Ubisoft has announced it's acquired Blue Mammoth Games and has stated its commitment to hit free-to-play fighting game Brawlhalla. Blue Mammoth officially released Brawlhalla on PC and PlayStation 4 in October 2017. Since then, it's become the most-played fighting game on Steam and one of the most downloaded free-to-play titles on PS4.
Blue Mammoth Games is a 21-person studio based in Atlanta. With Brawlhalla, it has had big success in the esports market, with the number of players continuing to grow throughout its second and third seasons. "The team at Blue Mammoth Games is expert at developing and running scalable, competitive, multiplayer online games, and they'll be a great addition to Ubisoft's network of studios," said Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft NCSA.
Brawlhalla is a platform fighter where up to eight players can battle it out online or locally. There is a free-for-all game mode, ranked matches, and the ability to make custom rooms for your group of players. There are more than 30 playable characters to choose from, each with unique moves, abilities, stats, and weapon combinations.
Ubisoft is affirming its commitment to Brawlhalla with this acquisition and promising to expand the game's online reach. "We're looking forward to leveraging Ubisoft's expertise and resources to continue developing and supporting Brawlhalla for the long term, and to benefiting from their help in bringing the game to new players," said Matthew Woomer and Lincoln Hamilton, the founders of Blue Mammoth Games.
The Nintendo Switch is already celebrating its first anniversary in parts of the world, but some Switch owners are discovering an unpleasant surprise on the console's birthday. It appears the Switch only keeps track of your game play times for one year and has begun resetting many players' records.
As pointed out in a thread on video game forum ResetEra, play times for launch day titles are being reset on Switch profiles. GameSpot has verified the issue; as you can see in the screenshot below, our Switch now says that we first started playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild nine days ago.
This only appears to affect the play times listed in your user profile; save data for the titles in question remains unchanged, but you can no longer accurately see how many hours you've sunk into any games you first started playing on launch day. It's unclear if this is a permanent issue or if Nintendo will be able to restore the times via a system update. We have reached out to the company for comment and will report back with a response.
As the Nintendo Switch officially launched to the public on March 3, many early adopters in North America still haven't owned the console for exactly one year, so your play times should appear normally for the time being. If you care about preserving a record of your play times, now would be a good opportunity to take screenshots of your user profile before they are reset on the console.
Switch's first year has been a tremendous success for Nintendo and fans alike; the system was difficult to find in stores for much of 2017 and has already amassed an impressive library of acclaimed titles like Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and most recently, Bayonetta 2. Despite that, the console is still missing some basic features we are hoping to see, such as a proper Activity Log to keep track of your play times. This new issue only reinforces the need for one.
Captain Marvel is currently in production, but we are yet to see any official images of actress Brie Larson as the title character. Nevertheless, unofficial footage of Larson on the set of the Marvel movie did emerge last month, which caused some confusion amongst fans as the star was wearing a green costume rather than the character's distinctive red and gold outfit. One of the Marvel's conceptual artists has now spoken about the issue, and has assured fans that they shouldn't worry.
In an interview with comicbook.com, artist Andy Park said he was confident that fans would be "happy" with what Larson wears in the final movie. "I think it's always funny seeing people's reaction," Park explained. "People are so ready to jump on and to react and make decisions so quickly. I would just say I would hope that they would just know from the past that judging too quickly is... how do I word this? They're going to be happy. I think they're going to be happy.
"[Marvel boss] Kevin Feige said it in an interview. We revealed the concept art that I did, myself, and other artists did, of Captain Marvel at last year's San Diego Comic-Con. I think that alone should hopefully alleviate some of those fears that people have."
As Park notes, early concept art of Larson in costume was revealed at SDCC last year, and it was very much based on the look of Captain Marvel from the comic books. Captain Marvel hits screens in March 2019 and is directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The cast also includes Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One), Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes), and DeWanda Wise (She's Gotta Have It). Samuel L Jackson will also make a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the role of SHIELD boss Nick Fury.
Earlier this week it was reported that Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them actress Gemma Chan was joining the cast as the villainous Doctor Minerva. In Marvel Comics lore, Doctor Minerva is a Kree geneticist and spy with similar powers to Captain Marvel.
The movie will reportedly take inspiration from the Kree-Skrull war, with the Skrulls serving as the film's villains. The character of Doctor Minerva has traditionally been at odds with Mar-Vell, who will be played by Jude Law in the film.
The first trailer for the upcoming Marvel show Cloak and Dagger has been released. The show premieres on June 6 on Freeform, the channel previously known as ABC Family. It focuses on a pair of runaway teenagers who are given super powers after they are fed a dangerous drug.
This first teaser doesn't have any dialogue, but uses an interesting split screen effect to highlight the two heroes' contrasting powers--Cloak controls the power of darkness, while Dagger throws deadly blades of pure light. It shows them living on the streets, committing small crimes to survive, and slowly coming to terms with their abilities. Check it out below:
Cloak and Dagger stars former Disney star Olivia Holt (Ultimate Spider-Man) as Tandy Bowen (aka Dagger), and Aubrey Joseph (Run All Night) as Tyrone Johnson (aka Cloak). The first season will feature 10 episodes.
Although the show is technically part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like many of Marvel's TV shows, it is not expected to have much crossover with the studio's movies or other series. In July last year, Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb told The Hollywood Reporter that while Hulu's similarly-themed teen superhero show Runaways was part of the same connected universe, we shouldn't expect to see any interaction between the characters, even though they sometimes appeared together in Marvel's comic books.
