Though we’ve been waiting for Dreams to come out for years now, thanks to its ongoing beta, many players have had the chance to try out its extensive creation tools. Media Molecule games are, of course, pretty much known for the versatility they offer by way of user generated content, and Dreams seems to be their most ambitious project yet in that regard. How ambitious?

Of the people currently playing the Dreams beta, a few have recently taken to Twitter to showcase clips of stuff that they’ve created using the game’s tools. First off is Twitter user Sergeant Bike, who has made a surprisingly impressive recreation of the iconic PT hallway, complete with the spooky sound effects and radio broadcast in the background. Another user, Cal Gee, showcases a clip of another user (@RhodoTweet) having given similar treatment to survival horror fan-favourite Dead Space. Both of them evoke the looks and styles of the actual games surprisingly well (though of course are not 1:1 accurate).

Considering the fact that both PT and Dead Space are now dead in the water, this is the next best thing we can hope for right now. Take a look at both of them below- they’re quite impressive. They also go to show just how much depth and flexibility the creation tools in Dreams will offer- though I’m pretty sure we were all expecting that to be the case either way.

https://twitter.com/sergeantbike/status/1086841845009793024

https://twitter.com/thecalgee/status/1087717462538358785

I don’t think there is any publisher that is as controversial for core gamers right now as EA is, especially after they ruined Mass Effect and Star Wars Battlefront within the span of eight months. But that wasn’t all they did this year- they also closed down fan favorite studio Visceral, the folks behind Dead Space, and who had been working on an Uncharted-like Star Wars game for a while, now.

Explaining the decision to shutter the studio at the Credit Suisse 21st Annual Technology conference, Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said that the game, which was going to be a very linear title, didn’t look economically feasible to the studio, since apparently, “people don’t like linear games as much today”. It was, therefore, an economic decision to close the studio, though EA is trying to retain as much of the studio’s personnel as it can by absorbing them into other units.

I think that in general, the point might be right, as demonstrated, sadly, by the Wolfenstein 2 flop- but does EA really think that a cinematic action game based on Star Wars would not have sold enough? Really?

EA Play 2017 is in the books and while Electronic Arts showcased Anthem, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and A Way Out along with its usual sports games, Visceral’s untitled Star Wars game was conspicuously absent.

The game was first teased last year in a short video but it’s worth noting that the publisher never confirmed we’d be seeing it. On Twitter, director Amy Hennig revealed that the reason Visceral’s game skipped the show is because the focus was on Battlefront 2.

“It’s #Battlefront2’s year – very proud of our friends at DICE and Motive! We’re still hard at work on our game, though, have no fear,” she said. While Hennig is working on the story with LucasFilm, Todd Stashwick of Uncharted fame is co-writing. The studio is also receiving help from EA Motive, headed up by Jade Raymond.

As for Star Wars: Battlefront 2, it will be released on November 17th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Unlike its predecessor, there won’t be a Season Pass – instead, the game’s post-launch content will be free and divided into “seasons” with the first focusing on The Last Jedi in December.

It has largely been held that Visceral’s new upcoming game is an open world RPG, being worked on by Amy Hennig and Jade Raymond. These indications have been based on some internal leaks, as well as job listings, which have all pointed towards the game being some kind open world action RPG.

However, if f the game’s co-writer, Todd Stashwick, is to be believed, then our implicit assumptions about what the game may be have been wrong. Speaking on a recent podcast from Geekleagueofamerica, Stashwick made some remarks that seem to discount the possibility of that open world RPG.

“If you believe the internet, the internet thinks that we’re doing an open-world, RPG, Han-Solo game, and none of that is anything that we talked about”, Stashwick said.“We have not released any details about our game.”

He does not, of course, explicitly deny an open world RPG, but he does very specifically bring it up himself to shoot down the idea, when it was not something he needed to touch- generally, companies and employees don’t even comment on projects and ideas currently under development internally, so that makes the context for his remarks that much more interesting.

What is this new Star Wars game, then? We don’t know yet- but hopefully we find out more at E3 this year.

We may not be getting another Star Wars: Knights of the Republic game soon (even though with EA owning both, Bioware and the Star Wars license, it makes so much sense), but that doesn’t mean we won’t be getting another Star Wars RPG, period. Apparently, EA’s Visceral studio will be working on a brand new open world Star Wars RPG, headed by Ubisoft alum Jade Raymond, and Naughty Dog’s Amy Hennig. Or a massive, open world adventure game set in the Star Wars universe, at any rate.

We’ve known that Visceral is working on some sort of Star Wars game for a while now – EA have not exactly been coy about that – but this is the first indication that we have gotten about what the game may be like. A new job listing hints at some of the things that Visceral may be targeting in their new title.

Before we post any excerpts from the job listing, I feel it is my duty to remind you, as always, that job listings should never be taken as confirmation of anything that will appear in a final product. They are always written in hyperbolic, excitable language, their aim is to get someone to apply for a job, they’re basically worthless, misleading advertisements as far as the final product is concerned.

That said, if you’re smart enough, you can still read between the lines, and figure out some of the stuff that may be on the cards for this new game:

“Experience working on 3rd person action/adventure games, demonstrating major contributions in the areas of hero control schemes, enemy design, navigation mechanics, and combat,” the job listing reads. “Experience working with a game engine and using scripting tools to assemble heroes, enemies, AI, and interactive objects by collecting and implementing animations, models, audio, and effects into one complete system. Extensive understanding of the systems design process including motion models, weapons tuning and feel, enemy concept and design, tools/upgrades, economy, balance, testing, etc.”

