Here's a heads-up for everyone who plays Fortnite: Battle Royale on PS4 and has a PlayStation Plus subscription: You can download an exclusive set of in-game loot right now for free. It's called the Fortnite Battle Royale: PlayStation Plus Celebration Pack, and it comes with three in-game items you won't find anywhere else.
What kind of items are we talking about? A glider, pickaxe, and skydiving trail. The glider is called the Flappy Glider, and it sports a blue and white design, with googly eyes and a smile forming an adorable face. The axe is the Controller Pickaxe, which features blue lightning bolts, with a pair of analog stick ornaments on top. As for the skydiving trail, it sends PlayStation colors out of your extremities as you plummet from the bus.
Like with all Fortnite gear, the items in the pack are cosmetic only and do not affect gameplay (though the googly eyes might distract your enemies long enough for you to land a few shots). It's also important to note that you need a PS Plus membership to download the pack, seeing as Fortnite is one of the few games you don't actually need PS Plus to play online.
You can pick up the pack of freebies from the Fortnite PSN page, or by clicking here and adding it to your cart. This is the third set of free Fortnite gear for PS Plus members this year. The other two are no longer available, so you'll want to grab this one sooner than later to make sure you get it in time.
Fortnite is currently in its fifth season, with a whole bunch of weekly challenges still available for anyone who hasn't completed them yet. Read our full guide to Fortnite Season 5 Challenges for tips and tricks to help you get the most from the game.
A demo for FIFA 19 will be available soon, EA Sports has announced. The demo will arrive on Thursday, September 13, the company announced today. There is no word yet on what teams, stadiums, and modes will be available in the demo, though those details should be announced soon given that the demo is just days away.
The demo will presumably be available on all FIFA 19 platforms: PS4, Xbox One, and PC. FIFA 19 adds a number of new features and updates this year, so hopefully the demo lets players try out some of these.
In other FIFA 19 news, EA has announced the first 20 of the top 100 rated players, so that's the players rated 100-81. Some of football's biggest names are represented there, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic (No. 98) and Diego Costa (No. 81). You can see the full 100-81 list here.
FIFA 19 launches worldwide on September 28 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, as well as last-generation consoles. EA/Origin Access subscribers will get to play sooner.
As one of gaming's respected and loved beat-em-ups, the Streets of Rage series was a hallmark of the Sega Genesis' vast library. Popularizing the brawler sub-genre on home consoles in the '90s, the original trilogy centered around a team of street fighters taking matters into their own hands to fight against gangs and corrupt politicians. Even after 24 years of dormancy, the Streets of Rage games have remained highly respected by fans, who've been anticipating the franchise's return. And now with Streets of Rage 4, the next entry in the series shows that it hasn't lost its touch after its long hiatus.
This isn't the first time developers have tried reviving the Streets of Rage franchise. Sega attempted a revival on the Dreamcast, and Ruffian Games--the developer behind Crackdown 2--also tried its hand at a reboot on Xbox 360 and PS3. But now, the next game in the beat-em-up series will be a true continuation of the Sega Genesis games. Coming from developers LizardCube and Guard Crush Games--who've worked on the Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remake and Streets of Fury EX, respectively--Streets of Rage makes its big return with its predecessor's familiar side-scrolling beat-em-up gameplay, some smooth synth beats, and a brand new visual style for its debut on modern consoles.
We had some hands-on time with the game at PAX West 2018 and came away impressed with how it's shaping up so far. Right from the beginning of the demo, the game reflects its predecessors' history and legacy. Not only does it pay due respects, it also introduces some new ideas--and a style all its own--that feels more like a natural progression for the series than you'd likely expect. Though the plot of SOR4 is still under wraps, it's clear that another crime wave has swept the city sometime after the events of Streets of Rage 3, forcing veteran brawlers Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding back into action. The developers weren't ready to share any details about other returning characters, but the upcoming game does pull from the familiar tropes, enemies, and style that made the previous games stand out during its day.
The core gameplay remains just as it was in the original games, with the developers citing the second and third titles as their touchstones. The team also stated that they were admirers of the unofficial fan game, Streets of Rage Remake, which offered some inspiration for the new entry. Many of the characters' more iconic moves, such as Axel's Grand Upper make a return. One persistent feeling throughout my time with Streets of Rage 4 was that it all felt very familiar. With that said, some of game's more contemporary changes were clearly apparent. One great feature that fans will dig in SOR4 is a modified super move system. Much like in SOR2, using a special move would deplete some of your health, making for a risk/reward system. In the new game, however, that depleted life can be recovered by immediately following up with regular attacks--similar to Bloodborne's health regen system.
One of the most striking things about Streets of Rage 4 is its new visual style, which is apparent in the game's debut trailer. While the original games featured detailed 2D sprite work, SOR4 uses hand-drawn art for its characters and backgrounds--similar to the style employed in LizardCube's Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. Though some diehards may have reservations about the vastly different look, the new aesthetic still feels consistent with the spirit of past games. Moreover, it offers a much more dynamic look compared to its predecessor's vivid, yet still static cityscape. While brawling against waves of street thugs, we came across several stages in vastly different areas of the city, each showing of a surprising amount of detail and flavor.
The build we got to play at PAX West was early, featuring some placeholder assets and reused music from the original games. However, the developers were quick to state that the final game will have its own unique score and effects to help make it stand out from the original game. While they were tight-lipped about whether the series' original composer, Yuzo Koshiro, was returning to create new synth-rock tracks for the game, they stated that they were in talks with him and the Sega about nailing the game's particular style.
Coming in 2019 to yet unannounced platforms,SOR4 already seems in great shape. Even from the short demo, action felt incredibly The series' impact on the beat-em-up genre, and its endearing style and presentation--which made it a hallmark of early-90s 2D gaming--have earned it a long-held respect among fans, who have waited patiently for a new game to fill in the void that it left behind. While SOR4 definitely has some big shoes to fill, the developers seem to be on the right track.
It's officially September, and that means the next wave of additions to the Xbox Game Pass library is now available. There were 10 titles added to the catalog for September 2018, including some big first-party games such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Quantum Break. These add to the more than 100 games (across Xbox One and Xbox 360) that are already available in the library.
The Master Chief Collection, which originally launched in 2014, is the biggest Halo package ever released. It includes remastered versions of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, in addition to Halo 3 and Halo 4. All of the multiplayer maps for each game are also included. If you're playing on Xbox One X, the game looks better and loads faster.
The other headlining game for September is Quantum Break, the 2016 time-bending game from Alan Wake studio Remedy Entertainment. In a big twist for games, the title mixes gameplay and live-action TV, featuring actors like Shawn Ashmore, Aidan Gillen, Dominic Monaghan, and Lance Reddick. Additionally, quality racing game Onrush, which released earlier this year, is included in this month's offerings.
In addition to the dozens of back-catalog games available in the program, all of Microsoft's first-party games launch into Game Pass, meaning subscribers can get games like Forza Horizon 4, Halo: Infinite, Gears 5, and others at no extra cost.
Streaming platform Hulu has announced everything that's coming to and leaving the service in September, which we're now nearly halfway through. Starting with what's arriving, there are a lot of high-profile movies being added to Hulu throughout the month, including There Will Be Blood, Any Given Sunday, Jerry Maguire, Unbreakable, City of God, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape, all of which debuted on September 1, meaning you can stream them right now.
New episodes of the Hulu original show I Love You, America, premiere on September 6, while the Season 22 premiere of South Park comes out on September 27. The full season of American Horror Story: Cult hits on September 18, while premiere episodes for a number of other series returning (or debuting) this fall arrive toward the end of September. Those include This Is Us, Lethal Weapon, and The Gifted.
As for what's leaving, the Christian Bale thriller American Psycho, the 1989 feel-good baseball movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Smith's Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and the Star Wars spoof Spaceballs all left on September 1.
PS4's Spider-Man makes dozens of references to the stories, allies, and enemies from the wall crawlers' comics. There are quite a few littered throughout the game's final moments, which all seem to be pointing towards a specific comic series.
Although Insomniac has not confirmed a connection, most of the characters in Spider-Man are similar to their counterparts from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics. As opposed to earlier stories that used radiation and pseudoscience as the basis for how Spider-Man and his rogue's gallery of super-villains came to be, Ultimate Spider-Man takes a more modern approach and uses genetic splicing, tinkering, and degradation as the origin story for its heroes and villains. The comic debuted in October 2000 and ran for nearly 11 years, making it the second longest continuous Marvel series that's created by only two people.
Like Ultimate Spider-Man, PS4's Spider-Man gives Peter Parker a larger background in science and mathematics, making him an engineering prodigy. Mary Jane is also the first to find out that Peter and Spider-Man are the same person. Plenty of other characters have similar personalities and appearances to their Ultimate counterparts too, including Aunt May, Rhino, Shocker, Kingpin, and more.
Admittedly, some of the game's characters do not match up with their Ultimate Spider-Man counterparts. Spider-Man's Vulture is Amazing Spider-Man's Adrian Toomes, and not Ultimate's Blackie Drago. The Vulture costume is similar in both the game and comics though, as is Toomes' poor health (he's initially not in Ultimate because he dies from an illness). There are enough similarities, though, to use Ultimate Spider-Man to help dissect the final scenes of the game.
