It's a good time to stop by the local GameStop or head to the website, because between now and July 15 the retailer is running its annual summer sale. This year you can find lots of good deals on games, consoles, and accessories for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The main difference between this sale and GameStop's regular weekly sale is quantity. A lot more games are on sale now than usual, even if the sale prices are about the same as you'd find any other week. At any rate, let's dive in and see what kind of money we can save during this year's GameStop summer sale.
On the hardware side, if you buy a 1TB Xbox One console, you'll get a $50 GameStop gift card for free. The green and gray Xbox One wireless controller is available for 20% off, bringing it down to $52. PS4 owners can grab a gold or magma red DualShock 4 controller for $55, saving $10 in the process.
All in all, there's a lot of deals during GameStop's summer sale, so you're sure to find something worth playing, no matter which platform you prefer. We have more of our picks below, but you can find the full sale here.
We've been seeing Fortnite's countdown tick for a while now, and it finally hit zero. Saturday's event was the launch of the rocket in Anarchy Acres, and it's left a tear or crack in the sky. [Update: Even more cracks have now appeared.]
Fortnite's countdown was to a one-time event, a rocket launch. We've speculated that it might have something to do with Season 5. Season 4 began in a similar way with the impact of the meteor, and so far, we know Season 5 has been teased with a mysterious siren.
If you missed the event, it went like this: The rocket launched from the evil lair in Anarchy Acres and into the sky. Lasers honed in on Titled Towers, and it looked like it was going to destroy the location, but instead it hit what appeared to be an invisible shield or portal. The rocket disappeared and then reappeared nearby and spun out of control. It then shot back up towards the sky, and created the "rip" in the sky that can now be seen on the map.
Epic Games has revealed when Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 5 will start. In a post on the game's Reddit page, the company confirmed Season 5 will begin on July 12 at 1 AM PDT / 4 AM EDT / 9 AM BST / 6 PM AET. To help people unlock remaining Battle Pass rewards for Season 4, Epic is awarding double XP for matches from June 29 until July 2. [Update: Double XP might have ended, but the next step of the rocket saga has occurred, as it launched into the air and caused cracks to appear in the sky.]
Ahead of the new season, Epic has released a new mode for Fortnite. Introduced as part of the latest update, the Playground LTM is essentially a private server for players to experiment on. It's designed for players to jump in and hone new strategies or sharpen building skills. Since access is invite only, you can do these things without being ruthlessly gunned down by enemy combatants.
The latest Fortnite update also adds Dual Pistols, map markers, part four of the Blockbuster Event, the Builder Pro controller layout, and more. You can read the full Fortnite v4.5 patch notes here for a breakdown of everything new. Week 9 challenges are also now available.
Fortnite continues to be incredibly popular, and the impact of its success is now being seen through how much physical copies of the game are selling. Since disc-based versions of Fortnite are no longer available, prices of it on Ebay have skyrocketed to the $100-200 range, with a few listings going as high as $450.
The game recently launched on Nintendo Switch and has already established a strong community. This is in part helped by the fact that it supports cross-play with Xbox One, PC, and iOS. Like the other versions of Fortnite, it is only available digitally.
The closed alpha for Battlefield 5 has kicked off, and we're diving helmet-first into the multiplayer. The alpha is only available on PC, and it's limited to a small group of players. It includes two multiplayer offerings. Conquest is a traditional control point mode, while Grand Operation is a narrative meta-mode that spans various maps and game types.
This particular Grand Operation will be "Fall of Norway," set on the Arctic Fjord map. It encompasses two different game modes, Airborne and Breakthrough. The alpha will also include one Special Assignment and several daily orders. Completing your Special Assignment tasks will net you a special dog tag for your profile in the full game.
To participate, you'll need to get into the alpha and then download the client through Origin, and naturally, your specs will need to be up to snuff. If you didn't get in this time around, just relax and watch some multiplayer gameplay above. We'll be putting each of the modes through their paces. Battlefield V is set to launch on October 19 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Purchasing the Deluxe edition will get you access on October 16.
It's a good time to be a PS4 owner who appreciates a good deal. That's because Sony has launched a new line of low-priced modern classics called PlayStation Hits. Just like the Greatest Hits and Essentials lines from Sony's previous consoles, PlayStation Hits keeps these older PS4 games in print and lowers the price to $20/£16/€20. Those in the US and Canada can buy the lineup of PlayStation Hits now on disc or on the PlayStation Store. The UK/Europe market will have to wait until July 18.
The physical versions of PlayStation Hits come in red cases, just like PS3's similar line did. As of now, 15 games are in the US lineup, while the UK/Europe market gets 23 and Canada gets 14. Sony says it will add more games in the future.
Some European markets will also get a special PlayStation Hits PS4 bundle that comes with a 1 TB console and three of Sony's first-party PlayStation Hits titles. As of now, there's no word on whether that bundle will release elsewhere.
When it comes to the PS4 lately, it seems like PlayStation Plus members have all the fun. Not only do they get free games each month and exclusive deals like the PS Plus Specials sale going on now, but they occasionally get additional special offers. The latest deal for PS Plus members is a 33% discount on the game-streaming service PlayStation Now.
Between now and September 25, PS Plus members who sign up for (or renew) a PS Now membership will get a three-month subscription for $30. That's not a bad deal, considering the normal price is $45. If you sign up, note that the subscription auto-renews unless canceled, and the discount only applies for the first three months. After that, it goes back up to $45.
PS Now is basically Sony's "Netflix for games." It lets you play a selection of over 650 PS4, PS3, and PS2 games by streaming them to your PS4 or PC--which means you don't have to download the games to play them. A solid internet connection certainly helps, though.
As mid-July approaches, you can bet Amazon Prime Day 2018 will be coming soon. Although the online retailer has yet to announce when Prime Day will be this year, it always tends to happen sometime in the middle of July. In fact, a banner that appeared on Amazon UK may have accidentally let slip Prime Day's date this year: July 17, with deals beginning the previous day.
