Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is almost here to close out the year for Nintendo, and controller manufacturers aren't wasting any time putting out new controllers to ride the wave of excitement with Smash fans. The series' competitive roots are grounded in the GameCube entry, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and thus using the GameCube controller is for many the preferred way to play. Nintendo isn't blind to this, releasing another round of GameCube controllers emblazoned with the latest Smash logo, just as it did for the Wii U game, but they aren't the only options out there.
Below is a quick look at a few of the options that players can consider when shopping around for new controllers, and even though they aren't the real deal straight from Nintendo, they come with selling points all their own that Nintendo doesn't have an answer for.
Editor's note: these items are highlighted as examples, not as endorsements by GameSpot.
Nintendo GameCube Controller and GameCube Controller Adapter $25/$20
Nintendo's official products are a great place to start if you are looking for a reliable, no frills way to play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with a GameCube controller. There are cheaper options available from no-name manufacturers, but you can generally count on the real deal to get the job done.
Though you can likely convince your friends to play a few rounds with you using Joy-Cons, they are far too fiddly to be effective during competitive matches. The GameCube Controller Adapter is the first step to ensure all four fighters are on an even playing field. You will, of course, need an adapter if you use Nintendo's controllers anyway, because of their GameCube-style plug.
PowerA Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch - $50
PowerA is taking a unique approach compared to the other third-party manufacturers on this list. Its controller is built like a GameCube one, but on the inside, it's effectively a Switch Pro controller--it's wireless and support motion controls. It's unfortunately not rechargeable--it requires two AA batteries--and it lacks rumble support, but it's the simplest wireless solution that offers GameCube-like controls on this list.
8Bitdo Gbros. Wireless Adapter for Nintendo Switch - $20
If you definitely want to play wirelessly with a proper GameCube controller, you can alternatively pick up 8bitdo's Gbros. wireless adapter. It allows you to plug in a GameCube controller and have it work wirelessly with Switch, and the adapter has buttons to account for Switch functions not represented on the controller itself. You can also connect NES Classic, SNES Classic, or Wii controllers on the opposite end of the adapter. And the icing on the cake? There's a toggle that lets you convert the adapter to work with a Windows PC.
PDP's new controllers aren't wired for GameCube the way Nintendo's controller is--PDP's connect via USB directly to the Switch. Otherwise, the design is mostly in line with Nintendo's own, with a couple of exceptions. PDP is obviously going for a more colorful approach, with branding to entice Pokemon, Mario, and Zelda fans, but a 10-foot cable and a swappable C-Stick/Analog Stick introduces a unique feature that no other controller on this last can match. It's not a critical feature, but it could make a difference for the right player.
Hori's Smash Bros. Ultimate controllers follow a similar path as PDP's solution: themed controllers with a 10-foot USB cable. Hori does offer a few more color options, and most of the controllers sport a semi-transparent casing. They do not, however, feature the swappable C-Stick option.
Season 7 of Fortnite is nearly here. The new season is scheduled to kick off this Thursday, December 6, and developer Epic Games has been building up excitement by sharing a series of teaser images each day leading up to it. The studio has now shared the final teaser, and it hints that some rather big things are in store for Season 7.
The image, which you can see below, zooms in on the ziplining character spotted in the background of the second teaser. "Ascend to new heights," the accompanying tweet reads, suggesting that Season 7 will feature a greater emphasis on verticality. What's even more interesting, however, is that the image also features a biplane in the background, which seems to hint that Fortnite will receive its first aerial vehicle.
Epic hasn't confirmed many details about Season 7 beyond its start date, but we've gotten a good idea of what to expect from the three teaser images it has shared so far. The first featured an icy silhouette of a character with the caption, "A bitter ice spreads..." seemingly confirming fan theories that the new season will be winter-themed. The image also featured a character snowboarding down the side of the silhouette.
Hints that Fortnite's next season would be snow-themed first began to appear within the game itself a few weeks ago, when players began noticing distant clouds in the ocean surrounding the map. Since then, some users on Reddit have discovered that the clouds are actually shrouding an iceberg that is slowly approaching the island.
We'll find out soon just what changes await Fortnite in Season 7, but we do know something else that'll be arriving alongside it. Epic announced a new sandbox-style mode called Fortnite Creative, which will allow players to design their own games and unique Fortnite experiences. Fortnite Creative will be available to everyone on December 13, but those who purchase the Season 7 Battle Pass will get access to the mode beginning December 6.
In the meantime, you still have a few more hours to complete any remaining Season 6 challenges and unlock the last few Battle Pass rewards. If you need pointers, we've put together some helpful tips on how to complete the game's trickier missions in our Season 6 challenges guide.
Seems like it used to take a long time for games to dip down to half price. Battlefield V has only been out a few weeks and it's already available for $30 (or $40 for the Deluxe Edition). The only catch is that you have to own and have access to a recent Battlefield game. But if you don't? You can still get the standard edition for $40 from various retailers.
The Battlefield subreddit has been abuzz with people posting that the deal has popped up when they've signed in to games like Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, and Battlefield 1. We tested it out on Battlefield 1 on Xbox One, and sure enough, the deal appeared in the game's start menu. So if you have a previous installment and are interested in trying out the new one, boot it up and grab the deal.