Spoiler Alert: The rest of this article delves into the ending, mid-credits, and post-credits scenes of Spider-Man, as well as major plot points from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics.
The Ending: A New Ally
A lot happens in the final moments of Spider-Man, but one of the more puzzling developments is the departure of Silver Sable. After being prominently featured in promotional material for the game, Silver Sable has a pretty minor role in the overall story. She leads the private military force hired by Norman Osborn to keep order in the city, but after warming up to Spider-Man she just leaves. Moments before the final battle, she calls Peter to say she's gone home and we never see her again. It's odd she was included in the game at all with how minor a role she plays.
That changes if this Silver Sable is inspired from her Ultimate counterpart. In Ultimate, Silver Sable is initially one of Spider-Man's villains, but only because she was hired to hunt him down. She has a begrudging respect for the wall-crawler and tolerates him when a job needs to get done. More importantly, Silver Sable and Spider-Man eventually team up in Ultimate, and it's to take down Venom in the "War of the Symbiotes" arc.
Spider-Man's post-credits scene reveals that Venom's origin might be on the horizon, and that lends more credence to the prediction that Silver Sable will return to New York. Silver Sable might have been introduced in this game so that she and Spidey can work together to hunt down Venom in a future expansion or sequel.
The Mid-Credits Scene: Peter's Successor
In Spider-Man's mid-credits scene, Miles reveals to Peter that his body is undergoing some changes, before showcasing that he can stick to the ceiling. Peter immediately jumps up to join him to reveal that he's Spider-Man. It's a touching, almost brotherly moment.
Miles Morales was first introduced in 2011's Ultimate Fallout, which ties into Ultimate Spider-Man's final arc. Like Peter, he's bitten by a genetically enhanced spider from Oscorp's lab. This gives Miles similar powers to Peter, including the ability to stick to walls, super strength and reflexes, and an enhanced sixth sense. However, Miles is bitten by a different species of spider, so he ends up with a few more powers. Miles isn't as strong as Peter, but he can emit a paralyzing venom from his fingertips and camouflage himself against nearly any surface, rendering him invisible.
We'll have to wait and see whether or not Miles has inherited all of the powers he has in Ultimate, but the fact that he has powers at all might foreshadow a dark future. In Ultimate, Miles becomes a superhero to honor Spider-Man after New York watches Peter Parker give up his life to stop the Green Goblin in the "Death of Spider-Man" arc. There's no guarantee that Insomniac is moving towards that storyline, but the post-credits scene does hint at the rise of Green Goblin. In the game's final battle, Peter also lets himself get stabbed so he can stop Doctor Octopus and save the ones he loves, so it's not that big of a stretch to imagine him sacrificing himself in a future game.
The Post-Credits Scene: Two New Foes
As stated before, Spider-Man's post-credits scene hints at two possible supervillains appearing in Peter's future: Venom and Green Goblin. There's a lot to unpack in that final scene, including the fate of Harry Osborn. Earlier in the game, Peter and Mary Jane learn that Harry didn't go abroad for vacation but instead left the country to receive intensive treatment for a genetic disorder. In the post-credits scene, we find out that Harry didn't even leave. His father is keeping him in a tank that's filled with green liquid.
This green liquid is most likely OZ. In Ultimate Spider-Man, Norman Osborn develops the green goo as an experimental drug that boosts strength, reflexes, and intelligence. He's not completely successful in keeping the substance stable, and so he tests the drug on other animals, one being spiders. When the spiders bite Peter and Miles, they transfer the drug in a less volatile state into their systems, which is why Peter and Miles are enhanced without becoming deformed in the process. Perhaps in the game's continuity, Norman developed OZ as a way to strengthen his son and stabilize his genetic condition. However, it's clearly not enough as Norman also has a black substance webbed around Harry that's seemingly keeping him alive in suspended animation. The black web reacts to Norman when it senses the man's presence. It might be what's keeping the OZ from mutating Harry.
In Ultimate Spider-Man, the symbiote isn't an alien, but a man-made suit that's seemingly alive. Its primary purpose is to cure cancer by strengthening the host body's immune system and giving them superhuman levels of strength and endurance. Perhaps--much like the OZ--Norman builds the suit for his son, and the suit--much like its Ultimate counterpart--desires more humans to feed on in order to strengthen its host. If the suit's hunger for more humans is strong enough, or if it feeds on the OZ, it could break Harry out of his tank and transform him into the toothy black monster that pushes Silver Sable and Spidey to work together.
If that's the case, stopping the suit would kill Harry, as it looks like it might be the only thing keeping him alive. The loss of his wife and son would probably drive Norman to madness and cause him to try and take revenge on Spider-Man, who he'd see as a murderer. If Norman ingested unfiltered OZ, then like his Ultimate counterpart, he'd transform into the monstrous-looking Green Goblin. His war against Spider-Man might lead to Peter giving up his life to save the city, and pave the way for Miles to become New York's next friendly neighborhood wall crawler. Insomniac has already proven they're willing to kill off major characters--like Aunt May--in order to tell an emotional story, so killing off Peter at the end of Spider-Man 2 so that Miles can be the protagonist of Spider-Man 3 is not so far-fetched.
But of course, that's just all speculation based on the information we can glean from Spider-Man's final scenes. We'd love to hear what you all think. Again, not all characters in Spider-Man follow the same beats as Ultimate Spider-Man so Insomniac could draw inspiration from a completely different comic--like Amazing, Spectacular, or All-New, All-Different--or create a completely unique storyline. What type of future do you think the final scenes of Spider-Man are hinting towards? Leave your responses in the comments below.
Spider-Man is currently only available for the PS4. We loved it, and gave the game a 9/10 in our review. Insomniac has revealed that the game is getting a New Game Plus mode in the future, as well as a three-part DLC expansion called The City That Never Sleeps.
Each Tuesday, Sony kicks off a new weekly sale on the PlayStation Store. This week it's the PlayStation Picks Sale that's offering up big savings on all kinds of fantastic PS4 games across all genres. As usual, PlayStation Plus members get an additional 10% discount on most of the games in the sale.
Lots of big-name games got temporary price cuts, including Battlefield 1 for just $6. And as luck would have it, you can also pick up the game's Premium Pass for free this week on the PlayStation Store--a sweet deal, considering it normally runs $45 on its own.
Maybe you enjoyed the Mega Man 11 demo and want more of the Blue Bomber in your life. You can grab games 1-10 by picking up Mega Man Legacy Collection for $6 and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 for $12. That will get you caught up on the robotic hero's exploits in time for the sequel's October 2 release.
You'll find more of our other picks for this week's best game deals below, or you can find the complete list of sale items here.
Every year, 2K's WWE series boasts an incredibly large roster, and this year will be no different. Before the newest announcement, there were already over 140 playable characters in WWE 2K19. Now, a new batch of legends have been revealed. Get ready to book some dream matches.
Smackdown superstars Rusev and Lana hosted the video from 2K once again, and they were joined by Cesaro and Sheamus. Throughout the presentation, some huge names from the past were revealed, including Ted DiBiase, Mr. Perfect, Big Boss Man, and more. In total, so far, there are over 180 playable in this game now. It's one of the largest rosters for the series to date.
This year's game features the return of Showcase mode, where you play through a WWE superstar's career. This time around, Daniel Bryan is featured. You'll start the story in his first WWE match against John Cena, when Bryan was called Bryan Danielson. From there, you'll traverse his journey to become WWE Champion, his early retirement from injury, and his triumphant return to WWE.
While WWE 2K19 is coming to PS4 and Xbox One, it will be skipping out on a Switch edition this year. "WWE 2K19 will not be available on Nintendo Switch," a 2K spokesperson said. "2K is focused on making the best possible experience for WWE 2K fans and will continue evaluating all opportunities to deliver the franchise across additional platforms."
WWE 2K19 will be available on October 9, but the Deluxe "Woo" Edition lets you play four days early.
Apple's much-anticipated iPhone event is coming on September 12, and based on the (rather convincing) rumors out there, it could be one of the biggest launches for the company's mobile offerings yet. Top of mind is, of course, the successor to the iPhone X, reportedly called the iPhone XS. The rumors indicate there will be at least two versions: the iPhone XS, which will be 6.1 inches and will be the more affordable model, and the iPhone XS Max, which will be a whopping 6.5 inches (the biggest iPhone yet).
GameSpot's sister website, CNET, will have full coverage of the event, featuring several longtime Apple watchers and coming to you live from the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California. The pre-show begins at 9AM PT / 12PM ET / 5PM BST, with the main event kicking off at 10AM PT / 1PM ET/ 6PM BST. You can watch the livestream of CNET's coverage here, where they'll also have a liveblog of all the big announcements.
Nothing has been confirmed by Apple, but 9to5Mac has shared tons of details about the new iPhones, including a new second-gen 5.8-inch model and rumors of an updated Face ID and improved rear camera. We may also learn about a new generation of Apple Watches, iPad Pros, and possibly get a first look at the successor to the Macbook Air. Here's what Apple is rumored to be announcing:
Insomniac Games has announced that PS4's Spider-Man is getting a New Game Plus mode. The developer revealed that a team is currently working on the mode via a tweet.