Seeing as this pseudo-holiday is centered around a single online retailer, it isn't quite as big as Black Friday. But you can expect to see plenty of discounts on games, tech, movies, toys, and anything else you might want to buy from Amazon. Other retailers may also offer discounts that day to cash in on the commerce craze. Here's everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2018.
What is Prime Day?
Prime Day is a massive sale Amazon puts on each year in July for Prime members. It all began in 2015, when Amazon had a sale to celebrate its 20th birthday. In the years since, Prime Day has grown into a shopping extravaganza in its own right, with deep discounts on all kinds of items.
When is Prime Day?
Last year's Prime Day lasted for 30 hours that spanned part of July 10 and all of July 11. If the Amazon UK leak is accurate, this year's sale will last 36 hours, with prices dropping midday July 16 and running through July 17.
For Prime Members Only
The catch is that you have to be an Amazon Prime member to take advantage of the deals. The company ruffled feathers earlier this year when it upped the annual price of a Prime membership from $99 to $119. (You can also get a one-month membership for $13). Having to buy a subscription is a bummer, but there are ways around dropping cash just to take part in Prime Day. If you've never been a Prime member before, you can get a free 30-day trial just by signing up. Students get an even better deal: their Prime membership begins with a free six-month trial.
Even if you're a lapsed Prime member and you can't get the free trial, signing up for a one-month membership may be worthwhile, depending on what Prime Day deals you want to take advantage of. There's also a good chance Amazon will offer a discount on Prime subscriptions in the run-up to Prime Day, so your best bet is to wait and see.
What kind of deals can we expect?
Amazon always drops prices on tons of items, with big discounts in particular on its own hardware: Echos, Kindles, Fire sticks, and tablets. Additionally, you can expect big savings on video games, consoles, gaming accessories, 4K TVs, other electronics, apparel, outdoor gear, baby products, and nearly anything else you can buy at the online retailer.
No deal announcements have been made yet, but we'll have lots of Prime Day deals coverage on all things gaming and media here at GameSpot when the event rolls around. Make sure to check back closer to the the big day.
Between June 26 and July 30, you can play a trial version of EA's new game, Unravel 2, for free on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The demo comes with the game's first two levels and lets you play for up to 10 hours. Just make sure you remember to close out of the game between play sessions to stop the timer.
Unravel 2 is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer starring Yarny, a red doll made from--you guessed it--yarn. This sequel adds a second doll that can be controlled by another player over local co-op. The game takes place in the real world, from the perspective of the tiny yarn dolls.
Because of their diminutive size, the ordinary items you encounter often halt your progress. You and your (optional) co-op partner are tasked with figuring out how to get through each predicament. Often, the solution involves using your doll's yarn to grapple and swing between obstacles.
GameSpot's reviewer found this sequel to be a big improvement over the 2016 original. From our 8/10 Unravel 2 review: "In almost every moment you're given ample time and space to breathe and take in the stunning photorealistic world from the viewpoint of the tiniest creatures. It's a game with boisterous birds, chases through meadows, and most importantly a cheerful partnership with a companion who's always got your back."
EA announced and released Unravel 2 during its press conference that coincided with E3 2018. The full game comes with six levels, each of which take about 30 minutes to complete. It costs $20 across all platforms.
Everyone knows you can find great PC gaming deals during the Steam's summer sale, but with so many games to choose from, it can be hard to make a decision on what to buy. We thought we'd make it a little easier by highlighting some of the best games available for less than the price of a latte. All of these games are on sale for $5 or less, so you can probably buy a few of them without breaking the bank. The sale ends July 5, so grab them before then.
Triple-A games famously cost many millions of dollars to make, but even they can eventually go down to below-$5 pricing during Steam summer sales. Right now you can buy Darksiders for $4 or Deus Ex: Human Revolution for $3. Even the 2016 sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is available for $5 right now on Steam. If large-scale destructive hijinks is your kind of thing, you can grab Just Cause 3 for $5 as well.
Loads of smaller indie games are available for just a few bucks right now as well, including the ultra-violent kill-fest Hotline Miami and the thoughtful puzzle platformer The Swapper. Other indie gems include Bastion, FTL, and Oxenfree, all on sale for just a few bucks. And if you haven't played the brilliant RPG Undertale yet, you can do so now for $5.
The Steam Summer Sale is now live, which means you're either jumping for joy at the money you'll save, or locking your wallet in a safe until the sale ends. One way or another, the PC game deals during the annual sale have a knack for making your money disappear. The sale runs between June 21 and July 5. [Update: The Steam sale ends this Thursday, so be sure to act soon if you're interested in any of these deals.]
Things appear to be more straightforward than usual this year. Instead of having daily deals and flash sales on certain games, all of the deals seem to be permanent from the beginning to the end--at least so far. That might make this sale a little less exciting than in past years, but it's nice that you don't have to keep checking in multiple times a day to see if anything you want to buy is on sale. There is, however, a free browser game you can play on Steam's homepage.
The sale isn't limited to software, either. The Steam controller is on sale for $34 (down from $100), and Steam Link--which lets you stream Steam games to your TV--is on sale for $2.50 (which is 95% off its usual price of $50).
That only scratches the surface of this year's Steam Summer Sale. You can view the whole thing here, or get our recommendations for games under $20.
Here's a PSA for PS4 owners. Assassin's Creed Odyssey might not launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC until October 5, but you can download an Assassin's Creed Odyssey theme for your PlayStation 4 right now. No pre-order or any other purchase is necessary. Just hop on the PlayStation Store, add it to your account, and you're good to go.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is primarily being developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the same team that made Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Set in Ancient Greece, Odyssey leans into RPG territory more than any other entry in the series. It lets you play as a male or female protagonist, grants you branching dialog choices, and has you make decisions that can significantly affect your experience with the game. You can read more about what changes are in store in our Assassin's Creed Odyssey hands-on preview.
The free dynamic PS4 theme plants a male Spartan warrior on the right side of your PS4 dashboard. If you press up on the controller to bring up the top row of icons, the soldier is whisked off the edge of the screen and replaced by a female Spartan warrior.
