Respawn Entertainment opened EA Play with a 15-minute gameplay demo of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Viewers got to watch as protagonist Cal Kestis, a survivor of Order 66, which empowered the Empire to massacre Jedis and their padawans, embarked on a mission to free Wookiees that were fighting for the resistance. On the face of it, what unfolded seemed like pretty standard fare for a Star Wars action game. Cal climbed and parkoured around environments, deflected blaster shots with his lightsaber, and used Force abilities to manhandle Stormtroopers.However, there was much more going on beneath the surface and, it turns out, the demo without an accompanying breakdown didn't do the game much justice. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is surprisingly cut from the same cloth as From Software's Bloodborne and Dark Souls, though it's perhaps less coarse and rough and irritating. Director Stig Asmussen has used the phrase "thoughtful combat" often when describing how Jedi Fallen Order plays and, thus far, it's not been apparent what that means.Having seen an extended version of the gameplay demo shown during EA Play, we sat down with Asmussen to discuss the game, its influences, and the particulars of the experience. We also talk about the origins of the project, the pressure of working on a property as beloved as Star Wars, and more.GameSpot: How did you arrive to this format for the game? Star Wars could be anything and, often, it's an RPG. What was it about like the action genre that made it right for Fallen Order?Stig Asmussen: It's a good question. Actually, before working on Star Wars we were working on a different game and it had basically the same pillars that we have in this game, which is thoughtful combat, agile exploration--you know, beyond human--and Metroidvania level design. And that's something that when we were working on this other game and we demoed it, people [at] EA saw it and said, there's something in there that you could see easily see it turning into a Star Wars game. My background is melee action, so when they came to us and were like, "We really like the game you're working out and we want to do at some point, but how would you guys feel about doing Star Wars?" we were like, great. And [a lot] of the core functionality that we were building for the other game, a lot of the fundamentals, were able to transition over. So we always start with, "What is the game? How does it feel? How does it play? What are the mechanics?" before really figuring out the story. It just so happened this thing that we were working on translated really well.That's a really interesting origin for the project. On the one hand, as a creator, you're working on something brand new and you can make it whatever you want. But then you're also presented with Star Wars--one of the most beloved properties of all time. How did you weigh up doing something new or doing something that people know and love, which comes with a lot of pressure?Well I've always wanted to work on Star Wars. When I first came to Respawn, Vince [Zampella] and I talked about it because it's something that he always wanted to do [too]. We had a close relationship with EA at the time so we pitched an idea. They were interested and we were interested but not everything aligned at the time. So when it came time to make the decision and what we are going to move forward with, we brought it to the team: "Hey, we can work on this thing that we've got or we can try this other opportunity with Star Wars." The entire team at that point, which is about 12 people, was like thumbs up, let's do Star Wars. I mean Force powers and lightsabers are like milk and cookies for us.Many games lead with story when they're teasing. They bring out the recognizable things to hook people, and while Jedi Fallen Order has a little of that, it feels like this it's also leading with gameplay mechanics and systems.Absolutely. But we've been working really closely with Lucasfilm and they've been great. They're like, "We love the game you're making, let's try to figure out how to solve the things [that] are Star Wars." So that's always a conversation that we're having, but our designers design very freely when they're laying out levels. I mean, they have a rough idea of what we're trying to do with the story, but really what we try to encourage them to do is come up with something that's fun and within the metrics of what our game is. In a lot of cases, our metrics of our game kind of break what Star Wars is, so then we have to sit down with Lucasfilm and have that conversation, have that brainstorming session where we figure out how to make it work for Star Wars.So one of the things that you've mentioned repeatedly is "thoughtful combat." What does that mean to you and what should it mean to someone thinking about playing the game?You're not just going in and mindlessly hacking down enemies. Every enemy has a weakness, maybe several weaknesses. Every enemy has a way to exploit the hero as well. And there's synergies between the different enemy types, so they act in different ways depending on how you combine them. So every time you walk into a battle, you really have to weigh how you're going to go in and take the guys out. We obviously want to have a power fantasy in the game, so as you're getting stronger, your abilities are getting greater. Enemies you found early on aren't going to be as much of a challenge, but we'll be introducing new enemies that will challenge you. And once you take those and you combine that with the fact that now you have several different types of entities together, and then you have your new Force abilities that you're picking up along the way, new skills that you're learning, the lightsaber--we're encouraging the player to do more than just press a button.What was the seed for that kind of combat? You came from God of War, which has depth and nuance but is mostly played as a button masher.Well, God of War is great because yeah, you can mash in the game, but there also wasn't a steep curve for skilled players because you can unlock an insane amount of moves in that game and you can change the combos in different ways. When we started this new combat system, we were looking at Wind Waker. We wanted to have kind of a Metroidvania style, which Wind Waker has a little bit of in there as your abilities unlock gates across the whole map.And we were also looking at Bloodborne and Dark Souls, and immediately I was like, "I want the game to have Z-targeting." You can turn it on and off, and it plays really well in the free mode as well. But it was really kind of like, we don't