E3 2018: BioWare's Anthem Shows An Exciting New Direction For The Studio

While playing Anthem, I had to repeatedly remind myself that I was playing a BioWare game. It’s the first new IP from the veteran RPG developer in a decade, and although it falls into that particular style of role-playing and third-person shooter hybrid the studio honed with the Mass Effect franchise, this is the hardest it has leaned into that concept. With Anthem, we're seeing a major shift in what BioWare is capable of. Although it still exhibits some of the studio's role-playing pedigree, it's the vast online open-world that sets Anthem apart.

In the vein of Bungie's Destiny and Ubisoft's The Division, Anthem is a shared-world online shooter focusing on groups of players taking on new challenges and chasing new loot. But in familiar BioWare fashion, your particular Freelancer will make important narrative choices throughout the game's main campaign, altering their relationships with allies and other factions. While this sounds pretty standard, this is all housed within an online world where other players are making similar or conflicting choices in their own story.

As of now, we only know what the story is about in the broad sense: humans on a hostile alien planet, a powerful ancient presence of some form, and major world-altering events. While BioWare wasn't ready to share just how those choices will be reflected in the game for others to see, it did say they'll be surfaced in some form. With that said, the general narrative feels much more of a nebulous concept right now, and I am intrigued to see how the developer will be able to inject that familiar BioWare-style storytelling into Anthem.

During a hands-on session with the game at EA Play, we got to check out one of Anthem's missions while getting a feel for the Javelin exo-suits and their unique powers. We played the Scars and Villainy mission, which took the game's Freelancers on an operation to take out an ancient weapon: a Relic held by the imposing Scar forces--one of the many groups on the planet fighting for control. While this mission was shown during the EA Play press conference, we saw an extended version of it, exploring some of the surrounding areas and fighting against the Swarm Tyrant boss. Though it's usually difficult to get a sense of the game's scale from standard vertical slice demos (as they aim to show a little bit of everything), I was impressed with the sense of scale and verticality--which felt particularly fresh for a BioWare game.

As Anthem is an action-RPG, you're given a lot of options in how you'll fight against enemies. With a primary weapon, side-arm, and special abilities--like the Ranger's case, Frost Grenades--you'll be able to fly into combat and utilize your skills in quick succession. Coordinating with your team will also open up opportunities to use combination attacks which offer bonus damage to groups of enemies. For instance, you can use the Ranger's Frost Grenade and the Colossus' slam skill together to destroy frozen enemies, which sends shards of ice into surrounding monsters.

I was impressed with how punchy and tactile the shooting mechanics were, which made getting a feel for the new systems fairly easy. While the Mass Effect series had largely serviceable combat--which gradually got better as the entries went on--Anthem shows some major growth on BioWare's part thanks to its fast, responsive combat, which made many of the fights I played thrilling to take part in.

Your Freelancer's most valuable asset is their Javelin exo-suit, which allows them to survive the world's hostile environment. Movement is a core part of Anthem, and each Javelin can use their booster packs to fly through the world and glide underwater at great speed. Regardless of their archetype, each Javelin has a wonderful sense of velocity and mobility while zipping through the air, which recalled some exciting moments from films like Iron Man. While you're not able to fly indefinitely (as your suit's thrusters will overheat) flying through environmental elements like waterfalls will offer instant cooldowns and keep you going for longer distances.

As you complete jobs, you'll acquire more resources and new gear for the exo-suits. While you'll focus on one Javelin early on, you'll eventually be able to switch over to other suits. So far, Anthem has four unique Javelins: the all-around striker Ranger; the Hulk-like Colossus; the glass-cannon Storm, which uses elemental attacks; and the agile Interceptor. As you can tell, the Javelins are not unlike classes in a traditional RPG, fulfilling those standard archetypes needed to round out a group.

While the mission culminated in a battle against the large Swarm Tyrant boss, who summoned smaller spider creatures and other hazards against the group, the demo ended about halfway through the fight. What's interesting about this battle is that it highlighted the game's focus on online gameplay, as it required a lot firepower to whittle the boss's health down. While the Mass Effect games had online modes, they were single-player games at heart. During the presentation, the developers stated that while players can go solo, they'll eventually come across some fights that will be too challenging to tackle alone.

