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E3 data breach leaks info for thousands of registered journalists
Thanks to a staggering bit of negligence on the part of the organization that manages E3, the last and worst "leak" this year affects people from the media who covered the event. As pointed out on YouTube by Sophia Narwitz, a spreadsheet was available on the E3 website listing detailed contact information for over 2,000 journalists, content creators, analysts and others who applied for and received credentials to the event this year. The list apparently existed so that videogame companies could reach news media and content creators they wanted to contact about coverage, but it's obviously not intended to become publicly available. In a statement, the ESA said "Once notified, we immediately took steps to protect that data and shut down the site, which is no longer available. We regret this this occurrence and have put measures in place to ensure it will not occur again." That doesn't do much to help the people who are now at risk for targeted harassment, and, as VentureBeat points out, may cause an issue with Europe's GDPR. Narwitz noted that the list was pulled within hours of the ESA being notified, which was not soon enough to avoid people downloading and spreading the information. ESA: ESA was made aware of a website vulnerability that led to the contact list of registered journalists attending E3 being made public. Once notified, we immediately took steps to protect that data and shut down the site, which is no longer available. We regret this this occurrence and have put measures in place to ensure it will not occur again.
'Sea of Solitude' looks like a brilliant, emotional horror show
Sea of Solitude feels like coming home. Footage of a hulking black monster swimming among the rooftops and balconies of a waterlogged Berlin plays on repeat like a GIF in my psyche, as comforting as it is terrifying. I've been viscerally afraid of giant creatures in deep waters for as long as I can remember -- it probably has something to do with my after-school routine as a kid. My older brother, dressed in steel-toed Docs and long-sleeved black shirts even in the mid-year Arizona sun, would walk me home and we'd plop down in front of the TV. Sometimes it was Baywatch, sometimes it was Terminator 2, but the afternoon our parents told us they were getting a divorce, it was Jaws.
Tesla drivers can play 'Beach Buggy Racing 2' starting today
A new wave of behind the wheel gameplay is coming to Tesla. The company announced that it has started rolling out Beach Buggy Racing 2 to vehicles today. A new, Tesla-compatible version of the mobile game by Vector Unit will be available on every vehicle with an over-the-air software update. And unlike the current selection of games in the Tesla Arcade, Beach Buggy Racing 2 has a twist: it has direct wiring to the car's brakes and steering wheel.
The final dispatch from E3 2019
Another E3 is over. The show gave us new consoles -- some powerful, others retro-inspired -- customizable controllers and many, many video games. Final Fantasy VII Remake? Yep. The upcoming Avengers game? Of course. A sequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Oh yeah, that happened too. Did we mention there were loads of celebrity appearances, too, including Keanu Reeves, Jon Bernthal and Rob McElhenney? It was pretty wild. If, somehow, you missed all of the announcements and trailer-packed press conferences, fear not -- we've got a super-quick recap video to bring you up to speed. If, however, you prefer words to moving pictures, head here for all of our coverage from the show. We'll see you next year!
'Fall Guys' is a mini-game battle royale with up to 100 jelly-bean dudes
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is what happens when indie developers watch too much reality TV. The new title from Mediatonic takes some of the most ridiculous network game-show obstacles courses, throws in some squishy alien creatures, and puts it all online. So far, Fall Guys features a "race through the right doors" mini game, a round where players have to steal and keep their tails, and a furious run up a mountainside filled with spinning and rolling obstacles. It's all incredibly cheerful, for a fiercely competitive game.
In 'John Wick Hex,' time is the most precious commodity
"John always double-taps." Mike Bithell, the creator of John Wick Hex, is showing off the game for the first time at E3 2019, in a mirrored room at the Hotel Figueroa that feels ripped right out of The Continental. In his game, every time a player chooses to shoot, the miniature version of John Wick fires two rounds, because, after all, John always double-taps in the movies.