want to be as whimsical and quite as accessible as Wind Waker but Zelda does have like enemies that you kind of unlock in different ways. So we wanted to have that. That's where we started thinking about "thoughtful." You have to learn how to use the different abilities, you know?We knew it couldn't be as punishing as Dark Souls, especially since it's Star Wars. We needed to find something that was more accessible. So, yeah, those were our touchstone.In Metroidvanias the growth of power and fulfillment of the power fantasy is a lot slower. And people coming into Star Wars may want to feel like a badass Jedi straight away, right? It doesn't seem like that slow progression would play nicely with the Jedi fantasy.Right. Well, it can because of the way our character is built in the story. He's unfinished and he's unpolished. But, at the end of the day, he's got a lightsaber and that's a pretty devastating weapon. And that's another thing that kind of goes with "thoughtful combat." When you swing a lightsaber, for it to feel right, a lot of enemies need to go down with one hit, so you have to figure out how to open up an enemy. And once the player does that, then the power fantasy starts to take hold.Games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne have this process of an uphill struggle and then you're rewarded for overcoming the challenges. That's a key part of feedback and satisfaction in the games. How are you treating death in Jedi Fallen Order?That's an interesting question. We certainly can't be as punishing as Bloodborne because I think that we have to be fair to the fans and respect the fans of Star Wars. Those games are awesome, but we have a much wider audience. We love those parts of those games, so we have to figure out a way. We're in the process of playtesting right now and thinking about how difficult the system [is]. I can't really answer that question because it's still something that like we're trying. We have something that works and it works for a certain group, but we need to find a final solution.There's a moment when Cal sits down and seems to meditate. Is that the equivalent of a bonfire or lantern?Yeah, that's a save point. We have those scattered throughout the game. He goes in and he meditates. And in there you can also access your skill tree.And the blue and white bar on screen. Are those Force powers and guarding/resistance?Right. So the blue bar is your Force power. Every time you use a Force ability it gets spent. You build it back up by swinging at enemies, so you have to be offensive.That's the Bloodborne inspiration then.But the white bar is your block and enemies have the same thing as well. They've got health and they've got a block bar. So if you go in and start wailing on an enemy and they're just blocking all the time, you can break their guard.And there were moments that had a parry-style look, like Sekiro.Yeah, it's actually funny when I first played Sekiro, I was like, "It's almost the same control scheme that we have." It's very similar. Like I jumped in and said this feels like our game but it's hard as f**k. Yeah, the parry has a window that is somewhat tight, but I think a lot of people will get it. That's also how you deflect shots, like blaster shots. If you just hold [the button down] Cal will bounce them in different directions, but you can reflect back to your enemy by hitting [parry].So returning a blaster shot is the skill-based part of a reflect ability that is otherwise quite accessible to pull off.Yep. And any time an enemy is swinging there's a window where if you hit it, you'll be able to topple them.How did it feel to play Sekiro and see ideas that were so similar? That seems to happen a lot, with people coming up with similar ideas despite being completely secluded from each other.I came into and work and said, "People are going to say we stole Sekiro's stuff and put it in this game." But we didn't! I think the other similarity is you can jump in that game so that makes it a much more agile and faster than the other [From Software games]. Our game has a lot of speed to it.How much platforming and puzzle-solving do you want in the game? That's the kind of thing that engages video game fans, but may be a snag for just random Star Wars fans.They won't be arbitrary. We use puzzles as kind of a pace breaker. We had some pretty tricky ones in the God of War games, but for this game we're not doing things that are tricky, but they're still clever. The three main pillars are exploration, level design, which includes problem solving, and combat. And I would say the lion's share of it is probably combat. Even within combat, it can feel like a puzzle.You have a lot of weight on you. You're handling Star Wars, so there's that. You've got God of War 3 to your name, so there's an expectation of quality. And then it's a game from Respawn, a studio that always hits a high bar.Don't wanna screw that up!How do you deal with that pressure and expectation?Yeah. A lot of it is just leaning on my team and the incredible support we give each other. We all know we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, so to speak, and I kind of feed off of that. You kind of have to. The other thing too is you just can't worry about it all the time. You know, if I make a mistake, if we make a mistake on this, then we learn from it and we're going to the next thing. But we can't be afraid to fail. So we've taken some risks; I think calculated [ones]. Hopefully it works out.Do you see a future beyond this for the story of Cal? Is this the first chapter of a series?I don't know that we've really decided what's next, but he certainly is a character that we can take to different places.Did you play much Force Unleashed before making this?It was kind of interesting because Steam had a big sale on Star Wars games right when the deal was official. It was a pretty small team then and everybody downloaded [them] and played these different Star Wars games. Of course we played them growing up, but over the years what you remember about them might not have been exactly the way it was. In spirit, a lot of that stuff ended up informing us on things that we're doing in the game.What do you want people's biggest takeaway from what they've seen so far to be? There's so many people coming at this for different reasons and latching onto different things. What do you want them to be thinking about when they're looking at Jedi Fallen Order?That's a good question. I mean, the thing that I don't want to be misrepresented here is that this is a linear game. You just saw a large chunk of linear gameplay that we would call a Star Wars spectacle, a wow moment. [Editor's note: Asmussen is referring to an extended gameplay video featuring an AT-AT that was shown behind closed doors.] That is one of a handful of things like that that you'll find in the game that are very scripted and linear. But most of the game is through player choice and agency for where they want to go based on the abilities that they have. I would want to make sure that everybody has a good impression of what the moment core game experience is.Final question: Have you played the new God of War and if so what do you think of it?It's fantastic. It's fantastic.Did Cory Barlog show it to you before left?Well, before I left Sony, I knew what the idea was. I thought that Kratos being a dad was going to be a tough sell. But Cory was very earnest about it and you could see that he had a passion and he knew what he wanted to do with it. And it totally worked. It's awesome. Info from Gamespot.com