New Game Plus will allow you to replay through Spider-Man with all of the wall crawlers' abilities and skills that have been unlocked in a previous save. Although it hasn't been confirmed for this game, most New Game Plus modes also increase enemies' health and damage output. A few, like the one in Batman: Arkham Knight, even make minor changes to certain cutscenes and add late-game enemies to the earlier fights. Insomniac doesn't have an estimate for the New Game Plus mode's release date yet.
New Game Plus isn't the only post-launch addition coming to Spider-Man. Insomniac has also revealed a three-part DLC expansion for the game titled The City That Never Sleeps. The first part, called The Heist, releases on October 23. The Heist focuses on the return of one of Peter Parker's former flames, Felicia Hardy. Also known as the Black Cat, Felicia is an ex-jewel thief who abandons a life of crime in an attempt to be worthy of Spider-Man's affection. Felicia is referenced throughout the main game in one of the side-quests, promising "her Spider" that she'll see him again soon.
The second part of The City That Never Sleeps is called Turf Wars and will be releasing in November. The final chapter, titled Silver Lining, launches in December. All three parts add new story missions, challenges, enemies, and suits to the game. You can purchase each one individually for $10, or buy The City That Never Sleeps collection for $25.
Last week, Square Enix discontinued physical and digital sales of its last-gen JRPG, The Last Remnant, on PC. The publisher didn't offer any explanation for the game's seemingly abrupt removal from Steam, but the reason has now become clear: Square Enix has announced The Last Remnant is being remastered for PS4.
Originally released in 2008 for Xbox 360, The Last Remnant is a turn-based RPG set in a world filled with magical, power-granting artifacts known as Remnants. The game casts players in the role of Rush Sykes, a young man who embarks on a quest to rescue his kidnapped sister and becomes embroiled in a political struggle revolving around the aforementioned Remnants.
The original Xbox 360 version was praised for its intricate battle system and beautiful art, but it was held back by glaring technical issues. A PC port arrived in 2009 and addressed many of the problems that plagued the Xbox 360 version. GameSpot awarded the PC release an 8/10, writing in our Last Remnant review, "By fixing the frame rate and other technical issues that encumbered the Xbox 360 version, Square Enix has improved the entire experience, allowing the great story and fun gameplay to sparkle on their own terms."
A PS3 version of The Last Remnant was also originally announced but never released, making this the first time the RPG will be available on a Sony console. Square Enix says the upcoming remaster uses Unreal Engine 4. You can take a look at some screenshots and a teaser trailer for the game above.
The Last Remnant Remastered releases digitally for PS4 on December 6. It can be purchased for $20. Despite originally launching on Xbox 360, neither an Xbox One nor a PC version have not been announced. Given its recent delisting from Steam, however, it seems likely the game will at least come to the latter platform sometime down the line.
This isn't the only surprise remaster Square Enix has announced recently. Earlier this week, the publisher revealed that a remastered version of the GameCube Final Fantasy spin-off, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, is coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch in 2019. Unlike the original GameCube version, which allowed up to four players to adventure together locally, but only if each one had a Game Boy Advance system, the upcoming remaster features online multiplayer.
Wednesday was a big day for those who have been impatiently awaiting the arrival of Marvel's next film, Captain Marvel. We got not just a look at Brie Larson in her superhero costume, but also a bunch of new information and photos from the upcoming movie. The next entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe--and the only one standing between us and the Avengers: Infinity War sequel--is due out next year. As you can see below, it features a two-eyed Nick Fury and the Skrulls, among other things.
The new photos from the film were shared by Entertainment Weekly, where you can see all 10 images. They mark the first we've seen from Larson's superhero debut, and they don't disappoint. Not only can she be seen in her costume as the titular Captain Marvel--in an image featuring far less Photoshopping than the cover version--but several other details are given away.
Most notably, Captain Marvel brings back Nick Fury back--but in a major change, he actually has both of his eyes. As the movie is set in the 1990s, a younger version of the director of SHIELD will be introduced, long before he starts wearing his signature eye patch. Perhaps the movie will actually show how he loses his eye?
Also seen in the photos are the introduction of the Skrull alien race. In one image, they are walking out of the ocean, led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). According to a caption from EW, the Skrulls are among the "nastiest and most notorious baddies" in all of Marvel comics. Take that, Thanos.
The last photo we want to highlight is the first look at Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch). As EW explains it, Maria is one of Carol Danvers' oldest friends and a fellow Air Force pilot, who flies under the call sign Photon. She's also a single mother to a young daughter, which is where things get interesting. In the comics, Maria's daughter is Monica, who ends up with superpowers and grows up to become an Avenger.
Monica has been known as Photon, but also Captain Marvel for a time. She's currently known as Spectrum. As Marvel plots out phase four of the MCU, it will be interesting to see if the introduction of Maria opens the door for Monica to become a big part of the franchise's future.
You can see the rest of the photos over at Entertainment Weekly. Captain Marvel is in theaters on March 8, 2019.
The spirit of Sons of Anarchy is alive and well in Mayans MC. In fact, it's even more alive than most fans of the FX biker drama expected. It was already known that Emilio Rivera would be reprising his Sons role as Mayans godfather Marcus Alvarez in the new series. That's far from the only link to Sons of Anarchy that can be found in the first episode of Mayans MC, though. Warning: The following contains spoilers from the pilot episode of Mayans MC.
In one of the episode's flashbacks to eight years before the current time, none other than former biker queen Gemma Teller (Katey Sagal) appears. She can be seen in the background of a prison visiting room as a recently-incarcerated EZ (JD Pardo) breaks up with Emily (Sarah Bolger). When the split gets louder and more dramatic than is allowed in prison, Gemma is seen more clearly, reacting.
While this is an exciting moment for Sons fans, it's not just a throwaway cameo. In fact, it's a small piece of a bigger puzzle according to Mayans MC co-creator Kurt Sutter. "Having Gemma there in the pilot was fun for us and will speak to something we want to do later on," he explained at the Television Critics Association press tour in a small group interview. "It's a little bit of a nod to Sons, but I think also there's a reason why she was there and we'll find out what it is later on."
As co-creator Elgin James told GameSpot, this isn't the last connection to the original series that will build to something more. "All these little things that [Kurt] plants all pay off somehow," he teased. "So that's all I know is that nothing is just thrown away."
Making sure nothing is a simple cameo is what helps Sutter to ensure Mayans MC doesn't trample on the mythology built by Sons, which is the one unbreakable rule James says he was given. As for what Gemma's appearance means, there's no telling. After all, while she was alive eight years ago, she's dead now. So anything they do to include Gemma in the Mayans storyline will have to remain in the past.
She's also not necessarily the last Sons character fans will see pop up on Mayans MC. Truthfully, anyone is on the table--even Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) himself. That is, as long as it means something. "Whomever I bring back, I can't do it for a sensational one hit kind of thing," Sutter said. "There has to be an integral part of why it's important to the new mythology."
Still, Jax is a long shot. Hunnam has yet to appear on a TV series since the conclusion of Sons of Anarchy and has a number of films in the works. However, if it makes sense from a plot standpoint, Sutter isn't opposed to calling on his former star. "For me to bring Jax back in a flashback, it would really have to be integral to the story," he said.
As The Predator prepares for its world premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, it's now been revealed that a sizable change has been made to the film. A scene featuring star Olivia Munn has been deleted from the final cut due to one of the actors it featured.
According to the LA Times, the scene in question featured actor Steven Wilder Striegel, a longtime friend of The Predator director Shane Black who appeared in a scene where he hits on Munn's character. It was removed after 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the movie, learned that Striegel is a registered sex offender. In a statement, Fox said, "Our studio was not aware of Mr. Striegel's background when he was hired. We were not aware of his background during the casting process due to legal limitations that impede studios from running background checks on actors."
His status as a sex offender stems from pleading guilty to charges of risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer in 2010, for which he served six months in jail. Following his release, Black cast him in small roles in both The Nice Guys and Iron Man 3.
In a statement to the Times, Black defended his casting choice. "I personally chose to help a friend," he said. "I can understand others might disapprove, as his conviction was on a sensitive charge and not to be taken lightly."
The director, however, changed his stance after reading the story in the Times. "Having read this morning's news reports, it has sadly become clear to me that I was misled by a friend I really wanted to believe was telling me the truth when he described the circumstances of his conviction," Black said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I believe strongly in giving people second chances--but sometimes you discover that chance is not as warranted as you may have hoped."
Black continued, "After learning more about the affidavit, transcripts and additional details surrounding Steve Striegel's sentence, I am deeply disappointed in myself. I apologize to all of those, past and present, I've let down by having Steve around them without giving them a voice in the decision."
For her part, Munn thought it was "both surprising and unsettling that Shane Black, our director, did not share this information to the cast, crew, or Fox Studios prior to, during, or after production." However, she credits the studio for removing this piece of the movie. "I am relieved that when Fox finally did receive the information, the studio took appropriate action by deleting the scene featuring Wilder prior to release of the film," she told the Times in a statement.