While there's still plenty we don't know about Anthem--narrative-progression, PvP, and just what the endgame can offer--this brief taste of the game offered a whole lot to look forward to. Though BioWare has already dabbled in the sci-fi space with Mass Effect, Anthem comes off as a major departure for the company, specifically in how it's focusing much more on fast gameplay and dynamic battles. Still, we're eager to hear more about the larger specifics of the game, and just what that means for the bigger picture of Anthem.

You can read more about Anthem and other news from EA's E3 briefing in our recap of all the announcements from EA Play. For our full coverage of the big event, be sure to visit GameSpot's E3 2018 hub to follow along with all of the biggest news from the show.

ARK: Survival Evolved will launch on iOS & Android next week

Unrar all files from multiple subdirectories at once
One command, no script is needed, great time saver
Unpack (decompress) all files in multiple subdirectories, such as for example torrents with whole TV series with each episode in its own directory and each directory containing a lot of compressed files

/TV-show/

First what I'd do is right click in the directory, open a terminal from it. Then just paste this command and you will see all rar files be expanded to the current directory.

E3 2018: The Division 2 Builds Its Endgame And Refines Its Core Gameplay

When you're looking at Tom Clancy's The Division in the broader sense, the game has shown considerable growth since its launch. After several expansions adding in new events and areas to explore, along with many updates tweaking the power grind and endgame content, Ubisoft's shared world action-RPG title slowly evolved into the game that many fans wanted when it was first released. And with The Division 2, the same developers at Massive Entertainment and Red Storm are looking to maintain that momentum with the series' next outing.

Set seven months after the initial outbreak of the Black Friday virus, The Division 2 will bring the online action-RPG to Washington D.C, which has also been decimated by mass panic, and opportunistic new factions looking to take advantage of the power vacuum. Unlike Manhattan's snow-covered wasteland from the original game, D.C. is far more lawless, made worse by an an immense heatwave driving more people to desperation. With the Division agency having gone silent, the remaining agents in the field have to reclaim control of the city. Prior to the official announcement at the Microsoft Press Conference, we got the play a short section of the game, while speaking with creative director Terry Spier about their continued sights on trying to keep things interesting for the long term.

When looking at the CG trailer, it's clear that the sense of scale, along with the stakes, have dialed up significantly. The Division 2, like its predecessor, will focus on building up your unique agent's resources as they acquire new weapons while taking on the multiple enemy factions that have taken hold of the city. Washington D.C., is about 20 percent bigger than Manhattan, which is almost a 1-to-1 recreation of the city. The developers wanted to offer a greater level of variety in the locations you'll explore, which includes more residential areas and the nearby forests outside the capital.

One of the bigger focuses on The Division 2 is the so-called "end-game first" philosophy. As the original Division gradually improved the end-game content--challenging missions that yield the game's best rewards--over the course of its two years, the developers wanted players to be aware of that part of the game right from the beginning, so they can stay invested in the game for the long term. According to the game's creative director, this philosophy--in giving players what they want--was one of the biggest lessons they took away from the original game.

"We approached everything with the end-game in mind, that way when players hit end game, there's plenty of stuff to do," said Spier. "Continuing to listen to the community, continuing to understand that we're making this game for the players is always important. Players will have an experience that could be befitting of what you would consider a shooter, but of course we're still an RPG. So in this case, we've worked hard to improve the visualization elements as well."

In our demo, we explored a district of Washington D.C. under siege by the True Sons, one of the new factions in The Division 2. After fighting off enemies in an abandoned mall, we headed over to the crash-site of Air Force One to respond to a signal, only to find True Sons soldiers taking up position. While using the familiar armaments and tactics, along with new skills like the flying gunner-drone that can hone-in on selected targets, we got to take advantage of some The Division 2's new innovations.

Using a squad of high-level characters, we had access to the Division 2's new end-game gameplay system known as Specializations. After completing the main campaign, you'll gain access to a set of elite weapons and skill-trees that alter the agent's abilities. These weapons include explosive-tipped crossbows, 50-caliber sniper rifles, and grenade launchers. What's interesting is that the developers want players to reach that end-game portion as fast as possible, as they'll be able to dive into the higher end content and get involved in the chase to get better gear.

As you're exploring the ruins of D.C, you'll help civilians and other key allies survive in the area. Returning players are all too familiar with this--with occasional NPC character asking for food and water in the previous game--but in the sequel, the civilians can offer the agents backup during fights. The civilians are also a part of a new system called Settlements, which the developers weren't able to share many details on. We do know that areas of Washington D.C. can be recaptured, allowing you to place civilians as they support them and keep watch for hostiles in the area.