'Empire of Sin' looks like a new-school 'Mob Rule'
It's been 20 years since Mob Rule, the organized crime real-time strategy game. Despite a few efforts like Omerta - City of Gangsters, Gangsters 2: Vendetta and Gangland in the years since, there hasn't been a true successor in the Mafia-meets-strategy genre. Empire of Sin is aiming to inherit that position. It will launch in Spring 2020 on Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC and Mac with a mix of gang management simulation and turn-based tactical combat. In an E3 demo, the team from Romero Games played as Al Capone, who dons a pin-striped grey suit, chomps on a fat cigar and brandishes tommy guns in both hands. He lands in Chicago's Little Italy with its moody streets and jazz-infused speakeasies.
'Doom Eternal' is guns, gore and sophistication
The 2016 remake of Doom reinvigorated the series. It added new gameplay quirks and systems that rewarded your aggression as humanity's savior, the slayer. Depending on how you maneuvered and ended the lives of demons and other threats, you'd pick up health or ammunition. Doom (2016) made you a far more active hunter -- it was not a game where you could hide and wait out your enemies. So when it came to the sequel, Doom Eternal, the challenge was to build on this bold new play style. This has meant a lot of changes aimed at ramping up the urgency and franticness even further.
‘Shenmue 3’ is more Shenmue, for better and worse
"Is this what I wanted?" I must have asked myself this question three, four, possibly five times during my 15-minute demo of Shenmue 3. The experience, to be clear, was definitively and unashamedly Shenmue. I steered the series' protagonist, Ryo Hazuki, around a beautifully-crafted village filled with charming villagers and side-activities. I talked to people. I played a game of Lucky Hit, the notoriously tricky gambling game from Shenmue 2. I bought some colorful "gacha" toys from a capsule machine. I even practiced my martial arts at a nearby dojo. But I wasn't happy.
The best weapon in 'Cyberpunk 2077' is a glowing orange garrote
Nanowire is the Swiss Army garrote of the future. The glowing orange thread is simple yet multifunctional, slicing through skin, muscle and bone like a whip. Or, it flings from the wielder's wrist like an electric snake to jack into the side of someone's head and hack their brain to bits.
'Phantom Covert Ops' is VR Splinter Cell in a kayak
One of the biggest shortcomings with today's VR games is the fact that there's nothing to do with your legs. Virtually no titles enable players to walk around freely, instead opting for teleportation gimmicks or handheld movement controls. But Phantom Covert Ops takes a more unique approach: the game removes the need for you to use your legs by taking place entirely in a kayak.
Elon Musk: 'The Simulation, The Simulation, The Simulation'
A young woman wanted to know how much she needed to beg to take a selfie with him. A young man wanted to know if he could get his CyberPunk 2077 hat autographed. These are the kind of questions people were asking Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, during a panel at E3 2019. Musk, who was joined by legendary video game designer Todd Howard (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4), spent most of the conversation talking about how gaming has influenced his life, his vision for the industry and, of course, "The Simulation." Almost every response from him ignited cheers from the crowd at E3, who were the latest people to witness the Church of Elon Musk at a technology conference.
Where ‘The Outer Worlds' gets its sense of humor
In The Outer Worlds, there are specially bred swine called "cystypigs." You find them in a factory farm near Fallbrook, a smuggler's town on a distant planet. Maybe you climbed through the sewers and emerged face to ass with one, or entered through the front door for a sweeping view of their pens. But there they are: swine coated in bulbous, meaty tumors that swell up, drop off and are ground and canned to be sold commercially as "boarst wurst." As one in-game ad says: "You haven't tried the worst until you've tried boarst wurst." Megan Starks was part of the team that authored this sick scenario. A senior narrative designer who holds an MFA in creative writing, she pens plot-lines, dialogue, characters and even item descriptions at Obsidian Entertainment. After writing for dense RPGs like Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity II, she's now working on the developer's latest ambitious universe, set in a hyper-capitalist dystopia run by competing corporations. You'll roam frontier space colonies covered in wild flora and fungi as well as wilder humans. It lands October 25th on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
'Telling Lies' and the new nonlinear narrative
The gameplay in Sam Barlow's critically acclaimed indie Her Story involved little more than Googling. Positioned in front of a mid-'90s computer desktop, your job was to sift through a database of nearly 300 short videos of police interrogations to deduce how a murder took place and why. There was only one actor, the interview room setting barely changed and your sole method of interacting with the game was by keying in search terms that connected to interview transcripts. Yet trawling through clips, attending to the slightest testimonial discrepancies and details, then revisiting previous scenes in light of your new information was compelling. Her Story took the ostensibly passive idea of observing and listening and made them feel dynamic -- no shooting, jumping or fetch quests necessary.