Additionally, Striegel himself has spoken out. "I've known Shane Black 14 years, well before this incident, and I think it's worth noting that he was aware of the facts," he said to the Times. "Shane can speak for himself, but I'm quite certain that if he felt I was a danger in any way to have around, he would not have."
Now, with the scene removed and the picture locked, The Predator is ready for audiences to see. It hits theaters on September 14.
Original story has been updated to include a second statement from director Shane Black.
The team behind the Yakuza series has revealed a new title called Judge Eyes, which is being developed for the PlayStation 4. The game was shown during the PlayStation Lineup Tour event, ahead of the start of Tokyo Game Show. The trailer, which you can watch below, shows that it is a narrative driven experience.
Judge Eyes seems to involve playing as a lawyer and investigating a series of murders and crimes. It is expected to launch in December in Japan, and a western release will follow in 2019, though an exact date has not been confirmed as of yet.
The Judge Eyes project was originally teased during a Sega livestream, where chief creative officer Toshihiro Nagoshi described it as "something completely different" from the studio. He also revealed that it has been in development for around three years.
A short gameplay video has also been released, and shows the investigative elements involved in the game. A character can be seen identifying a person of interest in the city, and then using stealth to tail the man. He eventually follows him into an alley and confronts the mark, which results in a chase. There are quick-time button presses to keep up with the target. In terms of combat, it seems very familiar to the Yakuza series, both in terms of having multiple enemies to engage in hand-to-hand combat and the ridiculous, over the top finishing moves.
Disguises are also a big part of the game, as the character is shown breaking into an office and taking pictures of clues. Snapping pictures can be done with a phone, but there's also a segment where a drone. You can see all that, as well as the more ridiculous scenarios that are typical of the Yakuza development team, in the video below.
The Yakuza team has been quite prolific of late, having released the excellent Yakuza 0 in 2017, to widespread critical acclaim. This brought the quirky open-world action series a much broader audience, which it has capitalized on by remastering the first two entries in the series and releasing them as Yakuza Kiwami and, most recently, Yakuza Kiwami 2.
The latter of the two received a glowing review from GameSpot's Edmond Tran, who said "the tale of Tokyo and Osaka, Kiryu and Sayama's partnership, and Kiryu and Goda's rivalry remains one of the Yakuza's best stories, and Kiwami 2's minor missteps don't affect the heart of that experience.
"The modernization of its presentation and its mechanics elevate it, making it absolutely worth revisiting or experiencing for the first time. Yakuza is an exemplary, if flawed series that does an incredible job of steeping you in contemporary Japanese-style crime drama, and establishing an evocative sense of place. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is an excellent example of the series at its best, coupling its most memorable stories and characters with its most sophisticated mechanics yet." Read our full Yakuza Kiwami 2 review for more on the game.
The Yakuza team is also launching Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise soon, which is based on the classic Hokuto No Ken manga and anime series. This is set to release in western territories on October 2, 2018. In the mean time, you can check out some brutal, over the top gameplay here.
Mick Foley is headed back into action! However, he won't be fighting anyone in the ring. He'll be the referee for the main event of the evening, which is Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship. And just like the title of the WWE PPV, this will be a Hell in a Cell match.
On Sunday, September 16, WWE will host its annual PPV Hell in a Cell, coming to you live from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Competitors will be locked in a gigantic chain-linked enclosure and have to duke it out. Many times, the fight explodes out of the cell, and for some reason, the superstars climb to the top of it, and someone falls or jumps off the top. It's terrifying. As of this writing, there are two Hell in a Cell matches, and there may be even more.
The event will air on PPV and the WWE Network at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET / 12 AM BST (Sept. 17). Just like every PPV, there will more than likely be a Kickoff Show before the main card starting one hour prior. There will be at least one match on the pre-show, which hasn't been announced yet.
Almost every year, fans remain on the edge of their seats as WWE superstars perform in the enclosed structure, then break out, climb to the top, and almost kill themselves jumping off of it. Considering that Jeff Hardy is fighting Randy Orton in the cell this year, that may mean Hardy will swanton off the top, and fans will collectively have a heart attack.
It's still early, but there have been a few matches already booked for the card, outside of Hardy/Orton. Brie Bella--who I thought was on Raw--teams up with her husband Daniel Bryan to take on Maryse and her husband The Miz. Both Miz and Bryan put on a fantastic match at Summerslam, so this should be a fun one. In additional, three title bouts have been booked. Former Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss gets her rematch against Ronda Rousey, and hopefully, Rousey won't ragdoll her around again like the squash match at Summerslam. There's also both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship matches as well.
At the time of this writing, there are only six matches booked for the event, but you can expect this card to fill up exceptionally quickly in the next week or so, including matches for the United States, Intercontinental, Raw Tag, and Smackdown Tag Championships.
Hell in a Cell match card:
Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton (Hell in a Cell match)
Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntrye (c) vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose (Raw Tag Team Championship)
Daniel Bryan & Brie Bella vs. The Miz & Maryse
Charlotte (c) vs. Becky Lynch (Smackdown Women's Championship)
Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Alexa Bliss (Raw Women's Championship)
AJ Styles (c) vs. Samoa Joe (WWE Championship)
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Braun Strowman (Hell in a Call match for the Universal Championship with Mick Foley as guest referee)
Make sure to come back to GameSpot on Sunday, September 16 for live coverage of the event.
The original Life is Strange from Dontnod Entertainment turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of 2015. As an episodic adventure game focusing on the everyday struggles of Max, a high-schooler and outcast in a small town, her life gets even more complicated when she discovers the ability to turn back time. Subverting the mundanity of everyday life with a supernatural undercurrent, the twists and turns that its story took while simultaneously telling an incredibly heartfelt and tragic tale of young love between Max and fellow outsider Chloe, it earned itself a lot of praise from fans. After the release of its prequel Before The Storm, the developers were ready to move onto the next game in the series, now centering around the story of two brothers on the run.
Set three years after the first game, Life is Strange 2 focuses on the new central characters Sean and Daniel Diaz. After a tragic run-in with the police, Sean and his younger brother flee from home, leaving everything they know behind. With some ties to The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, and some connections to the first game, the story of the two brothers and their loyalty to one another will be tested. With every choice leaving an impression, the sequel's story will offer more branches than the original, leading to some unexpected consequences for the young duo. We sat down with Life is Strange 2's lead writer Christian Divine and voice-over director Philip Bache, who talked about the daunting task of living up to the original, while also expressing their excitement on crafting a new story.
Though this is a sequel, it's also its own unique story. Can you talk about what it was like coming up with something brand new, that retains a similar dynamic, while also not stepping on the toes of the original? It must have been challenging trying to follow up the first game.
Christian Divine: Yeah. Michel Koch [co-director] and Jean-Luc Cano [co-writer], who came up with the original story, they wanted to move forward with this game. We all love Max and Chloe and all the other characters, but we wanna be ambitious and keep moving forward and expand the universe. It's not just those characters. So the exciting thing is just to explore a different kind of relationship, the sibling relationship, which evolves. Education and experience, in a road trip format. We all love this kind of road trip format because it opens you up to all these really cool narrative experiences you can have, and other characters you meet along the way.
We all knew we were gonna do something different and weren't gonna do the same characters, same story. So I think it was not so much a challenge for us in that sense, but it was more of a challenge when it came to the players, because they love those characters so much, to get them to embrace these characters on this journey was the biggest challenge I think in terms of it.
Philip Bache: We also have the same core team from the original, and there's a lot of trust among the different departments [at Dontnod]. But it's a challenge in that we know how much Life is Strange 1 is loved and we're pushing it. For me, I think we're all beating up what we're doing so much more now. So I definitely feel the pressure in the voiceover booth. I can feel the pressure from the team. But we're taking it head on. I do appreciate the challenge. If it was to keep going the same way and we were gonna keep doing that, it's like we can't--but there is a threshold for everyone for a story. For one person it might be like, "Oh, I could have fun with Max and Chloe for 10 years."
To speak on challenges a little more, did you have to come up with a lot of ways to not disrupt one player's view of what the LiS canon was? Since the original had multiple ending, and this game is set years after and some characters from the original will return, did you feel you have to make story choices that wouldn't go against certain decisions fans made?
CD: Right, well--there's no canon to us. There's definitely a canon for the player. The player is the one that determines the outcome. The player is the one that says, "it's bae or bay" [a reference to the defining choice in LiS1]. They decide that and that's what they care about. It's not up to anybody, us to say no. Because it's not canon. Otherwise you'd have one ending only. That would be canon. The point of a choose-your-adventure book or a genuine adventure narrative, is for you to dictate what the outcome is, all based on your choices. So I think you're always gonna have, based on the amount of choices, several different endings. We're gonna have different branches in Life is Strange 2.
PB: You know what's tough about that is it would almost kinda stink for a player in a way to say, yeah you played the game, you made a choice but this one was right or this one was wrong. That kinda takes away everything of what the gameplay and the experience is of Life is Strange. So if I made a choice and then it turned out canon was the other thing, it would kinda stink.
