We are headed into a week that will, no doubt, be filled with huge news. It’s Gamescom week — and the Destiny 2: The Final Shape’s reveal will be leading the week as well.

Excited? Last week was no slouch either:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (I’m tired of typing it in these updates, tbh) got its full, official reveal — finally. Check the trailer below, but here’s a need-to-know briefing:

  • Campaign will be about “making choices.” According to Activision: “…a full Campaign of action-packed operations ranging from signature, cinematic experiences to free-form Open Combat Missions, resulting in more player choice than ever before.”

  • All 16 launch maps from MW2 have been “modernized”. New modes and gameplay features will be available at launch.

  • Over 12 all-new, “core” six-versus-six (6v6) maps.

  • ZOMBIES! Yea, it’s worth capitalizing because the modes are always pretty cool. “Modern Warfare Zombies (MWZ)” is a new story from Treyarch; new missions, features, and more.

  • If you want the heavy detail, here’s the official blog.

  • Releases November 10th with campaign and beta early access as soon as November 2nd.

• Baldur’s Gate 3 is clearly on its way to challenge all for a Game of the Year 2023 spot. The lengthy RPG took reviewers a while to score, but it’s currently got a 96 out of 100 on Metacritic. Steam Charts is still showing that PC version alone hitting ~800,000 live concurrent players after weeks of being out. That means the unique PC player base is likely massive. PlayStation 5 gets its date with the RPG epic on September 6, 2023 — now officially a solid competitor to Xbox’s long-awaited Starfield exclusive.

• Overwatch 2’s director acknowledged the Steam review-bombs…but in style. He posted a mostly-celebratory blog, saying they saw many new players and that despite PVE’s smaller, episodic cutdown, there’s a lot more to come.

  • “We can keep adding to and improving Overwatch 2. That is how we move forward. This means more maps, heroes, game modes, missions, stories, events, cool cosmetics, and features - an ever-expanding, evolving, and improving game. This is the future of Overwatch.” - Aaron Keller, Overwatch 2 Game Director

• Bungie more fully acknowledged the style of it’s third, known game in development. A studio once known “only for Halo” and “only working on Destiny 2” has now been acquired by PlayStation for billions, announced an extraction shooter, inpsired and named after the setting from its age-old Marathon game, and now it describes what most assume has been known as project “Matter.” 

  • Bungie posted on Twitter about hiring for the title, saying: “One of our favorite incubation projects is a team-based action game inspired by several genres in a brand-new, science-fantasy universe. It draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games, wrapped up in a lighthearted, comedic world.”

• Batman: Arkham Trilogy’s Nintendo Switch’s port finally has a release date: October 13th.

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage must be in good shape — it got bumped up to release on October 5th. Or, maybe, Ubisoft is just trying to find a less-crowded release spot.

• Speaking of which… Alan Wake 2 got delayed smartly-pushed forward to October 27th, 2023. Thank goodness. It was previously competing with Spider-Man 2, Lord of the Fallen, Super Mario Wonder and more. (You’ll still never finish all those games in two weeks, kekekekekeke)

• NHL 24 will be out October 6th for PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

• Destiny 2’s annual Showcase is on August 22nd around 9AM PT. It will bring a more complete reveal of The Final Shape and, no doubt, many quality of life improvements and other big promises coming to the MMO-inspired shooter. You can watch it along with me and earn an in-game emblem in the process. http://www.twitch.tv/FM3_ 

  • Disclosure: I am a sponsored Bungie creator for the Showcase co-stream. I’ve been playing the game for ~9 years, though, so it should come as no surprise I am excited to watch the big event regardless.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Reveal Trailer

Immortals of Aveum - Launch Trailer

NHL 24 - Reveal Trailer

Battlefield 2024 - Season 6 First Look

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