Everyone else can get the standard edition of Battlefield V on PS4, Xbox One, and PC for $40 from Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. Just click the appropriate link below.
As for how the game is, critic Michael Higham scored it 8/10 in our Battlefield V review, writing, "The Battlefield series has a winning formula that Battlefield V doesn't deviate far from, at least for now. Conquest and the map roster don't mesh well together, however, Grand Operations--and the other modes within it--steal the show and foster some of the greatest moments the franchise has offered."
Battlefield V is scheduled to get numerous free DLC expansions in the coming months, the first of which, Chapter 1: Overture, is available now. A free battle royale mode called Firestorm is scheduled to arrive in March.
Ubisoft has teased an impending Far Cry announcement for The Game Awards with a short video that hints at a post-apocalyptic theme. Though the brief look doesn't explicitly say the announcement is connected with Far Cry 5, the setting appears similar to that game. Spoilers for Far Cry 5 follow.
The teaser begins with a nuclear explosion over a track of farm land, echoing the ending of Far Cry 5 when the cult leader Joseph Seed was proven right after all. His prophecy came true and the world--or at least a sizable chunk of rural Montana--was obliterated by nukes. The connection suggests this game will follow the events of Far Cry 5.
The teaser says the world recovered and vegetation regrew, and the survivors thought the threat had passed. But, in an ominous twist, the narration says they were wrong, as we see a figure picking up a sawblade for an apparent makeshift weapon. This would appear to be a post-apocalyptic Far Cry, complete with scrappy survivors.
The brief video doesn't indicate much about whether this will be downloadable content for Far Cry 5, a new standalone spin-off like Blood Dragon, or an entirely new game. Far Cry 5 already had a full season pass of content, complete with zombies, outer space, and Vietnam.
We'll know more tomorrow when the full reveal airs live during The Game Awards. It all kicks off starting at 8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT / 1:30 AM GMT (Friday) / 12:30 PM AET (Friday), and you can watch it right here at GameSpot. While some studios are teasing reveals for The Game Awards, others have stepped forward to say they won't be showing their games.
Peter Parker met a tragic end in Avengers: Infinity War, but we can all rest easy knowing he's already bouncing back from his Thanos-related injuries and filming the follow up to his MCU solo debut Spider-Man: Homecoming, the playfully titled Spider-Man: Far From Home. While details about the specifics of the plot have remained unsurprisingly vague, the rumors of Jake Gyllenhaal joining the cast to play villain Mysterio were confirmed by on-set photos of Gyllenhaal in costume. That begs the question: Just who the hell is Mysterio, and what does his entrance into the MCU actually mean for Spidey?
The name Mysterio actually refers to four different Marvel villains dating all the way back to 1964, and while there has been no official confirmation of which version Gyllenhaal is actually playing, the safest bet is the first and most prolific of the lot, Quentin Beck, who premiered in The Amazing Spider-Man #13 in 1964.
Beck's vintage origin story is your typical '60s superhero fare. He was a struggling special effects artist and wannabe actor who eventually realized that his skills as an artist could be used to turn a real profit if he used them to build a villainous alter ego. Of course, after carefully constructing his costume (complete with his iconic fishbowl-style mirrored helmet) and making his debut, Beck was stopped and humiliated by Spider-Man--which, unsurprisingly, led to a life long vendetta. He joined the original incarnation of the Sinister Six, a team that also included Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Electro, and Sandman.
Over the years, Mysterio became a perpetual thorn in Peter's side. Beck has no real superpowers, but his exhaustive knowledge of special effects trickery and illusions make him formidable in his own way--typically he'd set up elaborate gags involving smoke machines, stage magic, and even robotics to pull of his plots. Occassionally, his smoke based illusions are actually laced with hallucinogenic drugs, making him more similar to someone like Batman's Scarecrow than a hoaky magician. He trained in hypnotism, inventing a second alter-ego he called Dr. Ludwig Reinhart, and generally did his best to try and force his victims to lose their minds with elaborate gimmicks and cons designed to make them believe all sorts of wild lies.
Sometimes the lies were pretty goofy. Other times, they were considerably less so. he tried to force Peter into believing he'd been shrunk down to action figure size. He later tried to con Aunt May out of house and home using a revolving door of disguises and assumed identities designed to gaslight and confuse her. Eventually, and with the help of Kingpin, he set his sights on Daredevil, trying to manipulate him into insanity using mood altering drugs and by targeting and manipulating his friends. At one point he actually tried to convince Matt that a baby was the biblical antichrist. True story.
That particular plan didn't work out all that well and ended with Beck apparently committing suicide after Daredevil unmasked and beat him within an inch of his life. Of course, in typical comic book fashion, the death didn't stick. And although Beck's resurrection was never completely explained in any concrete way, the simplest answer was that he had staged his own death and gone into temporary hiding--though some stories insinuate that he really did die, and in fact spent some time in Hell before being magically revived.
Beck resumed his antics, rejoining with the Sinister Six as the need arose. He briefly retired (and built himself a robot daughter--don't ask) in Las Vegas, but was prompted to pick up the Mysterio mantle yet again after getting wrapped up in some complicated, demonic dealings with Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider.
