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At E3 2015, Microsoft presented a neat cinematic trailer for a game called ReCore, an exclusive from Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune and the team behind Metroid Prime. One year later, with the game’s launch right around the corner, we finally know what ReCore really is, or at least what it will try to be; the new Legend of Zelda for a new generation of players who grew up with shooter and RPG elements baked into all of their games.
E3 2016: 7 ways Breath of the Wild is reimagining The Legend of Zelda series
In ReCore, players control Joule, one of the last humans in a desert wasteland called Far Eden. She travels with a cadre of AI companions, represented by colorful glowing “cores” slotted into different animal-esque robotic bodies, such as a dog, spider, and ape. Though the reasons behind Joule’s journey remain unclear, its form will feel very familiar. A section from mid-way through the game, called the “Core Foundry,” plays out like an action-RPG dungeon. Joule and her AI companion move from room to room, fighting waves of enemies, before completing a combination of puzzles and platforming challenges.
Joule always has an AI-controlled bot backing her up, and players can switch them out any time. The various companion cores effectively serve as a Metroidvania-style tool belt, adding various abilities you’ll need to get around. In the Core Foundry, for example, Joule’s spider-bot Mack can run along tracks on the walls and ceilings, allowing her to navigate to new platforms and providing a speed boost before a long jump. Joule can double-jump and dash in mid-air, as well, and the game forces you to land long jumps using all of your skills deliberately.
In combat, ReCore plays out like a hybrid of Zelda and an RPG shooter like those in the Borderlands franchise. Joule carries a large rifle, which can rapidly fire a stream of bullets, as well as a charged energy ball that can stun enemies or, in some cases, prevent them from regenerating health. Joule’s robot companions also get into the mix, and have their own distinctive “lethal” attack, which they use at your command.
The combat takes as many cues from action games and RPGs as it does from shooters, however. Enemies generally take more than a few shots to go down, and holding your fire on an enemy prompts a stream of numbers indicating damage. Joule also earns experience and levels up over time to add that satisfying feedback of giving and taking more damage as the game goes on. That progression feels a bit superficial, though, as there’s no indication as to whether Joule’s progression will unlock new skills or abilities. Even if there are unlocks or some kind of skill tree, it seems unlikely that those skills lead to choices that will have a substantial effect on how you play.
Luckily, There’s more to combat than simply shooting robots until their life bar hits zero. Like her companions, Joule’s enemies will often be robots powered by bright glowing cores. Thankfully, Joule can swap the “affinity” — aka the color — of her bullets, to match her enemies and do more damage. The system will also force you to swap AI companions, often to take advantage of both their affinities and special skills. Players can also lock on to specific enemies, prompting a Zelda- or Fable-esque dodge-and-attack style of fighting. You can break and reset that focus at any time by moving your reticle, which comes in handy when fighting waves of enemies, but can also lead to some accidental focus-swapping, which can be a problem when you’re fighting multiple types of enemies at once.
In general, ReCore feels like a known quantity. Everything about it seems well-made and deliberate, but there isn’t a hook — mechanical or aesthetic — that makes the game feel particularly fresh. At the same time, classical platforming is surprisingly hard to find these days, especially in large action games, which increasingly rely on guided free-running and free-climbing mechanics. ReCore may wind up separating itself from the pack just enough to be refreshing.
ReCore comes to Xbox One and Windows 10 on September 13.
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.