For a game about interplanetary exploration, Outer Wilds can often feel incredibly small. Flying from one planet to the next takes a matter of seconds, making it easy to ping pong around the game's singular solar system. The brevity of traveling through this handcrafted collection of areas to explore might seem strange at first--especially when the opening minutes of Outer Wilds place such a heavy emphasis on the importance of your mission to document the unknown. However, it doesn't take long for your expectations of Outer Wilds to be completely flipped on their head, giving way to captivating mysteries to solve and difficult questions surrounding mortality to confront. These questions lead you on unforgettable adventures in which each piece of the story you unearth feels as rewarding as the last.You play as a citizen of a race of four-eyed, jolly-looking aliens, and you have been selected as the next of your kin to take to the stars. Nestled in the cozy forests of a small planet called Timber Hearth, you and your brethren contemplate the same questions that you've likely thought of before. Just where did we come from? Have there been others before us? And if so, where are they now? These questions drive you to explore the solar system you're in, risking your life in search of answers. Armed with nothing more than a spacesuit, a nifty language translator, and tools for surveying anything from distress signals to harmful invisible gases, you're left to take flight in your crudely constructed spaceship and venture off in any direction.With suggestions that other life existed in this solar system before you, you're tasked with finding evidence to support that claim. Dilapidated architecture from a forgotten age can be found on most planet surfaces, with translatable foreign texts allowing you to piece together the mystery of where these civilizations are today. Your exploration is restricted by a celestial ticking time bomb: The sun at the center of the solar system implodes after 22 minutes and sends you back to the same dreamy campsite on your home planet to start this Groundhog Day loop again. With each new run you can collect more pieces of Outer Wilds' narrative puzzle, slowly piecing together what might be causing the rapid decline of your neighborhood star, before embracing each inevitable death.Death isn't detrimental in a traditional sense in Outer Wilds. In a way, it's beautiful. The somber tune that plays moments before the light disappears from the solar system signals your death, but it's also an indicator of how much you might have discovered in that one life. It's satisfying to have a productive run that unlocks multiple new threads for you to follow up on in your next attempt, pushing you to new planets to explore and narrative puzzles to solve. Other times it's just as poignant to accept an uneventful run and just embrace the gorgeous scenery around you. Sitting on top of a peak and watching the sun die out is oddly soothing after uneventful expeditions, letting you reflect on your misguided choices and realign yourself for the next journey.Exploration and the knowledge you obtain with it is the only way to progress through Outer Wilds. As you come across clues and discoveries, they're recorded in a useful log aboard your ship. These clues are stitched together and color-coded to help guide you along the various dangling threads of the story. The game's open-ended structure lets you tackle whichever parts of the mystery you want to, in any order, before they inevitably start linking together to bring the bigger picture into focus. These links aren't clear directions towards the next piece of the puzzle, but instead are suggestive nudges that help you determine when it's safe to move on from one discovery to another. This helps make each of these discoveries feel earned while also avoiding potentially frustrating barriers to your progress.Strong writing brings you into Outer Wilds' world, and unearthing even the smallest bits of this larger story is a rewarding undertaking. Its myriad of uncoverable dialogue records are charming while always maintaining a purpose, giving you small nuggets of information to ponder even in the most seemingly throwaway conversations. The preserved exchanges between children might describe a game they created to pass the time in dark and gloomy catacombs beneath a planet's surface, which contains a helpful clue for how to get to a hidden area. By contrast, you can also stumble upon the bleak distress signals that never reached their intended saviors or complex plans for alien contraptions that drove past civilizations to make alarmingly dangerous decisions. You grow attached to the recurring names in conversations and become invested in their stories, even when you know many of them don't have happy endings.Without an explicit guide to point you in the direction of your next great find, each new discovery feels like a hard-earned reward. You'll slowly be able to piece together events taking place on other ends of the solar system, slowly letting your own theories make way for a clearer understanding of events that truly transpired before presenting even more questions. This loop of discovery drives you towards exploring every inch of every planet you can, each of which holds its own delightful little puzzles to solve.Outer Wilds features just a handful of planets and other celestial objects that you're able to explore on foot, but no two are exactly alike. They each feature unique characteristics that present different challenges you need to overcome to simply explore them. The Hourglass Twins, for example, closely orbit the sun but stay dangerously close to one another, with the gravitational pull of one