Gaming: Pokémon Sword and Shield announce details; Watch Dogs Legion revealed; more

Today’s gaming roundup is like E3 before E3 really kicks into gear. Pre-3. E2, almost. It spans games as beloved and kid-friendly as Pokémon...and as mature and dark a tale of bloodsuckers as Vampire: The Masquerade.

But first, let’s focus on Nintendo. Giving one of their live-streamed Nintendo Directs on YouTube this morning, the game company dropped a ton of knowledge and a few new trailers about their upcoming Pokémon games Sword and Shield. Coming to the Nintendo Switch, the games take place in a new locale, based on England, where players will be able to search far and wide for new creatures to collect.

The video, seen below, introduced the concept of Dynamaxing, which makes a player’s monsters into gigantic battling titans for a few turns before they revert to normal.

This mechanic also allows for multiple players to team up in the game world in order to take down raid bosses: Pokémon that stay Dynamaxed throughout the fight. On top of introducing a handful of new Pokémon (including the legendary wolves Zacian and Zamazenta), the game also dropped a release date: Nov. 15. Fans can catch ‘em all this fall.

Next up, Ubisoft confirmed a leak going around the industry that it would be revealing the sequel Watch Dogs Legion at E3. The hacking-based franchise released its last game in 2016 and a new entry was set in stone thanks to the game’s official Twitter.

Check it out:

The phrase “God Save the NPCs” does seem to confirm elements of the leak, like its London setting and the ability of the player to take over and play as any of the game’s non-player characters. There are more rumors floating around about the game, but this is all that’s been made official...for now.

Fans only have to wait a few more days until the company’s E3 press conference on June 10 to find out all the details themselves.

Finally, the vampires are back. Vampire: The Masquerade is heading to the Switch and PC with a Telltale-like RPG called Vampire: The Masquerade — Coteries of New York, according to Polygon.

Developer Draw Distance is attempting to bring an “atmospheric narrative experience” to the vampiric franchise, according to the game’s Steam page. Explicitly inspired by Telltale games like The Walking Dead series, Coteries will have players choose between three clans in the ruling class as they deal with a group of upstart rabble. The game’s latest entry will be considered canonical across the video game and board game narrative thanks to a consolidation of lore (and companies) behind the franchise.

Vampire: The Masquerade — Coteries of New York will be released in the fourth quarter of 2019.