If you want to pre-order Assassin's Creed Odyssey, you'll face a whole mess of different versions of the game. To help you sort through what comes in each one, check out our Assassin's Creed Odyssey pre-order guide to find the one that's right for you.
Here's some good news for anyone who likes having joy and excitement in their life: Peggle is free to download for PC on Origin right now. It normally sells for $5, but for a limited time, you can get it to keep and play every day forever. So hurry to the Origin Store to download your copy now--it's been available for a while now, so it could be going back to its regular price soon.
What's the big deal about Peggle? If you haven't played this marvelous and highly addictive game, it's like a psychedelically-enhanced version of pachinko. You aim and shoot a ball from the top of the screen. The ball bounces and ricochets between colorful pegs on its way to the bottom. Each peg it touches disappears. Clear out all the orange pegs, and you can proceed to the next level.
It's a wonderfully simple setup that combines skill and luck in equal measure. Each new world has its own "teacher" who grants you a limited power that can help you clear pegs in all sorts of creative new ways. Throw in a bunch of optional challenges, and you have a game you can spend many pleasant hours trying to complete.
Whether you've played it before or not, Peggle is always worth a download when it's free. Head over to the Origin Store to add it to your collection before the price goes back up.
Twitch Prime continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. Each month, Twitch users with Amazon Prime get a bunch of freebies, ranging from games to in-game items for titles. Perhaps the most exciting is free Fortnite gear, such as the Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack #2, which Epic Games has just announced. It includes exclusive free cosmetics and other items for Fortnite players, including the newcomers on Nintendo Switch. Here's what you can still get and how to obtain it.
Twitch Prime subscribers can now grab Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack #2. To claim your pack, link your Epic and Twitch accounts, then click on the crown next to the search bar on Twitch. Here's what you'll receive:
Exclusive Battle Royale Trailblazer Outfit
Exclusive Battle Royale True North Back Bling
Exclusive Battle Royale Tenderizer Pickaxe
Exclusive Battle Royale Freestylin' Emote
Note that, according to Epic's announcement, "While you can only claim your Twitch Prime loot on a single platform (PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One), your content is shared and available to use across PC/console and mobile, as long as you use the same Epic account. Content is not shared between Xbox One and PS4, even if you use the same Epic account."
Now is a good time to hop into Fortnite, thanks to the arrival of Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War. If you'd like some help completing this week's challenges, be sure to check out our guide to Fortnite's challenges for Week 2 of Season 4.
And if you haven't claimed Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack #1, you still can.
The votes are tallied and the Game Critics Awards for the best of E3 2018 have been announced. Capcom took home the biggest prize with Best of Show for Resident Evil 2. Four games shared the distinction of getting two honors: Anthem and Marvel's Spider-Man with two awards, and Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part 2 with two commendations.
Cyberpunk 2077, The Last of Us Part 2, and Ghost of Tsushima won special commendations for graphics. TLU Part 2 won a special commendation for sound as well, and Cyberpunk won another commendation for innovation.
By publisher, Sony Interactive Entertainment received the most with six in total, followed by Electronic Arts with four and Microsoft with three. And if you're counting by platform, PlayStation 4 took the day with 17 awards in all, followed by Xbox One with 12 and PC with 10. Switch trailed with just four. Multiplatform games are counted across all appropriate platforms for that tally.
After teasing new updates to Star Wars Battlefront 2 at the company's E3 2018 press conference, EA unveiled a more definitive timeline of when players can begin to see more content drops for the game. A tweet reveals that Battlefront 2 is getting some minor tweaks this July, before getting more major updates later this fall and winter.
In July, Battlefront 2 will be getting a new mode called Hero Starfighters. The mode pits two teams of four against one another in battles where players pilot hero ships, such as the Millennium Falcon or Slave I, in aerial dogfights. Battlefront 2 will also be receiving several game improvements as well. Jedi and Sith hero characters will be able to turn their lightsabers on and off on player command and using their laser sword to block blaster bolts will now consume stamina while doing so.
In August, Battlefront 2's large Clone Wars expansion begins with new clone trooper appearances. A few new emotes and victory poses will be added too. These Clone Wars updates will continue in the fall, with additional clone trooper appearances, a squad system, a new unannounced large-scale multiplayer mode, and the addition of Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous as playable heroes. Additional Clone Wars updates will arrive in the winter, bringing in both Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku as heroes as well as adding a Geonosis multiplayer map.
We still can't be completely sure of all the details surrounding Ant-Man's mysterious absence from Infinity War, but chances are it's going to have something to do with someone named Ghost, set to make her MCU debut as the villain of this summer's Ant-Man & The Wasp. But who exactly is Ghost, and what about her was so important that it might have stopped Scott from showing up to fight Thanos?
In the comics, Ghost is a pretty shifty character. Originally introduced as a male Iron Man villain in the late '80s, Ghost was an average joe working in tech before a series of accidents prompted him to augment his body with "flux state" processors that were, eventually, merged with him permanently. The processors allowed Ghost to become incorporeal and invisible, and gave him the ability to phase through matter, which is obviously where he got his code name.
Beyond that, very little is actually known about the original Ghost's past. His origin story was only ever recounted by him and never actually corroborated. We don't even know his civilian name or who he was in his past life beyond the details he volunteered (or, you know, fabricated).
Ghost's motives are as unclear as his backstory. Typically he acts as a mercenary with a preference for jobs that rally against corporate expansion and greed--the reason he and Tony are so frequently at odds--but because of his murky history, it's difficult to connect the dots about why he does what he does. He's acted as a member of various teams, including the semi-reformed villains club the Thunderbolts, but he rarely spends too much time in the spotlight.
It's largely assumed that, rather than any sort of wealth or personal vendetta, Ghost values more abstract concepts like anarchy and chaos for his own supervillainous M.O. Sometimes even his teammates find themselves a little creeped out by him--especially when he seems to be veering into obsessive-eccentric territory.