absorbing the sandy surface of the other and slowly unearthing new areas for you to explore over time. A fast-traveling comet known as the Interloper has an icy exterior that hides a labyrinth of caves underneath its crust, which can only be explored once it travels close enough to the sun for entrances to be melted open. An orbiting moon littered with erupting volcanoes that project volatile balls of lava into space makes simple surface exploration of Brittle Hollow treacherous. You have to uncover a way underneath the Hollow's crust to safely traverse it, discovering previous civilizations that grappled with the same dangers seemingly eons ago.Figuring out how to safely traverse each planet is an engaging puzzle to solve, especially when it requires an understanding of their positions within the solar system and at what times they're best to tackle. Stumbling upon entrances to new areas by accident or observing mysterious behaviors when exploring a planet make each of these spaces more detailed and expansive than their small physical sizes suggest, and it's even more surprising when many of them contain large cities hidden underneath their crusts waiting to be picked apart. The mechanical and visual variety of each of these planets makes exploring each new one a tantalizing treat.It's disappointing then that the rules governing simple movement and space flight in Outer Wilds are counter-intuitive to this curious poking and prodding of its world. Space flight in your ship and planetary surface exploration with your jetpack is strictly bound to the rules of physics. You need to wrestle with different gravitational magnitudes and directions as you navigate using thrusters that fire off in six directions, adding or subtracting to your motion in each associated direction.The somber tune that plays moments before the light disappears from the solar system signals your death, but it's also an indicator of how much you might have discovered in that one life.It takes time to learn when to start applying reverse thrust on an approach to a planet or how to delicately jet upwards on a planet's surface without accidentally breaking through the atmosphere and into space, but no matter how much you practice, these actions never feel completely natural. Small errors are punished with untimely, frustrating deaths. You can spend minutes waiting for the right time to navigate to a certain area, only to waste all of it over a mistake brought on by Outer Wilds' unintuitive control scheme. It's at odds with the rest of the game.Outer Wilds’ deeply captivating narrative and plentiful mysteries push you further into exploring its richly varied and stunning solar system. The time loop you’re trapped in lets you craft bite-sized expeditions that all end up telling their own stories, irrespective of whether you make a monumental discovery or simply encounter a playful interaction. Having a tool to neatly document your discoveries helps you slowly piece together a tale filled with charming writing, and one that presents its own open-ended questions that add emotional heft to the numerous exchanges you parse through during your travels. By letting you chart your own course and piece together its mystery at your own pace, Outer Wilds makes each of its expeditions feel incredibly personal and absolutely unmissable. Info from Gamespot.com

Week 5 of Fortnite Season 9 has arrived, and it's brought a new set of challenges to complete in Epic's hit battle royale shooter on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, and mobile. Each task you finish will reward you with Battle Stars, which in turn will level your Battle Pass up and unlock more of this season's new cosmetics. There's an extra bonus for those who clear all seven challenges from a given week, however: You'll also complete one of Season 9's Utopia challenges and earn a special loading screen for your troubles.What makes these loading screens so desirable is each one features some kind of clue that leads to a free item hidden somewhere around the game's map. Clear an even-numbered Utopia challenge and you'll be able to find a Fortbyte, a new kind of collectible that Epic introduced in Season 9. However, if you complete an odd-numbered Utopia challenge, you'll have a chance to collect a free Battle Star, which will level your Battle Pass up by one full tier.If you've managed to finish five full sets of weekly challenges, you'll unlock the loading screen pictured below, which will point you to another free Battle Star waiting somewhere around the island. This screen features a character passing through a Slipstream, new wind tunnels that can be found by Neo Titled and Mega Mall. However, the Slipstream itself isn't the clue; rather, if you look closely at its outer rim, you'll be able to spot the coordinates B2, B3, C2, C3, which converge near the castle in Haunted Hills. That's where you'll need to go.The coordinates meet at an otherwise unassuming patch of grass. Make your way there and the Battle Star will appear when you approach. Interact with it as you would any other item in the game, then finish the match and you'll level your Battle Pass up by one tier, bringing you another step closer to unlocking all of Season 9's rewards. If you need more help finding it, we've marked the Battle Star's exact location on the map below. You can also check out our video walkthrough above.Unlike the aforementioned Fortbytes, which can be collected by any Battle Pass holder so long as you know where to look, there's an important caveat to keep in mind before setting off to find this Battle Star. The item will only appear in your game if you've completed the required number of weekly challenges; you can't simply go to the right place and find it if you haven't done the necessary work. If there are any previous tasks you need help with, however, you can find guides for the trickier ones in our full Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup.Alongside the Week 5 challenges, Epic rolled out Fortnite's 9.20 update. This week's patch introduced a new item called the Storm Flip, which will create a temporary safe zone when thrown into the storm--and vice versa. To make room for it, Epic vaulted all hunting rifles. The publisher also brought back the infamous Infinity Blade as part of the Sword Fight limited-time mode. You can read more in the full patch notes on Epic's website.Info from Gamespot.com