All told, Mysterio's place in the Marvel universe is malleable. He's a bit less prolific and recognizable than someone like Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus, and that slightly-less-than-top-tier notoriety, coupled with his expansive repertoire of skills, means he can fit into stories in any number of ways. He's been the campy comic relief, the dangerous mastermind, the bumbling gloryhound, and the vicious sociopath, depending on the needs of the moment.
Thematically speaking, it seems more likely that we're going to be seeing Gyllenhaal as one of Beck's softer sides in Far From Home, especially considering the multilayered approach Homecoming took to his Sinister Six teammate Vulture. It's certainly not impossible that we're going to see a Mysterio on the big screen who is furious at Spider-Man for ruining his shot at fame and stardom, but it's maybe a bit improbable.
There's also the potential for Gyllenhaal's character to borrow from the other incarnations of Mysterio: Daniel Berkhart, a con who temporarily replaced Beck at both Beck's behest and after being hired to impersonate him by J. Jonah Jameson; Francis Klum, a mutant with teleportation powers who briefly took over the mantle while Beck was dead; and Mysterion, a mysterious new incarnation who was brainwashed and forced to join a team called the Superior Six lead by Otto Octavius. While none of the other Mysterio mantle wearers have quite the history Beck does, the MCU's willingness to play fast and loose with classic characters means they probably shouldn't be ignored.
One of the benefits you get for subscribing to the Nintendo Switch Online service is access to a growing library of classic NES games. Nintendo has been rolling out new titles for the service every month since it launched this past September, and now the company has confirmed that another batch of titles is scheduled to arrive next week.
Three more classic NES games are coming to the service on Wednesday, December 12. This month's lineup consists of the falling block puzzle game Wario's Woods, the notoriously challenging sidescroller Ninja Gaiden, and the puzzle adventure game Adventures of Lolo. You can take a look at them in the trailer below.
This marks the third batch of NES games that Nintendo has added to the service since it launched. October's update brought NES Open, Super Dodge Ball, and Solomon's Key to the library, while Metroid, TwinBee, and Mighty Bomb Jack arrived in November. With December's additions, there are now 30 NES games available on Switch.
On top of the three new titles added each month, every batch of NES games thus far has come with an additional surprise: a special save data for a game in the library. In October, Nintendo added a version The Legend of Zelda that gives players access to Link's entire arsenal of weapons and a ton of Rupees from the outset, while November's update brought a special save of Gradius that starts you off with a fully-upgraded ship.
While Nintendo hasn't confirmed if another special game save will arrive with its latest batch of NES games, the company has previously teased that more "fun new entry points into fan-favorite games" are coming, so we'll likely see another surprise addition next week. The company also says that more NES games will be added in 2019 beginning in January, but it has yet to announce what the next titles will be.
NES games on Switch can be played with a special set of NES-style Joy-Con controllers. These resemble the classic NES gamepad and are only available to order through Nintendo's website for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Each set comes with two controllers and costs $60. Nintendo says the first shipment will be sent out next week.
Despite the surprises, Sekiro appears to similar to From's previous work in a number of ways. It's a third-person action-adventure RPG, for a start, with a similar combat system to the company's portfolio that includes hit games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne. Shadows Die Twice adds a few new features to the fan-favorite formula, the most notable of which is the ability resurrect yourself after death. This ability will be limited, so you can't just keep resurrecting forever, however it can also be used to your advantage. Allow yourself to be killed and enemies will walk away, pleased with their success, opening themselves up for you to come back to life and stab them in the back.
Sword combat has received a few changes by incorporating both Prosthetic Tools, such as the Grappling Hook, and special Sword Arts to supplement regular attacks. Stealth will also play a part, with the player able to skulk around quietly and perform lethal sneak attacks. Without further ado, then, let's get into everything we know about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Release Date And Collector's Edition
Activision announced Sekiro's release date for PS4, Xbox One, and PC at Gamescom in August 2018. The game will launch on March 22, 2019, accompanied by the release of a collector's edition. That special version comes with the full game, a steelbook case, a 7" shinobi statue, art book, physical map, digital soundtrack, and replica game coins.
Does Sekiro Have Multiplayer?
From's recent games have included a form of multiplayer in which other players can join your game and help or hinder your progress. Sekiro, on the other hand, will not include any way of interacting with other players.
"This title is designed, from the beginning, to be a single-player experience," From Software's Yasuhiro Kitao said at E3. "As a part of that, one of the focuses of the game is, instead of having a choice between various classes from the beginning, you must play as a ninja. As a result, [the team] has really been able to focus in on what those mechanics are and make them as deep as possible."
Does Sekiro Have Difficulty Options? Will It Be As Hard As Dark Souls?
Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne are famed for their difficulty, with ultra-hard bosses and infrequent checkpoints providing a tough challenge for players. This led to some players asking for From's games to include difficulty options, but the developer has declined that particular request for Sekiro.
"We don't want to include a difficulty selection because we want to bring everyone to the same level of discussion and the same level of enjoyment," director hidetaka Miyazaki told GameSpot earlier this year. "So we want everyone … to first face that challenge and to overcome it in some way that suits them as a player."
The creator continued: "We want everyone to feel that sense of accomplishment. We want everyone to feel elated and to join that discussion on the same level. We feel if there's different difficulties, that's going to segment and fragment the user base. People will have different experiences based on that [differing difficulty level]. This is something we take to heart when we design games. It's been the same way for previous titles and it's very much the same with Sekiro."
