Warner Bros and IO Interactive have officially revealed Hitman 2. As suspected, Hitman 2 is essentially a follow-up to the previous season of Hitman. However, IO Interactive indicated during the game's live stream reveal that the next Hitman will not follow the episodic format of the previous Hitman game. 

The game itself continues roughly where the last Hitman left off, as Agent 47 continues his pursuit of the mysterious Shadow Client. However, it seems that 47's mission will force him to confront some potentially unwelcome details about his own mysterious past. 

Mission-wise, the reveal and trailer teased a Miami mission that sees Agent 47 eliminate a race car driver by potentially manipulating his vehicle before the big race. Elsewhere, Warner Bros. and IO referenced "sun-drenched streets to dark and dangerous rainforests" as possible locations. As always, each of these missions will afford Agent 47 - and players - the chance to utilize multiple paths to victory and the opportunity to complete multiple objectives. 

Both Warner Bros. and IO Interactive expressed how excited they are to revive the Hitman series after it faced an uncertain future following Square Enix's decision to drop developer IO Interactive.

Here's everything else we know:

Hitman 2 Release Date

Hitman 2 arrives on Nov. 13, 2018. The game is coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If you're interested in pre-ordering the game, you can find out more about Hitman 2's various editions by visiting this website. 

Hitman 2 Trailer

Check out the announcement trailer below:

New to the series is a co-op option called Sniper Assassin. This two-player mode sees players compete to take down a series of targets via the use of sniper rifles. It's not entirely clear what the extent of the competitive/cooperative nature of this game mode is, but we do know that players will also have the option of completing these sniper missions by themselves if they choose to do so. 

Here's the Sniper Assassin mode trailer:

Marvel announced in January 2017 that it has signed a multi-year, multi-game deal with publisher Square Enix to develop titles based on the popular superhero universe. The first title in the works is an Avengers game. 

According to Marvel, the game will feature a completely new and original story, and will introduce a universe gamers can play in for years to come. The project will be jam-packed with characters, environments, and iconic moments that will thrill Marvelites.

Check out the trailer below:

We can gather a few story details from the trailer. The game seems to take place at a time when superheroes are persecuted by the public and the Avengers are all but broken. The setting looks very bleak, indeed. From the looks of it, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor will appear in the game in some form. It's unclear who is narrating, though. 

It also looks like Marvel will continue the trend of hiring top-notch talent for games based on their most popular characters. "The Avengers project," as it's being referred to at the moment by Marvel, is being developed by Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider), with help from Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex). Shaun Escayg, former Naughty Dog creative director, and Stephen Barry, a 27 year games vet from EA and Visceral Games, have also joined the project in leadership roles at Crystal Dynamics.

That's one hell of a team-up. It's too early to call, but based on the teams working on this game, this could be an action-adventure superhero game with a nice helping of RPG elements.

More details on the Avengers project and other games will be announced in 2018.

At E3 2018, Bethesda revealed Doom Eternal. Based on what was revealed at the show, it sounds like this is going to be a new Doom game rather than a remaster or a remake. The Doom team talked about how they listened to what fans asked for and added more demons, a more powerful Doom guy, and a vision of what Hell on Earth looks like to this game. 

To be fair, that doesn't mean that this is guaranteed to be a brand-new Doom game - it's not called Doom II after all - and there is a possibility that this could retread some familiar ground. At the very least, though, we feel that this has to be some kind of expansion or some piece of previously unseen content related to Doom.

Check out the announcement trailer:

As for what the "Eternal" part of the title refers to, that's like both a tongue-in-cheek meta reference (Doom forever!) as well as some kind of comment on the vision of Hell on Earth that we saw in the trailer. Based on that footage, it seems likely that the war against the demons of Hell isn't going well and that the battle against them is going to be waging on for quite some time. Either that, or it's just a word they thought sounded cool after the word "Doom." 

Regardless, it certainly seems like we're going to be getting more from Doom in the near future besides some multiplayer updates. We'll know for sure what Doom Eternalis and what it has in store when the game gets its proper reveal at QuakeCon 2018 which runs from August 9th through August 12th in Dallas, TX. 

Can't wait until then? Well, you can always dive into those aforementioned Doom multiplayer updates or take advantage of the game's surprisingly excellent arcade mode that adds a point counter to your every action. 

This is not a drill: The Elder Scrolls VI is officially in development, and Bethesda shared the first trailer for the game at E3 2018. 

While we really wish that we had more information to share with you regarding the finer details of this game, we tragically do not. See, Bethesda's Pete Hines remarked that this isn't a game that is going to come out this year or even the next year. Instead, it's a title that they are working on that is somewhere on the horizon. 

However, that's really not the important detail of this story. What really matters is that Bethesda is, right now, working on a new Elder Scrolls game. Not Skyrim, not a Skyrim sequel, not a Skyrim spin-off, but a game that is actually being called The Elder Scrolls VI. At present, we have no reason to believe that this is not a proper single-player epic Elder Scrolls adventure in the style of classic Elder Scrolls experiences. 

If you're really reaching for more information, you can try to figure out where the game will take place based on the teaser footage that we saw in the trailer. However, we have a feeling that nothing about that footage is anywhere close to being finalized. However, it does seem like we're leaving the snow-covered world of Skyrim for a more diverse climate that somewhat resembles the world seen in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 

Truth be told, none of us should be surprised that Bethesda is working on a new Elder Scrolls game. After all, they've told us as much in the past. Todd Howard even told us that his own son is hounding him for details regarding the next Elder Scrolls game. There's no doubt that someone at Bethesda is working on a new Elder Scrollstitle. 

Still, the fact that Bethesda was confident enough to show this game off this year would seem to suggest that they might actually show footage of the game as early as next year's E3 conference. Given that we didn't know if we would see a new Elder Scrolls title anytime in the next five years, this is welcome news indeed. 

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

The eerie thump-thump-thump of the aliens’ movements as they jerk back and forth along the screen. The basis that slowly crumble as they’re battered by laser blasts from both the aliens and the player. The siren call of the UFOs that occasionally streaked across the top of the play area, just begging to be shot down for bonus points.

Such are the sights and sounds of Space Invaders - not to mention the sensation of gnawing dread as those last few aliens gather speed - that the 1978 videogame has long since acquired classic status. The design of its aliens and the simple sound effects - all low murmurs and pew-pew lasers - are a part of our popular culture, while the game as a whole now has its own legends attached to it.

You may have heard how Space Invaders was so popular that it sparked a coin shortage in Japan, because players were throwing so much of their spare change into the machines. You may have read that its creator originally considered a military or wild west theme before he settled on invading aliens - partly thanks to the advent of popular sci-fi properties like Space Battleship Yamato and Star Wars.

What’s in danger of being overlooked, though, is just how brilliant the design of Space Invaders is - and how ingenious its creator was in building it.

To truly understand the genius of Space Invaders’ creator, Tomohiro Nishikado, consider another game he worked on earlier in the 1970s. It was called Sky Fighter II, and it was one of several mechanical games Nishikado made before Pong kicked off the early electronic videogame era.

