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This year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will not feature a Zombies mode. Campaign gameplay director Jacob Minkoff said in a new interview that the “out-there” nature of Zombies modes in previous games doesn’t exactly fit with Infinity Ward’s ambition of making a gritty, realistic game.

“Because they focus on more of the stylized, graphic novel, super-hero experience, they can have the much more ‘out there’ different types of gameplay in their games,” Minkoff told PlayStation Lifestyle about the games that Zombies creator Treyarch makes. “But for us, we’re trying to create an authentic, realistic feeling world. We don’t have the flexibility to do something like put zombies in the game.”

Minkoff said having a Zombies mode in Modern Warfare would “compromise” the developer’s vision for the game. “That would compromise the feeling of playing in a world that feels realistic and authentic and relative to today’s conflicts and things we face,” he said.

Apart from being tons of fun, the Zombies modes in previous Call of Duty games have provided players a chance to play together in co-op. Thankfully, the new Modern Warfare will offer co-op gameplay opportunities, but Infinity Ward isn’t ready to talk about them. “What I will tell you is that the single-player storyline goes directly into the co-op storyline. No stop. The events just continue. So those elements–gameplay, progression, story–they just continue throughout everything that we have on the disc or digital download,” Minkoff said.

That is a theme of Modern Warfare. Unlike previous games that have siloed off campaign and multiplayer into their own distinct buckets, Modern Warfare will unite all of its modes. As we reported, Infinity Ward said it’s going for “continuity and consistency” across all modes in Modern Warfare. Weapons will feel and handle the same whether you’re in single or multiplayer. Progressing your character, unlocking killstreaks, and increasing your levels with different guns will track across all modes, so you won’t feel penalized for preferring single player over multiplayer or vice versa.

It is not surprising that the new Modern Warfare doesn’t have a Zombies mode, as the previous Modern Warfare titles also did not offer this (though Infinity Ward’s Infinite Warfare did). Treyarch created the Zombies mode, and it is a mainstay of the Black Ops series.

While it is now confirmed that Modern Warfare doesn’t have a Zombies mode, it’s unknown if the game will have its own battle royale mode. Black Ops 4 had Blackout as its battle royale mode. Unlike that game, the new Modern Warfare has a dedicated campaign mode.

In other news, it’s been confirmed that the new Modern Warfare supports cross-play and that it will not have a season pass. For lots more, check out the story linked below.

A Pokemon Go-style Dragon Quest title is in the works for Japan. Dragon Quest Walk was announced today in a Square Enix press conference.

The game is launching this year for iOS and Android. A closed beta test will begin on June 11 for a limited number of users. Right now, Dragon Quest Walk appears to be confirmed only for Japan.

The game’s official website, translated by Gematsu, states that in Dragon Quest walk, “everyday life becomes an adventure.” You can visit landmarks in the real word to unlock quests, while players can also build a room and decorate it with items they unlock by playing the game.

According to Gematsu, series executive producer Yuu Miyake said during the briefing that Dragon Quest Walk may have some connection to the unannounced Dragon Quest XII in some capacity. “By the way, about Dragon Quest XII, which I’m sure is on everyone’s mind–[Yuji] Horii and I are currently making preparations on series developments that will connect to XII. I think it’s still too early, but we would like announce it in some form, so please wait a little while longer.”

Industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto says Dragon Quest Walk appears to be a “shameless clone” of Niantic’s Pokemon Go. Presumably in response to the game’s announcement, Square Enix’s stock price is up by more than 5 percent in Japan.

Pokemon Go, which uses AR to blend the real and virtual worlds, was released in July 2016 and it became a global phenomenon that continues to be very popular to this day. Niantic followed up Pokemon Go with another similar game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

Another Pokemon Go-style game, Minecraft Earth, is also in development.

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Fallout 76‘s poor release did damage to Bethesda’s reputation and the Fallout brand overall, according to Todd Howard. He said in a new interview that the game, which launched in November 2018 to poor reviews and plenty of technical issues, created “some” damage to Bethesda’s reputation and the perception of the Fallout brand.

“It would be naive to say it’s had zero,” Howard said in a candid interview with IGN.

He went on to acknowledge that, due in part to the always-online, multiplayer focus of Fallout 76 being new ground for Bethesda, the team anticipated a rocky launch.

