Category: Gamespot

Earlier this week at E3, Microsoft made the big announcement that Minecraft will support cross-play with the Nintendo Switch version of the game. While Microsoft is hopeful that Sony will get on board, it hasn’t happened yet, and now a Sony executive has explained one reason why.

Speaking to Eurogamer, PlayStation executive Jim Ryan said, “It’s certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this,” adding that Sony is “always” interested in talking with companies about things like this.

So why is there no cross-play between PS4 and Xbox One yet? Ryan said, “Unfortunately, it’s a commercial discussion between ourselves and other stakeholders, and I’m not going to get into the detail of that on this particular instance.”

Ryan went on to suggest that Sony is concerned about what could go wrong when allowing its own players, some of which could be children, to connect to a network outside of its own.

“We’ve got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft–the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it’s all ages but it’s also very young,” he said. “We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it’s something we have to think about very carefully.”

You can read the full interview here at Eurogamer.

Microsoft’s Dave McCarthy told GameSpot at E3 this week that the company has had discussions with Sony about cross-play, but Sony is “not quite there yet.”

“My hope is that they join the party as well because I think it’s an awesome thing to do for gamers,” he said.

In March 2016, Microsoft publicly announced that it was open to connecting Xbox Live to other gaming networks, including PlayStation Network and Nintendo’s own online service. Sony later suggested it was open to this, but it has not happened yet, and it doesn’t seem like it will soon.

For lots more on E3 2017, GameSpot’s coverage here.

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Crackdown 3 will leverage the power of the Xbox One X in a number of ways, according to Microsoft. Speaking to GameSpot today at E3, executive producer Peter Connelly said the game will run better on the super-powerful console, delivering longer draw distances and an overall better level of detail.

“Crackdown 3 will play better on Xbox One X and feature increased level of detail at greater distances with crisper, higher texture fidelity in immersive, true 4K, HDR, wide color gamut, and spatial audio, Dolby Atmos,” Connelly explained.

The developers also told us that Crackdown 3 was designed from the start to be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so they always wanted to make sure that the features between Xbox One and PC were “roughly comparable.”

Also in our interview, developers said Crackdown 3’s map is about 2.5 times the size of the original game‘s playable space. They also clarified that Crackdown 3’s heavily touted use of Microsoft’s Azure cloud servers is for the head-to-head multiplayer, while the campaign and co-op campaign do not leverage that technology.

The Xbox One X launches on November 7, priced at $50, £449, €499, CA$599, and AU$649. Some analysts said this week that they believe that price point is too high and claimed it might impact the console’s ability to reach a wide audience. For even more on Xbox One X, check out GameSpot’s in-depth video interview with Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

Crackdown 3 launches alongside the Xbox One X on November, and it also plays on Xbox One. All Xbox One games are playable on Xbox One X. GameSpot saw a new demo of the game today and it definitely still resembles its predecessors, featuring stylized visuals and incredibly over-the-top gameplay where you can throw cars and jump higher than any human could.

The city where Crackdown 3 is set sits atop a volcano, and the the thermal energy from it is an important resource in the game, developers say, though it’s not exactly clear why at this point. Here are some other things we learned from our Crackdown 3 demo today:

• There is Black Hole Gun that sucks everything toward it, destroying everything. Some of the developers think the weapon is overpowered.
• The map shows the entire city, highlighting areas that you have uncovered. Once you eliminate all hostiles, the map shows it as being controlled by you.
• Overtaking enemy camps gives you access to their weapons. For example, after taking an enemy camp outfitted with a turret, it becomes yours, targeting enemies for you.
• The developers stress that “all games are different” because Crackdown 3 responds to how you play and the choices you make.
• Terry Crews is actually in Crackdown 3 and you can play as him.
• We asked if a beta is still planned for Crackdown 3, but the developers said they could not answer that.

Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference brought news about the Xbox One X, Forza 7, and Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. For more, check out our E3 hub for all of our event coverage.

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Shown off during the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, Undead Labs revealed new footage of the follow up to its original 2013 release State of Decay. In the sequel, State of Decay 2, players will find themselves in the shoes of a randomly generated survivor and must navigate the landscape of the zombie apocalypse while engaging with the undead, coordinating with survivors, and making hard choices in order to survive and live another day.

During a special behind-closed-doors session with the game, founder of Undead Labs, Jeff Strain, gave us a detailed look at State of Decay 2, and how his team is bringing the number one requested feature from fans, online co-op, into the game, which will dramatically alter the fundamentals and coordination with survivors. Set 15 months after the events of the first game, the world hasn’t gotten much better, and things will soon become even more complicated.

At the beginning of the game, players will pick their character from an assortment of randomly created individuals. Much like the last game, characters have unique skills and traits that they’re best at, and in State of Decay 2, they made the characters far more diverse. For instance, the skills system from the last game has been greatly expanded, offering more options and avenues for role-playing. Players good at scavenging will have a better time finding useful materials in the field, and in addition to new skills, players can upgrade these abilities to acquire brand new perks which significantly expand their more useful skills.

For the most part, the general gameplay loop of State of Decay 2 remains similar to the original game. Players must fortify a stronghold, find new survivors to help with expanding and strengthening their home–which includes growing food, gearing up, and having security to guard against random zombie attacks–and also going out on missions to find supplies, new survivors, and new strongholds to expand the network of safe spaces around the world. Speaking of which, the game space is now three times bigger than the previous game, which will certainly make traversal and exploration a larger focus for SOD2.

