Here's our rundown of all the announcements made at EVO 2017

By Steven Petite July 17, 2017

The Mysterious Fighting Game (Title Still Undecided) arika_ex

EVO 2017, once again, exceeded expectations from a competitive perspective. The annual tournament saw the world’s best fighting game players converge in Las Vegas for a three day event across nine of the most popular fighting games available today. Beyond the competition, though, EVO 2017 gave us reasons to look toward the future. Let’s round up the handful of game announcements made at EVO 2017.

A new fighter from the Street Fighter EX team

Surprise, surprise. Arika, the studio behind the long dormant Street Fighter EX spinoff series, announced that it will in fact develop a new entry in the EX series. We said will in fact because a comical trailer was released for April Fools Day earlier this year.

While Arika’s comedic tendencies held up in the game’s current code name — “The Mysterious Fighting Game (Title Still Undecided)” — you will be able to get your hands on the next EX game in 2018 for PS4. A beta is expected later this year.

As of now, all we know is that the game will feature some of the characters from earlier entries in the series. Since it’s been more than 17 years since Street Fighter EX3, the series will receive a huge overhaul, at least from a visual perspective.

Season 2 of Street Fighter V brings Abigail to the fray

SFV: Abigail Reveal Trailer

As part of season two of Street Fighter V DLC, Final Fight’s outrageously large Abigail will come to the game on July 25. A member of the Mad Gear gang, Abigail will easily be the biggest character in Street Fighter V to date. He will become the fourth DLC character of season two, following Akuma, Kolin, and Ed. Abigail’s Metro City Bar Area stage will also be available July 25 alongside a “Nostalgia” DLC pack which includes costumes for Alex, Juri, and Ibuki, and the Suzaku Castle from Street Fighter II.

Dragon Ball FighterZ beta, Trunks announced

DRAGON BALL FighterZ - Trunks Reveal Trailer | XB1, PS4, PC

Arc System Works producer Tomoko Hiroki revealed that Trunks will be a playable character in the upcoming Dragon Ball FighterZ. In the trailer above, Trunk spars with both Vegeta and Frieza.

On top of the Trunks reveal, a closed beta was announced ahead of the game’s early 2018 launch on Xbox One and PS4. Beta registration begins on July 26, and players who get in will be able to play as Trunks and eight other characters.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle revealed

BLAZBLUE CROSS TAG BATTLE Teaser Trailer

Arc System Works also debuted the next entry in the BlazBlue franchise, BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. As suggested by the title, Cross Tag Battle will crossover with other franchises, featuring characters from Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth.

From the looks of the trailer, it appears that BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle will feature two-versus-two action, all of which will be rendered in 2D.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle will launch in 2018 for consoles, although it’s unclear which consoles at this time.

Additionally, Arc System Works announced that Jubei will become a playable character in BlazBlue CentralFiction in the near future.

King of Fighters‘ Geese Howard comes to Tekken 7

TEKKEN 7 - Geese Howard Reveal Trailer | PS4, XB1, PC

For the first time, a SNK character will be featured in a Bandai Namco game. Tekken 7’s director Katsuhiro Harada revealed that Geese Howard, a villain from Fatal Fury and King of Fighters, will come to Tekken 7 later this year. Geese will join Akuma (Street Fighter) as the second non-Bandai Namco character to be included in Tekken 7.

Darkstalkers‘ Jedah in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite

Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite — Image used with permission by copyright holder

At the end of the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 EVO tournament, Capcom showed off the latest addition to the roster of its upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. Jedah, from the Darkstalkers franchise, joined Iron Man and vanquished Mega Man and Ultron in a match designed to show fans what the Darkstalkers character can do. Jedah’s moveset in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite appears to line up closely with his home franchise, including his “pinwheeling” attack. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite launches September 19 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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A town in a valley in Manor Lords.

It feels a little bit like cheating in Manor Lords, but the development upgrades you can get can do some powerful things to improve your settlement. However, to balance things out, the development points you need to unlock these enhancements are given out very sparingly. In fact, you won't get even close to the amount needed to unlock everything on the sphere grid. To make matters even more stressful, there's no way to undo a choice you make, so any point spent in error is locked in until you start a new game. There's none that can make your game harder, but if you pick one that offers no benefit to your current settlement or goals, it might as well be a negative in terms of the opportunity cost. For the best experience, here are the developments you should invest in first.
How to get development points
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No settlement can survive only on hunting and foraging for food. Farming is the only way to make sure your storehouses are well stocked with food, but even a fully staffed farm is painfully slow to harvest. The Heavy Plow upgrade adds a plowing station to your farms so you can make use of an ox to not only make plowing your fields far faster, but also tospeed up transporting your crops to the storehouse.
Charcoal Burning
Preparing for winter is your primary concern for your first year, if not the first two, in Manor Lords. Lack of food is one thing, but if you run out of fuel to keep your population warm, they won't last long. Firewood is your basic form of fuel, but it is very inefficient. This development lets you build a charcoal kiln that gives you two charcoal for every one firewood you feed into it. That will double your potential fuel reserves in a snap.
Deep Mining
All natural resources will eventually run dry. While you can regrow trees and let berries regrow, ore deposits only have so much material for you to mine before they're tapped out. You can break the laws of nature with the Deep Mining development that lets you upgrade any mine into a deep mine that somehow never runs out of ore. This only works on the slightly rare rich deposits, but is still incredibly powerful to have an unending source of ore to build or sell.
Sheepbreeding
Speaking of getting an unending source of materials and money, Sheepbreeding makes something that you would expect to happen, but by default does not, actually occur. If you have a sheep farm, those sheep will be completely uninterested in mating and having more sheep babies. Snag this development to let nature take its course and get yourself an infinite supply of sheep for materials and to trade for quite a high price.
Better Deals
And while you're trading, unlock better deals to keep from getting ripped off. There's a tariff on anything you import in Manor Lords of 10 regional wealth, but this perk waives that annoying fee. Since you never quite know what resources you will have and what you will need to import to build your next structure or upgrade, importing is essential for reaching the late game. The earlier you invest in this, the more you'll save in the long run.