Where Does Sekiro Fit In With Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, And Bloodborne?
Despite the similarities between Sekiro and From's previous games, the developer insists this is an entirely separate entity. "Sekiro was not designed as an evolution of Soulsborne, of the Souls series," series creator and Sekiro director Hidetaka Miyazaki told GameSpot. "It was designed from the ground up, from scratch, as an entirely new concept, as a new game. So we don't know if you'd call this an evolution of the series in this sense."
The director continued: "Of course with Sekiro, we don't intend to disappoint or turn away fans of previous From Software games, that core fan base. We want to keep the challenge. We want to keep that core experience very much intact for those people."
Where Can I Pre-Order Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice?
Pre-orders for Sekiro are now live in a bunch of different outlets. Check out our full US pre-order guide for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for the rundown, including details on that collector's edition.
2018 was an incredible year for movies--as long as you love Marvel superheroes and horror. In other words, the GameSpot entertainment team's bread and butter. But it wasn't just about genocidal purple aliens, uncolonized African countries, and monsters that can hear you fart into a pillow. This year truly had something for everyone in cinema, which made it especially fun and challenging to select GameSpot's 10 best movies of 2018.
These ten movies were selected not just because they were the best, but also because they most accurately portray the breadth of our interests as a team. We love superheroes and horror, yes, but we're also into lovable English bears, weird science fiction, and heavyweight boxing, among many other things.
There were plenty of great films in 2018, but these were the most creative, engrossing, thrilling, funny, scary, and original. These movies had us glued to our seats or teetering on the edge, cowering in fear or shaking with laughter.
Presented in order of release--but not otherwise ranked--here are our 10 favorite movies of 2018. Check back on GameSpot.com later this week for the reveal of our absolute top movie of 2018, and don't forget to read out list of the 10 best TV shows of 2018 as well.
Lastly, as always, let us know what movies you loved this year in the comments below.
Paddington 2
US release date: January 12
How important is simple goodness? The world is a forest fire, both literally and figuratively. While there are plenty of major action, drama, and horror films that thrill and chill us as viewers, they don't always send you away from the theater with a smile on your face. And honestly, that's something we desperately need sometimes.
First and foremost, if you haven't seen the first Paddington movie, don't worry. It's not necessary, though you should totally watch it right now. And for fans of the first, if you thought sending Paddington the bear to prison would be too drastic a turn for a sequel, you will be pleasantly surprised. Instead of letting jail change the titular bear, Paddington 2 is instead somehow a story about prison reform and the need for generosity and understanding in a cruel world.
Paddington's life motto, as told to him by his Aunt Lucy, is, "If we're kind and polite the world will be right." It's a message he spreads throughout the jail he's sent to after being wrongfully convicted of stealing a pop-up book--which is apparently a big deal in London--in his short time there, making a lasting impact on his fellow inmates. It's also a message he spreads to his friends and neighbors outside of prison, whether it's helping the garbage man study for an upcoming test or making sure one particularly forgetful neighbor doesn't forget his keys when leaving home.
What makes Paddington 2, and Paddington himself, so engaging is that this way of life is so simple. He is good and he's doing his best to put good into the world. The universe being what it is, he doesn't always get that goodness in return immediately. But his positive spirit makes an impact on those around him, changing things for the better. Who couldn't use a little more of that in their lives? It's such an easy idea, but also one that's easy to forget. Luckily, we've got that little Peruvian bear to remind us that literally anyone can make a change for the better in some way, big or small. You just have to try. -- Chris Hayner
Black Panther
US release date: January 29
Black Panther is immensely brilliant for a plethora of reasons. It's Marvel's first movie--Blade aside--starring a black actor. In fact, the vast majority of the cast are people of color, and there were plenty of stories, tweets, and videos of black people around the world proclaiming their excitement after seeing the film. That was simply great to see.
As for Black Panther as a MCU movie itself, that's a whole other story. Marvel played with its character's personalities for this one. Your titular hero wasn't a wise-cracking jokester, something we've become accustomed to with Marvel's movies. He's overly serious, comes from a loving family, has bodyguards, and runs his own country. He is the exact opposite of everything we've seen in other Marvel films. Chadwick Boseman is transformative and a breath of fresh air for the superheroes in this role, bringing something completely different to the table. Then, there's the villain for the movie, Erik Killmonger, played by the retainer-breaking Michael B. Jordan. He's despicable, ruthless, and evil--right up until you learn more about his character and start to understand the method for his madness and feel sympathy for him. A great villain is one who is defined well enough that the viewer could agree with the antagonist's motives if they were in his or her shoes, and that's exactly what Black Panther does with Killmonger.
While there's some mediocre CGI in the boring final battle, elsewhere there is a great scope and scale there that we haven't seen in a Marvel movie, and the cast of important secondary characters keeps things pretty exciting. More than anything else, it's a great establishing moment for Wakanda as a force, which helps set the stage for the Wakanda fight in Infinity War.
