeks.

Jessica Jones Season 3 will star Krysten Ritter as troubled private detective Jessica, plus Rachael Taylor (as Trish), Eka Darville (as Malcolm Ducasse), and Carrie-Anne Moss (as Jeri Hogarth). Few details about the story of the new season are known, but a trailer shouldn’t be too far behind.

Jessica Jones was the second Marvel Netflix show, following Daredevil, and Season 1 was released in November 2015. Iron Fist, Luke Cage, The Punisher, and The Defenders followed, but ultimately all were cancelled. Disney launches its own streaming platform, Disney+, in the Fall and has a host of its own Marvel shows in development for the new service.

In February, Ritter posted on Instagram shortly after the show’s cancellation. “It has been a dream to play Jessica alongside my amazing cast and the best crew in the business for these past 5 years,” she wrote. “I am so grateful for every second of it. We have THE BEST fans. You guys mean the world to me and I appreciate you beyond words. The final season of #JessicaJones is coming later this year and I am proud of how we complete JJ’s journey.”

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Join GameSpot as we celebrate gaming history and give recognition to the most influential games of the 21st century. These aren’t the best games, and they aren’t necessarily games that you need to rush out and play today, but there’s no question that they left an indelible impact on game developers, players, and in some cases, society at large.

In 2007, the newly annual Call of Duty series–while incredibly popular–had a lot of competition. It was a landmark year in games, particularly for shooters; BioShock, Team Fortress 2, and Halo 3 all arrived that year, as did Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, and Portal. These days, you might not expect the yearly Call of Duty entry to capture lasting attention among a sea of inventive new franchises. But in 2007, the fourth Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare, was a standout in its own right. Modern Warfare not only marked a shift for the series–it also fundamentally altered multiplayer shooters for over a decade to come.

In the 10 years or so leading up to Modern Warfare, first-person shooters had undergone rapid changes. In the mid-’90s, PC shooters were evolving thanks to technical advancements, and 1998’s Half-Life helped set a new standard for storytelling in the genre and in games generally. Both local and online multiplayer improved on a technical level, especially with regard to matchmaking and console multiplayer–thanks, in large part, to Halo 2 and Xbox Live. And then there were Medal of Honor and Call of Duty, which kicked off the World War II game boom of the early 2000s.

Modern Warfare owes a lot to these foundations. Its moment-to-moment gameplay, especially in the campaign, didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. If you looked past the waves of enemies and incredible set piece moments, the campaign was still a rather linear series of checkpoints and, as then-GameSpot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann noted, it was “almost shockingly short.” But shock was kind of the point. It was all too easy to get swept up in its larger-than-life action and its fictional-but-still-plausible modern-day narrative. Gerstmann summed up the now-infamous mission All Ghillied Up, in which you crawl through the grass as tanks rumble over you, as “a breathtaking moment in a campaign filled with breathtaking moments.”

In many ways, Modern Warfare tread new ground. It was the first Call of Duty game not set during World War II, breaking from the series’ origins as a Medal of Honor competitor. And it wasn’t a total power fantasy like those WWII games, either. Gerstmann said it perfectly in 2007: “In a world filled with war games in which the good guys come out unscathed and the world is left at total peace, Call of Duty 4 will wake you up like a face full of ice water.” That’s illustrated best by the mission Shock and Awe, in which you have to work to evacuate your AI squadmates before a nuke detonates, all set to a countdown timer. No matter how fast you operate, you will fail, and that nuke will go off–and everyone, including you, will die.

The single-player campaign received widespread praise among critics and fans, and so too did the multiplayer. Modern Warfare introduced a number of series mainstays, including Hardcore game modes (where your health is much lower and there’s no HUD, among other changes) and Killstreaks, which later branched out into different kinds of streak rewards. But it was Modern Warfare’s class-based progression system that would end up having the biggest impact.

In Modern Warfare’s multiplayer, you started off with a choice of three classes (five total, after you leveled up a bit and unlocked the rest) with different specializations and loadouts. What set it apart was the new perks system, in which each class had preset, distinct perks that you’d unlock as you played that class. That meant that, by playing a specific way, you’d be rewarded with further ways to improve that playstyle–and once you unlocked the ability to create a custom class, you could combine perks from each class you’d been playing and leveling up.

It was a system that gave you solid incentives to keep playing, outside the general fun of competition, and that’s the kind of thing that creates dedicated players who stick with a game for months and years. Many shooters adapted this in the years following. Once a strong competitor, 2010’s Medal of Honor emulated Modern Warfare’s progression system and Killstreaks (and was followed up by one final entry in 2012 before the series was shuttered). Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in 2010 also had similar class-specific rewards, a shift from previous Battlefield games’ broader unlock system. Even Halo: Reach, a decidedly very different kind of shooter, brought classes and customizable loadouts to the Halo series’ multiplayer.

In recent years, as team-based shooters and battle royale games grow in popularity, this exact kind of progression system is becoming less and less common. Today’s Call of Duty games take inspiration from these games, not the other way around; 2018’s Black Ops 4 included a battle royale mode, and progression in battle royale games is by design not gameplay-related. But Modern Warfare set the stage for the modern concept of multiplayer shooters, games that players keep coming back to for tangible reasons–whether those reasons are gameplay-specific rewards or a randomized loot box full of cosmetics.

Call of Duty is among the most successful video game series of all time, all but synonymous with gaming in general. It is a powerhouse, even when a yearly installment fails to impress. There have been 11 Call of Duty games since Modern Warfare, some of them more sensational, perhaps–Modern Warfare 2 caused quite the stir–and some of them outstanding in their own right. Some things that have since become almost essential to the Call of Duty experience, like Zombies, came after Modern Warfare. It speaks volumes that, over 10 years later, Modern Warfare is not only one of the most important Call of Duty games, but also one of the most notable games to come out of one of the best years in gaming in the 21st century.

For a look at the rest of our features in this series, head over to our Most Influential Games Of The 21st Century hub.

Most games make it pretty clear how to be good and how to be evil. There are some recent examples, however, of games that make morality and decision-making far more complicated.

How? With one clever addition: kids.

In a new video feature, Jess McDonell examines how games like the recent adventure-stealth title A Plague Tale: Innocence and others like God of War, The Last of Us, and The Walking Dead use children as a sort of moral guidepost.

Having a child by your side can change how you play, and perhaps more significantly it can change how you feel about your decisions in games. You might want to be a murderous, bloodthirsty action hero playing solo, but with a child by your side you may want to think twice about rampaging through your foes.

Be sure to watch the full video above for our thoughts.

GameSpot’s A Plague Tale review scored the game an 8/10. Reviewer Khee Hoon Chan said the game tells an “emotive story of resilience against harrowing odds.”