Like Space Invaders, Sky Fighter II was a shooting game - albeit one that used relays and mechanics rather than integrated circuits and computer programs. Sky Fighter II tasked the player with shooting down a model airplane that circled around inside the cabinet; peering through a plastic window, it looked uncannily as though the craft was zooming through a cloudy sky, and if the player managed to strike the plane, it would explode dramatically.

In essence, it was a mix of mechanical ingenuity and conjuring trick, with mirrors and models used to created the illusion of a real plane puttering about in a 3D environment. The whole cabinet was so elaborate that it took months to design and several more to actually build. It was an early hint at what Nishikado, a former audio engineer, could do with relatively simple technology.

When Pong arrived on Japanese shores in 1972, the reaction to it at Taito, the amusement company where Nishikado worked, was rather mixed. Would the public really prefer this dull-looking machine, with its single monitor and dial on the front, to the mechanical games then popular in arcades? As it turned out, Pong was a big hit - simple bat-and-ball game that captured imaginations in both the east and west.

Nishikado quickly set his analytical mind to work on Pong. Back then, integrated circuits were an unfamiliar sight in Japan, and so, according to this super interview on Shmupulations, he spent the best part of six months examining and essentially reverse-engineering Pong’s hardware. Then, rather than using this information to simply create a rip-off of Atari’s pioneering game, he used it as a basis of his own: a two-paddled game called Soccer.

Soccer was Nishikado’s earliest foray into videogames, and paved the way for what would eventually become Space Invaders. Famously, Nishikado was partly inspired by Breakout: what if, he wondered, the blocks at the top of the screen moved and fired back at the player, and the player had to shoot them rather than hit them indirectly by deflecting a ball? 

This, at least, provided the kernel of the Space Invaders concept. But before all that, Nishikado had to develop the game’s hardware from scratch; back then, there were no pre-built computers on which he could simply write the game’s code. Instead, he spent around six months selecting the microchips that would form Space Invaders’ custom hardware - then came a further four months of programming, as Nishikado created all the graphics, sounds and alien AI almost entirely by himself.

Originally titled Space Monster, the game was changed to Space Invader and then Space Invaders at the behest of Nishikado’s superiors - many of whom were nonplussed by what he’d created. While some staff members within Taito enjoyed Space Invaders, the general fear among bosses and amusement arcade owners was that it was simply too difficult; with the aliens shooting back at the player and the game ending when the invaders reached the bottom of the screen, the assumption was that its steep learning curve would prove too off-putting.

What nobody could have reckoned on - even Nishikado, seemingly - was that players would devise their own strategies for improving their chances in Space Invaders, and even studied the game for exploits in its programming. Nishikado hadn’t, for example, reckoned on players discovering that the UFO - which provided precious bonus points - was triggered by how many shots the player fired. Once players figured this out, the pattern became predictable - making the UFO’s appearance relatively simple to anticipate. Nor had Nishikado predicted that players would exploit a bug where the bottom row of invaders wouldn’t fire at the player if they were directly above his or her ship. 

“One day,” Nishikado later said, “I saw a really good player putting up some high scores around 150k. When I looked closely at what he was doing, I saw that the very bottom row of invaders’ shots seemed to pass right through his ship. It’s because I programmed it so that their shots would come out just a little bit in front of the invaders.”

Ironically, it was this layer of strategy that helped Space Invaders become such a phenomenon. Earlier arcade games, like Pong and Breakout, were entertaining for a few minutes or so, but they were somewhat lacking in features that could be used to the player’s advantage. The ability to take out aliens in rows or columns, to anticipate the arrival of the bonus UFO, as well as the gradual increase in speed as the invaders’ ranks diminished (another quirk of Nishikado’s meagre hardware) turned a simple shooter into a game that rewarded practice and repeated play. And with that came enormous profits for the company behind it, Taito.

Following a slow start in 1978, Space Invaders began to proliferate all over the world, particularly in Japan, where entire amusement centres were opened purely to house row after row of cabinets. In the wake of Space Invaders, rival companies clamoured to either produce their own direct clones or similar shooters that riffed on its ideas. Indeed, it’s remarkable to see how rapidly arcade games evolved in the late '70s and early '80s, from the monochrome screen of Space Invaders, via the full-color sprites of Namco’s Galaxian and Galaga. 

Space Invaders was far from the first arcade game, but it was undoubtedly the catalyst for what would become a golden age of videogaming. Without it, we may never have had such hits as Pac-Man or Donkey Kong. More fundamentally, the Japanese videogame industry may not have started quite so early, or flourished quite so vibrantly. Although Nishikado continued to work in videogames for years after Space Invaders, he never had the chance to be quite so hands-on with a game’s design and development; like so many Japanese creators of his generation, he was forced to live in relative quiet while his game captured the zeitgeist.

40 years ago, Space Invaders emerged in a flash of design and programming ingenuity. That it was such a phenomenon was partly due to timing - it landed just as Star Wars mania was gripping the planet - but even so, its brilliance shouldn’t be underestimated. Even today, with our vastly complex sandbox games and HD graphics, Space Invaders holds a certain allure: it’s easy to see at a glance what the objective is; its pendulum-like rhythm, gradually building in pace as the aliens wink out of existence, is mesmeric.

The original cabinets that housed Space Invaders are dwindling in number, their chipboard carcasses crumbling, the components inside requiring ever more care to protect them against the ravages of time. Even so, Space Invaders remains immortal somehow; captured forever on mobile phones, consoles, and platforms like Steam; its iconic alien sprites printed on t-shirts, its sounds echoing in the minds of a generation of gamers.

In the early '90s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the kings of children’s entertainment. They were everywhere and like all successful concepts, they were followed by copycats.

Over the years we’d see attempts to piggyback on their success with such concepts as Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, and the Country Cuckoo Clock Codpiece Zulu Warriors. There was one pretender to the throne that appeared as a cheap Turtles knockoff at first glance, but had more than enough uniqueness to stand on its own. To a point, at least.

I want to talk to you about Battletoads.

Battletoadsis one of those game franchises that had so much personality and quality that it should have survived for years. Unfortunately, it’s become a relic of semi-obscurity that is just now starting to mount a possible comeback with its inclusion in the Rare Replay, a set of 30 old-school games. Not only does this include the original, tough-as-nails Battletoads, but the brilliant arcade game as well. There’s other good stuff mixed in there, such as Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Perfect Dark, and the Banjo-Kazooie series.

Battletoadsbegan on the NES in 1991, and being a Turtles knockoff isn't what immediately comes to mind when people are reminded of it. If anything, people talk about how frustratingly hard it is. Believe me, it’s a fantastic game. Some of the best designs and ideas in any NES game for sure. It’s just so unforgivingly hard. There are plenty of tough games for the old, gray box, but this one is like the Olympics of hard games. It’s like playing the last level of Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins followed by playing a couple minutes of Silver Surfer followed by fighting Mike Tyson.

