Category: Uncategorised

A work-in-progress shot from the next Star Wars Battlefront title, announced today.

LOS ANGELES—Electronic Arts isn't merely sitting on its video game rights to the Star Wars license after last year's multiplayer-only Star Wars: Battlefront. In an E3-adjacent press presentation today, the company announced plans for a number of upcoming story-driven Star Wars titles from some of its biggest studios.

The announcements began with a new Battlefront game from developers DICE and Motive, featuring content from the new films. "What excites me now is bringing in more characters, more planets, more environments, more eras..." DICE Senior Producer Sigurlína Ingvarsdottir said.

That comes alongside a third-person action-adventure game from Titanfall-maker Respawn from "a different Star Wars era." Then there's the new action-adventure game from Visceral with "an original narrative... with new characters" from former Naughty Dog scribe Amy Hennig. "Our goal has always been not to just make a game in the Star Wars universe, but to tell an authentic Star Wars story... How do you ground the unfamiliar and new in the familiar?" Hennig said.

This big-eyed pyramid dude watches over your progress in the Necropolis and doles out sarcastic commentary after you complete every level. He also gives you perks on occasion. (credit: Harebrained Schemes)

KIRKLAND, Wash.—As I made my way out of Harebrained Studios' modest, Seattle-area office on a gray June afternoon, I heard a shout: "Hold that elevator!"

Studio co-founder Mitch Gitelman was running in my direction, the way someone might dash if a visitor left a wallet or set of keys behind, but it wasn't that. "Now do you see why we left permadeath in our multiplayer mode?"

You're stopping the elevator for that question? Actually, what sounded like a generic, nerdily phrased exclamation was pretty important in this case. An hour earlier, Gitelman had sat me down with my second-ever demo of Necropolis, a Dark Souls-inspired dungeon crawler, and I went into that playtest with raised eyebrows and low expectations. The single-player demo I'd played at a press event in Santa Monica a few weeks prior was fine enough, and I asked for a studio visit and a little more gameplay, having not been entirely sold by my first session. I thought to myself, maybe I'd write the game up soon, but certainly not during my busy E3 schedule.

The FIFA series has always tended be a touch exaggerated, like more of a rose-tinted rendition of the beautiful game as opposed to a wholly realistic one. Skills and tricks, favouring attacking over defensive solidarity, and building fantastical lineups through Ultimate Team—these are the hallmarks of the modern FIFA experience. But even they are about to outdone by what EA has planned for FIFA 17.

This season, you can take part in "The Journey," an interactive narrative in which you play as the young footballer Alex Hunter trying to earn his first Premier League contract. Through dialogue decisions, on-pitch performances (in which you control only Hunter), and lavishly created cut-scenes his story is told, influenced by what you choose to say and how well you play on the pitch.

No bones about it, this a wild departure from FIFA's tried and tested formula, particularly for a franchise that has tended to favour small yearly tweaks over grand reinventions. Having said that, as sports game fans will already know, The Journey isn't an entirely original exercise. The NBA 2K series, which has effectively made EA Sport's own attempts at a basketball game redundant, has a remarkably similar mode called MyCareer.

A leaked promotional image for the Xbox One S confirms news that Ars had gathered ahead of this year's E3 conference. (credit: Microsoft)

Rumors and insider tips have pointed to an Xbox One "slim" model being revealed at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, and the news was so good, someone at Microsoft couldn't wait to spill the beans.

Images found by multiple NeoGAF forum members confirm the news of the new "Xbox One S"—and the ability for gamers to pre-order it soon enough. Multiple Xbox sources had recently confirmed to Ars that some sort of "slim" system would be announced at this year's E3 and that a major part of its bulk reduction (which has been measured by Microsoft as "40 percent") will come from the removal of its AC adapter's  "power brick," which will make this the first Xbox-branded console to nix that bulky portion.

The leaked announcement image also confirms news that the Xbox One S will support 4K output, though Microsoft sources have informed Ars that 4K support will mostly manifest in the system's menus and in any streaming app that announces support for 4K output in the future—meaning, this will not include the kind of hardware upgrades needed to automatically boost current software to 4K resolution. The announcement image also trumpets support for high dynamic range (HDR) imagery, a vertical stand, and a "streamlined" controller, though we have yet to learn what exactly will be streamlined or changed in that controller.

Enlarge / Developers wandering the halls of the Moscone Center during WWDC 2015. (credit: Megan Geuss)

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is nearly upon us, and you know what that means: a two-hour keynote extravaganza in which Apple unveils and describes its major software and platform updates. We'll be liveblogging the whole thing as usual, and you can join us on Monday June 13 at 10:00am Pacific (1:00pm Eastern, 6pm UK) to find out more about the replacements for El Capitan, iOS 9, and more.

Current rumors indicate that Siri will be a focus for both iOS and OS X—developers will finally be given access to an API for Apple's assistant, and it will supposedly be available on the Mac for the first time. Apple may also be adding some more Continuity features, which may let you unlock your Mac with your iPhone or add support for Apple Pay on the Mac. And "OS X" may be rebranded as "macOS" to bring it in line with the naming convention Apple established with watchOS and tvOS last year.

Speaking of Apple's watch and set-top box, we know even less about the new versions of watchOS and tvOS than we do about the iOS and OS X updates. Developers may be given more access to the Apple Watch's hardware, building on work started in watchOS 2, and the new version of tvOS will hopefully allow developers to make different and more versatile apps than those currently available on the platform.

Enlarge / Android Wear 2.0 will be limited mostly to newer watches, if initial reports are any indication. (credit: Google)

Google hasn't officially made any announcements about what watch hardware will receive the Android Wear 2.0 update when it's released later this year, but it looks like at least a few of the first-generation watches will be missing out. LG says it has no plans to update the original LG G Watch, and now Motorola says it plans to drop support for the original Moto 360. Given Samsung's disinterest in continuing on with new Android Wear hardware, the future doesn't look rosy for the Samsung Gear Live, either. This news comes just two years after Android Wear and many of these watches were originally introduced.

The Moto 360's hardware was always underpowered even when it was brand-new, but the LG G Watch uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC that many newer Wear watches have included. As is usually the case with Android phones, your OEM's willingness to provide updates for hardware it has already sold you has more to do with whether you get updates than your actual hardware does.

Many Android Wear updates, version 2.0 included, have added features that require new hardware components—support for Wi-Fi, internal speakers, LTE, and more has all been added since these first watches launched, and only more recent watches have included the necessary hardware in the first place. Those watches will continue to work for the foreseeable future, in all likelihood. But all of the other software improvements, including the redesigned interface, security updates, and other tweaks, will be skipping your wrist unless you pay for something new. If that's what you decide to do, make sure the watch's manufacturer has committed to updating its software first.

Mass Effect Andromeda.

EA may not officially be part of E3 this year, but the mega-publisher is still doing its own press conference as part of its EA Play show-aside-the-show. The presentation is at the Novo at L.A. Live at 1pm PDT (4pm EDT, 9pm UK time) on Sunday, June 12.

Expect a lot of the usual discussion of EA's annual sports franchise updates, as well as already announced sequels for Battlefield and Titanfall coming later this year. We also expect EA will announce at least one new game exploiting the Star Wars license, after last year's Star Wars: Battlefront sold so well. We're hoping for more concrete news about Mass Effect Andromeda, which only got a brief mention and teaser at last year's press conference and was recently delayed into early 2017.