Developer From Software, best known for making the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne, announced their new game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, at E3 2018. Since the reveal trailer, which showed a cryptic but healthy amount of story details and its Japanese setting to get us excited, fans have been wondering when we'd be able to see more gameplay. Fear not, as the game will be playable at Gamescom this year for those who attend the show. From Software made the announcement on their official Twitter account for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, revealing that fans would be able to get hands-on with the game at the show. Comicbook.com further reveals that the anticipated game will join other upcoming Activision titles on the show floor, from Spyro Reignited Trilogy to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice isn't going to follow in the same footsteps of the Souls series, though, as the game will be far more straight-forward in its storytelling, and will not be a full-blown RPG, but an action/adventure title - this means no character customization or weapon/armour upgrading. Multiplayer will also be absent from the game as it aims to instead focus on its single-player story, removing PvP altogether. This isn't all doom and gloom, because From Software are among some of the most respected developers in the gaming industry for constantly producing quality titles like Bloodborne, so there's no doubt in my mind that Sekiro will strive for that same excellence. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does not have a concrete release date, but will arrive in early 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

After several years of playing the fan-favourite character, Maggie, on AMC's The Walking Dead television show, actress Lauren Cohan has announced that she will be exiting the series following her work on season 9. In an interview with the Associated Press, Cohan revealed why she won't be returning to the popular post-apocalyptic show. While she failed to mention her contract dispute, she did state that she was getting too "comfortable" in her role playing the character for so many years, and presumably wanted to tackle other creative roles. Reportedly, she will not be killed off in the series either, as she also confirmed that she will not die. However, she stated that "there's still a chance for me to explore the Maggie character." A more peaceful resolution seems to be in order for Maggie (unlike Steven Yeun's Glenn, who had a tragic, brutal exit from the show). Maggie has been a regular on the series since being introduced in season 2, and has personally remained one of my favourite characters since then. Cohan won't be the only character that will be leaving The Walking Dead after season 9 either, as actor Andrew Lincoln, who plays protagonist Rick Grimes, also announced at SDCC 2018 that he will retire from the show too. Given Cohan's and Grimes' departure, the leading duties will most likely fall on Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon. The Walking Dead's viewership has been on a steady decline since the juggernaut ratings of season 5. Since then, the show struggled to gain the massive viewership numbers it once had. This is perhaps largely due to the controversial decision to kill off Glenn in the beginning of season 7, whom many fans considered to be the best character on the show. Despite introducing a despicably awesome villain in Negan, it never really gained the same momentum as its glory days.