It's 2018, and Marvel has perfected its formula for bringing in new characters without delivering an origin story. Black Panther is a phenomenal success not just for being a great movie, but for reaching all corners of the planet, getting the world to shout "Wakanda forever" together in an awesome cultural event. -- Mat Elfring
Annihilation
US release date: February 23
It's tricky to describe Annihilation in any way that does it justice. Part cosmic horror, part sci-fi thriller, part existential meditation on the nature of personhood, director Alex Garland took Jeff VanderMeer's experimental novel of the same name and pushed it to its absolute limits. With an all female starring cast made up of powerhouse actors like Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, and Tessa Thompson, supported by Oscar Isaac doing his best trope-reversed damsel in distress, Annihilation is at once a minimalist art piece and robust creature-feature with tension to spare.
Ostensibly the story of a team of scientists setting out to explore the mysterious "Area X," an anomalous area of swamp land struck by what may or may not have be an alien artifact, Annihilation rapidly warps itself into a dream-like, surrealist painting where animals and plants have mutated into impossible hybrids. Worse yet, as the team soon discovers, the same phenomenon is happening to them--and there's nothing they can do to stop it. The end result is as bloody and as horrifying as you might expect.
Despite being more than a little challenging to watch at points for the squeamish among us, Annihilation never stops being beautiful, and never forgets its own desperately human core--even when that human element is rapidly transforming into something else entirely. -- Meg Downey
A Quiet Place
US release date: April 6
A Quiet Place is a strange horror film because, well, it's very quiet. The title says it all, really. This is a movie that lives and dies based on the room you see it in. If you watched at home alone or in a theater full of people that managed to stay silent for 90 minutes, it's an incredibly tense and horrifying ride, filled with moments that will make you anxious about what's to come, even if it's nothing at all.
Beyond the tension built throughout, where A Quiet Place excels is in its creature design. The mysterious monsters that have killed off so much of the world's population are used sparingly in the beginning of the film, but once fully revealed are downright terrifying. They have elements of the Cloverfield monster, the Demogorgon from Stranger Things, and even a scaly and tough skin that brings dinosaurs to mind. Whatever they are, it's scary, and they helped make A Quiet Place one of the best movies of the year. -- Chris Hayner
Hereditary
US release date: June 8
The last few years have seen the release of several acclaimed independent horror movies that feel different from the fun, commercial scares of studio moves like The Nun or It. The likes of The Witch, It Follows, and Get Out have placed equal emphasis on characters as on scares and gore, and replaced predictable jump scares with atmosphere and dread. Hereditary is one of the best of this new wave of scary movies, and 2018's best horror film. It's both an exploration of grief and family dysfunction as well as a terrifying movie about possession and pagan cults, and it's an unforgettably intense experience.
The movie marks the writing/directing debut of Ari Aster and is anchored by some incredible performances. Toni Collette delivers a devastating performance as Annie Graham, a woman trying to keep her sanity together after a pair of family deaths, who becomes convinced that it might be possible to use clairvoyance to speak to her loved ones from beyond the grave. She's ably matched by Gabriel Byrne as her husband Steve, who internalises his pain. Having a pair of actors of this calibre elevates the movie well beyond the low budget roots of much indie horror. There are also some great performances from Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro as their teenage kids, and veteran star Ann Dowd as Annie's sinister new "friend" Joan.
But while Hereditary is a serious, sad adult drama, it doesn't forget to also be a truly scary movie. The horror builds slowly over the course of two hours; there is a truly horrifying sudden cut about 30 minutes in--if you've seen the movie, you'll know the one. From there, it becomes clear that Aster has no interest in holding back from delivering what fans want. Slow-building drama only gets you so far, and sometimes you need severed heads, people bursting into flames, crazed Pagan cults, and possessed people crawling across the ceiling. Luckily Hereditary gives us all that--and more--making for a incredible final 30 minutes. The horror scene is stronger than it's been for a long time, and Hereditary shows the genre at its peak. -- Dan Auty
Sorry to Bother You
US release date: July 6
On the surface, Sorry to Bother You sounds simple. Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) gets a much needed job as a telemarketer, where he quickly learns to adopt a distinctively funny "white voice" (played by comedian David Cross) to get ahead. He wrestles with his identity as a black man in the face of this success, especially as his co-workers revolt against the company's broken systems while he rises through the ranks.
But Sorry to Bother You ultimately becomes much more than simply social or racial satire, especially when it careens into full on dystopian science fiction. And yet it somehow never loses its sense of humor, either. Sorry to Bother You raises questions about identity, personal responsibility, corporate ethics, workers' revolutions, and the nature of art, while also being a movie about--slight spoilers--people snorting magical cocaine and being very literally transformed into something both more and less than their original selves.
Stanfield is exceptional in the lead role, and his success is bolstered by a supporting cast that includes Tessa Thompson (in yet another fantastic performance this year), Steven Yeun, Danny Glover, and more. Whether you're in it for the comedy, the science fiction, or the biting social commentary, director Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You was one of the best movies of 2018. -- Mike Rougeau
Suspiria
US release date: October 26
When it comes to remakes, the horror genre has the all around best track record of any category. John Carpenter's The Thing, David Cronenberg's The Fly, and Zakk Snyder's Dawn of the Dead are among the best remakes ever. Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of Dario Argento's classic 1977 Italian Horror genre film is arguably the greatest to date. In a Kubrickian fashion, Guadagnino borrows the pieces he personally finds most alluring from the original, discards the rest, and brings them to life with his own vision. The result is that Suspiria is a fundamentally new and original masterpiece in its own right.