Cloak and Dagger were created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan, and first appeared in a 1982 issue of The Spectacular Spider-Man. A successful four-issue limited series was followed by an ongoing bi-monthly comic book in 1985, and the characters have appeared in a variety of titles over the decades.
Snyder posted an image of himself with a scruffy beard on the social media platform Vero, where he frequently posts pictures and interacts with fans. Snyder accompanied the image with a suggestion that he needs to shave, to which one fan inevitably replied "you could just remove it via CGI." Synder's reply? "We all know that doesn't work."
Snyder had in fact quit the production of Justice League by the time the mustache issue came up. He left the movie in May 2017 following the tragic death of his daughter, with Avengers director Joss Whedon taking over reshoots and post-production.
By the time additional footage of Cavill was required, the actor was already in production on the upcoming Mission Impossible: Fallout, for which he is sporting an impressive 'tache. With Mission Impossible producers Paramount unwilling to let the actor shave for the Justice League reshoots, Warner was left with no option but to attempt to remove it in post-production.
Although Justice League was a box office failure, there are still plenty of other DC movies in the works. Aquaman hits theaters in November, and Shazam is now in production. Beyond that, Wonder Woman 2 will be released in November 2019, and Suicide Squad 2 is expected to start shooting later this year.
Netflix's sci-fi action thriller Bright may not have been met with many positive reviews, but it was a huge success for the streaming giant. A record number of viewers watched the movie, and there is a sequel on the way. The producers and stars have been quick to defend it too--following comments in January by Netflix CEO Rex Hastings, star Joel Edgerton has commented on the critical response.
In an interview with Collider, Edgerton blamed some of the negativity on the fact that Netflix is disrupting the way the films are released. "I think there was a little bit of extra critical hate towards it because it's changing the landscape of the movie business," he said. "But I think Bright is maybe a movie that needs to be reviewed by public opinion rather than viewed through the highbrow prism of film criticism."
Edgerton went on to compare the film to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was well received by critics but found a more mixed reaction amongst fans. "According to [Netflix], the numbers were there", he said. "And I think that would be supported by the wild discrepancy between the audience score and the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate score, it's almost the inverse of Star Wars [The Last Jedi]. You've got critics at 93 or 92%, and the audience gave it a 50-something, and you get to Bright, which is sort of slammed by critics, but it has a 90% audience score."
Neverthless, Edgerton did state that the filmmakers would listen to criticism when making the follow-up. "[Whether] it's the filmmakers or Netflix or any of us, [we can] learn from the response to the movie--and I'm talking about the negative responses to the movie and what people out there on the street loved about the movie," he said. "I think if you take all that information, it puts you in a nice spot to make a second and maybe a third movie. It's always worth listening to the fans and the good and bad responses to it."
It has been confirmed that Edgerton and co-star Will Smith are returning for the Bright sequel, as well as director David Ayer. Writer Max Landis is however not coming back, so Ayer will handle script-writing duties himself. The movie currently has no confirmed release date. Click here to find out how GameSpot thinks Bright 2 could be a much better film than the original.
From now until March 15, players can embark on a new Event Quest called The Proving. This six-star mission requires a Hunter Rank of 11 or higher to accept, and it takes place in the Ancient Forest. The objective of the quest appears to be fairly straightforward--hunt an Anjanath--but this particular monster is much larger than the ones players have encountered in the game so far.
"Many captivating machines appear in Horizon Zero Dawn, but the one that made the biggest impression on the Monster Hunter: World development team was the Thunderjaw," Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explained on the PlayStation Blog. "Anjanath has a very similar skeletal structure to the Thunderjaw, so we felt it was the best fit to be the main adversary in the quest, but not just any Anjanath would do. This Anjanath is at a scale that many players will have never before encountered, and your typical attacks may not reach its height."
Completing The Proving quest will reward you with materials that can be used to craft Aloy's Bow and armor set. Equipping the full set will change your hunter's appearance to resemble Aloy, regardless of your character's gender. You can find out exactly how to unlock Aloy's armor and bow in our guide. You can also take a look at some screenshots of the gear in the gallery above.
The first Horizon-themed Event Quest in Monster Hunter World, Lesson of the Wild, ran until February 8. If you missed out on that quest the first time around, you'll soon have another chance to get the Palico gear. Tsujimoto revealed that Event Quests operate on a "rotating schedule," so the Lesson of the Wild quest will return to the game again "at a later date."
In addition to the new Horizon Event Quest, some PS4 players can also still take part in Monster Hunter World's first Street Fighter V quest. Those who have a save file of Street Fighter V on their console can accept the Event Quest titled Down the Dark, Muddy Path, which will reward players with material to create a set of Ryu armor. That quest and a second one for Sakura armor will be available to all PS4 and Xbox One players at a later date.
Season 3 of Fortnite's free-to-play Battle Royale mode is underway, and developer Epic has kicked off the first limited-time mode of the season. Right now, players on PC, PS4, and Xbox One can participate in the Solid Gold event, which will only be around in the game for the next few days.
The Solid Gold mode is only available to play with Squads, with the theme of this particular event being Legendary weapons. For the duration of the mode, every weapon that players find in chests or around the map will be of the Legendary variety. Among those are the Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle, Minigun, and the recently introduced Hand Cannon.
Epic recently teased that it plans to hold roughy five limited-time modes in Fortnite: Battle Royale "in the next month or so." The developer didn't provide a time table for when the modes will roll out, but one will be a modified version of the 50v50 event that ran back in December, while another, called Blitz Mode, will feature shorter matches than usual. Epic has also teased that jetpacks will be coming "soon" to Battle Royale.
