Community Post-it Wall

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The Pokemon Press conference was interesting. They announced Pokemon Home, a new service for iOS, Android, 3DS (via Bank) and Switch. It'll basically be Pokemon Bank for the Switch era and you can trade from the app too. Will note that Home seems to be one way transfers on everything except Sword/Shield. They also announced Pokemon Sleep, a new game that combined with a Pokeball Plus+ tracks your sleep and levels up your pokemon. I don't even on that one.

Two other game also were announced. Pokemon Detective Pikachu is coming to Switch at some point. An Pokemon Master, which will bring all your favorite Pokemon trainers together into one game, it'll be a mobile game.



We'll learn more about Sword/Shield, June 5th!

 

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Xbox Game Pass is coming to PC and it will have it's own library. Sadly it also means PC and Xbox will now be a separate sub. Though apparently a new Ultimate Sub is coming that will support Gold, Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass in one bundle. They plan to reveal more at E3. Read more here - Our Approach to PC Gaming - Xbox Wire

Marvel's Avengers, Square's Marvel project will finally be unveiled at E3 this year! It been a long time coming now so it will be great to finally get a look at it. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to play it either.

In other news Nintendo has dropped the online play ball again. It's been confirmed you can't choose to play with friends online in Super Mario Maker 2. You also can't go online while playing with friends on a local console. Online play is with randoms only. Sigh. Nintendo please get your stuff together.

 

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E3 kicks off next weekend! Microsoft will kick things off next Sunday at 1pm PDT. Bethesda will follow that same day. Ubisoft and Square are up on Monday. Nintendo caps the big events on Tuesday. I'm personally most hyped for Square and Nintendo. I can't wait to see what Square's Marvel game is all about and Nintendo should finally bring the long awaited Animal Crossing Switch unveiling among other things they got coming this year.

I have 0 hype for Bethesda after they announced no TES6 or Starfield at all. I'm not a big fan of anything else there collection of studios puts out and honestly every year the conference somehow gets worse. I mean I hope they turn it around with some cool surprise but I'm not watching an hour for Dishonored 3 and more DOOM Eternal gameplay...

Also, reminder Pokemon Sword/Shield Direct will be before E3, this Wednesday at 9am Eastern.

 

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WWDC was today and Apple announced updates for all it's platforms. Some notable announcements, Apple TV will be getting a refreshed interfaced and multi user support. It will also be getting support for Dualshock 4 and bluetooth Xbox One controllers, this also applies to all devices getting iOS 13. iTunes is dead, it will be replaced with 3 apps... Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts. iOS is getting dark mode. iOS on iPad is being renamed iPadOS and it's getting a slightly different interface along with some more tablet focused features.

 

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Super excited for the Nintendo Pokémon Direct tomorrow. They said it will be 15 minutes which isn’t a lot but should still be a decent look. On Thursday Google’s game streaming service is having it’s own direct of sorts with game announcements and pricing being announced. I’m not crazy about the service but may still be worth watching since the games will be on other platforms too.

 

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I really like what I'm seeing with Pokemon Sword/Shield. It's got a familiarity, while still featuring some cool new game changing ideas. I'm not huge on graphics but I have to say the game looks a bit rough. I'm also concerned about the frame rate, seen some drops again. Normally I wouldn't be worried but Gamefreak has a history of this, don't have much confidence they will be gone by release. I am really excited though.

 

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Stadia has be unveiled, it will come in two plans. Stadia base, which is free, you just buy the games and play. It's limited to 1080p and stereo sound. An Stadia Pro, a $9.99 monthly fee that includes occasional free games, 4k streaming and 5.1 audio. Plus discounts on select titles. The WiFi controller is $70 and comes in 3 colors. A founders edition is up for pre-order that includes a Chromecast Ultra, a limited edition controller, 3 months of Stadia Pro, a 3 month guest pass of Stadia Pro and Destiny 2 for $130.

The founders edition is set to ship this November. So I'd expect Stadia to be live by then... except theirs a catch. Only Stadia Pro will be live at that time, Stadia base is not coming until sometime next year.

If it were me, I'd hold off any pre-ordering until at least Sunday. Xbox will very likely be announcing xCloud. It's possible we could hear from other cloud gaming services like Nvidia's Geforce Now during E3 week as well... better to have all the facts before jumping into any of these.

Edit - Well Microsoft didn't say much after all, other than you'll be able to use your own Xbox as a personal server for free or rent an Xbox on their servers. Public early access will start in October.

Early impressions are quite good for xCloud though... granted Microsoft is able to control the test environment but reports are latency is really good (it tested really good too) at the E3 demo, which is being played on phones and I think tablets.

Stadia does have one unique advantage though, the wifi controller. Not having to pair when switching screens/devices is really clever. On xCloud you'd have to pair the controller to your phone and then if you wanna play on the tv, pair it to that device etc etc. On Stadia, you just switch... the controller is connected to your router so it'll work no matter the display automatically.

 

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I've been talking about it for a while now but E3 kicks off with Xbox on Sunday! Bethesda will follow that same day. Super excited to see all the new games coming up, hoping for a lot of surprises... en fact turning off my reddit now because people have gotten way too good at spoiling this stuff lol. Gonna be fun times as is every year... then the long drought to fall/holidays.

Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo are all having E3 sales, Xbox and PlayStation are already live. GOG is also having a sale, it may be worth checking all the platform stores (Origin, Uplay, Battle.net etc) and shops (Humble Bundle) this next week. Steam will probably wait until it's Summer Sale that should be in a few weeks.

Also keep in mind new consoles are very likely coming next year, do not fall for PS4 and Xbox One console hardware deals unless you need the console or don't care a new system will replace it next year.

 

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Well all the big events are done except Nintendo which will drop tomorrow! Seen a ton of great indie games and a few cool AAA titles but it's definitely been a down year especially if you exclude all the titles coming in 2020. Still, I enjoyed all the events so far, they weren't quite as cringe as they have in the past. Way too many cinematic trailers though, hopefully that will be fixed with a lot of on the floor gameplay over the next couple days.

Avengers is coming May 15th, 2020. It will be getting new content every year and they said "all maps and characters will be free additions". They also announced no loot crates or pay to win items but since they said it like that, I'd guess cosmetic micro transactions are in. It will have multiplayer up to 4 players. It's an original story. It will initially feature Cap, Ironman, Black Widow, Hulk and Thor. They also teased Ant-man for the future. They didn't show any gameplay but it will apparently have a demo on the showfloor so that will be cool. Also PlayStation has a deal to get the beta early as well as exclusive extras... marketing deals suck.

The game will release on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Stadia.