The centerpiece--or pieces--of this achievement are the several performances by Guadagnino's long-time collaborator Tilda Swinton. Her gender-bending performance as Dr. Josef Klemperer, an old German man, is fantastic and has garnered the most attention among the media. However, her commanding performance as Madame Blanc, the visionary matriarch of Suspiria's central dance cult, is intensely capitaviting and among the strongest in her career. Take her mentor role in Dr. Strange and dial it up ten times.
Suspiria's myriad achievements and quirks should not be overlooked by any serious cinephile. While many of the crew leads responsible for executing the film's vision from cinematography to production design are alums of Guadagnino's standout film of 2017, Call Me By Your Name, Thom Yorke of Radiohead makes his film scoring debut which admirably holds up against Claudio Simonetti's famous Goblin score of yore. The film also thrives on a near-100% cast of actresses with barely a man before the lens, save a couple of bumbling detectives, who fill the Markos Dance Academy with a host of colorful personalities.
Finally, no horror film is complete without the horror itself. To this end, Suspiria gracefully turns dance into gruesome torture, depicts people or objects as twisted as any Cronenberg film, and paints an outside post-war world fraught with tragedy that mirrors the inner turmoil of its characters to an almost stifling degree. -- Ryan Schubert
Creed II
US release date: November 21
Following up on the critically acclaimed Creed, the Rocky franchise continues, this time pulling from Rocky IV. The original film in this reboot focused on Apollo Creed's son, Adonis Creed, and the emotional struggles he faced being the son of a legend and entering into the boxing world. It's fitting, then, that the sequel would focus on the man who killed his father: Ivan Drago. While there are many ways this could have gone drastically wrong, instead, Ivan Drago is given far more character than in Rocky IV, and his and his son's story is made to feel tragic. What you end up with is fully fleshed out characters bound for a bittersweet ending no matter which way the final bout between Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago's progeny plays out.
In our review, we called Creed 2 "a worth Rocky sequel": "From the opening scenes, you know exactly where Creed II is headed. Creed II is to the original Creed what Rocky II was to the movie that started it all: Adonis Creed starts out on top of the world, which means he has nowhere to go but down. He'll hit rock bottom, linger there for a while, then drag himself back up for a triumphant return. That's the basic outline of Creed II. It's intimately familiar, and it's so well executed that you won't mind the story's inevitability."
While the follow-up is lacking in the slick single shots of the first Creed film, director Steven Caple Jr. does a brilliant job putting the viewer right into the action. The fight choreography is excellent and the weight of the punches feel real. While the film is ultimately formulaic--as is the entire Rocky franchise--that doesn't stop the emotional beats from hitting and the film absolutely resonating as it progresses. -- Dave Klein
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
US release date: December 14
Let's be honest--it's kind of hard to surprise us when it comes to superhero movies these days. After ten years of the MCU, there's just not a lot of room for major innovations. We've been spoiled by the golden age of the genre, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. And the silver lining is it makes movies like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse all the more stunning.
It's not just that Into The Spider-Verse is the first animated Marvel movie to hit big screens with a wide release ever (unless you count Big Hero 6), it's the fact that it managed to make itself so completely unique in the process. We've seen our fair share of Spider-Man stories, but none of them have come even close to this. One part origin story of new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, one part introduction to Sony's "Spider-Verse," a multiverse that connects different alternate realities (and subsequently, their respective Spider-people), Into The Spider-Verse isn't a movie based on comic book characters, it is a comic book come to life.
Into The Spider-Verse is a wild, psychedelic love letter to superheroes and the stories that originally brought them to life, wrapped in a hilarious and relentlessly stylish shell. It's candy for your eyes, and a shot of pure, neon-splashed joy aimed directly at your heart. -- Meg Downey
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While the rest of this list was presented in chronological order rather than any particular ranking, we wanted to save the full reveal of our absolute, number 1, top, best movie of the year for a separate article, so we could fully express why we loved it so much.
As much as 2018 was a great year for movies, it was even more insanely good for TV shows of all varieties. Choosing our favorite shows of 2018 was honestly a massive challenge, because there was simply so much amazing TV this year. There was something for everyone, whether you're into weird sci-fi, superheroes, anime, horror, comedy, or even unlikely revivals of '80s movies that are way better than they have any right to be. Whether you're into middle-aged karate masters, aspiring hip-hop managers, secret Russian spies, haunted houses, or just good old fashioned superheroes, this year had something for you.
Difficult as it was, the GameSpot entertainment team eventually narrowed it down to these ten TV shows as our favorites from 2018. There are many more shows we love that we simply didn't have room to include, but these ten shows represent the wide breadth of our interests as a team, and we believe there's something for everyone on this list.
These shows had us glued to our TV or laptop screens, whether we were tuning in week to week, or feverishly binging entire seasons the moment they dropped. They had us laughing hysterically, shrieking in fear, and crying tears of raw emotion--sometimes all in the same episode.
This year, instead of ranking our favorite shows from one to ten, we decided to present them all on equal footing. So here, in order of US premiere, are our 10 favorite TV shows of the year. Return to GameSpot.com later this week when we reveal our absolute, number one, top show of 2018, and check out our top 10 movies of 2018 as well.
Lastly, as always, let us know what shows you loved this year in the comments below.