Season 3 of Battle Royale began last week with the release of Fortnite's 3.0.0 patch. That update introduced a new Battle Pass, which can be purchased for 950 V-Bucks and features 30 more rewards tiers than previous Battle Passes. Among the new items that can be unlocked in Battle Royale are Back Bling cosmetics, which allow players to customize their avatars' backs. You can take a look at all of the Season 3 Battle Pass rewards in our gallery.
While the Far Cry series once focused on the high-octane exploits of westerners mingling with the locals of foreign lands, the shoe is now on the other foot with the US setting of Far Cry 5. This shake-up was intended to push some buttons, according to creative director Dan Hay. And it certainly has, although the creative forces behind the game were somewhat hesitant to say to GameSpot directly that it's a commentary on current times.
Though the game still revels in the over-the-top action and open-world hijinks the series is known for, the fifth entry's distortion of Americana--within the confines of an isolated mountain region of Hope County, Montana--feels all the more potent and timely. During a recent press event for Far Cry 5, we had the chance to talk to lead writer Drew Holmes (Saints Row: The Third, Red Faction: Guerilla, and BioShock Infinite) and lead actor Greg Bryk (Fargo and A History of Violence)--who portrays Eden's Gate cult leader and main antagonist Joseph Seed--about their work on the game.
Can you talk about how your experience working on past games prepared you for Far Cry 5? You've had experience on other open-world games, but this one is so tonally different from your past work.
Drew Holmes: Over the years you learn what works and what doesn't from the things you work on. So going from Saints Row to Red Faction to BioShock Infinite and to now this, it's like I'm bringing all that knowledge I've accumulated from all those people that I've worked with, and then taking that saying, "What is Far Cry 5 about?" Sitting down with Dan and Greg, we talked about who this character is and what he stands for, and what is he afraid of. What is the experience we want to give players--that is harrowing, dark, and even a bit frightening, but also big and bombastic and thrilling? All the things that encapsulate Far Cry, while also giving more ownership to the direction of the story for the player experience. It's along that path of trying to grow as a craftsman and as an artist, while trying to bring some humanity to really scary villains.
While the core concept of the game was planned out years ago, the game as it is now has some rather striking imagery and moments that resonate strongly in our present times. Particularly the ideals of American conservatism in isolated pockets of the country, and the concept of a cult of personality in power. With your performance as The Father in the game, did anything from real life and current events sort of inform your performance, and were you even a bit surprised by how closely the parallels were?
Greg Bryk: No. For me, it's a very personal journey [of this particular character]. This is a man who is broken, who has been deprived of love and even stripped of the insulation that love affords most of us. And then within that, [The Father] was given a message from God, and that it's the truth and that the end is coming. He believes that the end is coming, and he needs to save as many people as he can. And as a father in real-life, sometimes your kids want--sometimes you know what's right, and they don't. You have to correct them and put them on the right path.
I really believe the sense of longing Joseph had was the spark that created his world system and his world view. It also sparked a longing that a lot of people have. I think we really are alone, a lot. We really are lost in a lot of ways. Even though we have access to such vast information, how rare is it to sit across from another human being and hold their hand and just spend time with them. We've really lost the art of being human together, and I think to me was one of the captivating features of this character. For someone who has nothing, how do you build a family? So I came at it from that place.
But I understand that we live in chaotic times now, and I think people will project a whole bunch of narratives onto the story--and they will because this is what we do, we're storytellers and we want to take the meaning of that. It's a great conversation piece and it's great for the game, but I think from the player's experience of it will not be at the arms length of an ideology, but rather that someone is challenging me with their truth, and you are going to have to make a decision--and it's going to be an intensely personal one. One that you could take the hero's journey and take the cult down, or the message could resonate with you and strike a chord with you.
Holmes: One that will linger long after you put down the controller.
Bryk: And of course there's also some kick-ass moments throughout the game. That got super heavy for a minute. You can still shoot s***, dogs and bears attack people, and there's airplanes--but there's also the heart of the game, quietly beating underneath all of that.
Was it challenging trying to balance those tense and extremely dark moments with the sort of standard video-gamey action beats?
Holmes: I think that's Far Cry. When you look back at 3 and 4, it is that chaotic and dark story running through, but also fighting tigers and bears with a rocket-launcher. You can't separate that, that's a part of what the game is. For us on the narrative side of that, it was trying to figure out how to embrace more of that. How to check our egos at the door, to give up more authorship to the players, to say to players that you're running the show. We have all these little moments for you to discover and for you to meet these characters in the cult and across the county to progress in the game. But it's up to you to decide when that stuff is moving forward, and the tone that it takes. If you want to play it dark and brooding and serious, there are characters for you to seek out that offer experiences like that. But if you want a crazy open-world experience, that's there too.
We aren't dictating how the game unfolds. It's challenging from the sense that we all understand in terms of traditional storytelling how things unfold, we've been conditioned to that by watching and listening to stories to understand that flow, and now [in this game] to giving control to the player where you start to play through the game, where the cadence and the pace of it is really up to you where you can just go out and explore the world and not engage in things, that's still a part of your experience. Or you can seek out Hurk and have a ridiculous time, and that's gonna cause the cult to come after me and then I'm gonna have to dip into Jacob Seed's story and what that means for the Whitetail Militia. It changes the cadence of what unfolds.
But for me, it's really challenging to make it all feel cohesive, but at the end of the day when you can sit down with the controller in your hand play through it, it's just so enjoyable. It's fun, it's frightening, it's scary, but also really f***ing funny in places. But that is really the special sauce that makes it Far Cry.