The titular toads are made up of Pimple (the big toad), Rash (the too-cool-for-school toad), and Zitz (the...um...one who is also a toad). In the intro, Pimple and the generic princess character Angelica are kidnapped by the Dark Queen and her evil minions. That always seemed weird to me. Why give us three toads when one isn’t even on the board to begin with? At least the Ninja Turtles games never said, “Mikey, Don, and, Raph aren’t playable. Enjoy using Leo and only Leo!” It’s something that will come up a few more times in the following installments.

Zits and Rash are off to save the day and begin with a rather enjoyable beat ’em up sidescroller level followed immediately by a level where the toads are lowered down a big hole in the ground filled with ravenous birds. So far so good.

Then comes the Turbo Tunnel speeder level and, aptly enough, the difficulty suddenly goes from zero to sixty in seconds. As your toads weave, jump, and dodge stone blocks thrown in their way in an exercise of quick reaction and memory, the player will curse the cartridge for all the lives they lose. Thing is, the game rarely ever lets up after that, nor does it ever truly play the same.

They easily could have coasted on making the game like the first level and tossing in a couple gimmicky levels to liven it up, but they didn’t. Throughout the twelve stages, we get ones based on racing a rat towards a bomb, surfing, navigating on the backs of some giant snakes, and so on. The levels are each a pain in the ass, and we’re given a couple of unforgiving roadblocks.

For one, there are only a set amount of continues. Once you lose all of your lives three times, you’re done and have to start from the beginning. Not too great when a lot of the game is trial and error with one-hit kills filled throughout. Naturally, of all the people who beat this game, many of them had to use the Game Genie to net them infinite lives or continues.

The second roadblock is that when you’re playing with two players, neither is immune to the other’s offense. You can and will accidentally punch your buddy dozens of times, especially in the second level. The game is so ridiculous that it is literally impossible to play through it start to finish with two players. There’s a glitch in a later level where the second player’s toad simply won’t move and immediately dies. One would think this would be something for the play testers and programmers to notice, only nobody was ever able to get that far with two players when making the game to begin with. Cripes.

Despite all the problems with the difficulty, there was still reason to keep coming back for more abuse. It wasn’t like it was a poorly made game. It was just hard. The game’s design was just too good and fun. For being just NES sprites, Rash and Zitz came with so much moxie. Their “smash hit” powers would allow them to morph parts of themselves into weapons, like less-fluid versions of Plastic Man. Their fists would become huge, their feet would turn into giant steel-toed boots, they would headbutt rats while their heads grew ram horns. Also, one of my favorite little touches that Rare used throughout the series, was how they would have the toads completely lose their shit in fear upon seeing bosses. They pointed in horror, biting their fingers, their jaws dropoing to the floor, and their eyes bug out of their skulls.

Then there’s the villain designs, which, again, for NES sprites, really feel fairly realized. You have Big Blag the Andre the Giant of evil rats, General Slaughter the pissed-off bull, Scuzz the speedy and scummy rat, and high-ranking cyborg Robo-Manus. Robo-Manus appears in four of the five Battletoadsgames and looks completely different every time, culminating in one hell of a final appearance. These guys are all recurring villains throughout the series and really do feel right at home as this world’s counterparts for Bebop, Rocksteady, etc.

Last but not least is the Dark Queen, the final boss and main villain. Her inclusion is both memorable and kind of awkward. I mean, look at her. She’s got this whole sinister, sultry Jessica Rabbit thing going on in a game made in the overly-kiddy Nintendo era, back when they wouldn’t even let blood in their Mortal Kombat port. When you’re a kid in the early 90s and you have a buxom dominatrix-type dressing you down after every level while wearing only a leather one-piece and a cape, part of you has to wonder, “Wait, am I even allowed to be playing this?”

One thing that’s weird about her (other than apparently being the only human in her kingdom) is how they could never figure out her scale. Sometimes she’s 12-feet-tall. Sometimes she’s normal height. It varies from game to game.

I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t mention the wonderful work of David Wise, the composer for all the Battletoadsgames. His stuff is top-notch in the NES version, but the follow-ups increase in musical quality.

As part of the hype train, Nintendo Power did not only a cover story for Battletoads, but they also featured two months of Battletoadscomics put together by Valiant (who at the time were publishing several Nintendo-based comics like Captain Nand Legend of Zelda). The first issue deals with the Battletoads’ origin, and it’s not especially brilliant.

Dave Shar, Morgan Ziegler, and George Pie are play testers for Psicone, a video game company that created Battletoads, though here it’s a virtual reality game. The lead programmer is Silas Volkmire, who feels jealous enough at the play testers that he outright wants to murder them. Pretty extreme, but okay. Turns out, the world of Battletoadsis a separate dimension that Volkmire accidentally tapped into when writing code. Volkmire still created the Battletoads themselves, though, which pisses off the Dark Queen because she was doing just peachy being unopposed.

I have to imagine that Nintendo Power wanted them to kind of dial back the Dark Queen’s sexiness by having the artist constantly have her cover up with her cape. The only time she doesn’t have it draped like that is whenever she’s shown from behind.

Volkmire is somehow able to forever merge Dave, Morgan, and George with their toad personas so that if they die in the game/reality, they die for real. Then they get saved by their new mentor/hype guy Professor T-Bird, and we have something resembling a plot.

The second issue goes through the various levels, mostly explained by T-Bird, Dark Queen, and Volkmire. Volkmire originally introduces the level Volkmire’s Inferno (the second speeder-based one) and seeing one of the toads land ass-first in lava causes him to spend the remainder of the comic watching it over and over and over again, laughing all the while. The big cliffhanger is the final boss fight where Zitz and Rash confront the Dark Queen, who is, of course, bundling up to cover her boobs.

Battletoadswas ported to other systems, such as Genesis and Game Gear, though their ports tended to be easier. Confusing all of this was the franchise’s visits to the Game Boy. See, late in 1991, they released a game called Battletoadsfor Game Boy that had the same exact box art of the NES version. It was, in fact, a completely different game. Different levels, different bosses, even different gimmicks, such as the final stage where Zitz, the only playable character since Pimple and Rash were distracted by Dark Queen’s exotic dancing and got kidnapped (Not making that up,) rides a jetpack. The game is still crazy hard and that boulder stage can especially go straight to Hell, but it’s still a good time.

In 1993, Rare released Battletoads in Ragnarok’s World for Game Boy, which WAS a port of the NES game, only with less levels. So in review, Battletoadsisn’t Battletoads, but Battletoads in Ragnarok’s World is Battletoads. Mostly. Got that? Great!

1993 gave us two more Battletoadsgames. First was Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for SNES. It is a stunningly good-looking game with some of the best music on the system. The first level is promising and overflowing with fun. Then...it meanders away.

Outside of the final boss fight with the Dark Queen (and her one frame of sprite animation), you don’t really do much in terms of fighting. Instead, you get a game that recreates pieces of the NES game, only slower and about half as long. Other than the very end, which I’ll get to in a second, the only original piece of gameplay in there is the addition of bonus rounds where the toads ride giant checkers like surfboards and collect bowling pins.

Don’t question it.