It sounds like it will be a fairly elaborate open world game- which sounds like something right up Raymond’s alley, who headed up the launches of the Assassin’s Creed games at Ubisoft, alongside Watch Dogs and Far Cry 3. Hopefully, it can live up to its heritage- Star Wars RPGs have been incredibly good in the past, and this new one has its work cut out for it.

Jade Raymond, formerly of Ubisoft has just announced that she has joined the team at Electronic Arts. Raymond will be heading a brand new studio, called Motive and will be based out of Canada. The video game veteran has been a bit adrift since she left Ubisoft last year. She had been the long time producer of that company’s Assassin’s Creed games right up until her departure.

Raymond announced the move in a quick blog post and said that she had joined to company in order to work on something “entirely new.” She added that her new Motive team is going to be working in “close quarters” with the Bioware team that is currently working feverishly to finish up Mass Effect: Andromeda. While the obvious leap in logic would make us guess that she will be in on the second in this rebooted series, that “entirely new” comment seems to hint otherwise.

The first major IP that Raymond and Motive have confirmed will be a second Star Wars game, which is being helmed by Amy Hennig. The game is already in development by Visceral and Raymond will now be overseeing that development company through her role at Motive.  “I’m thrilled that the first big project that we will work on in Montreal will have Amy as Creative Director. An opportunity to work with her and the Visceral team, and to play in the Star Wars universe, is once-in-a-lifetime stuff.”

When Jade Raymond left Ubisoft, she said it was to pursue new opportunities and it appears her new role at Electronic Arts fits that bill.

Star Wars Battlefront may be the big Star Wars project coming from EA that is anticipated, but it’s not the only Star Wars game the publishing giant is working on; another Star Wars game is in development at Dead Space developer Visceral. That has been known for a while now, but what has not been known is just what the game is like, or what it will be about.

Now, thanks to industry veteran voice actor Nolan North, we know a teensy bit more about it. Speaking to the audience in a Q&A panel at MetroCon, North said, “If you’re a big fan of [former Naughty Dog developer] Amy Hennig and her style of story, she’s gone to EA and is going to reboot a brand new Star Wars franchise in the style of Uncharted. I happen to know a lot about it and it’s going to be awesome.”

Hennig, of course, quit Naughty Dog some time back amidst a cloud of speculation and controversy- if she is working on the new Star Wars game, it of course makes sense that it would have the DNA of the series that she helped plot to such an extent.

However, Uncharted is not the only thing this game will take inspiration from, apparently- when asked about the promising looking Star Wars 1313, a third person shooter that was in development at LucasArts right before the developer was forced to shut down, North also confirmed that Visceral’s game is “along the same lines.”

It certainly sounds intriguing, and is personally something I am more interested in seeing than Battlefront. Hopefully, we get to see it in action soon. When that happens, we will let you know. Stay tuned.

This new generation has been a bit of an anomaly in terms of how developers and consumers have chosen to transition to the newer consoles- unlike previous generations, where they would move on to the new consoles rather swiftly, and cease development for the older machines in a short timeframe, both developers and consumers have staunchly refused to let go of the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The result? Almost every major multiplatform game is still announced with a PS3 and Xbox 360 version.

The same was also the case for EA, DICE, and Visceral’s urban warfare reboot of Battlefield, Battlefield Hardline. It was made available for last gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles in addition to new gen ones. Apparently, though, that didn’t matter- EA is now reporting that 80% of the console sales of the game came from the PS4 and Xbox One versions anyway.

“Illustrating how far the [next gen] transition has come, four out of every five copies sold for consoles that were either Xbox One or PlayStation 4,” said EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen in a statement released alongside EA’s earnings report.

Personally, I hope this is a trend that is increasingly reflected industry wide- I don’t want the weaker last gen consoles holding back games any more.

Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the famed Gears of War series, and former Epic Games bigwig, has started doing this thing recently where he plays big releases, and livestreams them while he does, giving a running commentary of his honest opinions of the game as he plays through it. The first game he did it for was Ready at Dawn’s controversial The Order: 1886, and now, he has turned his sights on Battlefield: Hardline (although here, he is talking about it on Twitter rather than streaming).

After the first hour of playing the game, he appears to, however, be mostly impressed with it. His exact words? ‘I enjoyed the first hour of the campaign for Battlefield Hardline. I get the “cinematic cop show” vibe they’re going for, only wish there was more “doing” and less “watching.” Felt like out of that first hour I only really interacted for 15-20 minutes. And for AAA that’s a lot for the first hour, sadly, these days.’

Bleszinski certainly has a point about AAA releases lacking interactivity these days- one must only see the recent push towards ‘cinematic gaming’ to understand this trend. It is also worth noting that his is far from the only criticism the campaign has gotten- as a matter of fact, he appears to have gone softer on it than most review outlets did.

Unlike the (very) troubled launch of its predecessor, Battlefield: Hardline had a generally smooth launch, free of any online and connectivity issues, which had so plagued Battlefield 4. However, it appears that some people simply couldn’t stand the idea of that, as a DDoS attack targeted specifically at Battlefield Hardline was launched on Xbox Live for Xbox One.

Apparently, the issue was not widespread- very few people actually reported being unable to connect to the game’s servers last night when it did launch- and EA confirmed that the (contained) issues were because of a DDoS attack which it was now investigating.

On the whole, the DDoS attack aside, it is probably for the best that the game did not launch with any issues- the launch of Battlefield 4, which kicked off what seems to be a generation of broken or non functional AAA releases at launch (see also: DriveClub, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Destiny), was a massive disaster, and it is good to see EA having learned from that.

We can only hope they don’t rush out Star Wars Battlefront later this year, and give it a similar amount of time to gestate.