'Fallout Shelter' is coming to Tesla cars
Elon Musk showed up on stage at E3 Thursday alongside Bethesda Studios executive producer Todd Howard to announce Fallout Shelter will be coming to Tesla vehicles. The wildly popular game is already available on just about every other system imaginable, so a move to Tesla in-car entertainment systems seems about right. It will be joined by Beach Buggy Racing 2, along with previously announced titles including classic Atari games and indie darling Cuphead.
‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’ is a delicate balance of light and dark
"Are you sure you want to plug into this thing?" Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan asks nervously. His partner, an adorable droid called BD-1, bleeps confidently and plugs into a nearby computer panel. Immediately, the enormous 'cutter' drill starts burrowing through the wicked Empire's base. The machine's movement reveals a secret passageway which Kestic then rushes toward enthusiastically. "That's why you wanted to move this thing," he exclaims. BD-1 boops again. "You had no idea that was there, did you?" Kestis chuckles wearily. "You just wanted to turn that cutter on."
Watch Elon Musk and Todd Howard's E3 chat at 3PM ET
It's the final day of E3 2019 and for some reason, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is chatting on stage about "games, cars, space and everything in between" with Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard. Musk has a clear interest in games -- he even wrote and sold one when he was 12. He's also put a number of them on Tesla dashboards, including Asteroids, Super Breakout and 2048.
The Link’s Awakening remake feels exactly like it should
Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch is a faithful recreation of the original game, except when it's not. Although I remember watching my older brothers playing the original Zelda on their NES, the Game Boy was my first console, and Link's Awakening was my first Zelda. My first RPG, really. I played the game for hours on end, losing myself to the world and its many mysteries. After graduating to bigger and better consoles, I've never returned to Koholint. Until today, when I got a brief look at Nintendo's upcoming remake.
Corsair gaming mouse detects its center of gravity for better tuning
Gaming mice have long had adjustable weights to offer your ideal balance between speed and heft, but you're frequently asked to determine that balance on your own. You won't have to put in quite so much guesswork with Corsair's Nightsword. The peripheral includes a "smart" system that automatically identifies the mouse's center of gravity in real time, helping you load weights in a way that matches your mousing style. It should be a capable rodent beyond this, too, with an 18,000DPI optical sensor, ten programmable buttons and (since it's 2019) four-zone RGB lighting.
I’m worried about this ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ game
When Square Enix finally unveiled its big Avengers project, the reception was mixed, to put it politely. While Marvel's Avengers looked appropriately triple-A, all the familiar Avenger heroes looked a little too unfamiliar. The developers have gone for relatively realistic character designs. Unfortunately for them, we've seen truly "realistic" Avengers already, courtesy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This means that the in-game Avengers lineup looks more like a group of cosplayers acting out their fantasies. It also wasn't entirely clear from the initial trailer exactly what kind of game Marvel's Avengers will be. Behind closed doors at E3, however, the team walked me through a gameplay demo that demonstrated what Marvel's Avengers is. If you're expecting cinematic set pieces, superhero quips, fluid combat and plenty of goons to punch and blast, you'll get all of that. But why am I still so worried about this game?