In this game, you play as Pimple and Rash. They’re after the Dark Queen because, you guessed it, Zitz got kidnapped. Also, the daughter of the guy who runs Psicone is kidnapped, but don’t worry about that as she’s never referenced in any way after the intro movie. This time, it isn’t just Dark Queen behind the badness, but Silas Volkmire himself. Yes, the dork from the Nintendo Powercomic is in the game, only now he’s depicted as something off a death metal album cover for some reason.

This screen shot from the intro is the only time he’s ever shown in the game. After you beat the Dark Queen, you have to chase down Volkmire’s helicopter, as he tries to make his escape. Whether or not you shoot him down with missiles leads to different endings.

Tradewest’s two top franchises then merged together to give us Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, which appeared on NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Genesis. The plot has the Dark Queen team up with the Shadow Boss because I guess galactic conquest is easier when you have a bunch of street punks on your payroll. The Battletoads seek out the Lee twins, and I’m suddenly confused. I mean, does this mean that the Lee brothers exist in the video game dimension where the Battletoads tapped into or do they simply escape that world to meet up? I probably shouldn’t think too hard about this.

The game feels about 4/5 Battletoadsand maybe 1/5 Double Dragon. You get your choice from all five characters and play through different levels, while facing enemies from both games. The Battletoads have the Dark Queen, General Slaughter, Big Blag, and Robo-Manus while the guys from Double Dragon have Shadow Boss, Abobo, and that guy with the machine gun. For some reason, every human boss character is twice the size of the Lees and toads.

It’s a strong crossover and maybe the last truly great NES game, but if nothing else, it’s worth it for the novelty of seeing Billy and Jimmy Lee having wacky space adventures. They pilot space ships, fight bad guys on top of ships despite having no breathable air, turn into tornadoes, and even adopt the Battletoads style of having their eyes stretch out of their sockets when a boss battle is coming.

It's still less silly than the time Marvel decided that Stan Lee was the father of Billy and Jimmy. No, really. That happened.

So the Battletoads were doing quite well in the video game world, but obviously, the people in charge wanted to branch out. The natural thing to do was step forward into the world of animation. Not only is that where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made a mint, but it’s also been home to Mario, Link, Sonic, Simon Belmont, the players of Mutant League Football, and the Acclaim library. Seriously, if Power Teamcan last as long as it did, Battletoadscould certainly get a season or two, right?

Well...not exactly. Back in the early 90s, someone at Fox realized that on the Friday after Thanksgiving, they had a whole nation of kids at home from school with nothing to watch prior to 3 pm. For several years, they would be doing blocks of cartoon pilots that never got picked up. A big pile of cartoons that they had no use for otherwise. It was like an animation graveyard in a way. In November of 1992, they gave us the one and only televised showing of Battletoads.

The cartoon was written by David Wise. No, not the guy behind the amazing in-game music, but a completely different David Wise. Yeah, go figure. This David Wise was one of the top writers on the Ninja Turtles cartoon, so it was an apt assignment.

What we got wasn’t very good. The video game programmer origin was reworked so that Dave, Morgan, and George are teenage losers. In terms of personality, Dave is 50% Leonardo, Morgan is 50% Raphael, George is 50% Michelangelo, and the other 150% is Donatello. They’re empowered by Professor T-Bird, who hangs out with them on Earth with Princess Angelica while the Dark Queen, General Slaughter, and a whole bunch of rats and pigs go after them.

Some notes about the show:

- The theme song is a Beach Boys knockoff, and it’s pretty embarrassing. Though it at least makes more sense than when a fight breaks out in a convenience store and the music accompanying it is a surfer rock cover of “Hava Nagila.”

- The plot is completely bonkers and comes off as something written by the Axe Cop kid. The first three minutes is blasting with ridiculous exposition, leading to a scene where T-Bird transforms the three teens by spraying them with Battletoad essence.

- At one point, Rash is fighting General Slaughter. With Slaughter being a giant bull, Rash turns one of his arms into a red matador cape and beckons him. As Slaughter races at him, Rash turns his arm into an anvil and smashes him. Inventive, I’ll admit. But then Rash says, “Get’s ‘em every time!” Um...what are you talking about, man?! It’s the first episode! We know for a fact that it’s the first and only time you’ve ever done that to him!

- The three can transform back to humans at will, but their mutation activation catch phrase is, “LET’S GET WARTY!” This is easily mistaken for, “LET’S GET HORNY!” which is still toad-related, so it almost works.

So, yeah. That never got picked up. It seems the Battletoadsname was never going to break out into pop culture. Not that I disagree. Despite all the personality brimming, they could never come up with an actual context for “three toads and a bird go fight a sexy lady and her animal minions” that sounded halfway coherent. Comparatively, “four turtles fall into a sewer, get covered in radiation, turn humanoid, and get trained in ninjitsu by a rat,” sounds rather straightforward.

But if Battletoadswas going to die, at least the series went out on a major high note. In 1994, the trio graced the arcade with Super Battletoads. It rocked. It rocked so hard. Rare decided that maybe, for once, they should actually do a game that’s mostly fighting. Take the best part of the SNES game and make a faster, more energetic experience out of it.

It’s three player, giving us the one and only chance to play as all three toads at the same time. There are several levels that go outside the Final Fight style, but nothing as painstaking as the Turbo Tunnels or Snake Pit. Yeah, there’s a giant snake here, but you actually punch him in the face instead of ride him. Though if he sinks his teeth into you, you will see an awful lot of blood as your toad screams in horrific pain.

That’s the interesting thing about this game. No longer confined to the consoles and their ratings, Rare gets to go a bit more adult than what we’re used to. Blood flows all over the place. Rash is able to decapitate his enemies by turning his leg into an axe. Zitz can run his drill hand through his enemies’ faces. One giant rat goon has to be defeated by grabbing his dick and then using the other hand to pound him repeatedly in the balls. Prior to showing up to join the fight, one of the rat henchmen is shown taking a dump in the bathroom as the door opens. Then there’s a boss fight where Dark Queen watches as a hologram in the background, and they get away with showing off how cold she must be up top.

Sadly, the Dark Queen’s gratuitous nipples never made it to SNES or any other system. That was all she wrote for Battletoadsfor the next couple decades. The most we ever got was a prank call/hoax thing where people would constantly call up Gamestop to ask if they could pre-order a nonexistent Battletoadsreboot for Xbox.

There have been rumblings on and off to bring the Toads with ‘Tude back for another adventure or two. At the very least, they have made a special appearance in the Xbox One version of Shovel Knight. In it, the titular knight comes across the toad trio, who accidentally fell through a portal in space. Seeing Shovel Knight as a fellow hero, they offer to train him. That leads to a stage where Shovel Knight is lowered down a hole on a rope and rides through the Turbo Tunnel, all while fighting each Battletoad. By the end, he takes on all three at the same time. Afterwards, Shovel Knight is deemed an honorary toad and is invited to strike a pose with them.

You can also have The Baz join in! If you don’t know who that is...well, he’s a story for another day.

Actually, if you happened to click that link, you'd also see that Rash got to have one last hurrah by showing up in Killer Instinct during its third season of DLC. The game did such a great job with his attitude, animation, body morphing, and use of the old game standbys (ie. using the Turbo Tunnel speeder as a weapon) that leaving the Battletoadsfranchise in the past would be kind of cruel. Fortunately, that's no longer the case.