It really says a lot when you're able to bounce between moments of philosophical introspection with gameplay scenes with Cheeseburger the Bear.
Bryk: But that's life, isn't it? How often does life follow a nice, tight tonally consistent narrative arc? It doesn't. It's absurd, it's profound. We go from the birth of a child, to something absurd happening, to other catastrophes happening. It's all like this [snaps fingers]. Life isn't polite in that way. It intrudes and delights and terrifies, quickly.
Holmes: The world isn't painted with one brush, and neither is this game. We wanted to offer as much content with differing tones.
Since you've been on this game for some time, is there anything from your experiences on this over years that stuck out?
Holmes: There's a lot. But for me, a lot of it starts with the performance that Greg has given us. Having an idea for a character, a spark of where it's going to go, and then putting that on a page is another. But until you can find someone that can embody that, make it believable and honest, where you care about the things that the "bad guy" believes in--and can make you see where they're coming from--that's super tough. When we started to work together, we were on the same page as far as a villain who doesn't see himself as villain. It's the choices that he makes and the lengths he's willing to go, in his view, that people see him as a villain. He believes wholeheartedly in what he does, and he believes that others will thank him after he saves them. It gives Joseph a different flavor as villain than the previous Far Cry games.
Bryk: This is has been one of the happiest adventures of my life, creatively. It was also very dark and challenging, but in the best kind of way. Like you have a problem you want to wrestle with and it exhausts you, and it takes the best and the worst of you, and then says "here it is." It ended up being the last scene we ever shot for a key moment in the game. When I first read it, we were shooting the short-film in Montana, and Drew sent me the pages of the script. At the time, Montana was on fire [during the 2017 wildfires]. So I could literally see the state burning around me and the air was thick with smoke and I'm reading this almost Book of Revelations-type narrative. I could feel this sort of rage within me--that is animalistic and nihilistic--where love is gone and can never be. It f***ing destroyed me, but in the best possible way. And we got it.
As an actor, there are honest moments, and then there's moments where you understand a fundamental truth of your darkest fear realized. And he wrote it, and it was just one of those magic moments where it all worked out. I think when the player is forced to confront someone in that state, they'll have a moment of pause. Because that's someone who's been stripped of nicety.
A bunch of new games are now available on Nintendo Switch. It's yet another busy week for the hybrid console, with a total of 20 titles arriving on the Eshop over the course of the week, in addition to a big new update for the open-world JRPG Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Headlining this week's releases is Mulaka, a Zelda-inspired 3D adventure game steeped in Tarahumara culture. Switch owners can also now pick up the co-op heist game Payday 2; Outlast: Bundle of Terror, which includes the base adventure and its Whistleblower DLC expansion; and Bridge Constructor Portal, a mash-up between the Bridge Constructor series and Valve's inventive puzzle game Portal. You can learn more about the titles in this week's episode of New Releases.
In addition to this week's releases, Nintendo has rolled out a new update for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Players who've purchased the game's expansion pass will receive another DLC items pack, which contains eight Legendary Core Crystals, upgrade parts for Poppi, and other useful items. On top of that, the update adds a New Game+ mode for all players who've cleared the main adventure, which unlocks "many new features" in the game.
This month's big first-party game for Switch is Kirby Star Allies, which arrives on March 16. Ahead of its release, Nintendo has added a free demo of the game to the Eshop--but so far only in Europe. While Nintendo hasn't said if it will release the same demo in North America, all Switch owners are able to access the European Eshop and download the demo by creating a new Nintendo Account (with your region set as Europe) and linking it to your console.
Over the years, Far Cry has evolved from a punishing battle for survival into a playground of explosions, huge guns, and over-the-top villains. With Far Cry 5, that pattern appears to continue: we've already seen Boomer the dog and other outrageous characters, and now an even more ridiculous sidekick has been revealed.
Cheeseburger is the name of a grizzly bear who you can hire to go around and kill enemies for you. He's incredibly powerful, capable of killing bad guys with ease, and unlike other guns for hire he's also able to take quite a beating himself. Take a look at some footage of Cheeseburger in action above.
Fortnite's 3.1.0 update only dropped just recently, but already it's been superseded by another patch. Update 3.1.1 is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but it doesn't do a huge amount.
Developer Epic said on Twitter that the patch is designed to "fix client crashes some players are experiencing." Nothing else is included in the patch, since all the new content--such as a new point of interest and a new gun--was included in the previous update.
The new point of interest is called Lucky Landing, located on the southern edge of the island. Elsewhere the drop rates of various guns were adjusted: you're 20% less likely to find a common burst assault rifle, for example, but 150% more likely to find a rare one than before. Some loot drops were tweaked too; fewer chests will appear in Snobby Shores, Tilted Towers, and Industrial Plot from now on. The patch was supposed to see the introduction of jetpacks, but those have been delayed to an unknown date due to a design issue that developer Epic discovered very late on.
Update: The ESA says it has still not been invited to any meeting with Trump. "The ESA and our member companies have not received an invitation to meet with President Trump," the organization told GamesBeat on Thursday evening US time. Original story follows.
President Trump will meet with "members of the video game industry" to discuss what can be done about video games in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting in February. After the shooting, Trump hosted a meeting at the White House to discuss school safety, and among the subjects that came up were the level of violence in video games and movies.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump will be "meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front as well."
That wasn't the first time he's pointed a finger at violent video games. Following the shooting at Sandy Hook in 2012, he tweeted, "Video game violence and glorification must be stopped--it is creating monsters!" Matt Bevin, the Republican governor of Kentucky, also pointed to video games in the wake of Parkland just recently.