In the live action universe, however, we're probably going to see a very different interpretation of Ghost. A woman this time around, played by Hannah John-Kamen, we get some indication from the trailers that her powers are going to derive from the Quantum Realm.
It's not explicitly clear what the origins of Ghost's powers are beyond that--she apparently "stole" Pym's tech relating to his Quantum Realm research, or perhaps had some sort of accident with it, both of which imply that she's potentially got some sort of history with Pym or his labs.
If not Pym himself, she may have some sort of connection to Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne), who we know was working with Hank on the Goliath project prior to the shuttering of Pym's programs.
With the Quantum Realm factored in, it's likely that Ghost is also going to have some connection to or relationship with the currently lost Janet Van Dyne, who, as we learned in the first Ant-Man, has been trapped in the Quantum Realm for years. There's a distinct possibility that Ghost's tech, accidental as it may be, is going to be one of the keys to Janet's eventual return.
As for her motivation? Well, that's a little more clear than her origin. According to Luis in the trailer, Ghost apparently wants to "take over the world or whatever," which, in terms of comic book supervillains, is pretty standard operating procedure. Of course, given Luis's penchant for, well, we'll say creative storytelling, there very well might be more to Ghost than world domination--especially if she does wind up having a personal stake in Pym's research.
At this point, thanks to the fluid nature of her comic book inspiration and the major departures from the source material that are already clear, anything is possible.
There's a recurring source of tension in Ant-Man and the Wasp thanks to Scott Lang's sentence of two years under house arrest for his actions in Captain America: Civil War. No matter how many zany adventures Paul Rudd's character has in this sequel, he has to periodically race back to his San Francisco apartment and re-don his ankle bracelet whenever hapless FBI agent Jimmy Woo (the funny Randall Park) decides to check in on him. It's a fun bit, and it harks back to an earlier age in the MCU, when a Marvel hero's biggest concern could be staying out of trouble with the law.
We've yet to see what a post-Infinity War world looks like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Regardless of how it eventually gets undone, what effect will Thanos's finger snap have in the short term? How will the tone shift in Avengers 4? Those questions are irrelevant in Ant-Man and the Wasp, which quickly places itself before the events of Infinity War. That may be a knock against it for those hoping for some answers, but this movie's tone is much lighter as a result, perfectly in line with the original Ant-Man's.
The first Ant-Man introduced Scott Lang (Rudd) along with Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Ant-Man and the Wasp directly picks up their story following Scott's involvement in Civil War: Scott's two years of house arrest are almost up, but Hope drags him back into a life of illegal heroism in a plot to save her mother, Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne, from the "quantum realm" in which she's been stranded for 30 years.
How can Janet be alive down there after all this time? How could Hank and Hope possibly find her? This movie is brimming with pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo about things like "entanglement" and "quantum tunnels." It gets a little exhausting, but the movie is self aware about its own ridiculousness; at one point, Scott asks Hank and his colleague Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) whether they just stick the word "quantum" in front of everything to make it sound more scientific. Good question, Scott!
Ant-Man and the Wasp introduces a couple of new villains in the forms of Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost, who stalks the heroes in hopes of stealing their secret lab, and Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch, a black market merchant who decides he wants the quantum tech for himself. Goggins is his typical hilariously sleazy self, while John-Kamen's more overtly dramatic performance fits her character.
But most important is the Wasp herself, Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne, who completely owns this movie. Hope proves--unsurprisingly--to be a much more capable Ant-Man than Ant-Man himself, with confidence and skill that are thrilling to watch. It makes the entire plot of the first movie--that Hank had to enlist the deadbeat Scott in the first place instead of just trusting his daughter to do the job--seem even more ludicrous in retrospect. Hopefully Lilly decides to stick around the MCU for a while, as her presence would be much appreciated in future installments.
Like the first Ant-Man, this movie has great fight choreography that sees both heroes frequently changing from normal to small to massive and back again in creative ways. Some of the most fun sequences are car chases where one or more vehicles are constantly shrinking down to Hot Wheels size and back to normal, throwing off pursuers and causing general zany chaos.
There's an added dash of humor from the fact that Scott's suit for much of the movie is malfunctioning, leaving him unable to control when he changes size. That leads to an especially funny sequence where Scott is running around his daughter's middle school at about 3 feet tall, trying to remain undetected. Cassie herself is still played by the ridiculously charismatic Abby Ryder Fortson, who gives Paul Rudd tit-for-tat in every scene they're in together.
Michael Peña's Luis returns with a vengeance too, with his voice-overed montage gag from the first--in which he tells a story while the characters he's describing act it out--is funnier than ever. This time around he gets injected with a sort of truth serum, causing his rapid fire rambling to span topics ranging from Scott's psychiatric health to his family's love of Morrissey. He's more actively involved in the story, as well, which is pure wish fulfillment for viewers who loved his character in the first movie.
Like the original Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp is primarily a palette cleanser in the MCU as a whole (the first movie was sandwiched in between the dense Age of Ultron and the dour Civil War). Ant-Man and the Wasp is hilarious, fun, silly, self aware, and creative. Filled with pseudo-science gobbledigook, crazy action, and multiple villains all vying for screen time, it's one of the most comic-booky MCU movies yet. The fates of all our favorite heroes after Avengers: Infinity War may still be up in the air, but in the meantime, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a welcome distraction.
The Good
The Bad
Lighthearted and funny
Pseudo-science mumbo jumbo gets ridiculous
Evangeline Lilly phenomenal as the Wasp
No answers for Infinity War fans
Multiple fun new villains
Creative shrinking-and-growing action
Self aware about its sillier aspects
Much-needed palette cleanser following Infinity War
NBA 2K19 will feature its first international star on the cover of the standard version. Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, who earned the nickname "the Greek Freak" for his country of origin and his preternatural basketball skills, will be this year's standard featured player. Pre-ordering the standard edition also gets his Sapphire MyTeam card, 10 more MyTeam packs, and 5,000 in virtual currency.