Also, that's a huge challenge for any sequel now, to creatively come up with a story that fits within the universe, while also allowing the player to still have that choice. It's tough but I prefer it that way. Who's to say what other properties under the Life is Strange umbrella will do with some of the story, or what could be considered canon. Also to follow up what I said earlier, there's also still the supernatural element as well. There's still core characters that hopefully you'll fall in love with. But I think a lot of what Life is Strange is about is supernatural, core characters you can really fall in love with. A very grounded story. That's what I loved about the first one.
It's usually challenging to come up with ways to offer a decent balance for those types of stories.
PB: Yeah, but it's also like the groundwork of the story, which is what I want. Then it feels real.
CD: That's actually how you make people believe the supernatural. You create a very similar to that and then you can pull them in. I mean, Stephen King is the master and he became literally popular in the '70s because he was literally creating blue collar supernatural horror and nobody had ever done that before. Nobody had ever said, "What if the washing machine might eat you? What if the beer can has a hole in it and you start getting toxified? What if your dog goes rabid?" It's a very mundane, suburban situations and he pulls in that supernatural element into it. So you buy it based on the setting of it.
You've kept a lot of the game under wraps for a while, and it's already going to be released fairly soon. Can you talk about of the biggest successes you've had with creating the game, while also some of the challenges you had?
CD: Good question; I'd say the biggest challenge of course was writing varied, diverse characters, and make them believable. As a writer, your job is to make these characters that are so different and unique, believable. So that to me is always a challenge. But what I'm proud of the most with this game is that I think we've hit that level of engagement in terms of the characters and their relationships in creating a world that has these social issues that we're gonna deal with, along with elements of the supernatural story. So I feel like we're nailing this particular new world where the player can decide its fate. The acting of the kids are wonderful and the team did a great job directing them. It's hard to direct kids by the way. It's one of the hardest things, literally the hardest thing to do I think is direct kids.
But I'm also proud of the narrative expansion of our game. I am proud of the fact that I really feel like we're pushing narrative boundaries and hopefully creating something new. And it's a wonderful new wave of this. Not just for Life is Strange. It's a wonderful new era of storytelling. So it's fantastic to be part of it and it's great to see storytelling finally reflect and start evolving to the place where it should be. Games are a very young industry when you look at it. It's only 30 years old technically. From palm to digital is only 30 years and now we're at this point we have the technology and now the narration needs to jump up and start matching. The storytelling needs to rise to the technology.
PB: The thing I've been most proud about has been a lot of people don't know that my job exists. A lot of people, it's disregarded. If I did my job correctly, hopefully it stands out. I think I've been lucky, not just with the Life is Strange projects, but with other projects and be able to show that, "Well, if I've been able to do it this many times, hopefully there's something to it for the people who are good at it."
That's been the thing I've been most proud of, is pushing performances in games to mean something. Because a game like this really, I think, it needs it. If it doesn't have it as much as in other games like this, or any other game, then our fans are gonna make that clear. So I've pushed the performances pretty hard with everybody else. That's difficult. But maybe the most difficult is knowing how much people are gonna have a closer eye on Life is Strange 2 because of how much they love Life is Strange 1. We're all pushing ourselves, I think, harder than before.
It may be the middle of the month, but Netflix is still releasing a ton of content to keep its subscribers busy during the week. There is something for everybody, including the return of a couple fan favorite Netflix originals and a former SNL cast member who has a new TV show.
The biggest thing coming out this week is the second season of the mockumentary series American Vandal. In Season 1 of the Netflix original, the series tried to figure out who at a local high school painted penises on the faculty's cars. With Season 2, the series attempts to uncover who made everyone at another school poop their pants. The trailer for the new season--coming out on September 14--is hilarious. Additionally, BoJack Horseman returns for Season 5, and surely, the adult animated series will provide some laughs and ridiculous situations.
Former Saturday Night Live cast member Norm MacDonald has a new series on Netflix and it's aptly named Norm Macdonald Has A Show. On the series, MacDonald interviews celebrities like a traditional late night series, but he does it his way, which is a bit more laid back, and at times, he doesn't hold back. The new series launches on September 14.
Check out all of this week's releases for US Netflix subscribers below.
September 10
Call the Midwife: Series 7
September 11
Daniel Sloss: Live Shows
The Resistance Banker
September 12
Blacklist: Season 5
Life
On My Skin
September 14
American Vandal: Season 2
Bleach
Boca Juniors Confidential
BoJack Horseman: Season 5
Car Masters: Rust to Riches
Ingobernable: Season 2
Last Hope
Norm Macdonald has a Show
Super Monsters Monster Party: Songs
The Angel
The Dragon Prince
The Land of Steady Habits
The World's Most Extraordinary Homes: Season 2 Part A
The PS4-exclusive game Spider-Man doesn't just rehash the hero's origin story. Instead, it finds an experienced Peter Parker and his superhero alter ego defending New York City from a super villain threat. The new title from Insomniac Games (the maker of Sunset Overdrive and Ratchet & Clank) has reached its release date of September 7, and it has been receiving stellar reviews (including ours).
"The feeling of embodying Spidey and using his abilities is astonishing, and the time spent on exploring its major characters help make its story feel heartfelt, despite superhero bombast," Edmond Tran wrote in GameSpot's Spider-Man review. "There have been open-world Spider-Man games before, but none so riveting and full of personality, none that explore and do justice to this many facets of the universe. Insomniac has created a superior Spider-Man experience that leaves a lasting impression, one that has you longing for just one more swing around New York City, even after the credits roll."
If you're ready to pick up Spider-Man for PS4, you'll probably want to know what your options are. We have you covered below, with all the information you need about the various editions, where to buy it, and how much it costs at each retailer. Let's swing into the details (sorry).
Pre-order bonus
If you pre-ordered any version of Spider-Man, you got a number of extra digital goodies. Here's a rundown of what you could have received.
Spidey Suit Pack--Gain instant in-game access to three suits that alter your appearance and unlock new suit abilities: Iron Spider, Spider-Punk, and Velocity Suit.
Skill Points--Get a head start by having skill points to unlock abilities from the start of the game like active finishers, web grab, or faster web swinging.
Early unlock of a Spider-Drone Gadget--Unleash a mobile Spider-Drone to distract and web your enemies.
Spider-Man PS4 Custom Theme--Customize your PS4 with artwork from legendary comic book artist Adi Granov.
Spider-Man PSN Avatar--Represent your PSN profile online with the bold White Spider icon for your PSN avatar.
Spider-Man Standard Edition
The standard edition is just the core game, but if you pre-ordered it, you get the bonuses listed above. Here's where you can find the standard edition.
The Digital Deluxe Edition of Spider-Man comes with the core game, the pre-order bonuses, plus a couple of extras, both digital and physical.
Marvel's Spider-Man: The City that Never Sleeps--consists of three post-launch story chapters featuring new characters and missions. Users will receive DLC by March 2019.
If pre-ordered before September 7, 2018, receive all pre-order bonus content, plus a custom, one-of-a-kind physical pin for Marvel's Spider-Man.
Here's where you can find the Digital Deluxe Edition:
The Collector's Edition of Spider-Man comes with all the stuff included in the Digital Deluxe Edition, plus the following items.
Custom steelbook
White spider sticker
Mini artbook--contains unique, early-look concepts and unreleased artwork
Collector's Edition Marvel's Spider-Man statue by Gentle Giant
Marvel's Spider-Man: The City that Never Sleeps--Consists of three post-launch story chapters featuring new characters and missions. Users will receive DLC by March 2019.
This edition is tough to find in stock, but if it becomes available, here's where you'll find it.
PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Marvel's Spider-Man Limited Edition System
If you want a whole Spider-Man-themed PS4 Pro setup, this is the package you'll want to get--if you can find it in stock. It comes with a physical copy of the game, plus a limited edition PS4 and DualShock 4 controller.
Among the most exciting additions in Destiny 2's new Forsaken DLC is that of new subclass trees. While not a full-on new class or subclass, these branches do provide some variety for Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters to enjoy. You might be eager to start getting your hands on these--here's what you'll need to do to get your first one. If you're undecided about picking up the expansion, check out our Forsaken review-in-progress.
After completing the opening mission, you'll receive a milestone called New Powers. This tasks you with collecting Visions of Light, which are items that seem to be dropped exclusively by enemies with yellow health bars. You'll see an on-screen indication when you pick one up; on the ground, they look like bright blue feathers, and they're accompanied by a visual effect in the air above them that makes them fairly easy to spot. If you take part in a fight that covers a large area, just be sure to swing back around and pick up any you might have missed.
You'll need 100 Visions of Light to advance to the next part; you can track your progress from the Director. Be sure to keep a close eye on this--aside from a single pop-up notification, it can be easy to collect all 100 you need without realizing you're ready for the next step.
Once that is done, you'll get access to a new mission on Io called Visions of Light. We'll leave the specifics of the mission to you, but suffice it to say it involves taking down a lot of Taken and receiving a message from the Traveler.
Toward the end of the mission, you'll receive a new item, the Seed of Light. Once you've obtained this, you can go into each of your subclasses' Details screen to see a new, third tree. Like the other trees, it consists of four different upgrades that you'll receive in time. You start out by spending the Seed of Light to unlock the first of the four upgrades, but beware--the game makes it clear the seeds are "very rare," so you should be sure to pick the subclass you want to focus on first. In time, you'll get them all, but it's unclear at this point just how long the process of obtaining additional seeds takes.