Gavin Jasper thought you was a toad. Do not seek the treasure. Just follow him on Twitter.

A few months ago, the people of Twitter took it to task when someone at Marvel remarked that Avengers: Infinity War was the most ambitious crossover of all time. Now, I’m not saying that Jump Force steps over Infinity War, but with the very little we know, it’s already primed to be part of the conversation.

The trailer makes it apparent what kind of crazy manga crossover battle we’re about to get. Goku of Dragon Ball Z, Naruto Uzumaki of Naruto, and Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece band together to put a beating on Frieza. Then, in the stinger, Light and Ryuk from Death Note show up. Already, this is quite the party for Shonen Jump alumni.

Even though Bandai-Namco just gave us a three-on-three fighter featuring Goku and Frieza, this won’t be the same engine. Instead, this is an arena fighter that follows your character from behind and makes use of the 3D environment. From the scant footage available from E3, it seems like it’s heavy on assists and stage interactions.

E3 footage also confirms Roronoa Zoro from One Piece and Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto. Once the smoke is cleared, we’ll see how this collection of characters compares to Bandai-Namco’s previous work, J-Stars Victory VS.

No word yet on when the game will be released other than 2019. It will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Gavin Jasper still thinks it’s funny that with all these fighting game crossovers, X-Men weren’t allowed in the latest Marvel vs. Capcom. Follow him on Twitter!

2016’s Hitman was a polished, devilishly fun take on the stealth genre and arguably the best entry in the long-running franchise, and its sequel, Hitman 2, comes out this November. To pique the interest of eager would-be assassins, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has released a sneak peek of the game (available exclusively to those who pre-order Hitman 2) in the form of a mode called Sniper Assassin, which perches you in a soaring sniper’s nest overlooking a lavish wedding at a palatial Austrian estate and tasks you with assassinating three targets and their bodyguards within a 15-minute time limit.

You can choose to team up with a friend or sharpshoot solo as Agent 47, scanning the crowded celebration for your targets as the clock ticks away and dozens of opportunities for inventive assassinations reveal themselves. You can choose to get trigger happy and try to pick off your targets right away, but such recklessness will cause the attendees to scramble into chaos, which makes it incredibly difficult to hit all of your marks before they escape.

A more measured approach bears much riper fruit, with targets moving into more discreet positions that allow you to blow their brains out and keep the bodies hidden from the roaming guests and goons. The sheer number of deathly possibilities is staggering, and there’s a lot of fun to be had replaying the mission, trying new things, and perfecting your blood-splattered sniper symphony beat by beat.

As in the first game, planning, precision, and patience play a major role in gameplay, and while you’re ostensibly stationary for the entirety of the mission, the gaze of your scope is free to explore the expertly designed level, and the strategies you devise will likely feel quite similar to those you’d employ in traditional Hitman gameplay. Waiting until a bodyguard sits on a bench and then knocking him into the fountain behind him, thereby concealing his carcass, is as satisfying as if you dragged him to his watery grave with your own two hands (or rather Agent 47’s). The hands-off nature of Sniper Assassin mode’s gameplay does force you to alter the way you play, though, and the more creative you get, the more spectacular the results (chandelier kill, anyone?).

The switch from third-person, ground-level gameplay to a bird’s-eye perspective also adds a surprisingly entertaining element of voyeurism that rewards keen-eyed players with a variety of hilarious details, like a bodyguard who’s gotten himself desperately lost in a hedge maze. There are a ton of collectibles scattered throughout the level, and it’s nearly impossible to find them all in even a dozen playthroughs. It’s like playing a badass version of Where’s Waldo, except the picture is moving and you can screw with the ant-sized partygoers to your heart’s content.

Manipulating events from afar and watching how your carefully placed shots affect the rest of the scene is amusing to no end. There’s so much going on at any given time, so much to keep track of and absorb and factor into your approach. The level of detail in the environment and character loops is actually quite astonishing, and the fine folks at IO Interactive have clearly taken great care to ensure you’ll almost never have the same experience twice.

The most addictive thing about Sniper Assassin is the simplest thing: beating your own high score, and even chasing a spot on the global leaderboard. To rack up major points, you’ve got to be as inventive as possible (“I could kill him while he’s making that private phone call, but what happens if I knock over that giant statue over there?”) and nail some tricky shots when it’s time to pull the trigger (hitting moving targets earns extra marks). You’ll inevitably become sharper and more efficient with each playthrough, and the mission’s time limit gives the mode a much more arcadey feel than your typical Hitman experience.

Playing co-op opens up gameplay even more. You play not as Agent 47, but as two different assassins, Knight and Stone, who each utilize unique ammo (Wall-Piercing rounds for the former, Shockwave rounds for the latter). It’s a genuine thrill to score a synchronized double-kill with your partner, and while playing as Agent 47 is a treat, teaming up is doubly fun. The catch is, you both will need to pre-order Hitman 2 to play, but I can tell you with confidence that this Sniper Assassin teaser is a blast and surprisingly robust despite its size, and it’s hard to think of a better way to reward die-hard fans of the franchise for dropping their dough early.

Life is Strange 2 is getting a surprising prequel called The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. 

Captain Spirit is set in the same universe of the Life is Strange series, but it is being billed as a standalone story. The game follows a 10-year-old boy named Chris who lives in Beaver Creek, Oregon with this father. Chris is obsessed with superheroes, and he's determined to turn an otherwise ordinary Saturday into a grand comic book adventure. Along the way, players will have to make decisions related to maturely using the day to do things like help their dad or continue playing outside. 

It sounds simple, but we're willing to bet that there's more to this story than developer Dontnod is ready to reveal at this time. Those who have played early demos of the game have already reported that subplots like Chris' dad's supposed alcoholism create complications that players will need to navigate. 

Of course, there is an element of this title that plays out like a more traditional superhero experience. Granted, the imagination of our protagonist is responsible for many of the game's supervillains - a water heater becomes a dangerous foe in this universe - but that doesn't mean that you won't participate in a few childhood adventures along the way if you choose to do so. 

As for the game's exact relation to Life is Strange, Captain Spirit takes place "down the road" from the Life is Strange series and will reportedly offer a glimpse into some of the things that are going on in the upcoming sequel. Again, though, it doesn't sound like the game is going to be spoiling any finer plot points for those who wish to go into that game fresh. 

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is set to release for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on June 26th. It will be a free download available to everyone. 

Devolver Digital has confirmed that they are developing a remaster of the true cult classic title, Metal Wolf Chaos. 

Don't be too surprised if you've never heard of Metal Wolf Chaos. Not only was this FromSoftware game only released in Japan upon its initial debut, but it was a Japanese only Xbox exclusive. Given how poorly the Xbox performed in Japan, that's not a phrase that you hear that often. 

What made this game legendary outside of Japan is its absurd premise. The title follows Michael Wilson, a distant relative of former president Woodrow Wilson, as he becomes President of the United States. However, Wilson's vice president decides to overthrow him by convincing the military to come to his side. As Wilson is escaping the White House, he steals a secret suit of powered armor known as "Metal Wolf." From there, he launches a one-man - err...mech? - campaign to take back his country. 