Going back to the recent White House briefing, Sanders said, "This is going to be an ongoing process and something that we don't expect to happen overnight, but something that we expect to continue be engaged in and continue to look for the best ways possible to make sure we're doing everything we can to schools across the country." You can see the video game-related segment in the briefing starting at around 6:30 in the video above.
There is no word yet about who Trump will meet with. Kotaku's Jason Schreier said on Twitter that the ESA and its members have not been invited to a meeting with Trump at this time. The ESA is the organization that puts on E3 every year and lobbies on behalf of the video game industry in Washington D.C. Some of its members include huge, powerful companies such as Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Electronic Arts, among many others.
In 2013, then-vice president Joe Biden met with members of the video game industry executives such as then-EA CEO John Riccitiello to discuss the link between violent video games and gun violence as part of a wider task force into gun control measures. ESA president Michael Gallagher was also at this meeting.
There have been calls from legislators over the years to impose various restrictions on, among things, the sale of violent video games to minors. In a landmark 2011 case, the Supreme Court sided with the gaming industry in the case of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, striking down a bill that would have fined retailers for each violent game sold to minors.
We will report back with more details from Trump's video game meeting in the days ahead.
[UPDATE] Xbox Live is back up and running normally, according to the Xbox Live Status page, though as always, your experience may differ depending on where you live and what you're trying to access.
The original story is below.
Xbox Live is facing some big issues right now. The service is facing "Social and Gaming" issues currently, which means that in-game matchmaking, cloud storage, finding friends, Game DVR, leaderboards, avatar editing, and more services are not working normally.
Additionally, while the Xbox Live Status page says Xbox Live Core Services like signing in is working normally, your mileage may vary. At GameSpot Australia, we have been unable to sign into the network for more than 30 minutes now. Looking at Twitter shows that many other people around the world are having issues logging into Xbox Live right now. The issues appear to be affecting Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Hey everyone! We're aware that some of you are having trouble signing into Xbox Live - the right teams are hard at work to get everything working again. Thanks so much for all your patience!
A number of games are affected by this newest Xbox Live outage, including Rainbow Six Siege, Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, and Super Street Fighter IV.
We'll report back with more details on the Xbox Live issues as they come to light. If you're running into problems right now, let us know what you're facing in the comments below.
Final Fantasy XV is launching on PC on March 6. If you want to play right away, the good news is that the game is available right now to pre-load ahead of launch. Square Enix announced this on Twitter today, alerting fans that they can now pre-load the game, which is good news considering the game weighs in at between 100 GB and 155 GB.
Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition, as it's called, will be available next week on digital platforms such as Steam and Origin, among others. Ahead of launch, you can play the game's free PC demo--here's how to download it.
You can pre-load #FFXV Windows Edition right now so you'll be able to jump straight into the world of Eos as soon as the game launches next week on Tuesday 6th March! pic.twitter.com/N4FgBxBb3c
The PC version of Final Fantasy XV includes the base game and its various DLC expansions, including those themed around each of your party members and the one adding the Comrades multiplayer mode. Additionally, if you purchase the game by May 1, you'll be entitled to Half-Life/Final Fantasy XV and The Sims 4 crossover content.
A short film inspired by Far Cry 5 is on the way--and it looks pretty great. Far Cry 5 Inside Eden's Gate is an original short film based on Ubisoft's action game and launching this week on Amazon Prime Video for subscribers. Like the game, the film is set in fictional Hope County, Montana, USA, and its man antagonist is the cult leader Joseph Seed.
Unlike the game, the movie follows three "vloggers" head to Hope County in search of answers about the cult, Eden's Gate, and of course they end up getting more than what they bargained for. "As the vloggers follow the leads of missing locals and other strange events, they come face-to-face with Joseph Seed ... and the rest of the fanatical doomsday cult."
Greg Bryk (A History of Violence) plays Joseph Seed in the movie and the game. American Sniper actor Kyle Gallner also appears in Inside Eden's Gate. Ubisoft worked with Legendary Entertainment's Asylum division on this movie, which premieres March 5 on Amazon.
You can see some stills and the movie's poster in the gallery embedded below.
Blizzard has released cryptic teaser that some are taking as a signal that the Diablo franchise might be heading to the Nintendo Switch. A six-second video posted on Twitter shows the famous Diablo demon as a nightlight that someone is...switching on.
"Sweet dreams," says the video's caption.
Many people in the replies on Twitter believe this could be a reference to some version of Diablo coming to Nintendo's hybrid console. Among those who replied, many said they are enthusiastic about such a prospect and would by Diablo for Switch right away.
2012's Diablo III is the latest entry in the series. The dungeon-crawler was originally released on PC exclusively before coming to consoles later. Could Nintendo Switch be the game's next destination? It's too soon to say, but it's an exciting prospect to think about.
The real March madness is how much binging you'll be doing with everything new coming to Netflix. The streaming service is going all out with its March additions, including a ton of new originals, along with more movies, TV shows, and specials.
While there are over 50 originals being added to the streamer in March, there are two you need to pay very special attention to. Firstly, the new season of Marvel's Jessica Jones. Krysten Ritter is back as the whiskey-drinking hero, along with co-stars Rachael Taylor (Trish) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Jeri Hogarth). Notably, David Tennant will also reprise his role as the evil Killgrave in a guest appearance. The new season of Jessica Jones arrives on March 8--International Women's Day.