During the big Google Stadia Connect event this week, the company revealed numerous games for the streaming service, including Borderlands 3, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Baldur's Gate 3, Metro Exodus, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. They announced 30 titles in all, and it announced partnerships with other studios, like Rockstar Games, that haven't revealed which of their titles will come to the platform.It appears the next wave of Stadia game announcements will come during Gamescom in August--and possibly sooner during E3 2019. "We'll have more game-related news to share at Gamescom," reads a tweet from Stadia.Additionally, the tweet mentioned that other publishers will announce Stadia support for their own titles "throughout E3 and beyond." Presumably, some of the new games being announced during the show will include Stadia as one of their platforms.Google Stadia boss Phil Harrison said during the event that Google is working with "hundreds" of publishers and developers to bring their titles to Stadia. A graphic shown during the stream, which you can see above, shows that publishers like Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Rockstar Games, Sega, Warner Bros., Capcom, and Square Enix are some of the other partners.Nearly every genre of video game will be available on Stadia, including RPG, sports, racing, fighting, first-person, and more.Google Stadia launches in November in 14 countries, including the USA, UK, and Canada. It is a streaming service that allows you to play games on your computer or phone. A Stadia Pro subscription costs $10/month, and that gets you access to a library of titles with others available to buy individually. A $130 Founder's Edition comes with a Chromecast UItra, a Stadia controller, three months of Stadia Pro for you and a friend.For more on Stadia, check out the stories linked below.New Darksiders Game Announced Before E3, And It's Coming To Google StadiaGoogle Stadia Controller, Chromecast Ultra Technical Specs Fully DetailedBorderlands 3 Launching On Google Stadia, Day OnePay For Google Stadia Pro, Get All Of Destiny 2, Including New Shadowkeep DLC ExpansionGoogle Stadia: Rockstar Games Confirmed As A DeveloperGoogle Stadia Base, The Free Non-Subscription Version, Releases Next YearGoogle Stadia Will Launch This November With A Hardware BundleGoogle Stadia: What Can It Do Out Of The Box In November?Info from Gamespot.com

E3 2019 finally brought us more information on Google Stadia, the upcoming streaming platform. The Connect event revealed lots of hitherto unknown details, such as Stadia's price, release date, and initial games lineup, as well as a first look at the platform's buddy pass.The pass is included in the Stadia Founder's Edition, and it allows you to give three months of Stadia Pro access to a friend. Now we also know that works across territories, so long as your friend is in one of the countries where Stadia has launched. For example, a US resident could gift their buddy pass to a UK-based friend, since both of those countries will receive Stadia in its launch month of November 2019.Stadia Pro is the platform's premium service. It enables 4K video streaming for the games you play. It will also include free access to a selection of games and "exclusive" discounts. It will cost $10 / £9 per month.For more on Google's new streaming service, check out everything Stadia can do out of the box. you might also be interested in Stadia's internet speed requirements.Info from Gamespot.com

Stadia Connect, Google's pre-E3 2019 press conference, revealed lots more information about its new streaming service, Stadia. The conference brought us information on Stadia's price, release date, and games lineup, as well as our first glimpse of its buddy pass.Buddy pass allows you to share your Stadia Pro subscription with a friend for three months. Stadia Pro is the platform's premium service. It enables 4K video streaming for the games you play. It will also include free access to a selection of games and "exclusive" discounts. Stadia Pro will cost $10 / £9 per month.Stadia's buddy pass, meanwhile, is included in the asking price for the Stadia Founder's Edition, which launches in November for $130 / £120. It also comes with two physical devices--a limited-edition night blue Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra--as well as three months of Stadia Pro, the aforementioned buddy pass, and first dibs on choosing a Stadia username.At launch, the Stadia Founder's Edition will be available in 14 countries around the world: the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The buddy pass is region-free between any of those, so if you live in the US, for example, and have a Norweigan friend, you can gift them three months of Stadia Pro. Google says the platform will expand to more regions after launch, although it hasn't yet specified which.We learned a lot more about Stadia during the Connect presentation. Google also revealed some of the games that will be coming to the service, including Ghost Recon Breakpoint and the rumored Baldur's Gate 3. Borderlands 3 will also be there at launch, as will Destiny 2 with its full suite of content, including the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion.For more on Google's new streaming service, check out everything Stadia can do out of the box. You might also be interested in Stadia's internet speed requirements.Pre-order Stadia Founder's Edition now »Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.Info from Gamespot.com

THQ Nordic has continues its rollout of new game announcements just before E3 2019 begins. The latest it has revealed is a remake of the 2005 alien action game Destroy All Humans, where you play as an alien invader on Earth. The tongue-in-cheek action game is slated for release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2020.As in the original, the game is set in the 1950s and puts you in the role of an invading conqueror named Crypto-137. You can pose as humans, use powers and weapons like psychokinesis and an anal probe gun, and explore the Lost Mission of Area 42. It's being developed by Black Forest Games, an internal THQ Nordic studio."The cult-classic returns! Terrorize the people of 1950s Earth in the role of the evil alien Crypto-137," the product description read. "Harvest their DNA and bring down the US government in the faithful remake of the legendary alien invasion action adventure. Annihilate puny humans using an assortment of alien weaponry and psychic abilities. Reduce their cities to rubble with your flying Saucer! One giant step on mankind!"With E3 coming up soon, THQ Nordic said that it would have three games to reveal this week, which has been an inordinately busy one. This is the third of those three. First it announced a remake of SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Then alongside the recent Google Stadia presentation, the company announced Darksiders Genesis, an overhead Diablo-like action game featuring the horseman Strife.This is the last of what's expected from THQ, but you can expect more games and news in all of the upcoming press conferences. We're tracking all the newly announced games at E3 in one place to help you stay on top of everything that's coming.Info from Gamespot.com