The game's absurdly patriotic story and wild action gameplay made it a favorite amongst Western gamers who largely only ever experienced the game via YouTube videos and shared screenshots. Now, though, Devolver Digital is bringing an official version of the game to Western markets for the very first time. 

That version of the game will feature enhanced visuals, smoother gameplay, and even 4K support. It appears that the game will eventually be available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and you can pre-order the game on Steam ahead of its unspecified 2018 release date. 

Those upgrades are nice, but the real story here is the simple fact that gamers everywhere will finally be able to play one of the most absurd and hilarious action games ever made. It's going to be fascinating to see what happens when people get the chance to play Metal Wolf Chaos XD.

During Microsoft's E3 2018 conference, the studio shed a little light on a recent Kickstarter project called Session that looks to revive the skateboarding genre. 

As you might imagine, Session leans heavily on your nostalgia for classic skateboarding experiences like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and the Skate series. That's a sensible strategy, but it is one that runs the risk of making people subtly realize that it's been over a decade since we've gotten a skateboarding game that is truly worthwhile. 

So what will Session do to revive this troubled genre? That's a fascinating question that we're not entirely sure that the game's developers have answered yet. What we can tell you is that Session will utilize a control scheme similar to the one seen in the Skate series - which means that it will rely heavily on the use of dual-analog stick controls - which seems to suggest it won't be quite as arcadey as the classic Tony Hawk games. Your reaction to that news may vary based on your personal preferences. 

Interestingly, Session features a surprisingly detailed filmmaking mode that allows you to capture and edit footage of your runs for the purposes of sharing them with the world. This harkens back to the '90s when skateboarding became extremely popular largely due to an underground tape trading circuit that showcased the skills of some revolutionary skaters. 

In that same vein, it appears that most of the game's levels will accurately recreate famous skate spots from across the world. The E3 trailer alone showcases a few popular skateboarding locations in New York City, and we imagine the west coast will be featured heavily in the final project. 

Still, there's quite a bit about Session that we don't know. That makes it hard to easily recommend the game outright even if you love all skateboarding games. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on Session whenever the game is released for PC and Xbox One sometime in 2019.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age has finally received a Western release date. PlayStation 4 and PC gamers in Europe and North America will be able to play the localized version of the game on Sept. 4. 

Square Enix showcased a new trailer for the Western version of Dragon Quest XI at E3 2018. Check it out:

While there is a Nintendo Switch version of the title in the works for the West, it will not be released at the same time as the other versions. In fact, it's not being released in 2018.

Square Enix informed IGN that the company is developing a Western version of the game for Nintendo Switch, but that "development is expected to take a long time from a technological standpoint as well, so we still have a long way to go until its release." Square Enix has not confirmed when the Switch version will be released, but a representative from the company noted that it will not be available before the end of the year. 

Sadly, the 3DS version of the game won't be coming to the West at all. Square Enix explained that its decision to not release a Western version of the 3DS game is based on the company's desire to "grow the audience in the West." The studio noted that, while a 3DS version of the game made sense for Japan, it feels it is better to focus on the PlayStation 4 and PC versions of the game when trying to appeal to Western markets. Speaking of which, this is the first time that a mainline Dragon Quest game will be officially released for PC. 

As you've probably gathered, Dragon Quest XI has been out in Japan for quite some time. It was originally released in that country on July 29, 2017. If you're wondering why Japan got the game so far in advance in this modern age, it probably has something to do with the fact that the title sold two million copies during its first two days of availability in that country. Yes, the series really is that popular in Japan. 

While Dragon Quest - which debuted in the West as Dragon Warrior - hasn't been quite as popular in other countries, it has enough of a cult following in the West to justify the effort it takes to translate and localize a game of that size. Early reviews/reports of the Japanese version of the game suggest that it's a particularly impressive Dragon Quest game, but it doesn't sound like it strays too far from recent titles in the series. We recently played the game and enjoyed our time with it. 

We'll have to see how the West reacts to it when Dragon Quest XI releases later this year. 

The developers of the hit 3DS JRPG Bravely Default are teaming up once more to create a new JRPG for the Nintendo Switch called Octopath Traveler.

First off, that...unique name is a reference to the game's eight main characters and eight explorable worlds. For the moment, though, it is being referred to as a working title. Given that Nintendo showcased the game via a four-minute trailer, however, we're guessing that this game is fairly far along in development. 

In terms of narrative and certain gameplay conventions, Octopath Traveler is very much a classic Square Enix-style JRPG. There are colorful characters, grand evils, and turn-based combat as far as the eye can see. This is a game with nostalgia in its heart. 

That said, it wouldn't be fair to call this project a throwback. For instance, Octopath Traveler will allow players to utilize characters special abilities outside of combat. This means that your warrior will be able to challenge most NPCs to a duel which may allow him to complete sidequests or access previously inaccessible areas. A dancer hero, meanwhile, can allure friendly and enemy characters. That last example is particularly hilarious as it means you'll be able to lead certain foes to cleverly placed traps and avoid combat altogether.

Elsewhere, Octopath Traveler's visuals benefit from a style the developers are referring to as "HD 2D." The benefits of this new approach are immediately apparent. Octopath Traveler brilliantly maintains the basic visual style of classic JRPGs but greatly benefits from a noticeable increase in environmental details and lighting effects. It's a stunning visual design approach that we already want to see more of. 

Here's everything else we know about the game:

Octopath Traveler Trailer

E3 2018 brought us a new, albeit short, preview for Octopath Traveller. Take a look:

Here's the first trailer for Octopath Traveler:

And here's almost an hour of gameplay:

Octopath Traveler Release Date

Octopath Traveler is coming on July 13, 2018. It will be available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

Platinum Games and Square Enix are teaming up once again to bring us a mysterious new project known as Babylon's Fall. 

From what we can tell, it doesn't appear that this is the next Yoko Taro game - the director of Nier: Automata - but rather a project from different members of the Platinum Games crew. 

Neither Square Enix or Platinum Games have released official details about this project at this time, but the trailer indicates this is going to be a mythical epic that seemingly spans several generations of history. We see knights battling massive demonic foes using magical energy and staring at a giant tower that they seemingly intend to conquer. 

If the game's title is meant to be taken as an indication of its historical setting - or mythical historical setting - then we assume that what they are staring as is the fabled Tower of Babel. In the Book of Genesis, the Tower of Babel story is used to explain why human beings speak different languages. The story goes that God observed the city and the tower, makes it so that they can no longer understand each other's speech, and scatters them across the world. 

We highly doubt that this game will follow that story too closely, but we also find it hard to imagine the word "Babylon" would be used in the game's name if it wasn't going to draw upon either the real history of Babylon, the mythical history of the Tower of Babel, or some kind of combination of those aspects. Of course, since this is a Platinum Games title, you can expect the real star of the show to be the game's action and RPG - or RPG lite - elements. 

There's no word on this game's release date, but we expect that this will be a 2019 title (at least) that we'll hear more about in the coming months as the E3 2018 news starts to slow down. 

