E3 2018 - The mega success of PUBG and Fortnite has seen DICE obsessed with the Battle Royale game mode, with the team announcing 'Royale' for Battlefield V during E3.

The official Battlefield Twitter account teases that Royale for Battlefield V is "reimagined with the core pillars of destruction, team play, and vehicles. It will be unlike anything you've played before, and we'll have more to talk about later this year". Sounds exciting to me, especially since we're not that far away from the release of Battlefield V.

If you thought this was EA shoving Royale down DICE's throats, you're wrong. It was actually DICE developers that had been playing Fortnite and PUBG and falling in love with Battle Royale that they developed Royale for Battlefield V. Normally it's the big bad studio that makes the developers throw in something that they otherwise didn't want to, just because it was popular (money maker), but to hear it was DICE's love of Battle Royale makes my heart warm.

Not only did CD Projekt RED "hack" Microsoft's E3 2018 stream, but they threw in a neat little secret message to fans in the latest Cyberpunk 2077 trailer.

It's been a bit since the new Cyberpunk 2077 trailer hit, but I'm still kind of reeling from its promises of exotic, gritty techno-punk action in a city overrun with flying cars. Cyberpunk 2077 is the biggest game the Polish devs have ever worked on and the new footage shows that quite clearly. Apart from the obvious hype-building visuals, the trailer actually contains a nice little nod from the devs at CDPR.

The message, stylized as a hack overlay, reinforces some info we already know about the game. Cyberpunk 2077 won't have microtransactions, CDPR confirms (but it could still have online elements to help buffer the enormous resources required for its huge living, breathing cities), but the studio still has no clue just when it'll launch. The company's recent fiscal reports say Cyberpunk 2077 should launch in 2021 alongside a new AAA RPG, however.

Cyberpunk 2077 finally gets a new trailer that shows off CD Projekt RED's incredibly ambitious vision.

We've been covering Cyberpunk 2077's developments for a while now, and we've been able to piece together some interesting tidbits over the years. Despite having an idea of what to expect--flying cars, living breathing cities, advanced AI--nothing really prepared me for what CD Projekt RED today dropped at Microsoft's E3 2018 presser: literally one of the best video game trailers I've ever seen.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an exotic world that's dripping with high-tech, neon-lit flavor. In many ways it seems like a fantasy world (or an AI's fever dream) whose technology is too accelerated for its own good. Citizens run amok wielding advanced guns, glowing outfits, and generally wreaking havoc wherever and however they can. While the trailer wasn't actually gameplay footage and instead used in-engine visuals, it still is something to marvel at and gives fans more than an idea of what to expect from CDPR's massive new game.

343 Industries is busily working on the next Halo game, which is codenamed "Infinite".

Halo didn't steal Microsoft's E3 2018 press conference like I had hoped. Instead of a triumphant demo that caused explosive yells from the audience, 343i showed off an engine tech teaser for its newest Slipspace Engine, which is powering the latest Halo project. Halo Infinite will continue Master Chief's journey past Halo 5 and should round out the Reclaimer Trilogy.

"In Halo Infinite we will join Master Chief on his most epic journey to save humanity," said Xbox division head Phil Spencer.

Bethesda's new Fallout 76 game will be absolutely massive, but no new details on its reported online mode were revealed.

Fallout 76 received a nice presence at Microsoft's E3 2018 showcase, including some new gameplay footage and a few meaty tidbits from Bethesda's Todd Howard. The exec confirmed a detail we already knew--the new Fallout is a prequel set 25 years after the Great War and before the original games--but we still have no clue if it's actually an experimental online survival RPG or not. But we do know it'll be absolutely huge.

"Fallout 76 is a prequel to all the other games. And it's our biggest one yet. Fallout 76 is four times the size of Fallout 4. Set in the hills of West Virginia, you are one of the first to emerge into an untamed and very different wasteland," Howard said on stage.

A batch of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey screenshots has been accidentally leaked ahead of E3 2018.

Ubisoft has confirmed its new Assassin's Creed game is called Odyssey and that it'll take place in ancient Greece, likely during the region's tumultuous battle with the Persian Empire. But aside from tidbits gleaned from a brief teaser and some images, no actual information has been unveiled by the publisher--it's of course waiting for its big E3 stage event.

In recent tradition, key details about the game have been leaked ahead of schedule. New Assassin's Creed: Odyssey screenshots were discovered by Gematsu on a German website's server, and assuming authenticity, they show quite a bit of info. Odyssey looks a lot like last year's excellent Hellenistic Egypt-based Origins insofar as visuals and overall mechanics--combat, UI, skill trees, inventory menus and environments all look close to Origins.

After many delays and setbacks, Kingdom Hearts III is finally coming early next year.

Kingdom Hearts III will release on January 29, 2019, the game's official Twitter account today announced. Originally due out in 2018, the massively anticipated RPG was hit with yet another delay to ensure optimum polish and performance as is so often the case in the games industry.

Originally confirmed at E3 2013, Kingdom Hearts III's development cycle has been tumultuous. The internal team at Square Enix made the decision to shift the game over to the Unreal Engine 4 which caused more delays. Tetsuya Nomura also confirmed that the dev team had limited personnel to work on the project--with less manpower the game would take more time to make.

EA's new Origin Access Premiere subscription will give instant access to the publishers newest games, similar to Microsoft's popular Game Pass service.

Origin Access Premiere costs $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and subscribers get full access to EA's new games like Anthem and Battlefield V as well as the original selection of vault titles. The service is currently exclusive to PC. Users also get unlimited trials of upcoming EA games, as well as five-day early access to all new titles.

"Origin Access Premiere will bring you all of our new PC games, starting with Madden NFL 19, back on the PC for the first time in over a decade, then FIFA 19, Battlefield V, and of course Anthem. And they'll be many more titles for the years to come," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during the company's E3 press conference.

Anthem will be due out a month earlier than originally planned, but still fits the early 2019 timeframe set by EA.

BioWare's big new online action RPG Anthem will release on February 22, 2019, EA today announced. Company CFO Blake Jorgensen recently affirmed the game would release in the "last month of our fiscal year," which pointed to a March launch, but the extra month will give EA a nice buffer for sales and potential monetization.

Speaking of monetization, BioWare said Anthem will rake in additional revenues via cosmetics only. Lootboxes won't be present, and gamers can't buy items that directly affect gameplay or make them more powerful. All cosmetics will be straightforward and players will know "exactly what you'll buy before you spend money," BioWare's Mark Darrah said.

Anthem, BioWare's massive new shared-worlds IP, won't have lootboxes of any kind.

Despite lootboxes bringing in billions across the industry, BioWare's latest flying mech-shooter will be monetized via cosmetics only. This aligns with recent predictions from analysts and confirms that Anthem will have a recurring hook.

"We are going to have some cosmetics and vanity items that you'll be able to purchase, but you're always going to know what you'll get before you spend any money on it," BioWare's Mark Darrah said at EA Play 2018.