Antetokounmpo was the first player to finish in the top 20 for total points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. He also quickly earned honors like All-Rookie Second Team, NBA All-Defensive Second Team, All-NBA Second Team, and Most Improved Player. Similar to the 20th Anniversary cover featuring LeBron James, the cover sports phrases that are significant to Antetokounmpo's life, like "Father's Legacy," "Athens," and "Phenom."
"I am honored to be the first international player featured on the cover of NBA 2K19," said Antetokounmpo. "I love playing NBA 2K so this means a lot to me. I have worked hard to earn recognition in the NBA and being on the cover of NBA 2K19 is a dream come true."
NBA 2K19 will be available September 11 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The 20th Anniversary Edition will launch a few days earlier, on September 7. You can download "The Prelude" starting on August 31 for PS4 and Xbox One, to get a jump on the MyCareer mode. Check out our pre-order guide for all the details.
Watch out, Tom Cruise. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is coming for your crazy movie stunt crown. The final trailer for The Rock's next movie, Skyscraper, has arrived, and it's pulling no punches in putting the wrestler-turned-actor into some very dangerous situations.
In the new look at the film, even Johnson's character admits "This is stupid," before crawling along the side of the titular skyscraper with only a rope keeping him attached to the massive building. Oh yeah, did we mention everything is also on fire?
Skyscraper, which Johnson has been very fond of deeming an "original concept" movie, sees the action star playing a former US Marine whose family is trapped in the burning building. He takes it upon himself to not only scale the structure to get to his family but stop the villains who set it on fire in the first place.
Joining The Rock for the film are Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black), Neve Campbell (Scream), Noah Taylor (Preacher), and Byron Mann (Altered Carbon). The project also teams him once again with Central Intelligence director Rawson Marshall Thurber.
Skyscraper is just one of a seemingly endless number of projects Johnson has in the works. Other upcoming titles include Hobbs and Shaw, Jungle Cruise, Jumanji 3, Fighting with my Family, and maybe one day Black Adam--the film based on the DC Comics character that was first announced in 2007.
While Marvel is known for being highly secretive when it comes to its storylines, lately this has extended to its plans for future movies. The fourth Avengers film is less than a year from release and its title is still to be officially announced. However, a possible name has now emerged, via the movie's cinematographer.
The title Avengers: End Game appeared on a list of credits on the website of Trent Opaloch. Opaloch has served as Director of Photography on several Marvel movies, including Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. The credit has since been changed to Avengers 4, but you can check out a screengrab of the original page over at Omega Underground.
The term "end game" actually appears in Infinity War, when Doctor Strange tells Iron Man, "we're in the end game now." However, as Comicbook.com points out, co-director Joe Russo had previously denied that the title will be a line of dialogue from Infinity War. Either way, Marvel has, unsurprisingly, not commented on the story.
This isn't the first time a someone involved with Avengers 4 has seemingly leaked the title. Back in April 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy star Zoe Saldana called the movie Gauntlet during an interview, which is presumably a reference to the Infinity Gauntlet. And of course, the Russo brothers are known for trying misdirect fans from finding out too much about their movies, as shown by the various tricks they used in the Infinity War trailers.
In related news, we do at least know the title of the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel, which is released shortly after Avengers 4. Last week, Tom Holland "accidentally" revealed that it would be named Spider-Man: Far From Home. It hits theaters on July 5, 2019.
Talking to Chris Zimmerman, Sucker Punch co-founder and programmer on Ghost of Tsushima, it's clear his latest game is a dream project that's given purpose to his innate passion for Japanese history. The upcoming PS4 game is based on an actual 13th-century Mongol invasion that serves as catalyst for the fictional hero's transformation from quintessential samurai to scrappy shadow warrior.
According to Zimmerman, Sucker Punch has gone to considerable lengths to study the island of Tsushima and understand its past, and he believes eagle-eyed historians will appreciate the numerous authentic touches throughout--details so subtle as to be lost on the average player, but details deemed important nonetheless.
As jazzed as Zimmerman is about these efforts, he's also confident that it's worth taking creative liberties to make Ghost of Tsushima as relatable as possible. Thanks to comics, games, and movies, people have an idea of what samurai are supposed to look like, and this is what Sucker Punch is aiming for. Think the characters we've seen thus far are wearing authentic 13th century samurai armor? Not so, according to Zimmerman.
In the excerpt from our E3 2018 interview below, Zimmerman further explores the reasoning behind the team's selective commitment to fact, and identifies some aspects of the game that have been moulded to fit mainstream expectations of samurai.
GameSpot: What's the balance of historical accuracy in Ghost of Tsushima?
Zimmerman: The way I think about it is: we're going to deviate from historical truth, we just want to do it intentionally. A lot of the support we get from our friends from Sony in Japan, and our Japanese friends in Sony US, and all the cultural consultants we've assembled to help us do this stuff, is to make sure we don't deviate accidentally. There are things we are going to do that are different and we want to choose those wisely.
There are places where we're really pretty true, right? Like if we're putting birds in the game, they're Japanese birds. Brad Meyer, our sound lead, took a trip to Japan to capture the actual sounds of things in nature… It's an awesome game to work on because it lets us do this cool stuff. So, stuff like that is going to be perfect, like the statues that you see in the temple, in the demo, those are actual 13th-century statues.
And then there are things where, well, there's some stuff where the consultants help us not make mistakes. If anyone asked that question, I probably gave the example of us rewriting that scene, with Jin and Masako, when they meet. Originally we wrote it as, "Hello, Jin." Ryuhei, our producer, said, "Yeah, Japanese people don't say that. She would just say, 'Jin.'" Little stuff like that, just to make sure that if you're a Japanese speaker or if you're Japanese, you don't snag on stuff.
In terms of how they fought, what they wore, it doesn't match your expectations. So we're not sticking exactly to the historical truth of Kamakura-era samurai. It's gonna be a little different.
I asked him another one today, I was like "Ryuhei, in the English version the horse is named Nobu--a Japanese name--[so]why is it that when we did it in Japanese they changed the name?" He said, "Oh, we didn't change the name, you just don't give horses names in Japan; that's an American thing." So when he calls the horse, [Jin] says, "Hey, over here," and the horse comes. He doesn't give him a name.