As another entry in Sony's US Days of Play sale in celebration of E3, retailers are offering the PlayStation Classic retro console for a record-low cost of $30, wholly half off from the current standard price of $60 (which is itself already substantially discounted from the launch price of $100). You can grab the deeply-discounted box on Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, or Walmart from now until Days of Play ends on June 17.Get the PlayStation Classic for $30 »The PlayStation Classic is a retro plug-and-play console in the style of Nintendo's NES and SNES Classics, packing 20 beloved games into one small box. Those include genre-defining originals like Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto, and the breakout RPG Final Fantasy VII, for which Sony is currently deep in production on a high-profile, top-to-bottom remake. GameSpot's Peter Brown was disappointed by the visual fidelity and controller quality at launch in his PS Classic review, but those issues sting a lot less when you're paying $30 instead of $100, as it initially retailed.Sony's Days of Play event runs from June 7 to 17, offering discounts across the board on PlayStation hardware, software, and services in celebration of E3 2019. Sony is bowing out of E3 this year for the first time in recent memory, instead opting to step back and quietly prepare for the hotly-anticipated PlayStation 5 announcement while Microsoft takes the spotlight in LA. PS4 fans needn't fret, however, since there will be no shortage of games for the platform at the show, even if Sony itself is not.Info from Gamespot.com

EA has only just announced FIFA 20, but the publisher has now revealed when you can get your hands on this year's football game. The series traditionally arrives at the end of September, and that's still the case this year: FIFA 20's release date has been set for September 27.The publisher revealed the news in a short teaser clip, which you can watch below. The video once again features a strange "V" logo, as well as some more generic soccer footage. EA has not yet confirmed which platforms FIFA 20 will launch for, but the series typically comes to PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS3, and Xbox 360.The stadium is anywhere. Full #FIFA20 reveal tomorrow at 3pm UK 👀 Subscribe to EA SPORTS FIFA on YouTube to see it first: https://t.co/RRsUn909Wu pic.twitter.com/twTKgLv95N — EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) June 7, 2019Rather than revealing more information now, EA plans on talking more about this year's football game at EA Play. The publisher says a "full FIFA 20 reveal" is coming on June 8 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET / 3 PM BST (that's 12 AM AET on June 9). Four hours later, EA will hold the FIFA section of its EA Play livestream.Despite it having only just been confirmed, EA did share some of FIFA 20's gameplay changes just recently. Top of the list is AI defending, EA said, with a larger emphasis and incentive placed on manual defending, as opposed to letting the computer defend for you. One of the ways EA plans to do this is by increasing the likelihood a manual tackle will propel the ball to a teammate. Automatic defending will see its overall efficacy reduced and reaction times slowed.Shooting is also being revamped, with attackers given greater accuracy during easy shooting scenarios, such as being clean through against the 'keeper. Goalkeepers' reaction times will be reduced in these situations to resolve the sometimes "superhuman" reactions players complained of. Additionally, the timing window for green timed shots is being reduced to two frames for all shots, and they'll also be "slightly less precise." EA did, however, reassure players that green timed shots will "still be more accurate than non-timed shots."Lots of work is being done on making passing and shooting more realistic, EA says, especially when it comes to difficult strikes. Volleys will be more variable and less accurate, for example, while 180° and first-time passes will result in "slower/weaker balls." To compensate, easy situation passes will now be more accurate. Two new passing options will also be introduced: the driven pass-and-go (which will replace the current manual pass button combo) and the dinked pass, which will cease to be an automatic, contextual pass variant and instead be user-controlled only.For more, check out everything we know about EA's E3 2019 plans, or everything we know about FIFA 20.Info from Gamespot.com

During the pre-E3 2019 Google Stadia Connect, Larian Studios officially announced Baldur's Gate III, confirming the rumors that the Divinity: Original Sin II developer is behind the long-awaited sequel to the RPG series. During the livestream, a horrifying cinematic trailer for the upcoming game was also revealed, and Larian Studios confirmed Baldur's Gate III would be coming to Google Stadia (as well as PC). Following the announcement, Larian Studios released a Community Update video to provide further insight into the process of making Baldur's Gate III.Though the Community Update is largely just one long comedy skit as to how Larian Studios acquired the rights to make Baldur's Gate III, it does reveal several tidbits of information about the new games as well. The game is described as a "big grand adventure" that's "true to D&D lore" and has a choice-driven narrative where a player's decisions matter to the overall plot. The video also touches on the process of ceremorphosis, the terrifying process by which a humanoid creature becomes a Mindflayer, as well as how the transformation can be reversed. If you want to see that change in action, you can watch it in the trailer below.In a press release, Larian Studios wrote, "Baldur's Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre and offer a rich narrative with unparalleled player freedom, high-stakes decisions, unique companion characters, and memorable combat. It is Larian Studios' biggest production ever and will be playable together with friends or as a single-player adventure."Baldur's Gate III is one of the first games confirmed for Google Stadia, the company's upcoming cloud-based game streaming service. In an interview with