With that choice made, you're left to kill a seemingly endless supply of Taken with an unlimited supply of Super energy. It's a fun sequence that also nets you some nice new upgrades for your subclass of choice.
Destiny 2: Forsaken is ushering Bungie's latest sci-fi shooter into its second year with a smorgasbord of new missions, modes, enemies, equipment, and more. Prominent among the new additions is Gambit, a unique Destiny 2 mode that blends PVE and PVP together into one seriously fun competition.
Most of the time in Gambit, you won't be shooting other players directly. But you're always competing with another team of Guardians, so you'll want to bring your A-game to every match. And that means having the right loadouts, knowing the best strategies, and being prepared with a complete understanding of everything Gambit has to offer.
As a hybrid mode that isn't just PVE or PVP, Gambit allows you to explore new play styles that straddle the line between both. Based on our early experiences with the mode, here are some of the best ways to ensure your team comes out on top. For more on the game, check out our Forsaken review-in-progress.
How Gambit Works
Destiny 2's newest game mode is aptly named, as almost every move you make is a gambit that risks your progress and points for a greater advantage over your opponents. Teams of four players compete to defeat enough enemies to be the first to summon a large "Primeval" boss enemy and defeat it, while periodically invading one another's areas and killing other players to slow the opposing team's progress. Besides these "invasions" of one player into the opposing team's play area, the two teams are totally separate.
You'll spend the bulk of any Gambit match defeating enemies and gathering the Motes they drop. You can carry up to 15 at a time, and although there's no direct adverse effect for holding onto them, you'll lose them all permanently if you die, setting your team back significantly.
You're meant to bank these Motes periodically at the station in the center of the map, getting your team closer to summoning your Primeval. Doing so in increments of five sends a "blocker" enemy to the opposing team's area, preventing them from banking their own Motes. Banking five Motes sends a small blocker, ten sends a medium, and 15 sends a large blocker that takes significant firepower to defeat. The bars along the top of the screen show not just how many Motes your team has banked (the red and blue bars), but also how many Motes each team's players are holding (the gray portion of the bar that's not yet filled in).
The notches on these bars represent the 25 and 50 marks. Reaching these milestones opens a portal to your opponents' side, allowing one player on your team to invade their space and try to slow their progress. The invading player gets an overshield, and can see their opponents' locations for the duration of the invasion, even through walls. They invader is sent back to their side if they get four kills (a team wipe), if they die (which drops three Motes for the invaded team to pick up), or at the end of a 30 second timer.
When your team has banked 75 Motes, a large Primeval boss enemy appears. It's accompanied by smaller, but still tough enemies that provide it with extra protection--taking them out makes the Primeval more vulnerable to damage. Once your Primeval is summoned, your opponents get to invade periodically, and any deaths while an invader is present restore the boss's health. The first team to defeat its Primeval wins the round, and each Gambit match is best out of three.
The Best Gambit Tips and Strategies
That all may sound rather complicated, but once you play a few matches it starts to seem simple. But don't worry--you'll quickly realize just how tactical Gambit can be. The amount that strategy matters varies from match to match, depending on the skill of your opponents, but fighting a coordinated team can be incredibly frustrating if your side doesn't have its act together. Here are some important rules, tips, and strategies if you don't want to get your butt handed to you.
Communicate. Obviously it's possible to solo queue into Gambit matchmaking, but it's not advised. Playing Gambit with any degree of strategy requires tons of communication, and you're generally not going to luck into a team of three other random players who all have mics and are willing to use them. Try to form a team by playing with friends, joining a clan, using an LFG site, or finding a Discord server dedicated to Destiny 2 on your platform of choice.
Coordinate when you bank Motes. It can be tempting to bank your Motes whenever you have enough to send the other team a blocker (five or more), or whenever you start worrying about dying and losing them. But coordinating with your teammates on when to bank Motes is absolutely crucial. Sending one small or medium blocker to the other side won't slow down your opponents much; sending three or four simultaneously is a different story.
Pay attention to how many Motes your teammates are carrying. If you have two Motes and your teammate has 14, don't dash ahead of them to catch up. Let them fill up on Motes so they can send a large blocker to the other side. And if you see that a teammate who's carrying a lot of Motes is under heavy fire--from normal enemies or even from an invader--it's smart to attempt a rescue.
Send blockers with your invader. The notches on the Motes progress bar that represent 25 and 50 Motes are important. Once your team has banked a total of 25 Motes, a portal opens to the opposing team's map. Communicate with your teammates so that once your team is carrying 25 total--when the grey progress bar passes the first notch--you bank them all together, spawning multiple blockers and opening the portal simultaneously. That way when your invader goes through, your opponents can't hastily bank all the Motes they're carrying, giving the invader time to take them out and deny them those Motes.
Likewise, be careful of blockers and invaders arriving simultaneously. If the other team knows what they're doing and they're faster than you, chances are they'll use this exact strategy on you. You have two options when an invader and blockers arrive together: You can quickly take out the blockers and try to bank your Motes before the invader can kill you--which will usually involve burning a Super--or you can turn all your attention to killing the invader and sending them back to their side. Either way, it takes communication, awareness, and coordination among your teammates.
Save your Super and power ammo for invading. Chances are you'll pick the best one or two PVP players on your team to be the designated invaders. When heavy ammo pops up at stations around the map, let these players pick it up. And if you're the invader, save your super and your heavy ammo for when you're deep in enemy territory.
If you have a ton of Motes when you get invaded, hide. Hiding may be relatively ineffective, considering the invader can see more or less exactly where you are at all times. But taking cover can force the invader to expose themselves trying to get to you, allowing your teammates with fewer Motes to take the risk and defeat them. Again, communication is key--"Invader is here, I have 15 Motes, I'm taking cover!" is a valuable callout.
When the other team spawns their Primeval, don't invade right away. Summoning your Primeval opens you up to more frequent invasions. It can be tempting to head to your opponents' side right away when that happens, especially if your team is lagging far behind, but it's unwise. Killing opposing Guardians when their Primeval's health is full will set them back a few seconds; killing them when they've already done some damage to their boss's health will restore its health, more significantly impeding their progress. It can be the difference between your team losing and catching up for the win.
That said, don't wait too long to invade once the other team's Primeval starts taking damage. Given how powerful Forsaken has made us, burning down a boss to zero health can take a matter of seconds with the right loadouts. An invasion even with your foes' Primeval still at half health can be too late if they're good. You'll get a feel for the timing eventually.
The Best Gambit Guns and Loadouts
Before Destiny 2: Forsaken's release, Gambit was briefly available for a single day for players to try out. The king of the Gambit meta quickly emerged as Sleeper Simulant, an Exotic linear fusion rifle that players of Destiny 2's Warmind expansion had the ability to acquire. With its powerful and accurate shots, Sleeper excels both at taking down PVE bosses and at sniping enemy players from across the map. Its rounds even ricochet and penetrate targets, allowing skilled players to take out multiple opponents with a single shot.
With Forsaken's release, Sleeper may soon be considered a relic from Destiny 2's first year--or maybe not. Given how new this all is, it isn't yet clear what will come out on top once players have discovered all the new guns and armor Destiny 2: Forsaken will offer. For now, here are some general tips.
Don't be afraid to pick a focus. Coordinate with your teammates before you starting matching and don't be afraid to choose a focus area. You can always choose who goes to invade when a portal opens. Those players your team has designated as invaders can spec their loadouts for PVP, while those who will remain behind killing adds can choose equipment and abilities better suited to PVE. Ultimately everyone will wind up doing some of both, but it's OK to focus on one style or the other.
Your super is crucial. We've yet to experiment enough with Destiny 2: Forsaken's new Super abilities, but suffice to say which Supers you and your teammates choose is important. You'll want a good blend of add-control supers, damage dealers, and PVP-focused abilities; during the Gambit preview event before Forsaken's release, Hunters' tether proved helpful for taking down the Primeval, Golden Gun and Warlocks' Dawnblade were great for invading the other team, and even the Titan class's generally underused Ward of Dawn bubble proved useful for taking shelter inside when you were invaded.
The PVP meta is always changing. Are hand cannons or SMGs on top right now? Are snipers viable again with Forsaken's changes to ammo and weapon slots? Is Sleeper still the best choice for your heavy? These meta dynamics shift and change with the seasons, and with Forsaken having just arrived, you should feel free to experiment and change your loadout if what you're using isn't working.
We'll have more tips and strategies as Destiny 2: Forsaken continues to evolve. For now, have fun in Destiny 2's most unique challenge yet.
Are you running out of things to watch on Amazon Prime? September is here to remedy that with a slew of new TV shows, movies, and Prime Originals for you to binge in your free time this week and beyond. Here is what you have to look forward to throughout this month.
For new movies coming to the service that you may have missed in theaters, September 29 marks the arrival of the horror movie Jigsaw, which is part of the gruesome Saw franchise. There is also Escape Plan 2--which wasn't in theaters--and while the movie's focus isn't on Sylvester Stallone as much as we'd thought it would be, it's still a solid action movie.