While The Division 2 features an interesting new setting, which will likely hit even more close to home than before, and many of the gameplay systems and structural features looks far more refined--it all felt a bit too familiar in some regard. That's not totally a bad thing, as the original game offered a lot of fun and exciting moments with its tactical RPG shooter hybrid gameplay, but it does feel like they are playing it a bit safe for the most part. Still, it was exciting to see that they've kept that spring in their step they've had since The Division's life in post-launch.

The developers are still keeping a lot of details close to vest when it comes to the return of a revamped Dark Zone, and whether Battle Royale will have a place in the game's future. But they seem committed to supporting the game for the long-term, while also keeping players invested with free content updates for its first year. That's an exciting and positive outlook to have on an online game, and The Division 2 is looking like an exciting return to that familiar, but still fun and engaging grind.

You can read more about The Division and other news from Ubisoft's E3 press conference in our recap of all the announcements and most exciting games. For our full coverage of the big event, be sure to visit GameSpot's E3 2018 hub to follow along with all of the biggest news from the show.

E3 2018: Why It's Called Gears 5 And Not Gears Of War 5

Microsoft announced a fifth Gears of War game on its E3 2018 stage, but it's not called Gears of War 5. Microsoft announced the title as Gears 5, and that was no mistake. Speaking to GameSpot, Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said the Gears 5 title is "cleaner," not to mention that people were already cutting out the "of War" part of the title for years already, so it was a natural change.

"People shorthanded it Gears anyway," Greenberg said. "It's a cleaner look for the brand and the line. Of course, the franchise is still Gears of War."

Greenberg also joked that Microsoft dropped "of War" from the title of the game to help save people time when posting about the game on social media. "To save you room on Twitter; that was the whole idea," Greenberg said with a laugh.

Gears 5 is the first entry in the series with a female playable lead. The game tells the story of Kait Diaz, who was first introduced in Gears of War 4 and whose character arc culminated with a dramatic conclusion in that left many wondering what would happen next.

GameSpot's full interview with Greenberg covers a number of other Xbox topics such as the Halo Infinite reveal, what's next for PUBG on Xbox, and a lot more. You can watch the full interview in the video embed above.

It's not just Gears 5 that dropped "Of War" from its title. The other two Gears of War games announced at E3, Gears Tactics and Gears Pop, also don't have "Of War" in their titles. Gears 5 launches in 2019 on Xbox One and PC; keep checking back with GameSpot for m ore.

E3 2018: Battlefield 5's Battle Royale Mode -- DICE Explains How It Happened

During EA's E3 2018 press conference, Battlefield V developer DICE confirmed that a battle royale mode will be available in the game at some point. We caught up with DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson at the EA Play event in Hollywood and asked him where the idea came from.

He told us that games like Fortnite and PUBG are popular among DICE employees (as well as pretty much everyone else on the planet). The idea to add a battle royale mode to Battlefield V came from conversations DICE developers were having about the game inside the studio as opposed to being a directive that EA handed down to the studio, he suggested.

"I would be lying [if I said] there weren't people in the studio that would play [battle royale games] a lot," Gustavsson said with a laugh. "We enjoy it. It's good fun, and it brings a new perspective."

He added that there is "lots of good energy" at DICE related to the new battle royale mode. The newer Battlefield games already support large numbers of players; 64 players can compete together in a single match in Battlefield games. Additionally, Battlefield's trademark destruction, as well as the variety of weapons and vehicles, makes a Battlefield Royale experience sound very intriguing.

Gustavsson added that there was an "extremely big push" from inside DICE for Battlefield to add battle royale. "It's a good sign when it comes from pure passion," he explained.

Also during our interview, we quizzed Gustavvson about Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 adding its own battle royale mode called Blackout. "It's interesting times," he said. "We're all game developers but also gamers. Looking forward to seeing where it takes us."

Back in May, DICE told GameSpot that battle royale was a "natural fit" for Battlefield V, though at the time the studio stopped short of confirming it. It seems EA was waiting for E3 to announce it.

Battlefield V launches in October for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. We will have more on Battlefield V and more EA games in the days ahead, so keep checking back for more.

E3 2018: Command & Conquer: Rivals Announced

Free Weekend – Killing Floor 2, 60% off

Nintendo Power Podcast episode 6 available now!