This is the second part of my interview with Crystal Dynamics senior community manager and avid cosplayer Meagan Marie, in which I got the opportunity to try glean some more details about the upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider. If you missed it, here’s the first part. Andrew: I’ll actually go into the Shadow of the Tomb Raider questions first then. So with Eidos Montreal taking the lead, does this mean we’re going to see aspects of gameplay they perfected in Deus Ex, like an evolving hub? You’ve already mentioned there’s going to be more stealth options? Meagan: Yeah, so I think it’s kind of the things that the studio’s good at right? They have worked on the last two games; they did the multiplayer in the first game and did a lot of tombs in the second game. The game director has actually worked on all three games through the entire series so they’re very familiar but they excel at things like stealth. There’s not full stealth, so it’s evolving the stealth systems that we already have. Now you can re-enter combat loops if you get caught in stealth. You can hide and it will reset, which we didn’t have before. And hubs yeah, they’re great at hubs and you’re going to be able to see that in Paititi, which we’ll talk more about later. It’s this hidden city that is the biggest hub we’ve ever done, three times bigger than anything we’ve done so far, and it’s phenomenal. Each studio is going to play to their strengths and those are two things they are just phenomenal at. Andrew: So then here’s my big question – is there now an option to completely stealth through certain sections without engaging? Meagan: So there isn’t and that’s because, narratively, we need to have these moments of conflict and engagement but you can do a lot in stealth. We kind of started that in Rise of the Tomb Raider and it’s definitely more evolved in Shadow; you’ll still need to engage in combat and there’ll be sections in which you have no choice but to fight your way out but otherwise, especially when you’re exploring the jungle, you have so many options for combat. Andrew: Now onto Crystal Dynamics. In terms of the handover, are they working on parts of the game while Eidos Montreal work on others, or do they have an oversight role while Eidos Montreal develops the entire game? Meagan: So we worked on the game for about a year before we started transitioning over. So we had a full team on it for about a year and laid a lot of the foundation but Eidos Montreal had already been helping at that point, so it was a really easy transition and get the content over to them. So they have their full team on it now but we have the same franchise creative director, it’s still one company, with one goal and one vision, it just have their unique talents and distinct flavour. Andrew: So it’ll be cohesive, you won’t that shift in tone you often see when you change director or creative director? Meagan: Without question. It will be cohesive. Andrew: So Lara is now starting to deal with consequences of her actions? You’re confident you can handle this well because it’s something that a lot of games, such as the Uncharted series, they never bother to stop and deal with the fact Nathan Drake is killing his way through hundreds of people? Meagan: Yeah it’s something we’ve definitely tried to do before with Lara’s first kill in Tomb Raider 2013. That was something that we did over and over again, we tried so many different things, and really knew that was a pivotal moment in her life and it still resonates with a lot of people. Her falling to the ground and dry heaving, not being able to catch her breath because she did something that changed her life. Obviously she’s grown a lot since then, she’s been put in life or death situations more times than she can count, and Trinity is definitely not going to wait to pull the trigger, they’re not going to hesitate with her. Andrew: I was going to bring that up. That first moment is great but then the problem with video games is then you hand over control to the player. So you can build up to this moment and then instead of being stealthy, players just whip out a machine gun and kill their way through every encounter. Meagan: That’s the problem right? You need to give a player agency to make decisions within the narrative framework you’ve established. It’s tricky, it’s a very hard balance to do but I know that the narrative team has worked on this so long and tested so many things and they have really been committed to this emotional, intense, introspective journey with Lara. You can see it in that scene in the rooftop where she’s literally speechless and how many times have you seen Lara speechless? I think there is a lot of potential in what they’re doing and I think that they’re handling it very well. Andrew: I was going to ask about the original reboot Crystal Dynamics did. It seemed like its own thing but then came around Anniversary and finally we saw Jacqueline Natla come back in Underworld, so that felt like a cohesive part of the original Tomb Raider games. So this is now completely fresh? Meagan: Yes it is. So Lara is never going to evolve to the same character, she’s not going to meet Jacqueline Natla and that sort of stuff. It’s a different universe within the same franchise. That’s not say that, you know, I think that Shadow of the Tomb Raider is that payoff for fans. The goal isn’t to make her exactly the same as classic Lara because that’s why we rebooted her, we wanted to have this fresh take on the character. I think she’s still very unique, and interesting, and inspirational [classic Lara], otherwise she wouldn’t have sustained that long, but I think the relatability is stronger in this character [new Lara]. Classic Lara was very inspirational and so is reboot Lara but she’s also relatable and I think that’s kind of the big thing. I think that’s it’s it’s a different take but very much still Tomb Raider. More ICON 2018 coverage: Getting writing tips from Raymond E. FeistCosplay and the video game industryGetting started in the video game industryShadow of the Tomb Raider sneak preview Thumbnail Image Source: Meagan Marie Tomb Raider Legends shoot – LJinto

It seems like it was just yesterday when all the Spyro rumours were making waves on the internet. Fans burst with excitement when a trailer finally came out regarding the beloved purple dragon. Sadly, that excitement will have to be dialled down as the Spyro Reignited Trilogy will come out a few weeks later than originally planned. The head of the studio Toys for Bob, Paul Yan, confirmed via a blog post that the Spyro Reignited Trilogy for PS4 and Xbox One will be released on the 13th of November, 2018. This may come to sad news to some, but rest assured, the developer delayed the game in order to give it “more love and care.” Personally, I would rather have the three-week delay knowing the game is going to be polished than to have them rush it out and kill my childhood memories. It is clear that Toys for Bob know just how much fans love the purple dragon and want to make sure we get a product that satisfies our needs. Let's just hope the delay was worth it. The game has already received negative fan feedback for requiring you to download the second and third game additionally after purchase. The exact size of the download remains to be seen, but one can only hope it doesn’t eat up too much space on our hard drives.