During the presentation, our group of survivors traveled to an abandoned police station to acquire weapons. Inside, zombies were present. One of the players used a machete and his enhanced melee skills to make quick work of the undead, while another player–through co-op play–took all the supplies and loaded them up into the trunk of the car, which is also a new feature in State of Decay 2. While driving back, they came to find their base overrun by the undead and had to quickly use their new weapons to fight off the horde. During this fight, new zombie types quickly made an appearance. The Juggernaut, which was shown in the trailer, took out the entire group, but not before killing off some of the survivors.

The original title did a solid job of portraying an open, explorable setting in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and State of Decay 2 is looking to keep that going here. I was impressed with how much of the core gameplay focused on resource management and base building was expanded, while retaining the focus on simple survivalism in the middle of the zombie plague. The online co-op–online only, no local play–should be a game changer for this title, especially when factoring in the tough choices and important decisions that have to be made when it comes to keeping your head above water.

With its release coming Spring 2018, this open-world zombie survival game is shaping up to be a more refined and developed take on a surprise hit that showed just how nerve-wracking and stressful it is to survive in a world full of zombies.

For more information on State of Decay 2, and other titles at E3 2017, check out our E3 hub for more updates on all the latest happening at the show.

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Brutal Legend will eventually get a sequel, Tim Schafer of developer Double Fine said tonight during an appearance at E3 2017. Speaking alongside Brutal Legend voice actor Jack Black on the E3 Coliseum stage, Schafer said a sequel will happen when the time is right.

The very first question that came up in a Q&A session was about Brutal Legend 2. Someone in the audience screamed, “Brutal Legend 2,” and Schafer apologized for giving the impression that his panel with Black tonight would lead to an announcement of the game.

That being said, Schafer did give fans some hope when he said, “Someday we’ll make that game.” He added that Brutal Legend 2 will be an “expensive” game to make.

The original Brutal Legend–published by Electronic Arts in 2009–cost around $25 million to develop. It remains Double Fine’s best-selling game ever. Schafer said in January 2014 that raising that much money–or more–for a sequel “might be tricky.”

The panel, titled “Jack Black in Conversation with Tim Schafer,” was a free form back-and-forth discussion between the friends, and it was wonderful. The lengthy discussion between Schafer and Black touched on a number of different topics related to gaming and…other things. Hopefully the video is archived.

The E3 Coliseum event is operated by the ESA, the organization that runs E3 every year and represents the video game industry’s interests in Washington, DC. For lots more on E3 2017, be sure to follow along with all of GameSpot’s coverage.

Would you like to see Brutal Legend 2? Let us know in the comments below!

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One of the cool surprises from Sony’s E3 2017 briefing tonight was the PlayStation VR game The Inpatient. More details for the psychological horror game have now come to light, including the fact that it’s a prequel set 60 year before Supermassive’s previous game, Until Dawn.

You play a patient with amnesia in the game, which is set in the Blackwood Sanatorium. “You don’t need to have played Until Dawn to be able to enjoy The Inpatient; it’s an entirely standalone title with a brand new story and cast of characters to meet,” Supermassive said in a PlayStation Blog post.

At the start of the game, a mysterious man named Jefferson Bragg, the owner of the sanatorium, is questioning you. He says he’s trying to help you, but all is not what it seems. Eventually, you discover who you are and why you’re in the sanatorium.

“Over the course of the game you’ll meet a variety of interesting patients and staff, each with their own motivations and agendas. How you react to these characters and the choices you make will have profound and dramatic consequences for how the story unfolds,” reads a line from the game’s description.

Your body, hands, and feet are modeled into The Inpatient, so you can see each when you look around in virtual reality. Additionally, you can speak aloud, and NPCs will react.

Supermassive worked with Until Dawn writers Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick on the story for The Inpatient. The Inpatient is one of two PlayStation VR games from Supermassive that was announced today during Sony’s E3 briefing. The other is a crime thriller called Hidden Agenda.

For more, check out our roundup of all the news shared during Sony’s E3 press conference. Among the highlights were a remastered Shadow of the Colossus and an extended look at Days Gone.

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Wonder Woman maintained its position at the top of the US box office this weekend, with The Mummy having to settle for second place. The DC superhero smash made $57.1 million, bringing its US total so far to $205 million.

While Wonder Woman experienced a 45 percent drop in takings from last week, this is actually much better than the 67 percent fall that both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad experienced last year. As Forbes points out, in the past 15 years, only four other movies with budgets over $100 million have experienced second week drops of less than 45 percent. They are The Jungle Book (-40 percent), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (-39 percent), Spider-Man (-37 percent), and Shrek 2 (-33 percent),.

Wonder Woman‘s strong second week forced Universal’s supernatural thriller The Mummy into the No.2 slot. The Tom Cruise-starring movie made a disappointing $32.2 million, and was met by largely negative reviews.

However, the film has done much better overseas, making $141.8 million internationally; its $174 million worldwide total is the highest ever opening for a Cruise movie. But while Universal’s much-hyped Dark Universe of interconnected monster movies is safe for now, Deadline points out that The Mummy is highly unlikely to have a strong a second weekend around the world.

Rounding out the top five movies at the US box office this weekend were Captain Underpants ($12.3 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ($10.7 million), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($6.2 million).

US Box Office June 9-11 (via Box Office Mojo)

1 Wonder Woman $57.1 million

2 The Mummy $32.2 million

3 Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie $12.3 million

4 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales $10.7 million

5 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 $6.2 million

6 It Comes At Night $6.0 million

7 Baywatch $4.6 million

8 Megan Leavey $3.7 million

9 Alien: Covenant $1.8 million

10 Everything. Everything $1.6 million

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