Persian Wars

Persian Wars is the first real-time strategy game to receive a spin-off – the popular name given to the wonderful but underused Battlefront series. Described as a ‘follow-up’ to Battlefront, the game places you in the shoes of a Battlefront Marine in the middle of the United States.

The narrative, campaign and multiplayer – and the playability as an elite Marine, because there’s only so much your computer can do – follows the tale of an ex-marine who’s trying to move on from the Russian occupation of Crimea in the early days of the Middle East. Along the way, he’ll run into the next major force in the war against Russian forces who’ll have to deal with the infiltration of the faction’s leader and his superiors.

Despite the game’s name, we won’t be playing it yet. So without further ado, here are the details.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick praised the game’s central premise – the motivations of which are quite clear. “It’s all about you. You’re a soldier,” he said. “You're not a World War II soldier, and you’re a World War II soldier. You’re a flawed soldier, and you have some resources. You have to decide what to do with your life. You could be working for your friends. You could be a rich man, or you could be a soldier. All of these things make you think about what’s going on in this war, and you have to decide whether you want to go to war or to work for your friends. It’s all about choice, and how you end up doing that.”

In my opinion, Activision’s goal with the series is to evoke real emotion in players. According to Kotick, the series “has come to represent the realities of war through its gritty, realistic visuals.”

“This is where it's really relatable. It feels like the real World War II era, and the way that it resonates with us is through its realism. We’ve been doing games for decades and we have to think about this situation every single time,” he told us. “We've really tried to challenge ourselves with the representation of how our emotions are manifesting through our story. We have to take it seriously, and if you want to show that in a video game, we need to do a serious political commentary.”

Matskin went on to talk about how the game itself is meant to be focused on this political nature, which might have facilitated more realism.

“You have some weapons, a lot of vehicles, you have tanks, but everything that was real," he said. "This is not about authenticity. This is about making a statement about what you think you're doing, and it's not about an individual saying, 'Oh, this is it.' This is about that. What I can say is we're being true to reality.”

Matskin’s other vision for Need for Speed Unbound is that it will play like a cross between Burnout and Need for Speed.

“I think there are ways to do that. For the first time, I'm going to do this game in the real world,” he said. “This is not about a speeding city; this is the racing game. You're making this comment on the world and its laws, you're making this statement about how to drive, what you're doing.”

The Need for Speed Unbound reveal is arguably the most exciting part of the entire event, and it's also the first we've seen of real gameplay footage.

Need for Speed Unbound is coming to Xbox Series X and S, and will also be available on PC. There will also be a special deluxe edition of the game which comes with a number of bonuses and content on top of the base game.

Need for Speed Unbound has been one of the biggest titles of the summer, and it looks like fans are going to be thrilled to see it make its debut.

“You know what I mean? It's got a lot of [hardware] in it, and it's got an arcade style that's driving hard. It has online and offline gameplay, and that's what I think people are going to be really excited about.”

It also looks like there will be a day one launch for Need for Speed Unbound.

“It's got online and offline gameplay, and that's what people are going to be really excited about. It's got a lot of [hardware] in it, and it's got a lot of [hardware] in it, and it's got a lot of [hardware] in it.