As I sat down for one of EA‘s closed-door presentations of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it didn’t take long for me to sense the excitement in the air. Despite this being a hands-off presentation of the game’s first hour, it was hard not to notice the plastered smiles and excited whispers coming from my fellow writers and content creators to the left and right of me. And this makes sense; it’s been a decade since players have gotten their hands on a new Dragon Age, and BioWare‘s other offerings over the past 10 years weren’t exactly slam dunks.

With the game’s director, Corrine Busche, guiding us through the first hour of the game, it became clear that the dev team was looking to open up the world of Dragon Age to all types of players, from more casual newcomers to those who logged countless hours across the franchise’s other titles. Of course, as you’d expect from most western RPGs at this point, the presentation kicked off with an overview of the character creator.

Your Character

Now, if I’m being honest, spending an hour or two obsessing over my character’s and eye color and facial scars is not something I normally place a lot of importance on, but I know I’m probably in the minority on that. To their credit though, BioWare looks to have spend a lot time and effort to craft a robust character creation system, even going so far as to make sure skin tones and hair styles look great throughout the course of your adventure.

“We wanted to make sure skin tones were well represented,” Corrine explained, “including the under hues that influence how our skin shows up under different lighting conditions, even controlling for levels of melanin.”

And I have to admit, the end result looked rather good, thanks in part to the ability to look at your character under several different lighting conditions representative of in-game locales and settings. It only took a few minutes to throw together a great looking character, and there are plenty of presets and randomizers at your disposal should you want to get into the game in as little time as possible.

Your Combat

While Dragon Age: The Veilguard only features three core classes (Rogue, Warrior, and Mage), Corrine explained that each one can pick from different specializations to better align with one’s intended playstyle.

“Each class has three bespoke and unique specializations that are really classes unto themselves. The duelist plays much different to the saboteur, who prefers to use gadgets, turrets and bombs. The Veil Ranger is my personal favorite [Rogue] specialization, as it prioritizes the bow arrow and can magically infuse arrows. Now, each of these specializations are unique per class, and are backed up by an incredibly robust skill tree which is also unique per class. It really allows you to customize and curate how you exist and how your gameplay experience plays out to your tastes.”

Admittedly, I was a bit surprised to see the combat adopting a stronger focus on action — if you’ve checked out any footage of the game in action, you’ll probably notice how the camera is a bit closer to your player, lending a more intimate feel that I normally associate with third-person action-adventure games. It’s a noticeable difference compared to say the first or second Dragon Age, but BioWare has taken some steps to provide options for those who prefer a slower-paced, strategic experience.

Sure, you can’t control your companions directly, but along with firing off abilities using more recognizable button combos, you can also use any of these abilities by pulling up an ability wheel. This completely pauses the game, which helps to slow down the sometimes frantic pace for those who would rather not deal with juggling their companions in real time.

Your Companions

If you’re a purist who’s worried that The Veilguard isn’t your grandfather’s Dragon Age, you’ll be delighted to hear that the battle-tested dialogue and companion system from previous games is back in full force. Completely separate from class or species, you’ll be able to select a backstory for your created character, which also unlocks new dialogue options that are unique to that background.

As you’d come to expect, being able to choose your own dialogue can have both short-term and long-term impacts, whether it’s affecting how specific plot arcs unfold, or influencing how your companions think about and treat you. For those of you who are far more in touch with Dragon Age’s lore than I am, you’ll probably get a kick out of seeing fan-favorites like Varric or Harding, who serve as your companions (along with a few other new characters).

While I’m by no means concerned, one niggling thought that I couldn’t get rid of was that The Veilguard might be trying to appease too wide of an audience, losing its uniqueness and core identity in the process. That being said, if there’s a studio capable of striking a careful balance like this, BioWare would be a top contender — and I’m certainly hoping that they are propelled back into the AAA game dev spotlight when Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases this fall.

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Oh, there are also guns. And grappling hooks. And you can decapitate your enemies. Yeah, if it wasn’t obvious already, let’s just get it out of the way: Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a bit bonkers.