Ubisoft has elaborated on its plans for Beyond Good and Evil 2, and they sound...ambitious. Basically, the developers are imagining a large-scale adventure that will allow players to create their own character and explore the game's universe.

"There is a simulation of the universe, where everything is rotating in the classical way, so if you change the time you see the rotation," said series creator Michel Ancel. "If you know what a sunset is, a sunset is modification of the colour of the sun depending on the angle in the atmosphere. So it's really logical, in fact, that you can see different colours."

Ancel goes on to state that the entire universe will be alive and your actions will have serious repercussions throughout the entire in-game world. That being said, Ancel also claims that the core quests in the game will resemble those in the original Beyond Good and Evil. 

Some are comparing the game's ambition to notable failure No Man's Sky, but Ancel's full statements suggest that he's drawing more from Breath of the Wild. He claims that the theme of the game is travel and discovery. 

As for the story itself, it seems that Beyond Good and Evil 2 will expand on the universe of the original title by exploring a future where human/animal hybrids were created as a form of slave labor. These hybrids later explored space and established their own colonies.  

Here's everything else we know about the game:

Beyond Good and Evil 2 News

At E3 2018, Ubisoft unveiled a new cinematic trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2. While it features no gameplay footage, it serves as a pretty exciting story in its own right.

The Beyond Good and Evil 2 team also spoke about a content creation feature that will allow players to create their own worlds and scenarios within the game. While it's a bit hard to speak to how, exactly, this mode will work given that we haven't really seen any final gameplay yet, it's clear that the Beyond Good and Evil 2 team think that this is going to be a major selling point when the game is eventually released. 

Beyond Good and Evil 2 Release Date

There is no release date available for Beyond Good and Evil 2 at this time. 

Beyond Good and Evil 2 Trailers

Cue up your favorite "It's happening!" meme because Beyond Good and Evil 2 finally looks like it's officially in development.

Here the E3 2017 trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2:

Creator Michael Ancel was in tears as he unveiled the latest build for a game that he has been designing on and off for at least the last few years. Despite being numbered as a sequel, Beyond Good and Evil 2 will actually take place sometime before the original game. Ancel didn't go into details regarding this title's gameplay, but we assume it will retain the original's Zelda-esque traits and investigative aspects. Ancel also hinted that this title might feature a seamless online world, but it's not clear how that will impact the core experience this time around. 

We're incredibly excited about the universe that the reveal trailer for the game showcased and the potential for this title to live up to the considerable legacy of its predecessor. We'll bring you more about this game as additional information becomes available. 

Beyond Good and Evil 2 Promo Art

Since the game's 2008 teaser trailer, it's been all quiet on the Beyond Good and Evil 2 front. In fact, some fans have started to speculate that the title may be stuck in such a deep layer of development hell that it will never see release. 

Hope for a follow-up to the 2003 cult classic was renewed recently when Beyond Good and Evil creator Michel Ancel posted the following picture on his Instagram account:

That picture comes with a caption that simply reads "Somewhere in system 4 ...- Thanks #ubisoft for making this possible!" The popular theory at the moment is that this photo is a piece of concept art for Beyond Good and Evil 2. That's interesting considering that both Ubisoft and Ancel have been going back and forth in recent years as it relates to the ongoing development of a Beyond Good and Evil game. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had previously mentioned that the project Ancel is working on for the publisher is indeed a Beyond Good and Evil game, while Ancel himself has recently refrained from confirming the ongoing development of that specific title.

It's also worth noting that this picture was tweeted out by Ubisoft's French Twitter account with a message that reads: "Michel Ancel has an Instagram account, and we advise you to follow closely." 

Some have already noticed that this concept art may very well portray a young version of Pey'j (the popular pig mechanic from the first game) which has triggered a discussion regarding whether or not the next Beyond Good and Evil game will be a sequel or a prequel. A similar level of discussion still surrounds the rumor that emerged earlier this year regarding the possibility of the next Beyond Good and Evil game being a Nintendo exclusive title, but there is still no concrete information to support that theory at this time. 

Whether it be a sequel, prequel, exclusive, or something else entirely, fans everywhere are probably just happy to see anything Beyond Good and Evil related given the franchise's rocky recent history.

The next game in the popular Trials series is called Trials: Uprising. 

As revealed at E3 2018, Trials: Uprising likely won't reinvent the racing series' wheel. Instead, it looks to up the ante set by previous installments in the franchise by introducing even crazier courses, more ways to play, and what appears to be even more vehicles. 

The biggest addition to the series, though, is the introduction of a dedicated and expanded tutorial option. That's a pretty big deal for many considering that Trails is all about its insanely hard difficulty level. The game's development team even said at E3 2018 that Trials is all about crashing and learning to get back up again.

While some may worry that the introduction of a tutorial means that the game might be easier than it has been in the past, that doesn't seem like it's going to be the case. Instead, it seems that this new tutorial mode is simply designed as a way for players who are frustrated with the trial by fire approach of learning the game to instead practice challenges in a more constructive setting. 

That's good news because it is impossible to imagine what the Trials series would be without its incredible difficulty. While that might not sound like a compliment, it actually is. There are few series out that that manage to hit that challenge sweet spot between "one more try" and "screw this game." The Trials franchise's brilliant courses and airtight mechanics make you feel like you're always one run away from victory. 

We're excited to see that there's another Trials game in the works, and we're especially excited to hear that Trialsis coming to the Nintendo Switch as well as the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC sometime during February 2019. 

Were you one of many gamers who played Assassin's Creed: Black Flag's ship sections and thought, "Why doesn't Ubisoft just turn this into a game?" Well, it appears that Ubisoft heard that very valid question. 

Skull and Bones can't exactly be described as a continuation of Black Flag. While the two share many pirate aspects (we'll never tire of hearing our crew sing a shanty) Skull and Bones seems to place a far greater emphasis on multiplayer gameplay, but it's still not clear what the extent of the game's single-player offerings is. 

The game will allow you to assemble an online crew and participate in 5 v 5 battles with rival pirates in ship-to-ship combat sections. While sinking the enemy is certainly a plus, the true goal here seems to be to collect as much sweet, sweet loot as you can while also vanquishing your foes. It's not entirely clear at this time whether or not you and other players will be able to assume multiple roles on the ship or how that system of role management will work, but it does appear that much of the action will take place on the open waters. 

Here's everything else we know about the game:

Skull and Bones News 

E3 2018 actually brought us two new trailers for Skull and Bones. The first is a cinematic preview that explores the game's rich universe. 

The second, though, is an extensive gameplay preview that gives us our best look yet at what Skull and Bones will actually play like. Based on the footage shown at the event, it appears that you'll be able to command your own ship in Skull and Bones, but the seas you sail will be populated by other players doing the same. There will be several ways to interact with those other players that include blowing them up or using them to take down powerful enemies. 

Skull and Bones Release Date

Skull and Bones has been delayed until 2019 or even 2020 according to the latest Ubisoft earnings report. The delay is attributed to the scope of the experience as well as the studio's desire to expand the lore of the in-game world. 

