The wait has been long, but like an adventurer finishing a quest, the end may be in sight.
At the Monaco Anime Game International Conference 2017 (MAGIC 2017), developer Square Enix showed off screenshots of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts III.
At @MagicMonaco, #KH director Tetsuya Nomura spoke about his work & career and revealed this new #KH3 screenshot! pic.twitter.com/GzDiwOK01H
— KINGDOM HEARTS (@KINGDOMHEARTS) February 18, 2017
“This is the first time we show this screenshot of Kingdom Hearts III,” said director Tetsuya Nomura, via Gameblog.fr as translated by Gematsu. “It’s happening in Thebes, and they are fighting a new model of the Heartless. The Keyblade turns into a lot of things. Here it is a shield, but it can also be transformed into a chariot. This is called Power Form.”
Looks like Cloud has been spotted in this new #FFVII Remake screenshot Tetsuya Nomura revealed at @MagicMonaco pic.twitter.com/luANpLTUDI
— FINAL FANTASY (@FinalFantasy) February 18, 2017
While info on Kingdom Hearts III was light, there was more meat given to Final Fantasy VII Remake. “I’ve put a lot of attention into the combat system, and it’s going to happen without interruption. In meetings, we’ve had a lot of problems with the grenades,” said Monura. Friendly fire has also been turned off during combat, so grenades won’t hurt party members.
The Guard Scorpion looks like an even more formidable foe in the second #FFVII Remake screenshot shown for the first time at @MagicMonaco pic.twitter.com/GWaSIm5Cng
— FINAL FANTASY (@FinalFantasy) February 18, 2017
“Here is the first boss in the game. It’s a Scorpion, and the scenery will be partly destructible. Sorry, I asked to show a video, but the company refused. The menus are not yet final, but I will talk more on another occasion,” said Nomura.
Kingdom Hearts III was announced during E3 2013. Almost four years later, fans still have no idea when the game will come out. The previous entry in the mainline series, Kingdom Hearts II, was released in 2006. That’s a long time to wait for a sequel. Final Fantasy VII Remake was long rumored too, but was eventually revealed at E3 2015. Later that year it was announced that the game would be broken into an episodic series, much to the dismay of fans. Even with the piecemeal roll out, Square Enix has been quiet on any sort of release date.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.