The other major original to keep an eye out for is the return of Santa Clarita Diet--the horror comedy zombie series starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. The first photos from the new season were released recently, showing new characters moving into the neighborhood and more undead insanity. New episodes of Santa Clarita Diet arrive on March 23.
As for movies, the Cruel Intentions trilogy--yes, it's actually a trilogy--will begin streaming in March. Other new titles include Adventureland, Jackass: Number Two, Wet Hot American Summer, and Let Me In.
It's not all good news, though. With the arrivals come the departures. March will see all four Jaws films leave Netflix, as well as three seasons of Brickleberry and the Santa Clause trilogy.
Ubisoft's multiplayer Destiny-like shooter The Division has been out for just about two years, and today the company announced that the game has passed a significant milestone: it has just crossed the 20 million player mark across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Although this number probably includes the people who took advantage of the free trials Ubisoft's offered, it's still an impressive number. The Division has amassed a player base the size of the state of New York, and to celebrate, Ubisoft is beginning a series of events. During March, there will be four Global Events--one per week--and each will bring its own special modifiers and rewards. In addition, you can snag a free sneeze emote right now.
Two years, and 20 million players. Thank you to all the Agents who have joined The Division so far. pic.twitter.com/EpvU8wwNFE
As a part of its announcement for crossing the 20 million milestone, Ubisoft also revealed some other notable statistics for the game. Among other things, 66 billion NPCs have been killed, and players average 3 hours of playtime a day. You can see the full stat sheet above.
Ubisoft has routinely released new content for The Division, including three big expansions called Underground, Survival, and Last Stand. The latest big content drop came in December, when a new area and two game modes were added. You can read more about The Division's 1.8 update here.
Black Panther has been out for a couple of weeks now, and it's been met with quite the reception. Among other things, it's broken box office records and it's garnered very positive reviews from critics, virtually ensuring a sequel at some point. And one of the main reasons why viewers loved the film so much is Erik Killmonger, a villain that Marvel finally got right.
There are a lot of things that can differentiate a good villain. Sometimes they believe they're the hero of their own story. A great villain may force our hero to question themselves and to change their actions for the better. Or they might make us reflect on our own beliefs and convictions as an audience. But all great villains share one thing in common: their motivations are more than just "destroy the world" or "kill the hero." The GameSpot team thinks Killmonger is the best of the best among Marvel enemies because his goals are actually believable and go beyond pure, nihilistic destruction.
In the video embedded above, we go over this and other reasons why Killmonger is the greatest villain from the Marvel cinematic universe. Watching Black Panther, it is clear that the filmmakers invested in Erik Killmonger. They made it clear that he saw injustice in the world, both on a personal level and on a larger scale, and he believed that Wakanda had the capacity to right some of these wrongs. He was right, even if he went about it in a destructive way.
The one downside to how good Killmonger is, though, is that it ratchets up the expectations for supervillain Thanos when he finally appears in Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel has the profound challenge of not only making this villain's philosophy convincing to an audience but also treating him like the hero of his own story. At the very least, we hope that Thanos has a more relatable motive than simply wanting to rule the galaxy.
You can see our full argument for why Killmonger wins the battle of the Marvel villains in the video above. Be sure to also check out our recent feature on what we want to see in a Black Panther sequel.
Call of Duty: WWII players on PS4 have been able to check out the game's first DLC pack since January, but due to Activision's deal with Sony, Xbox One and PC players have had to wait. That changes today, as The Resistance DLC is out now for all players.
The DLC comes with a few new multiplayer maps, called Valkyrie, Anthropoid, and Occupation, which all are themed after the World War II resistance movement. You can also try out a new War mode map, Operation Intercept, which tasks you with rescuing French resistance members.
Finally, the pack comes with a new Nazi Zombies mode, titled The Darkest Shore. In addition to the normal zombie-killing gameplay, The Darkest Shore also adds new weapons, smarter zombies, and a fog effect.
The expansion is included in Call of Duty: WWII's season pass, which runs for $50 / £40 / AU $65. You can also grab it by itself for $15 / £11.59 / AU $20.45. There's no word yet on what's next for Call of Duty: WWII, although it's safe to assume that a new DLC pack will likely be announced in the next few months.
On top of the second Horizon Zero Dawn event that's underway on PS4, a new limited-time quest is now available in Monster Hunter World. Capcom has kicked off the Wiggle Me This Event Quest on both PS4 and Xbox One, and it gives players a chance to create a rather...distinctive headpiece.
The Wiggle Me This event runs until March 8. It's a six-star quest set in the Coral Highlands, and it requires a Hunter rank of 11 or higher to accept. Rather than having to slay a specific monster, the object of this mission is to deliver 10 Wigglers, the slender, worm-like creatures you can find protruding from the ground in the Highlands.
Completing the quest will reward you with materials to forge a new helmet, and it fittingly resembles a Wiggler, complete with an elongated neck and button eyes. You can take a look at the Wiggler helmet, as well as some screenshot of the quest, in the gallery below.
Earlier this year, Electronic Arts announced that a new Battlefield game is coming this fall, but at the time the company shared no details about it. Now, GamesBeat is reporting that the title is called "Battlefield V," and it will be set during World War II just like Call of Duty: WWII.
The report credits this information to sources "familiar with EA's plans." The game is coming from Battlefield series developer DICE, which is based in Sweden.
According to the report, Battlefield V was at one time known internally at EA as "Battlefield 2" before changing names. Importantly, the game is not a remaster of 2005's Battlefield 2, but instead an all-new game set during WWII. EA will announce it soon, according to the report, which makes sense given that this title will be playable at EA Play in June.