If you're looking something from the past, Amazon has a ton of movies you'll want to rewatch including Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, arriving on September 1. If you're getting ready a bit early for Halloween, there a few horror movies as well, including Pumpkinhead, Poltergeist II, the original The Amityville Horror, and the 1989 Adam Sandler movie Going Overboard, which may be the scariest of them all. Check out the complete list of everything coming to Amazon Prime in September below.
Everything Coming To Amazon Prime In September 2018
September 1
Asylum, Season 1
The Blue Rose, Season 1
The Broker's Man, Seasons 1-2
The Field of Blood, Seasons 1-2
Golden, Season 1
The Kevin Bishop Show, Season 2
London Irish, Season 1
The Palace, Season 1
Parents, Season 1
Rocket's Island, Seasons 1-3
Sam's Game, Season 1
Texas Rising, Season 1
The Triangle, Season 1
Trust, Season 1
Westside, Seasons 1-3
Wild at Heart, Seasons 1-8
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
A Field in England (2013)
A Good Woman (2006)
A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
A Murder of Crows (1999)
A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures (2010)
A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise (2012)
All You Can Eat Buddha (2017)
Bandits (2001)
Beowulf (2007)
Big Top Pee-wee (1988)
Blow Out (1981)
Bolero (1984)
Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police (2012)
We're officially in the midst of September--that wonderful (or perhaps not so great) month when so many of us begin our struggle of going back to school. On the bright side, Netflix is introducing a load of new movies, TV shows, and original series for when you have time for some weekend binge sessions. There's a lot of new stuff to look out for in the coming weeks, although we're losing quite a few movies and series as well. Here's the full rundown on what's new and leaving in September 2018.
The big addition in September is Black Panther, the Marvel superhero movie that took the world by storm this past February. If you happened to miss out on this celebration of African culture--which we described as "a top tier Marvel movie with all the humor, style, action, passion, and fun that the MCU has come to embody" in our Black Panther review--then now's your chance. Other film highlights coming in September are Groundhog Day, Scarface, Bruce Almighty, The Breakfast Club, Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor's New Groove, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Netflix exclusive Next Gen.
The list of new TV shows isn't as impressively large, but there are a few stellar options being added. Both Bojack Horseman and Stranger Things are getting new seasons. If you like staying appraised of everything going on in the MCU, Iron Fist is also returning another season.
If animation is your thing, new anime series Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan--about a rookie air force pilot who finds herself being chosen as the destined rider for an actual dragon--and animated series The Dragon Prince--which is created by the same folks behind Avatar: The Last Airbender--debut on Netflix this September.
Of the movies and TV shows being removed, Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are the two noticeable standouts. They've unfortunately left the service already, but you can get a look at what you still have time to watch below.
Arriving in September
September 1
Unforgiven
10,000 B.C.
Another Cinderella Story
Assassins
August Rush
Bruce Almighty
Delirium
Fair Game
Groundhog Day
King Kong
La Catedral del Mar
Martian Child
Monkey Twins
Mr. Sunshine
Nacho Libre
Pearl Harbor
Scarface
Sisters
Spider-Man 3
Stephanie
Summer Catch
Sydney White
The Ant Bully
The Breakfast Club
The Cider House Rules
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Keeping Hours
The River Wild
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
Two Weeks Notice
September 2
Lilo & Stitch
The Emperor's New Groove
Maynard
Quantico: Season 3
September 3
A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities
September 4
Black Panther
September 5
Van Helsing: Season 2
Wentworth: Season 6
September 6
Once Upon a Time: Season 7
September 7
Atypical: Season 2
Cable Girls: Season 3
City of Joy
Click
First and Last
Iron Fist: Season 2
Next Gen
Sierra Burgess Is A Loser
Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters: Season 2
The Most Assassinated Woman in the World
September 10
Call the Midwife: Series 7
September 11
Daniel Sloss: Live Shows
The Resistance Banker
September 12
Blacklist: Season 5
Life
On My Skin
September 14
American Vandal: Season 2
Bleach
Boca Juniors Confidential
BoJack Horseman: Season 5
Car Masters: Rust to Riches
Ingobernable: Season 2
Last Hope
Norm Macdonald has a Show
Super Monsters Monster Party: Songs
The Angel
The Dragon Prince
The Land of Steady Habits
The World's Most Extraordinary Homes: Season 2 Part A
September 15
Inside The Freemasons: Season 1
September 16
Role Models
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
September 17
The VVitch
September 18
American Horror Story: Cult
D.L. Hughley: Contrarian
September 21
Battlefish
Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan
Hilda
Maniac: Limited Series
Nappily Ever After
Quincy
The Good Cop
September 23
The Walking Dead: Season 8
September 25
A Wrinkle in Time
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
September 26
Norsemen: Season 2
The Hurricane Heist
September 28
Chef's Table: Volume 5
El Marginal: Season 2
Forest of Piano
Hold the Dark
Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father: Season 2
Lessons From A School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane
Pokemon Go developer Niantic recently gave players another chance to catch Moltres as a reward for completing the game's Global Challenge, but that isn't the only special encounter fans have unlocked in the game. Niantic has also announced the Ultra Bonus Event, which kicks off this week and will bring four Legendary Pokemon from the Kanto region to Raid Battles for a limited time.
First, beginning September 13, the three Legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres will return to Raid Battles around the world until September 20. Not only does this give you another chance to catch any of the three you may have missed, you'll also have a chance to encounter their Shiny versions during the event. Additionally, other Pokemon originally from the Kanto region will appear much more frequently in the wild and in Raid Battles until September 30.
Most exciting of all, the Legendary Psychic-type Mewtwo will begin showing up in Raid Battles just as the three Legendary birds leave on September 20. Mewtwo was previously only available as part of the invite-only EX Raids, making this the first chance all players will have a chance to capture the powerful Pokemon. It'll remain in Raid Battles until October 23.
Finally, Niantic is offering another way to get your hands on the rare, region-exclusive Kanto Pokemon Farfetch'd, Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime, and Tauros. Through the end of September, you'll be able to hatch the aforementioned monsters from 7 km Eggs. You can read more details about the Ultra Bonus Event on the official Pokemon Go website.
September 20 also marks the day the Hoenn Legendary Pokemon, Regirock, is slated to leave Raid Battles, making this your last opportunity to add one to your collection if you haven't already. Shortly after it leaves, Niantic will host September's Community Day event, which takes place on Saturday, September 22 and features Chikorita, the Grass-type starter Pokemon from the Gold and Silver versions.
The Pokemon Company has shared another trailer for Nintendo Switch's upcoming Pokemon RPGs, Let's Go, Pikachu and Let's Go, Eevee. This new video, which you can watch above, showcases some areas in the Kanto region we haven't seen yet, along with a couple of brand-new moves your partner Pokemon will be able to learn during the adventure.
The trailer begins with a look at Secret Techniques, new field moves that your starter Pikachu or Eevee can use to open up blocked pathways around Kanto. These techniques replace the HM moves you previously needed to teach Pokemon in order to fully explore the region in the original Yellow version; the Chop Down technique clears certain types of trees from the overworld, while Sea Skim allows you to hop on a surfboard and travel across the water.
Pikachu and Eevee will also be able to learn a handful of new, exclusive attacks that they can unleash during battle. Pikachu can hop on a surfboard to deliver a new Water-type move called Splishy Splash, which also has a chance of paralyzing your opponent. Eevee, meanwhile, can learn exclusive Water, Electric, and Fire attacks called Bouncy Bubble, Buzzy Buzz, and Sizzly Slide. Each deals damage and has a secondary effect; Bouncy Bubble restores HP, while the latter two are guaranteed to paralyze and burn the opposing Pokemon, respectively.
The new trailer also provides a brief tour of Celadon City, one of the largest areas in the Kanto region. Celadon is home to Erika, the fourth Gym Leader you'll encounter on your journey. She specializes in Grass-type Pokemon and battles using a Vileplume. Celadon also features a towering department store, as well as a Game Corner, which has been converted from a casino into an arcade. You can read more on the official Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee website.
The Let's Go titles launch for Nintendo Switch on November 16. They're releasing alongside the Poke Ball Plus, a Poke Ball-shaped controller that can be used to play the game and carry a Pokemon around with you. The pair require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription in order to battle and trade against other players online, but the games won't support cloud saves, one of the other benefits of subscribing to the service.
If you don't already own a Switch, Nintendo is also releasing adorable Pikachu and Eevee-themed Switch consoles on November 16. Each bundle retails for $400 and includes a digital copy of either title, the aforementioned Poke Ball Plus, Pikachu and Eevee-themed Joy-Cons, and a Switch dock adorned with Pikachu and Eevee designs.
A new season of basketball approaches, and just like clockwork this year's basketball video games are starting to come out. NBA 2K19's release date of September 11 has arrived on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, although pre-ordering the 20th Anniversary Edition got you in a few days early.
If you're unsure about picking up the game, you can check out the Prelude demo that is available now and gives a sampling of the game's story mode. Progress made in that can be carried over to the full game, making it a good place to start.
Below, we've rounded up all the information you need to know about what comes in each edition of the game, what kinds of pre-order bonuses were available, and where you can buy the game right now.