Atlanta Season 2
US premiere date: March 1
Coming into the second season of Atlanta, it's easy to go in expecting the same balance of humor and heartbreak found from its freshman outing. But in the cold open of the first episode, sans familiar crew, you see a couple of friends spend a lazy afternoon visiting the local fast-food joint. What seems like a fun interlude quickly escalates with the duo holding up the place, trading bullets with the AK-47 wielding manager, and witnessing an innocent bystander get caught in the cross-fire.
The subtitle of the sophomore outing is "Robbin' Season," and while you can take it at face value as shown in the cold open, each of the main characters face their own set of challenges that likely rob them of something irreplaceable--all the while dealing with the absurdity of life in the city's lively music scene. As the always aloof but ever wise Darius says in the first episode, "Robbin' Season. Christmas approaches, and everybody's gotta eat." To which Earn responds, "Or be eaten."
Donald Glover's series is an equally harsh and hilarious look at the struggles and hustle of trying to make it in the titular city. One of the greatest things to say about Atlanta is its remarkable awareness for the black-millennial experience, dealing with everyday casual racism and hardships, while still trying to keep your head above water. Robbin' Season, while still carrying the razor-sharp wit and surreal humor from 2016's season, is a remarkably darker turn for the series--with one episode descending into a thriller--and despite some minor wins throughout, each character manages to take an "L" that leaves a major and lasting sting. -- Alessandro Fillari
The Americans Season 6
US premiere date: March 28
Many long-running shows end with a bang, particularly when they can accurately be described for most of their runs as "adrenaline-fueled spy dramas full of intrigue, sex, violence, and espionage." But when The Americans ended this year, its Season 6 finale--the FX show's final episode--went out with a quiet, emotional whimper. It culminated in a single scene--a simple conversation--that fans had been waiting to see for years. And then it was just over. It was perfect.
Throughout its life, The Americans followed two Russian spies (Matthew Rhys's Philip Jennings and his wife, Keri Russell's Elizabeth Jennings) who were sent to Washington, DC as teenagers to start new, fake lives as Americans. They began a real family while doing the Russian government's bidding, murdering targets in cold blood, collecting intelligence any ruthless way they could, and communicating with their homeland only through furtive meetings with a small handful of contacts. And over the years, they grew to love each other in real ways neither anticipated.
The show had its ups and downs, and the exceptionally slow Season 5 was a particular low point. But Season 6 picked things back up by following through on every theme and thread the show had established over the years: What does it mean to love one's country? When is blind obedience required, and when should you question what you're told to do? Can the bonds of family overcome a person's nature? Philip and Elizabeth did horrible things, but it was easy to root for them anyway, because they always believed in the cause--until they started to doubt it, and that was when the show cemented itself as a masterpiece.
Throughout it all, it was never clear, even up to the very last scene, how The Americans would end. It turned out to be that rare conclusion that both wrapped the story up perfectly and left you wanting more--even though the story is over, it felt like Season 7 could debut next year and pick it right back up. The Jennings may be terrible people, but although we probably won't find out what happens to them next, I'm glad we got to know them for the time we did. -- Mike Rougeau
My Hero Academia Season 3
US premiere date: April 7
After just three seasons, My Hero Academia has already become one of the greatest Shonen anime and manga of all time. The world of My Hero Academia is one where most of the population are now born with "quirks." giving them superpowers, which has turned many into heroes and others into villains. The show closely follows Izuku Midoriya, a quirkless boy whose dream is to be a great hero. He's given the opportunity thanks to the greatest hero of all time passing on his powers to Midoriya.
The third season of the show was its strongest yet, with Midoriya--who's still in the hero training academy, U.A.--finally taking on true villains and being forced to make life or death decisions in order to save civilians. This season is filled with some of the largest events the show has seen so far, and the repercussions as a result. But in the face of all of this, it's the characters who stand out the most, as U.A. is filled with students and teachers who are genuinely a pleasure to spend time with. My Hero Academia stands out not just as a great anime, but also one of the greatest superhero stories ever told -- Dave Klein
Cobra Kai
US premiere date: May 2
Cobra Kai should be terrible. It's important to get that out of the way immediately. It's a follow-up to Karate Kid, perhaps the most '80s movie ever made, and stars the film's protagonist and antagonist--two actors whose work following the series was never in a leading role. It's also a half-hour comedic drama on a fledgling streaming service that many people weren't sure how to subscribe to. Nothing about this show screams "must see."
And yet, somehow, Cobra Kai is practically perfect in every measurable way. It actually feels like a sequel to a movie from three decades ago, once again immersing viewers into the lives of those in California's San Fernando Valley. Since the end of the original Karate Kid, our hero Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) has become a used car salesman, casting him as the villain of this new story in some ways. Meanwhile, his old foe Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) has lived a hard life and struggles to make ends meet when he finds karate once again.
The idea is so simple. Switch the roles and see what happens. And what viewers got was 10 episodes of a fascinating story about what victory and defeat can do to a person, how old feuds never really die, and, most importantly, legacy. These are two men who were built in the shadows of their mentors. One has emerged from it and surpassed it, while the other has hidden in it since he was a child. When those two forces come to a head, with the two this time training opposing kids in the famed All-Valley Karate Tournament, the magic is still there and perhaps even better than before. The story of Karate Kid shouldn't be one that could be revisited this much later and still work so incredibly well. It does, though, and we can't wait for Season 2. -- Chris Hayner
Better Call Saul Season 4
US premiere date: August 6
Breaking Bad is one of the best television shows ever made. Its spin-off, Better Call Saul, from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, might be even better. Sure, Saul doesn't have the addictive elements of the cancer survivor-turned-meth cook's story, but it's a stunning example of expert execution. It's also more heartbreaking.