Things like that are going to fly over most players, and that's okay. Knowing that we're trying to get that stuff right, and knowing there are people that notice and appreciate that the Kanji are actual 13th century Kanji, that actually is why we're doing it. I think people not necessarily seeing those details or realizing the lengths we've gone to to make sure it's true at where we want it to be true, they still benefit because it just adds a level of coherence to the whole thing, that it's not made up.
The challenge for us, making a game, in an original story but taking place in a real historical time, is making sure we're telling a story that people can relate to, you know, that they can empathize with. So when we are deviating from this historical truth, we are doing it to stop you from snagging on stuff.
If you have an idea about what samurai look like or how they act or how they think we're going to give that to you. Most people's idea is really based on an idea of samurai which is really more of a 16th-, 17th-, 18th-century idea of samurai; 13th century, historically, is pretty different. In terms of how they fought, what they wore, it doesn't match your expectations. So we're not sticking exactly to the historical truth of Kamakura-era samurai. It's gonna be a little different. The armor that you see him wear, it's not 13th century armor. It's more warring states period armor. Because, honestly, the 13th century armor is pretty jarring looking, it's not what you'd expect. It's really boxy. It doesn't look aspirational. And we wanna make sure that what we give you is your fantasy of what being a wandering samurai is.
How do you manage the realities of fighting with a Katana while making a video game that's not Bushido Blade?
We tried it both ways. The truth is, if you ever pick up a katana and you actually hold it in your hands, you realize how dangerous it is. It's sharp, and it's kind of scary to hold one. If you get hit with a katana for real, unless it's just a nick, the fight's over. True, historic fighting styles are built around that idea. The ancient fighting style expert that comes and helps us, and does mo-cap, has been really helpful in helping us find that balance, where there is a historical basis to how you move.
The movement style for Jin, when he's fighting, is actually pretty grounded, and wasn't necessarily what we would have done to begin with. He helped us find the right style and to identify what in the movement of the characters makes them feel like samurai, and what do we do with the mongols, who move very differently--he's also an expert in ancient mongolian combat, by the way--so that also helped us make sure that you can feel the difference in this clash of cultures show up in the fights that you have.
But, there are things that Jin does when you're fighting that no samurai would ever do. He does spin strikes, which are fun, they're very showy, they are completely… you would never do that [in real life]. You would never turn your back. There are things that he does even right now that we may continue to edit as we look for that balance. We'll see if we can find the best of both worlds, where it's as real as it can be while still being a video game.
We've tried versions of the game where it's all one-hit kills, and it's not as much fun to play. It's not just about your expectations of what a samurai is, which are really more formed by watching movies than by careful academic study. It's also, whether people know it or not, people's experience playing games--samurai games, fighting games, or whatever sort--your expectations are kind of set by that. So we have to play within that set of expectations to make you [think], "I feel like a samurai!" You don't want it to be jarring, you want it to be natural. There are so many natural barriers between you and this time-machine experience that we're going for, that we have to be careful to take all the barriers that we can get rid of and get rid of them.
At this point it's no surprise when publisher 2K reveals a new annual installment of the official NBA basketball video game. NBA 2K19 is slated to come out for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 11, 2018, but you can pre-order a copy now.
The cover athlete for this year's special 20th Anniversary Edition is the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James, who also appeared on the cover of NBA 2K14. The 20th Anniversary Edition celebrates the series' two-decade history. The franchise began as a Sega Dreamcast launch title in 1999.
If you might be interested in pre-ordering NBA 2K19, keep on reading. We've rounded up all the information about what comes in each edition, what kinds of pre-order bonuses to expect, and where you can pre-order the game right now to secure your copy for this September.
Pre-Order NBA 2K19 Standard Edition
Pre-order NBA 2K19 standard edition, and you'll receive "5,000 Virtual Currency, 10 MyTeam packs (delivered one a week), and a Giannis Antetokounmpo Sapphire MyTEAM card.
If you pre-order NBA 2K19 20th Anniversary Edition, you'll get to play the game four days early, on September 7. This version of the game costs $40 more than the standard edition, so what do you get for that extra money? Here's a rundown.
100,000 Virtual Currency
50,000 MyTeam points
20 MyTeam League Packs (delivered one a week). Build your perfect fantasy team featuring a guaranteed Sapphire LeBron card and more.
10 MyTeam Heat Check Packs (delivered one a week beginning at the start of the NBA season)
July is officially upon us, which means a couple of new Games with Gold are now available to download. Xbox Live Gold subscribers can grab two new free titles for Xbox One and Xbox 360, with another pair of freebies set to arrive partway through the month.
On the current-gen console, Gold members can download the fast-paced twin-stick shooter Assault Android Cactus at no charge until July 31. 360 owners, meanwhile, can grab Sega's classic fighting game, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, for free until July 15. The latter is also playable on Xbox One thanks to backwards compatibility.
In addition to those titles, players will be able to grab two more titles for free beginning July 16. On the Xbox One side, Gold members will be able to get the colorful puzzle game Death Squared for free until August 15, while Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction will be available to download on Xbox 360 through the end of July. Like Virtua Fighter, the latter is also backwards compatible with Xbox One. You can see the full list of July's free Games with Gold below.
On top of this month's freebies, Gold members still have a few more days to claim a holdover from June's Games with Gold lineup. The Smite Gold Bundle is available to download for free until July 15. The bundle includes an assortment of items for the free-to-play game, including additional gods, skins, and announcer packs.
July 2018 Games With Gold
Xbox One
Assault Android Cactus (July 1-31)
Death Squared (July 16-August 15)
Xbox 360 (playable on Xbox One)
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (July 1-15)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (July 16-31)
Deadline just broke the news that Jim Carrey is negotiating to join the cast of the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film as the movie's villain, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik. He'd be starring in the film alongside Westworld's James Marsden and Ride Along's Tika Sumpter.