GameSpot, Larian Studios founder and head Swen Vincke said, "Stadia will also allow a whole bunch of community features that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I don't know if you've been paying attention to what's happening in the streaming sphere when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, but there's a lot going on there. Things like Stadia allow you to do much more. We're implementing Stadia fairly deep into the game, actually. In due course, we will announce the features and demonstrate it. I don't think people understand, yet, exactly how transformative Stadia is going to be. Not in a corporate way, I actually mean it. Because they haven't seen it, they haven't touched it, but it is quite special."Baldur's Gate III is releasing for Google Stadia and PC. The game doesn't yet have a release date, although Larian suggests it may not launch this year. Stadia, however, is slated to arrive this November as part of the Founder's Edition, which will cost $130 / £120.Info from Gamespot.com

E3 2019's press conferences are sure to be as exciting as ever. Despite Sony's no-show this year, there's still plenty to look forward to. Microsoft may well unveil its new Xbox console, Scarlett; Nintendo's Direct presentation will likely bring pure joy; and EA Play will be a streaming extravaganza.Of course, many of the E3 conferences happen before the show. We've already had Google's Stadia Connect event and Nintendo's pre-E3 Pokemon Sword and Shield Direct, as well as Bungie's Destiny 2 stream, in which news like cross-save support and new Shadowkeep DLC was revealed.But the exciting stuff is still to come. Even if we now know every event that's happening over the next two weeks, we won't be lacking a surplus of game news over the next week and a half. Expect plenty more rumors and leaks, too.Below you'll find a quick look at the start times, in BST, for all of the major events and press conferences in the coming days. For more information on each, such as how to watch and where to find a livestream of the events, click on their respective links. If you're after American times, both Pacific and Eastern, check out our main look at the E3 2019 press conference schedule.E3 2019 Schedule Overview (UK Times)June 6, 5 PM BST -- Google Stadia ConnectJune 8, 5:15 PM BST -- EA Play LivestreamsJune 9, 9 PM BST -- Microsoft Press ConferenceJune 10, 1:30 AM BST -- Bethesda Press ConferenceJune 10, 3 AM BST -- Devolver Press ConferenceJune 10, 6 PM BST -- PC Gaming ShowJune 10, 8 PM PT -- Limited Run Games Press ConferenceJune 10, 9 PM PT -- Ubisoft Press ConferenceJune 10, 12:30 AM BST -- Kinda Funny ShowcaseJune 10, 2 AM BST -- Square Enix Press ConferenceJune 11, 5 PM BST -- Nintendo Direct ShowcaseJune 11-13 -- E3 Show Floor OpenInfo from Gamespot.com

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the end of an era for the second X-Man film franchise. After the Disney/Fox buyout, no one can really be certain just where our favorite mutants are headed--unless of course you count the much-delayed New Mutants which may or may not ever actually see the light of day--though, with any luck, it'll be on to bigger and better things under the shared MCU umbrella for the first time ever. That said, it can't really come as a surprise that the final moments of Dark Phoenix are just that-- there's no post-credits tease or stinger to round off the story and hint at what's to come. Instead, we're left with a superhero rarity: A conclusion that actually seems, well, pretty conclusive.So what exactly happens at the end of Dark Phoenix and what does it mean? Let's break it down. Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for the ending of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Stop now if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know how it plays out.With Jean (Sophie Turner) rapidly losing control over the mysterious Phoenix Force--though the movie never calls it by name-- and her tenuous grip on her own sanity slipping, she succumbs to the (honestly, pretty half-hearted) manipulations of Vuk (Jessica Chastain), one of the D'Bari--a race of shape-shifting aliens that are definitely not Skrulls, looking to harness the power of the Phoenix Force for themselves to terraform the Earth and remake their lost homeworld.Vuk explains that the D'Bari don't fear Jean's power like her friends did, and therefore she should trust them--but really, all Vuk wants from her is the Phoenix Force, which Jean nearly gives up. But before she has a chance to do that (and unknowingly doom the Earth) the X-Men interrupt. Half of them want to murder her, the other half want to save her, and Jean doesn't really care for either side of the equation. Also, the humans are less than thrilled with the whole situation--Jean unwittingly flipped some cop cars during her first big clash with the X-Men, so human/mutant relations are crumbling, you know, like they usually are. During the fight, the army intervenes, capturing every X-Man involved along with Jean herself with power neutralizing collars. The D'Bari escape the scene but quickly chase after Jean.The action culminates in a massive battle on a train in which the humans must be convinced that the X-Men can protect them from the D'Bari while the D'Bari hurl themselves Terminator style into the fight, trying to get to Jean, who spends most of the final battle unconscious. That is until Xavier, with Scott's help, manages to reach her cell and wake her up. (It should be noted that the humans the X-Men convince to free them still wind up dead--so, uh, it turns out the mutants weren't all that great at protecting them after all.)Emotionally moved and imbued with a new sense of purpose, Jean confronts Vuk for the final time, producing a whirlwind of neon destructive force around the two of them that threatens to disintegrate everyone and everything--including Jean's friends. With no other recourse, and no hope to be rid of the Phoenix Force all together, lest it fall entirely into Vuk's hands, Jean opts to blast the two of them into space and sacrifice herself for the safety of mankind.In the last few moments, the X-Men watch helplessly from the ground as a supernova shaped like a phoenix (get it?) explodes in the sky, consuming both Jean and Vuk safely outside of Earth's atmosphere.But of course, things don't actually end there. The remaining X-Men are left to pick up the pieces--sort of, at least. With Jean and the Phoenix Force gone, the government seems to be back on great terms with the mutants (never mind the shockingly high human body count), meaning everyone is apparently just fine and dandy to head back