Skull and Bones Trailer

Here is the first trailer for Skull and Bones:

And here's a gameplay trailer:

This interview video posted by Ubisoft also hints at the game's RPG mechanics and the way that you'll be able to upgrade your ship and crew as you gain gold and infamy. 

Some of you might remember Starlink as the game that was teased by a now infamous Watch Dogs 2 easter egg. At the time, nobody was sure if Ubisoft was actually going to develop the game or if this was simply leftover footage from an abandoned project. 

Since then, the game has progressed quite a bit. Starlink is now shaping up to be a sci-fi epic that will allow players to explore various corners of the universe and blow some things up while they're there. 

The game's developers admit that the title is inspired by their love of '80s toys and sci-fi adventures. While the usage of real-life toys as video game peripherals has been a hit (Amiibo) and miss (Skylanders) prospect, watching as a player adds weapons to their model spaceship that then become available in the game does speak to our inner-child and encourages them to call up their parents to ask if now is the time they can finally start getting an allowance.

Here's everything else we know about Starlink.

Starlink News

The E3 2018 trailer for Starlink included a shocking cameo from the Star Foxcrew. 

Yes, Fox McCloud and other members of the Star Fox crew will make an appearance in Ubisoft's sci-fi extravaganza, Starlink. That's good news, but the bad news for some is that the game's Star Fox content will only be available on Nintendo Switch. It's also not clear at this time what the extent of this content is besides an appearance from Fox McCloud and the inclusion of some famous ships from the franchise. 

Starlink Trailers

Every E3, there are many games (some might say too many) that we hear about all too briefly. At E3 2017, we got this tantalizing brief look at Starlink. 

Starlink Release Date 

Starlink will be released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on October 16th. 

Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the next game in the famous Assassins' Creed franchise will take us to ancient Greece. 

As revealed at E3 2018, Odyssey will follow the journey of a character that you choose (yes, you get to pick between two characters) who have been trained from a young age to be great Greek warriors. Due to the enhanced RPG elements of the game, you'll be able to grow the skills of your character throughout the game in several ways. Want to be better stealth assassin? You can do that. Wish your bow was more viable? Just level up your skill. It looks like there will be no shortage of ways to make the game's hero your own. 

What's especially interesting, though, is the way that those choices affect the game's narrative presentation. As shown at E3 2018, the game's story will actually feature things like dialog choices that shape how this world and its people respond to your actions and choices. The extent of these options are not yet fully known, but it's clear that you'll be able to pursue some kinds of different paths based on what you choose to say and do. 

Visually, the game is an absolute stunner as the impressive engine and world design featured in Assassin's Creed Odysseymake a return and have seemingly been improved upon by the Ubisoft design team. 

Despite the familiar visuals, this doesn't look quite like any Assassin's Creed game that we've seen thus far. Actually, it's not even clear how this game fits into the Assassin's Creed mythos thus far. In that sense, it feels like Assassins' Creed Originswill be seen as something of a soft reboot for the franchise, as Odyssey appears to build upon some of the gameplay changes introduced by that series. Many of those changes are on full display in this incredible gameplay preview that Ubisoft showcased. 

Assassin's Creed Odysseyis set to release for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 5th. 

Star Citizen could very well be the space simulator to end all space simulators - if it ever actually comes out. The game has been in development at Cloud Imperium Games, founded by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, since it was successfully crowdfunded in 2012. Boasting an enormous massive multiplayer universe, elements of space trading, first-person shooter combat, Star Citizen is one of the most ambitious video games ever put into development. 

Several delays and an engine change later, the game is still in early Alpha state with no solid release date. Still, we've seen plenty of the game through trailers and gameplay videos.

There is still hope, though. Star Citizen continues to be developed by a large staff of talented creators who seem determined to produce the game that was promised at some point in the future. When, exactly, that future may come is just a matter of debate. 

Here's the latest from Star Citizen:

Star Citizen News

The latest trailer for Star Citizen is designed to show off the game's upcoming Alpha 3.2 release. That doesn't bring the game any closer to its full release, but it does mean you get to watch yet another trailer for the timeshare of video games. 

Star Citizen Release Date

While Star Citizen's roughly playable builds regularly receive some kind of update, there's no word on when the game will be released. It's quite possible that Star Citizen's development team will release an Early Access model for the game that will continuously be updated for the foreseeable future. In any case, we'll be sure to update you as information regarding the game's fully-playable builds becomes available.

Star Citizen Trailer

Slowly but surely, Cloud Imperium is revealing more about Star Citizen's single-player campaign. This new look at Squadron 42 takes us to a dangerous gas cloud called "The Coil." Check out the video below:

And here are two more Squadron 42 trailers. This first one features a new look at Mark Hamill in the game:

And here's over an hour of gameplay:

During the CitizenCon 2947 livestream broadcast, Star Citizen designer Chris Roberts took the stage to present a video that shows off the massive size of the game's worlds. 

The footage specifically focuses on the ArcCorp planet which has been shown before, but never quite like this. Roberts described the planet's vast cityscape as "Blade Runner esque," which certainly does help capture the spirit suggested by the city's spewing flame towers and jam-packed structures. Impressively, Roberts also suggests that everything in the city can be interacted with by the player in some way. There aren't any instances of painted features designed to make the cities look larger than they are. 

Roberts described that particular planet as being similar to Star Wars' Coruscant, but also showcased another planet that seems to have been decimated at one point or at least hasn't been fully terraformed as of yet. 

The team certainly seems to be aiming for a shocking amount of variety in regards to the design of every major planet. That isn't to say that there won't be largely barren planets, but rather that they hope to make each new planet feel like a discovery. 

Thanks to this gameplay video update on Star Citizen's development, we do know that the game's first-person combat is coming along nicely. 

The purpose of this video, besides showing off the kind of stunning visuals millions and millions of crowdfunded dollars will buy you, is to showcase the progress that Star Citizen's Vision Stabilization engine has made. In short, this improved engine allows for developer Cloud Imperium Games to implement tighter and less visually jarring first-person combat. Previously, some of the game's early users had reported that the character motions dictated by these mechanics were far too loose and had a tendency to generate a floaty sensation. 

Currently on version 3.0, the most recent build of Star Citizen arguably stole the show at Gamescom with this nearly 52-minute long gameplay video that takes on the daunting task of trying to explain the almost incomprehensible scale of the game. 

Not to beat the No Man's Sky horse to death, but one of the most impressive things about this demo in comparison to other titles in this genre is how substantial the universe feels. While certain elements of the experience don't feel nearly as important as the presenter hopes they might come across as ("The elevators in this game really move! *clap, clap, clap*), Star Citizen's developers seems to understand that pretty environments and theoretically infinite content will not get you far if there is not a solid core of gameplay at the center of it all. Watching the demo players navigate a character to a new planet, accept a mission, and carry it out isn't mind-blowing on paper. But, in the context of the full scope of this creation, it does show that there's a promising traditional game at the heart of the title. 

We still eagerly await the day that all questions about Star Citizen will be answered by the retail release of the game itself, but, until then, it's nice to know that it's still capable of wowing people.