Carrey last starred as Tadek in the 2016 detective drama Dark Crimes and the 2017 documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. He'll be both executive producing and starring in this year's Kidding, which premieres on Showtime. The actor is well known for the crazed zeal he can bring to a performance, which could make for a very interesting Dr. Robotnik.
Dr. Robotnik has been Sonic's arch-nemesis since the blue blur's first video game in 1991. Possessing an IQ of 300, the mad scientist used his vast intellect to transform forest creatures into killer robots so he could conquer the world and claim the powerful Chaos Emeralds for himself. Over the years, Dr. Robotnik's plans have become more comical, and the villain received the goofy nickname "Dr. Eggman" in reference to his round body and being an egghead.
There aren't that many details concerning the plot of the Sonic the Hedgehog film. The movie seems to follow the same gist of the games: Robotnik is doing something dastardly to take over the world and Sonic needs to stop him. However, there are a few interesting twists this time around. An interview by The Wrap with film producer Neal Moritz revealed the movie will follow the buddy cop format, where Sonic, a juvenile delinquent in need of a friend, teams up with a small town cop to stop Eggman. We'll probably get more details closer to the film's scheduled 2019 release. The movie is being marketed as a mixture of live action and CGI.
In honor of the Fourth of July, Best Buy is running a huge sale right now on all kinds of items, from computers and TVs to movies and games. We've dug through the sale to find the most appealing deals on the games, hardware, and accessories you want. Here are some of the highlights of Best Buy's Fourth of July Sale.
Sports game fans have an array of options. FIFA 18 is on sale for $30, Madden NFL 18 is down to $25, and NBA 2K18 is $20. If fighting is more your thing, you can grab UFC 3 for $40, or if you'd prefer something more theatrical, you can get WWE 2K18 for $20.
Finally, if you've been putting off upgrading your TV, now may be the week to pull the trigger. Best Buy has a ton of televisions on sale, with 4K sets starting at $230, meaning you can almost certainly find a deal on a TV that fits your size and budget preferences.
Shortly after Blizzard teased Hero 28 for Overwatch and revealed his identity as a cute, chubby hamster, the company has released him on the Public Test Realm and detailed his full suite of abilities. The new hero is indeed Hammond, as suspected, though his name in-game is Wrecking Ball.
As seen in the teaser trailer, Wrecking Ball has the ability to transform into a ball and roll around to increase his movement speed, and his automatic weapons are known as Quad Cannons. Grappling Claw allows him to send out a grappling hook that lets him swing around the nearby area, which Blizzard said allows for "high-speed collisions to damage and knockback enemies."
Adaptive Shield provides shields for Wrecking Ball that increase in effectiveness depending on the number of nearby enemies. Piledriver causes Wrecking Ball to slam into the ground, dealing damage and knocking enemies up into the air. His Ultimate is Minefield, which lays out a "massive" field of mines that detonate when enemies come near to them. His backstory is detailed on Blizzard's website; you can watch his origin video below or check out some Hammond gameplay in our livestream.
As noted above, you can try out Wrecking Ball for yourself right now if you own Overwatch on PC. A new update has been released on the PTR, which you can access through the Battle.net app's Region/Account drop-down menu. There's no word on how long the PTR will be available or when Wrecking Ball will be released in the live game on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
This PTR update also does a number of other things. There are hero updates to multiple characters, making "major changes" to damage falloff for the likes of McCree, Bastion, Mei, Soldier 76, and Widowmaker. Hanzo's new Storm Arrows see a small nerf, Assault maps now provide one less minute for each control point objective, and various bug fixes have been implemented. You can see all of these changes in the full patch notes.
More Fortnite: Battler Royale challenges are now live, with Week 7 presenting players with another batch of seven different things to do while playing. A number of them are fairly routine, while one is essentially a tie-in to coincide with the start of the World Cup, and another has you dealing with a treasure map. Here's how to complete them all.
With the challenges debuting in-game on the same day the World Cup begins, one challenge asks you to score a goal on different pitches. You'll need to do this one five times, and it involves heading to one of the soccer fields scattered around the match and knocking the soccer ball into the goal. You don't have to do all five in a single round of Battle Royale, and there are more than five total to come across. Among those are ones located in Pleasant Park, Risky Reels, Fatal Fields, and Flush Factory, as well as one southeast of Junk Junction.
Another challenge you might need some direction with asks you to follow the treasure map found in Pleasant Park. You can go there and secure the map, or, if you know where it leads, you can simply head right to the end point. This one takes you to the eastern edge of Tilted Towers. There's a small mountain with a pair of trees on top; try to land there at the start of a match (or build your way up) and you'll be able to collect the Battle Star icon.
The only other challenge that isn't completely straightforward tells you to consume hop rocks, apples, or mushrooms. These are consumable items that are used immediately on pick-up that have been added during Season 4. They can be found in a variety of locations, but your best is to head to Dusty Divot, where you'll find numerous hop rocks littered around the impact site, outside the fenced-in area.
As for the rest of Week 7's challenges, they involve using the right weapons or being in the right place. Searching chests in Risky Reels is as simple as landing there repeatedly and grinding your way to the seven you need. To eliminate opponents in Shifty Shafts, you'll want to do the same thing, starting out the match there and trying to beat other players to weapons. If it's an assault rifle, all the better, as you can complete your assault rifle eliminations that way. For both of those, you'll want to attempt this in a solo playlist, where you don't have to deal with downing players and then having to finish them off. On the other hand, for the final challenge--deal 250 damage with a pickaxe to opponents--your easiest path is to play a team game, down an enemy, and then swing away.
Fortnite Week 7 Challenges
Deal damage with a pickaxe to opponents (250) -- 5 Battle Stars
Search chests in Risky Reels (7) -- 5 Battle Stars
Consume Hop Rocks, Apples, or Mushrooms (2) -- 5 Battle Stars
Score a goal on different pitches (5) -- 5 Battle Stars
Hard: Follow the treasure map found in Pleasant Park -- 10 Battle Stars
Infinity Ward, the Activision studio behind the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, as well as Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, is hiring a narrative scripter to work on a game being developed for "multiple next-gen platforms." While the game isn't mentioned by name, given the studio's history, a Call of Duty title for the next iterations of the PlayStation and Xbox seems like a safe bet.