to Westchester and get their affairs in order. The Xavier Institute is renamed the Jean Grey School in honor of Jean's sacrifice, Hank takes on the role of the headmaster, and mutants like Storm begin as teachers for the next generation. Professor X himself retires to Paris, where he meets with Magneto for a game of chess, just like old times--all while a suspiciously Phoenix-shaped neon flare blasts through the sky overhead, implying that Jean may still be out there somewhere. Magneto also hints that Charles could come live with him, assumedly on his mutant refugee island.All in all, it's a pretty tidy ending--the majority of the "First Class" has either moved on or died, tragically, but the dream of the X-Men continues in the hands of some alumni and the memory of Jean. Human and mutant relations are, we can assume, looking pretty good and Charles and Erik have found a way to start resolving their perpetual conflict peacefully. All things considered, it's not a bad way to leave things, especially considering that Dark Phoenix is very likely the swan song of the non-MCU X-Franchise as a whole. It's a safe bet that we'll be seeing some mutants again at some point in the future, but this particular era has definitely run its course. Info from Gamespot.com

Ahead of E3 2019, EA has made Battlefield 5 available through its Origin Access Basic subscription. That means you can play the 2018 shooter for the $5 per month subscription fee, or just take part in the 7-day free trial to get a taste of it.This is an unusually recent game to be added to the free library, only nearly matched by Madden NFL 19. But there's reason to think this is setting the stage for an upcoming announcement, as Battlefield has its own prominent placement just after Apex Legends on the company's EA Play schedule. Each of the scheduled games is expected to get some announcements of future updates, so making Battlefield more widely available at a low cost for PC players could make it more inviting for whatever is in store next.EA is forgoing a traditional press conference in favor of a series of EA Play streams this year. Some of the games on the slate are unreleased, like Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order and the upcoming sports games, while others like The Sims 4 are EA mainstays. Anthem is curiously missing from the lineup, despite being the company's most recent game release.EA Play will serve as the unofficial start of E3, replicating something similar to a press conference before the actual press conferences start in earnest on Sunday. But the event has been spreading further and further, and this week was chock full of events including Google's Stadia Connect, which unveiled lots of details about its streaming solution. EA was listed as a Stadia publisher but without any specified games, so we may see those soon.Info from Gamespot.com

Sony may be bowing out of E3 this year, but they are certainly not letting us forget them with all of the huge savings available as part of their Days of Play sale, the latest of which is a PlayStation 4 Pro console including seven free games by way of B&H Photo for $350. The PS4 Pro itself typically retails for $400 alone, so $50 off and then seven free games on top of that is an excellent deal, which B&H lists as $132.93 in total savings.Get a PlayStation Pro and 7 free games for $350 »The games included are no collection of bargain bin scrapings, either, but some of the strongest titles that the platform has ever had along with remastered PS3 classics. If you're looking to play catch-up as this console generation starts to wrap up, then this is an excellent starting point. The bundle includes:Uncharted: The Nathan Drake CollectionLittleBigPlanet 3Ratchet and ClankUncharted 4: A Thief's EndBloodborneThe Last of Us RemasteredUntil DawnThese and many other games are available on sale à la carte in Sony's Days of Play event, which runs from June 7 to 17, offering discounts across the board on PlayStation hardware, software, and services in celebration of E3 2019. Sony is bowing out of E3 this year for the first time in recent memory, instead opting to step back and quietly prepare for the hotly-anticipated PlayStation 5 announcement while Microsoft takes the spotlight in LA. PS4 fans have plenty to look forward to from next week's events--check out all of the PS4 games confirmed for E3 2019.Info from Gamespot.com

It's been quite a week for Destiny 2 fans. First, there was the launch of the Season of Opulence and its new activities and raid. Then there was Bungie's gigantic rundown of information about Destiny 2's next chapter, including Shadowkeep, its fall expansion, and the upcoming addition of cross-save capability that'll let you transfer your characters between platforms. We almost forgot that Friday means a visit from Exotics vendor Xur, his first of the new season. Here's where to find Xur right now and all of the Exotic items he's selling.Those of us steeped in Destiny 2 lore might wonder if Xur's location this week implies something more significant about the Nine, a group of entities whose were a major part of last season's story, and their relationship with the Cabal emperor. You'll find Xur on Nessus, hanging out on Calus's barge near quest-giver Werner 99-40. This week he's got Sweet Business, an Exotic auto rifle that sprays tons of bullets from its 99-round magazine and gives you bonus accuracy when you fire from the hip.Hunters are the lucky ones if you're still trying to pick up newer Exotics: Xur is offering Sixth Coyote, the only Year Two Exotic in his bag this week. The chest armor gives you a second dodge charge, which can be very handy in the Crucible. For Warlocks, there's Karnstein Armlets, which give you health back when you land melee kills. Finally, Titans can snag Ashen Wake, a set of gloves that increase the throw speed of your Fusion grenades and make them detonate on impact.Xur Exotics For June 7-11Sweet Business (Exotic auto rifle) -- 29 Legendary ShardsAshen Wake (Exotic Titan gauntlets) -- 23 Legendary ShardsThe Sixth Coyote (Exotic Hunter chest armor) -- 23 Legendary ShardsKarnstein Armlets (Exotic Warlock gauntlets) -- 23 Legendary ShardsIf Xur's inventory doesn't interest, you can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. Xur also offers the Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.And if you haven't finished all of Xur's Invitations of the Nine from the Season of the Drifter, you can snag one of those as well. The bounty was new in Season of the Drifter, dispensing Powerful gear rewards, a bit of story about the Nine and the Drifter, and a lore drop. Info from Gamespot.com