“We knew we were going to have a lot of bumps. That’s a difficult development; a lot of new systems and things like that. ‘Hey, we’re going to try this new thing.’ Anytime you’re going to do something new like that, you know you’re going to have your bumps; you know a lot of people might say, ‘That’s not the game we want from you.’ But we still want to be somebody that’s trying new things,” Howard said. “That was a very difficult, difficult development on that game to get it where it was …a lot of those difficulties ended up on the screen. We knew, hey look, this is not the type of game that people are used to from us and we’re going to get some criticism on it. A lot of that–very well-deserved criticism.”

Howard went on to say that Bethesda never expected Fallout 76 to get the highest review scores. “Even from the beginning, [we thought], ‘This is not going to be a high Metacritic game; that’s not what this is, given what it is,'” Howard said.

Fallout 76’s score on GameSpot sister site Metacritic was 53 on PS4, 52 on PC, and 49 on Xbox One. The previous Fallout release, 2015’s Fallout 4, had a Metacritic score in the high-80s across console and PC.

Despite predicting technical issues and lower review scores, Howard said the team at Bethesda felt strongly about making an online, multiplayer Fallout game. He also said he expects Fallout 76 to improve over time, similar to the way in which Bethesda’s MMO The Elder Scrolls Online sputtered at launch and has since grown to be one of the most popular MMOs on earth with more than 8.5 million players.

“It’s not how you launch, it’s what it becomes,” Howard said about Fallout 76, going to tease that Bethesda has “some awesome stuff” to reveal at E3 in June.

Though Fallout 76 was criticized, Howard pointed out that it was still a “huge release” and a chart-topper for sales. No sales numbers have been announced, however.

Howard said Bethesda’s main takeaway or lesson learned from Fallout 76 was that the developer should have kept the game in a testing phase for a longer period of time. The game might have benefitted from being in beta for “a number of months” before launching, he said.

“If there is one thing I would have done differently, [it would have been to] find a way to, at scale, let people be playing the game 24/7 before you say, ‘Everybody in. Here you go. Pay us.'”

Howard also clarified that Fallout 76 was developed not principally by the main team at Bethesda Game Studios in Maryland. Instead, the entire Bethesda team in Austin, Texas worked on Fallout 76, with support from teams in Dallas, Montreal, and home base in Rockville, Maryland where “a lot” of people contributed.

E3 2019 is only a few days away, but before we learn about a bunch of hot new games launching over the coming months, we have to take a look at June. The new month is full of big names like the goblin-filled Warhammer: Chaosbane, the high-octane Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, and the fully customizable Super Mario Maker 2. There’s also a pair of action-packed games out of Japan, Judgment and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Warhammer: Chaosbane — June 4

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

The latest video game take on the tabletop classic isn’t about strategy–this is a hack-and-slash game. As the name implies, it’s up to you to battle the forces of chaos using four different classes. You can take on the horde in four-player co-op too, then jump into boss rush mode if you need an extra challenge.

More Coverage:

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — June 18 (PS4, Xbox One, PC) / June 25 (Switch)

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch

If Bloodstained reminds you of Castlevania, there’s a good reason: this action game comes from ex-Castlevania boss Koji Igarashi. The Kickstarter-funded project takes cues from Symphony of the Night, with a big castle to explore, monsters to slay, and powerful magic to acquire. You’ll take on the roles of Miriam and Zangetsu, with the goal of stopping the evil alchemist Gebel.

More Coverage:

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled — June 21

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Nitro-Fueled isn’t just a remake of Crash Team Racing–it also includes tracks from Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Tag Team Racing. You can take the wheel with every playable racer from those games, plus some new ones that were just boss characters before. You can take some trap-filled laps in both local and online multiplayer.

More Coverage:

Judgment — June 25

Available on: PS4

Much like Bloodstained, Judgment might remind you of another game. In this case, Yakuza comparisons are totally apt, since this spin-off is set in a lot of the same locations. It even uses the same combat system, letting you swap between styles during the fight. But it’s not about the Japanese mob; Judgment sees detective Takayuki Yagami solving a series of murders.

More Coverage:

Super Mario Maker 2 — June 28

Available on: Switch

There’s almost too much to talk about with this Super Mario Maker sequel. You can build custom levels with a ton of new tools, and the story mode introduces some Mario mechanics you might not be familiar with, like the Angry Sun, Banzai Bills, and new level themes. What’s more, you can take on all the courses online cooperatively and competitively.

More Coverage:

New Releases will be taking a break next week with E3 kicking off. In two weeks, we’ll return with a special episode featuring all the big new release dates from the show. Check out our E3 2019 press conference schedule for an idea of what’s to come.