A job listing on Selectminds, a recruitment portal used by Activision, states what the successful candidate will be tasked with and the ideal qualifications. Although these don't provide further insight into the project, they do line up with what most people would expect out of a Call of Duty title.
The listing says the candidate will have to "collaborate with scripters, sound designers, writers, and directors to implement voice-over performances in-game across a wide variety of player experiences--from combat to set-pieces." Among other qualifications, this person will need to have "strong interest and passion for First Person Shooter (FPS) games" and a "broad understanding of both multiplayer and single-player game design."
2018's entry in the yearly first-person shooter franchise is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which is being developed by Treyarch. Activision has not provided any indication of its plans for the series beyond this game. There are currently three studios developing Call of Duty titles: Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch. Since 2017's Call of Duty: WWII was handled by Sledgehammer, and Black Ops 4 is Treyarch, that would mean that 2019's title should be from Infinity Ward.
It is unlikely that the "next gen" game Infinity Ward is recruiting for will be available in 2019, as Sony and Microsoft have not indicated they will have new platforms available next year. At E3 2018, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said Microsoft is in the early stages of creating the next Xbox consoles. Sony, meanwhile, has indicated PS5 will arrive in 2021 at the earliest.
Of course, Infinity Ward could reveal a new intellectual property, but given that Call of Duty: WWII's impressive sales showed the series is still a money-making powerhouse, that would be a surprise.
Even though the last Men in Black movie was only released in 2012, a reboot of the sci-fi comedy franchise is on the way. With original stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones no longer involved in the series, the new movie will reunite Thor: Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in the lead roles. The movie is set to start shooting this month, and we have some more casting news.
As reported by Empire, Kumail Nanjiani and Rafe Spall will join the cast. Nanjiani is best known for his role in HBO's comedy Silicon Valley and the movie The Big Sick, while Spall has appeared in films such as Prometheus and the Netflix horror movie The Ritual. While Spall's role is currently unknown, the site reports that Nanjiani will play a "wise-cracking extra-terrestrial."
Empire also provided some more details about the two main characters. Hemsworth's Agent H is "a suave, slightly goofy British MIB officer," while Thompson will play Molly, a civilian who "knows aliens exists and aims to join the organisation."
The new Men in Black is reportedly not a remake but will take a place in the same universe as the earlier films. It is set to be directed by F. Gary Gray, who helmed last year's blockbuster The Fate of the Furious, as well as the hip-hop biopicStraight Outta Compton, and hits theaters on June 14, 2019.
Back in 2016, it was rumored that Sony was looking to reboot Men in Black as a crossover movie with its other comedy franchise, the Jump Street movies. There has been little news about this project since, although Deadline did state earlier this year that it remains in development at the studio.
All three original Men in Black movies were big box-office hits. Although the third movie was not as well received critically as the first two, it still made $624 million at the worldwide box office. In total, the whole series has made more than $1.6 billion.
Fortnite Season 4 is nearly over, but in the meantime, Week 8 challenges are now available for players to tackle--so long as you own the Season 4 Battle Pass. Like any week, this consists of seven new objectives for Battle Royale players to complete on PC, PS4, Xbox One, mobile, and (as of E3) Nintendo Switch, including searching Hungry Gnomes and looking for a spot between a bear, crater, and refrigerator shipment. Here's where to find these key challenges and how to complete them all.
First up is one that asks you to search Hungry Gnomes. This is as simple as approaching one of these gnomes and searching it in the same way you'd open a chest, but it of course involves tracking them down first. You need to search seven in all, and luckily, there are many more than that on the map; however, there's no in-game indication of where you should begin your hunt. The one bit of help you do receive is a telltale noise the gnomes make when one is nearby, as it says "yummy yummy" in an odd voice. Among the locations where you'll find gnomes:
arena east of Junk Junction
Greasy Grove
Lucky Landing
Retail Row
Risky Reels
Tilted Towers
Tomato Town
Week 8's other more difficult challenge is one that's labeled as Hard by Epic. It asks you to search between a Bear, Crater, and a Refrigerator Shipment. As always, that's the only clue you get--you'll need to know the map well if you hope to do it on your own. In this case, the location you want to head to is just on the border of the I6 and I7 zones, southeast of Retail Row. The Battle Star you have to collect can be found just north of a house next to a gas station, as pictured below.
The remainder of Week 8 is fairly straightforward, though that doesn't necessarily make all of it easy. Search chests in Salty Springs is as simple as repeatedly landing there at the start of a match and grinding your way to the seven you need--be sure to head for rooftops so you can easily check attics. If you're hoping to do the related challenge, search seven chests in a single match, you'll want to avoid Salty Springs--other players are likely to be swarming the area in search of chests. Instead, your best bet is to head far away from the Battle Bus's flight path and avoid conflict at all costs.
Another challenge has you deal 250 headshot damage to opponents; just do your best to aim high, and you can grind your way to this one. Likewise, you can get three suppressed weapon eliminations by just getting your hands on one and using it at every opportunity. And again, that's true of eliminating three opponents in Pleasant Park--start enough matches there, luck into a weapon before someone else, and you should be able to take care of it without too much trouble. For both of the elimination challenges, your best bet is to attempt this in a solo playlist, so that you can avoid dealing with revives.
If you're looking to complete older challenges, check out our complete Season 4 challenge guide. Doing these allows you to rank up your Battle Pass, unlocking new skins and other rewards.
Fortnite Season 4, Week 8 Challenges
Deal Headshot Damage to opponents (250) -- 5 Battle Stars
Search Chests in Salty Springs (7) -- 5 Battle Stars
Search 7 Chests in a single match (7) -- 5 Battle Stars
Search Hungry Gnomes (7) -- 5 Battle Stars
Hard: Search between a Bear, Crater, and a Refrigerator Shipment -- 10 Battle Stars
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