NBA 2K19 Standard Edition
Pre-ordering NBA 2K19 standard edition got you 5,000 Virtual Currency, 10 MyTeam packs (delivered one a week), and a Giannis Antetokounmpo Sapphire MyTEAM card. Here's where it's available and how much it costs.
Andrew Lincoln has played the lead character of Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead since the hit AMC zombie drama started in 2010. However, the upcoming ninth season will be Lincoln's last--while we don't yet know how his character will be written out of the show, we do know that he will only appear in a handful of episodes. Now, a new trailer for Season 9 has been released that looks at Rick's role in his final episodes.
The promo is over five minutes long and provides plenty of new footage. As in The Walking Dead comic book, Season 9 has jumped forward in time since the end of Season 8, with several communities now established and relative peace seeming to exist. Of course, it doesn't look like it will last for long. We also have footage of Negan taunting Rick from his prison cell and a teaser for the arrival of another of the comic book's great villains--the Whisperers. Check it out above.
This trailer follows a crazy kaleidoscopic teaser that was released last week, plus this batch of new imagery. The Walking Dead Season 9 premieres on AMC on October 31.
This will also be the final season for Lauren Cohan, who has played Maggie since Season 2 in 2011. Like Lincoln, she is only expected to appear in a few episodes, but she has suggested that her exit might not be a final one.
"It feels like the greatest way to honor it is to keep it open-ended because whether it's about me going back as Maggie or whether it's about me just taking in, absorbing, and honoring everything I've learned there," she told GameSpot. "It will never, ever leave me. And that is I think the greatest compliment you can give to anything and to any group of people because we all came together to make something that we didn't know was going to have this success that it did."
The Conjuring series has become one of the most successful horror franchises of the past decade and it keeps getting bigger. The Nun is the fifth movie in the interconnected Conjuring universe and it has scored the biggest opening to date, comfortably taking the top slot on this weekend's box office chart.
The movie scored an estimated $53.5 million in its first three days in the US. As Box Office Mojo points out, this is even higher than The Conjuring's $41.8 million take in 2014 and is the second highest September opening of all time. Like all the movies in the series--which also includes Annabelle and its prequel--The Nun was made on a modest budget, in this case, a reported $22 million. With an estimated worldwide weekend take of $131 million, we can expect plenty more movies in the series.
The week's second highest new entry was the revenge thriller Peppermint, which marked Alias star Jennifer Garner's return to the action genre. Despite largely negative reviews, it debuted with a respectable $13.3 million weekend gross and entered the chart at No.3. The hugely popular romcom Crazy Rich Asians dropped to No.2, after spending three weeks at the top and boasting a US total of $136.2 to date.
Mission Impossible: Fallout remains strong at No.6 in its seventh week of release; with a worldwide gross $726.6 million, the movie is now the most successful in the entire series. Elsewhere, the shark thriller The Meg slipped to No.4 and the acclaimed thriller Searching moved to No.5, with Disney's Christopher Robin, Operation Finale, Alpha and BlacKkKlansman making up the rest of the Top 10.
You can see the full Top 10 list for the September 7-9 US box office below, as compiled by Box Office Mojo.
The Halloween series is one of the longest running and most successful franchises in horror. Nevertheless, it's been nearly a decade since the last movie--Rob Zombie's Halloween 2--and even longer since a movie that was well received by fans and critics. While Zombie's two remake/reboots attempted to do something different with the series, for many, it was 1998's Halloween: H20 that was last great Halloween movie.
Next month sees the release of a new film titled Halloween. This is a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original and ignores all the sequels, remakes, and reboots in-between. It's directed by acclaimed indie filmmaker David Gordon Green and co-written by comedian/actor Danny McBride, with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode from the first movie.
The film has already screened to critics at the Toronto International Film festival and the first reviews are in. So is this just another disappointing addition to the series, or have the filmmakers delivered something worthy of the title Halloween? Let's take a look at the reviews...
GameSpot -- no score
"Halloween doesn't reinvent the wheel or create a new subgenre of horror. What it does is take the best parts of all the films in the franchise, and deliver the ultimate companion piece to Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece. It's a film that not only has something to say about trauma and PTSD, but also delivers a bloody, fun time at the theater. Will Michael Myers return again? Who knows, but we sure as hell welcome him home." -- Rafael Motamayor [Full review]
Entertainment Weekly -- B+
"A big, funny, scary, squishy, super-meta sequel that brings it all back to John Carpenter's iconic 1978 original. The movie mostly works because it's so fundamental, and funny too: Michael still never speaks; his mask and his slow, deadly, deliberate walk say everything they need to. At 59, Curtis seems to have fully arrived in her role as a midnight-madness queen, and she has a great time in jeans and a grey fright wig, swinging her shotgun around and screaming at everyone to get in the safe room."--Leah Greenblatt [Full review]
Total Film -- 3/5
"This humour, and the repeated allusions to the first film (including a couple of particularly satisfying reversals) suggest a film that's intended to be whooped along to at midnight screenings, and the cracking final sequence ensures audiences will leave on a high. But given all that has been sacrificed to give this franchise a shot of redemption, the end result does feel flimsy and throwaway. The biggest disappointment in this belated sequel is how little new it does, feeling more like an homage than a narrative leap forward. There's enough ambiguity in the ending to suggest further sequels could be on the way here, but on this evidence there's not a lot left to be wrung from this well-worn franchise."--Matt Maytum [Full review]
The Hollywood Reporter -- no score
"Green has a good bit of fun with inside jokes and boundary-pushing kills (should we be laughing while that character we like is begging for her life?), and offers more than a couple of gleaming kitchen knives, before he starts pushing the action away from Haddonfield's civilians and toward the woman who's been planning for it. [This] kind of gig [was] hitherto reserved for J.J. Abrams and few others, it's one Green fairly leaps into, delivering both fan service and honest-to-god moviemaking of the sort rarely seen in horror spinoffs."-- John DeFore [Full review]
Screencrush -- 7/10
"Green serves up everything we love about the first Halloween, completely playing off our nostalgia for the slasher classic, and to me, that's not necessarily a bad thing. He doesn't try to mimic what Carpenter did with that movie--after all, no filmmaker can recreate the magic and brilliance of the first Halloween--but affectionately pays tribute to it with buckets of grisly violence, prickly tension, and snarky humor. Not all of it works--a lot of the scares are predictable, and there's one very idiotic third act twist the film could do without--but the suspenseful finale leaves you on a high."--E. Oliver Whitney [Full review]
Slant -- 1 .5/4
"For all of the film's attempts to get back to the sinisterly sidling Michael of the first Halloween, his stealth movements no longer terrify because his fixations are less unthinkingly instinctual, more compulsively mortal. It doesn't help that Green has no evident flair for horror. The latest entry in the Halloween series was probably always a fool's errand, yet its myriad failures are still shocking given the talent involved."--Keith Uhlich [Full review]
Nerdist -- 4/5
"Forty years after the original film's release, Green, McBride, co-writer Jeff Fradley, and most importantly, star and big beating heart of the franchise Jamie Lee Curtis, made a film that's a profoundly feminist re-examination of its psychology of trauma through its iconography. It's also a rip-roaring slasher flick that's hands down the best Halloween sequel ever. It's everything in a Halloween film that inspires us to return, again and again, but the reversal, reimagining and reinterpretation of these elements is what truly thrills in this new iteration."--Katie Walsh [Full review]
Indiewire -- B-
"There's no getting around some of the messy staging and clunky dialogue that keeps Halloween from reaching greater heights for the bulk of its running time. But Carpenter's own Halloween was itself a bumpy ride, made on the cheap and carried along by the director's firm grasp on his potent themes. The new one works overtime to keep them intact, while communing with the first instalment in every possible way--from that famously creepy synth score to the blocky orange credits that bookend the story. In an intriguing twist, Green has revisited this familiar turf less to exhume an old nightmare than to chart a path toward waking up from it."--Eric Kohn [Full review]
Each Monday evening, Microsoft refreshes its list of game deals on the digital Xbox Store. This week's sale is a big one, with dozens of games from Ubisoft, the Battlefield series, and more discounted up to 85% off. Below, we sort through some of the highlights to help you find the best games for the lowest prices. Just make sure you finalize your purchases before the deals go away on September 17.
Anyone looking to fill in the gaps of their Assassin's Creed collection can get some cheap games this week. Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, which contains Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations, is on sale for $20. Unity is $12, Syndicate is $20, and Origins--the game whose modern-day story continues in the upcoming Assassin's Creed Odyssey--is down to $30.
Speaking of shooters, you don't have to wait for Battlefield V to launch in November to get your fix for that series. Battlefield Hardline Ultimate Edition and Battlefield 4 Premium Edition are on sale for $9 each, and Battlefield 1 is just $6 (the premium pass is free this week as well). If you want to go all in, you can pick up Battlefield Anniversary Bundle for $25. It comes with all three of those games, along with all of their DLC. That's a lot of Battlefield.
Or you could just kick back and grind loot in Diablo 3: Eternal Collection for $30 or savor Red Dead Redemption for $10 before the sequel lands next month. We have more great deals in the list below, and you can see the full list of deals here.
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