GamesBeat reports that EA and DICE decided "several years ago" to move away from modern-day and near-future settings for Battlefield games. 2016's Battlefield 1 was set in World War I, a time period that no other entry in the series had explored before. The game was immensely popular. It was the second best-selling game of all of 2016, only behind Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and just last month EA announced that it passed 25 million players.
According to USGamer, which has heard the same information as GamesBeat about the new Battlefield game, the title will have loot boxes. However, they will reportedly only contain cosmetic items. Battlefield 1 also has loot boxes with cosmetic items. Whatever the case, this is notable given that EA's Star Wars: Battlefront II offered game-affecting items in its loot boxes, and this created quite a stir.
It has been a while since Battlefield went to World War II, as the most recent game set during the conflict was 2009's Battlefield 1943.
Also in the report is some sad news for Battlefield: Bad Company fans. The rumor that DICE is working on a third entry in the series set in the Vietnam War is not true, the report said, though it noted that DICE is considering fan feedback and may resurrect the series someday.
The next big Xbox One update of 2018 is coming soon, and now Microsoft has announced what to expect from it. One of the biggest new features is support for 1440p resolution for games and media. 1440p, also known as 2560x1440, has more than 1.5 million more pixels than 1080p, sitting between 1080p and 4K. Of course, you will need a supported TV to see the benefits.
Also new in the update are new audio options. If you like to listen to music while you play games, you can now balance game audio against background music on Spotify or other services. All of this is available from within the Guide. Additionally, Xbox One now supports "spatial audio" for system sounds. Microsoft said it "completely revamped" the architecture so that if you have a surround sound system, "audio cues from your surround sound system will match the actions you see on-screen."
Additionally, the new Xbox One update adds more functionality for Mixer, Microsoft's interactive live-streaming service. In a pretty cool move, you can now virtually "share" your Xbox One controller with a viewer who is watching on Mixer.com. What this means is the viewer can take control of a game by way of an on-screen gamepad, or alternatively actually plugging in a controller to their PC. The streamer and viewer can work together to play a game, or the viewer can grief the main player which we're sure will lead to some hilarious hijinks. You can see an animated GIF of the new functionality above, as made by Microsoft.
The Spring Xbox One update also updates the Microsoft Edge internet browser to give it a more "modern" look. Among other things, Microsoft is promising improvements to the Favorites and History tabs, with the overall goal being to make the browsing experience better for a controller. Additionally, you can now download and upload files like pictures, music, and videos from Microsoft Edge on Xbox One. Your downloaded files are house in the File Explorer app.
For Xbox One Club admins, this new update allows you to filter by reputation, Gamerscore, and recommendations from other Club members. The example Microsoft provided was that if you're looking for an experienced PUBG player to join your Club, you can set the criteria to only consider people who have more than 200 hours logged, or whatever you decide. Additionally, the Club "feeds" are being updated to allow you to only show things like "what's hot" and "top posts." On top of that, Microsoft is now allowing you to disable comments on content shown in Clubs, Game Hubs, and Community tabs. Finally, Microsoft is rolling out open tournaments with this app, which means you no longer have to be a Club member to start or join a tournament.
The new Spring Xbox One update is available now to players in the Xbox Insider Alpha Ring. It will roll out to other testers later, while a public release will follow at a later period.
Go to the Xbox Wire to see a full rundown of what's new in the Spring Xbox One update.
Sea of Thieves will offer another Scale Test on PC and Xbox One this weekend, so you'll have at least one more chance to feel the virtual salty sea air before its impending launch. The test will begin on Friday, March 2 at 2 a.m. PST and end on Sunday, March 4 at 2 a.m. PST.
Keep in mind, though, that developer Rare intends this test to be a real stress test for the game. Not only will the studio be attempting to put Sea of Thieves through its paces, it will actually be throwing wrenches (or scabbards) into the works intentionally. According to the announcement, "[W]e will also purposefully be stressing our services by throttling performance at certain times, testing the game in different data centres around the world, and simulating deliberate outages." So if you run into trouble, it's not you, it's them.
Sea of Thieves is set to release in just a few short weeks, on March 20. It will be one of the first big tests of Microsoft's ambitious Game Pass expansion, which gives subscribers access to a suite of games including all first-party titles on day-and-date of release. While you're waiting to explore the briny deep, check out 10 reasons we're excited and why we think it has such potential.
After much anticipation since its initial reveal, the quest to unlock Monster Hunter World's Horizon Zero Dawn crossover Aloy gear has finally gone live. The first content drop earlier this month gave us the Palico Watcher armor. However, this last quest finally unlocks Aloy's armor and bow. If you're curious about how the process to unlock them works, we've outlined the timing and quests below to access the extras.
It's important to note that the Aloy armor set and bow is only available from February 28 to March 15, so if you're keen to get them, you'd best nab them as soon as possible. Unlike other armor in the game, you have to wear the entire Aloy set together--you can't just wear the pants or chest alone. And the set will also alter your appearance so that your character looks like Aloy from Horizon, complete with long red hair.
To unlock both the Aloy armor and bow, you must complete a quest called "The Proving," which you can find at the Arena Quest Board in the Gathering Hub. The quest is a six-star mission that requires a Hunter Rank of 11 or higher.