And to be clear, that’s not a bad thing. Ubisoft’s flagship franchise is nearly 20 years old at this point, and while it’s certainly showing no signs of slowing down, one could argue that the series could use a bit of a shakeup. While stealth and free-running play first fiddle in the vast majority of Assassin’s Creed titles, recent entries like Odyssey and Valhalla have gone the opposite direction, putting an emphasis on combat and exploration and stripping away the core mechanics that helped put Assassin’s Creed on the map all those years ago.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks to offer up the best of both worlds, and it’s pulling this off by revisiting the idea of having two protagonists. This time around, however, these aren’t simply reskins of the same character. Instead, Shadows puts players in the shoes (boots? I’ll be honest, I don’t know what samurai and shinobi wear) of Naoe, a female ninja who is trying to find her place in a rapidly evolving world, and Yusuke, a foreign-born samurai warrior who is simultaneously accepted and isolated in his new surroundings.

While I didn’t get a chance to go hands-on with Shadows, a few developers from Ubisoft Quebec walked us through the same section of gameplay to really hammer home just how different these two characters feel. Starting with Yusuke, it only took a few seconds to see how differently he is perceived by others. Shortly after arriving in the bustling castle town of Fukuchiyama, he’s met with an equal mix of reverence and fear; some townsfolk might bow in his presence, while others cower away in fear. Of course, it only took a minute or two before Yusuke found himself in combat with a few corrupt samurai, and this is when Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s brutality comes to light.

I won’t beat around the bush –– Yusuke hits like a tank, and the developers have not tried to downplay the gore. Starting out with his kanabo (translation: giant, two-handed war club), Yusuke quickly laid waste to his fellow samurai, with a few heads literally rolling on the ground by the end of it (I also caught a glimpse of a nearby oblivious NPC accidentally catching a devastating swing directly to his face, though as he flew off screen, I wasn’t sure if this was intended or not). All of this power does, as you’d expect, come with its own tradeoffs. Yusuke is a noticeably slow fighter, and while switching to his katana does speed him up a smidgen, he’s nowhere near as graceful or fluid as Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin.

And that’s where Naoe comes in. When infiltrating the town’s castle to assassinate a corrupt daimyo (read: Feudal Japan-era lord), she can make full use of the abilities you’ve come to associate with the series. As a nimble and light ninja, Naoe can hop across rooftops, scale walls, and use her grappling hook for both non-lethal takedowns and hiding on ceilings. She also has a few weapons to complement her hidden blade (the kusarigama, in particular, is a favorite of mine), and she has a few new stealth moves of her own, including crawling through shallow water while remaining hidden, complete with breathing through a bamboo reed.

On the second play-through of this same mission, I got to see how playing as Yusuke would unfold. True to his hulking size, Yusuke cannot hop from rooftop to rooftop or parkour his way to success, instead opting to systematically walk through the castle’s interior grounds, decimating anyone who comes in his way, whether it be with his trusty war club or his slightly-more-modern rifle. Oh yes, there are guns in this game, I wasn’t kidding when I wrote that earlier.

And it’s this dichotomy that has piqued our interest in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The franchise has previously explored swapping out stealth and free-running in favor of more direct combat, but it’s never tried to include both of these distinct playstyles into one cohesive experience. And yes, while this is accomplished by simply giving the player the option to swap between Yusuke and Naoe, the world Ubisoft Quebec has crafted looks to take both of these playstyles into account. Where Naoe would silently climb over a locked gate, Yusuke would barrel right through it. When she decides to pick off enemies from afar with her trusty kunai, he opts to beat them to a bloody pulp, sending their bodies (and, sometimes, heads) flying through the air.

It’s not entirely clear whether Assassin’s Creed Shadows will succeed in having its cake and eating it too, but it certainly looks like Ubisoft might pull it off, and I can’t wait to determine that for myself when the game launches on November 15.

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Booting up Braid, Anniversary Edition was, dare I say it, a bit like going back in time. Its opening moments — from the flickering, fiery logo to the foreboding opening track — instantly transported me back to 2008. Nostalgia can be a powerful drug but also a sobering one. As I flew through the game’s opening levels on autopilot (a side effect of having played through the original a dozen or so times), I began to realize just how much time had passed since Braid made its mark on the world. While it might be standard operating procedure at this point, Braid was one of the first few games that showcased the viability of independent, digital indie projects, ushering in a wave of new classics such as Bastion and Super Meat Boy.

Much like how the original made us rethink the fundamentals of distribution and project scope, Braid, Anniversary Edition tries to do the same with what we’ve come to expect from remasters and re-releases. While it’s become commonplace to take a last-get game, dial up the graphics settings, add some “new” content salvaged from the cutting room floor, and charge full price for it, Braid, Anniversary Edition isn’t content with simply rehashing the basics. In fact, this might be one of the most fully-fledged re-releases we’ve seen in years — more on that in a little bit.

