Crystal Dynamic's Avengers has a tough challenge to overcome. How do you gather some of Marvel's most iconic modern heroes into one game and balance their unique abilities with a cohesive and realistic combat system? How do you have characters like Thor and Black Widow fighting the same enemies without one feeling out of place? Sitting down to watch a 30-minute gameplay demo, these questions raced through my head. And I left with an answer that wasn't exactly satisfying.

Going forward, Microsoft isn’t looking to kick off the next generation of console gaming on the technical backfoot again.

The Lancer from Gears of War is one of the best weapons in video games, an unholy combination of close quarters combat and marksmanship, a device so deadly that it cannot possibly exist in real life because it’s just too awesome. The toy version though? That’s another story.

The one type of species that I love seeing the most of in Pokémon? Doggos! With hundreds of breeds out there, the canine gold mine for Pokémon runs deep indeed. There’s critters like Snubull and Arcanine, Herdier and Frufrou. Houndou and Poochyena. Now, there’s a new pedigree being added to the roster of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Say hello, to Yamper.

Perhaps the first thing that stuck me during my brief time with Pokémon Sword and Shield was just how familiar it felt. As someone who only recently started playing modern mainline entries such as X and Y, I was expecting Sword and Shield to immediately feel different from the formula Nintendo had established on 3DS. Not radically different, but unique in a way that made it appearance on a home console again feel special. Based on the single gym I got hands-on time with, that might not be in Sword and Shield's mission statement.

Most likely done for cheap laughs, Beahm’s E3 toilet livestream was a bad idea from the moment it was conceived, broke numerous convention rules and was a gross violation of privacy in more than one way.

If Crystal Dynamics wants to create a game that can last for years after launch, then the character action needs to be heckin’ appealing. With a full squad of Avengers arriving on launch day and more planned for a free release in the months to come, Crystal Dynamics is betting that the real appeal for Marvel’s Avengers will lie in not just one hero, but all of them.

Speaking during the Treehouse livestream after yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, producer Junichi Masuda revealed that there would be some transfer limits in place for Pokemon Sword and Shield.