The quest objective is to slay a High-Rank Anjanath. When you complete the quest, you earn a Nora Brave Trophy, a special currency used to unlock both Aloy's armor and bow. However, you need to defeat Anjanath six separate times in order to earn enough Nora Brave Trophies to unlock both the armor and the bow. In addition, you'll also need specific High-Rank Anjanath parts for each, which we've detailed below:
Aloy's Armor:
Nora Brave Trophy - x4
Anjanath Pelt+ - x14
Anjanath Nosebone+ - x6
Anjanath Gem - x1
Aloy's Bow:
Nora Brave Trophy - x2
Anjanath Fang+ - x3
Monster Keenbone - x5
Anjanath Plate - x1
If you've slain Anjanath in the past, there's not much different in this new quest to hunt it. Wallop on the beast with your best weapon, and maybe bring some fire-resistant armor to better shrug off its attacks. Once you've defeated Anjanath enough times, simply take your trophies and necessary parts to the Smithy to craft Aloy's armor and bow. Check out the screens below for a more visual break-down of where to find everything.
It's also possible to upgrade Aloy's Bow--known simply as Aloy's War Bow. This more powerful version of the weapon requires three additional Nora Brave Trophies, as well as more High-Rank Anjanath and monster parts. We've detailed the required materials below:
Aloy's War Bow:
Nora Brave Trophy - x3
Anjanath Scale+ - x7
Elder Dragon Bone - x3
Wyvern Gem - x1
The first Horizon-themed Event Quest in Monster Hunter World, Lesson of the Wild, ran until February 8. If you missed out on that quest the first time around, you'll soon have another chance to get the Palico gear. Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto revealed that Event Quests operate on a "rotating schedule," so the Lesson of the Wild quest will return to the game again "at a later date."
A new Defiance game is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You may recall the original Defiance for last-generation consoles and PC was a tie-in to the Syfy show of the same name, with characters and world events being shared across both properties.
Little in the way of specifics are known about Defiance 2050, though developer Trion Worlds says it will have "dynamic open-world environments," "massive co-operative battles," "stunning updated visuals," and a "huge weapon selection." You can check out the first teaser trailer above.
Despite Defiance the TV show's cancellation, the original game continued to live on. It remains to be seen what kind of support the original Defiance game will see going forward now that a new instalment is on the way. Defiance 2050 is due out this summer, but as mentioned, there will be a closed beta taking place before that.
Fear does not exist in this dojo, but neither do manners.Cobra Kaiis shaping up to be the most interesting and exciting series YouTube Red has ever done, if only for how committed it is to showing the jerk Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) has grown up to be.
Of course, anyone who saw the original Karate Kid film knows Johnny was the worst when he was a teenager, but by the end of the film, he seemed to turn over a new leaf. The newest trailer for Cobra Kai makes it clear that's a thing of the past, though. In the short look at the series, Johnny is instilling the same lessons his sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) did in the original.
"Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it?" he asks. "Pain does not exist in this dojo, does it?" That's just the beginning of Johnny's awful attitude, as it pertains to his students and his training, though.
When a student asks, "Hey Sensei, is there any particular way you want me to wash these windows?" Johnny replies, "Nah, I don't give a s***." This is in stark contrast to The Karate Kid, in which Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) used everyday tasks like waxing a car, painting a house, and sanding wood to teach Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) how to defend against attacks.
Cobra Kai will see Zabka reunite with Macchio once more, again on different sides of the fight as Daniel mentors Johnny's son. Rounding out the cast are Courtney Henggeler (Mom), Xolo Maridueña (Parenthood), Tanner Buchanan (Designated Survivor), and Ed Asner in a guest-starring role. Cobra Kai will make its way to YouTube Red later in the year.
The box office showdown in May just got a little less interesting. Marvel Studios has moved the release date of Avengers: Infinity War up one week from its original May 4 debut, giving the next chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe a little more breathing room before Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters.
The news was announced in a Twitter exchange between the studio and star Robert Downey Jr., who requested he and his "friends"--the entire world--get to see the movie earlier. "That's a FANTASTIC idea! Done," the studio replied. "Avengers: [Infinity War] in theaters everywhere April 27th."
As far as corporate announcements go, this is one of the more creative and exciting ways to get it done. The move also removed Avengers from an already over-stuffed May. In addition to Solo: A Star Wars Story, Deadpool 2 will also be arriving on May 18.
It won't be long before a new season of Jessica Jones arrives on Netflix. While early indications are that the new episodes may not be as well-received as Season 1--at least at first--it's still one of Netflix's most highly anticipated returns.
Ahead of the premiere, the streaming service has offered a new behind-the-scenes look at the women who bring the show to life--namely the cast and creator/showrunner Melissa Rosenberg--and what made it such a massive hit in the first place. "Jessica Jones resonated in such a big way because we haven't seen a superhero like this before," star Krysten Ritter, who plays the titular role, says in the video. "Jessica's strong, she is vulnerable and despite everything that she's been through, she still fights."
For Rosenberg, that's what makes the character so special. "It's not about being a superhero, it's about being a human being in the world," she explains. "All of the characters are dealing with the issue of 'Who am I?' and 'How do I fit into the world?'"
Of course, another reason the series resonated with such a large audience was it shined a spotlight on the lack of female superheroes getting attention. While Black Widow and Scarlet Witch both feature heavily in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, neither has gotten their own movie yet. Meanwhile, Jessica Jones allowed a woman to serve as the primary focal point of a superhero story, long before Wonder Woman was a box office success or Captain Marvel went into production.
Still, as important as having a character like Jessica at the front of her own show, Rosenberg realizes this is more than a story about a female hero. "It's not necessarily about a woman's perspective. It's about a balanced perspective," she explains.
However, she's quick to note how rare this type of story--and the team assembled to tell it--is. "A powerful female protagonist, or female director, or female showrunner--that shouldn't be unique," Rosenberg says.
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