For those who aren’t familiar with the original release, here’s a bit of a refresher. Braid is a puzzle platformer of sorts, though, depending on who you ask, trying to neatly fit it into a single box is a bit of a fool’s errand. When I first played it, back when I was a teenager and hadn’t forayed into the world of games media and game dev, I’d have described it as a neat little indie game that marries traditional platforming with time manipulation. More than 15 years later, I could probably spend hours waxing poetic, but I’d also sum it up as a brilliant deconstruction of Super Mario Bros. that, above all, respects the player’s time and intelligence.

There’s also the matter of the game’s “story” (though I use that term rather loosely). A cursory Google Search will yield countless essays and critiques about Braid’s “meaning” and “metaphors,” and to be fair, a lot of these analyses do hold water. I won’t do a deep dive into what Braid means to me, largely because it’s one of those games that will mean something different to each person. To me, it’s a reflection on the circular nature of the choices we make, the consequences of those choices, and how our regrets and (oft-warped) memories shape our future choices. On the other hand, some cultural luminaries, such as the venerable Soulja Boy, have completely different interpretations of developer Jonathan Blow’s timeless classic.

Regardless of what Braid might mean (or does mean) to you, my recommendation is simple: if you have yet to give it a go for yourself, Braid, Anniversary Edition is the best jumping-off point for you to dive in. For those who’ve already embarked on their own journey of bending time and saving princesses, I still strongly recommend giving this one a go, but for wholly different reasons.

The massive jump in resolution, new environmental effects and animations, as well as the remixed sound, would be enough of a reason for most to shell out for a remaster, but Braid, Anniversary Edition takes things even further. After trying to shoehorn in commentary nodes into the game’s existing levels, Blow went in the complete opposite direction, adding 40 or so brand new levels that were designed in tandem with the detailed behind-the-scenes commentary he and his team were looking to add.

These new pack-ins are available from the get-go, and it’s hard to overstate just how in-depth the developer insights are. While some are relatively straightforward and shed light on the origins of the game and its mechanics, others take the form of technical deep dives, digging into bitmap compression and unpacking, the physics, and math that govern the game’s rules and systems, and so much more.

Admittedly, some of these topics won’t be as easily digestible by all players, but the dozen or so hours of developer commentary to dig through is well worth the price of admission, and there’s a satisfying interplay as you play through a level that reflects the commentary you’re actively listening to. Admittedly, the way it’s all organized and split up can be a bit confusing to navigate, and a simplified checklist would have gone a long way in making sure you don’t miss any of it.

Putting aside that minor issue, the most divisive thing about Braid, Anniversary Edition might be how little of the core package has changed. Aside from the visual facelift, the core mechanics and gameplay are just as they were back in 2008, and that more or less dictates who this remaster is for. Those who were turned off by Braid’s strictly linear progression and uncompromising puzzles are unlikely to have a change of heart all these years later. For longtime fans or those who have yet to experience this timeless classic for themselves, Braid, Anniversary Edition is a must-play.

Disclosure: Review copy was provided by Thekla.

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For fans of Capcom’s long-running Ace Attorney series, the last few years have been rather hit or miss. On the one hand, a collection of the first three games in the series was finally ported to modern platforms (freeing them from the shackles of mobile and handheld devices), and the two Great Ace Attorney games (which were previously Japan-exclusive) were localized and released for western audiences. On the other hand, it’s been close to a decade since we’ve seen a brand-new release in the mainline series, with Capcom going radio silent about the possibility of a seventh game.

In what we can only hope is a peace offering to tide us over, the fourth, fifth, and sixth entries have been given a fresh coat of paint and bundled together in the oddly-named Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (more on the weird choice of name in a minute). For anyone who played the first Ace Attorney Trilogy, you’ll more or less know what to expect here: higher-res graphics, modernized UI, and a slew of quality-of-life features.

Aside from being able to jump into any game, episode, or chapter (intended play order be damned), players who only want to experience the story can turn on Story Mode, which lets you take it easy while the game plays itself for you by solving puzzles, interrogating witnesses, and collecting evidence. For those who don’t have a penchant for jamming on the X button for hours on end, you can also choose to have the game advance the dialogue for you, with a conversation log available should you want to re-read lines that you glossed over initially. Granted, these inclusions are far from revolutionary, but they are certainly leaps and bounds ahead of what was available on the original DS and 3DS versions.

While Apollo Justice appears front and center on this trilogy’s box art and name, only one of the three included titles features him as the main protagonist. Having originally released back in 2008 for the Nintendo DS, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has more in common with the original trilogy compared to the two games that came after it. Granted, every mainline entry is split up between investigative phases and court trials, but Apollo Justice’s debut was, and still is, a 2D affair, save for a few sections where you examine evidence in 3D.

As you’d expect, the original artwork and sprites have been remastered for high-definition displays, and while I’ll always miss the pixelated look of the original, it’s hard to deny how slick this one looks when blown up on a big screen with proper support for 16:9 aspect ratios. It goes without saying; even fifteen years after its original debut, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney still impresses. Unlike its predecessors, this one throws you right into the deep end with its tutorial case, weaving together several unanswered questions that are slowly unraveled throughout the subsequent three episodes. Apollo’s ability to “perceive” when witnesses are lying makes for interesting moments, with a suspect’s nervous twitch or tick often tying directly into their testimony. And of course, this game introduced us to the iconic Papa Phoenix. What’s not to love?

The other two games in this trilogy — Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice — bring about some of the biggest changes the series has seen. For starters, the pair are the first games to feature fully-rendered 3D environments and characters, eschewing the tried-and-true sprites and fixed camera angles for a more dynamic, modern look. Having originally launched on the 3DS, this shift in visual style was met with mixed reception. The most diehard purists will likely not be swayed by these remasters, but the move to more powerful hardware lets Capcom’s artwork and animations truly shine. If you were ever put off by Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice’s low-res presentation on the 3DS, the Apollo Justice trilogy might just sway your opinion with the bump in resolution.

Speaking of Apollo Justice, while he certainly plays a key role across all three of these games, he takes a bit more of a backseat in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice. Not only does Phoenix Wright return as a playable character, but newcomer Athena Cykes has joined the legal team. Where Phoenix and Apollo used their mystical magatama and bracelet to deduce when someone is being less than truthful, Athena makes use of an AI companion and a program dubbed the “Mood Matrix,” letting her pick up on subtle emotional cues and finding discrepancies between what a witness’ testimony and their emotional state. It’s a welcome addition (and thankfully, one that isn’t overused) that adds a new layer to the franchise’s tried-and-true trial and interrogation mechanics.

Spirit of Justice also makes use of each of the protagonist’s special abilities, while also throwing another wrinkle into the mix — Divination Séances. The original trio of Ace Attorney games had several plotlines centered around spirit mediums and communicating with the dead, but Spirit of Justice fully embraces this idea with Divination Séances, which lets you see the final moments through the eyes of the murder victim. If all of this sounds a bit off the wall, that’s because it is, though the devs do try to make it all sound plausible. While previous games in the franchise featured an interesting hodgepodge of Japanese culture thrown into an American setting, Spirit of Justice takes place abroad in the Kingdom of Khura’in, which itself is heavily inspired by the Eastern Himalayas. It took well over a decade, but Spirit of Justice does go out of its way to at least justify the series’ (sometimes) bizarre mix of criminal justice and spirit channeling.

Even though I’ve played every game in the Ace Attorney series (many of them more than once), it’s hard not to be enamored with what the Apollo Justice trilogy offers. Being able to relive the trials and tribulations (pun intended)of Phoenix and company without the friction of having to dig out aging handheld systems or emulate on PC is a godsend, and the numerous quality-of-life additions and bonus pack-ins are icing on top of the cake — along with a bevy of art assets and soundtracks to look over and listen too, all of the DLC costumes and episodes from the 3DS games are included, alongside an animation studio where you can throw together your own vignettes using character models, animations, in-game music, and voice lines.

If there’s one criticism I think will be levied against this new collection of games, it’s that, at the end of the day, it’s simply more of the same. Series diehards and more casual fans will undoubtedly find a lot to like here, and I certainly hope it’s a sign that we’ll be seeing much more of the Ace Attorney franchise in the coming years. For those who weren’t sold on the original trio of Phoenix Wright games, this second collection won’t do much to sway your opinion.

Disclosure: Review copy was provided by Capcom.

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