Television is littered with remakes, spin-offs, sequels, and prequels, yet Saul has never been concerned with catching up to Breaking Bad's story, nor the heavy-handedness of empty Easter eggs. Its brilliance is a result of its methodical, glacial pace. It's not about the destination, it's about the ride through New Mexico's underbelly.
If you've been sitting shotgun since 2015, this should be no surprise. The story centers on Jimmy McGill's tragic downfall and life-long battle with his own demons. It's packed full with the legalities (and illegalities) of the justice system, the most mundane clerical duties, cold-blooded cartel power dynamics, and illegitimate entrepreneurs. Season 4 featured Jimmy's journey from disbanded lawyer to Saul Goodman (the finale even gave us its title character's namesake). It wasn't Anakin Skywalker turning to the dark side, but McGill's transformation was extremely haunting and affecting. His partner-in-sometimes-crime, Kim Wexler, played by the incredible Rhea Seehorn, was left repulsed beyond belief.
If we had to pick one reason to watch Season 4, it's Seehorn. She's become the backbone of a show littered with exceptional actors. She's evolved into Saul's co-protagonist, but someone who doesn't quite have the stomach for all of McGill's cons. Kim is a lawyer full of confidence, anxiety and dread. Her anxiety quickly shifts to the viewer, who spends each and every episode on pins and needles. All we know of her fate is this: She never showed up on Breaking Bad.
If that's not enough, Better Call Saul feels written by experienced, tactical surgeons--or better yet, by expert chemists. The way Gilligan and company purposefully back themselves into a corner just to prove they can cleverly write themselves out of it, perfectly mirrors the agility of their main character. Make no mistake, we've become junkies for what Gilligan and company have cooked up. -- Ryan Peterson
Bojack Horseman Season 5
US premiere date: September 14
"You say you want to get better, but you don't know how."
We've watched and rooted for BoJack to get his life together for four seasons, and finally in Season 5, everything starts going his way. His career, for instance, is experiencing something of a renaissance. He lands the leading role in a gritty, high-profile detective show called Philbert. It's critically lauded, and his performance in particular is widely praised by fans and press alike. But he just can't let himself enjoy this renewed success, instead spiralling into a drug-fuelled paranoia, determined to ruin himself and the relationships with those around him yet again.
The show doesn't just linger on BoJack and his often self-imposed troubles. The fifth season continues the tradition of cutting social commentary, including on-point observations about our obsession with Hollywood (or "Hollywoo") culture, and desperation to be seen, not just via our popular social channels, but by other people. It also spends a lot of time exploring the already well-rounded secondary cast of characters. Diane travels to Vietnam to understand more about her culture, Todd accidentally manages to become President of Ad Sales and Streamable Content for a leading online time-telling company, and Princess Carolyn continues on her journey to have a child of her own. Everyone has troubles, and opening up about them to others is something what the characters struggle with most.
And that's what's so compelling about BoJack Horseman: We can see so much of ourselves in it. Take BoJack for example: We want him to change so that we can believe that we can change. We root for him to succeed, despite him showing us time and again that he's selfish, obnoxious, and destructive--just as willing to ruin the lives of those around him as he is his own. The most heartbreaking thing is that BoJack recognises his self-destructive behavior and desperately struggles to change it. That's why when he does have a rare instance of self-realisation or personal growth, it feels like a truly momentous occasion, and convinces us to stay invested in him. Because if he is capable of change, then maybe so are we.
Season 5 is one of BoJack's strongest, continuing the tradition of messing with episode formats and structure to deliver some of the best and most memorable episodes. Be sure to watch Season 5's standout episode Free Churro, which takes the simple setup of BoJack delivering a eulogy and turns it into one of the most raw, powerful episodes of television you'll watch all year.
BoJack is far from better, but the show continues to excel. -- Lucy James
Maniac
US premiere date: September 21
Maniac is one of the most complex, challenging shows of 2018. It's a sci-fi comedy drama, loosely based on a Norwegian show of the same name, with The Leftovers' Patrick Somerville showrunning and True Detective Season 1's Cary Fukunaga directing every episode. It's is set in alternative retro-futuristic New York, and stars Jonah Hill and Emma Stone as Owen and Annie, two damaged people who submit themselves to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial for different reasons. The trials involve the subjects entering hallucinatory states, and almost immediately Annie and Owen's start to overlap, suggesting some unique bond between these two strangers.
As the series continues we see them in a variety of imagined situations, from a 1940s heist caper to a Tolkien-esque land of elves and fairies. But the boundaries between reality and fantasy frequently break down, with dialogues, faces, music, and events occurring in different contexts as Annie and Owen attempt to traverse the inner worlds of their psyches. And if that sounds like heavy going, it often is. But Maniac is also funny, sad, joyous, moving, exciting, and completely unlike anything on screens in 2018.
Hill and Stone are equally matched by Justin Theroux and Sonoya Mizuno as the unhinged doctors leading the experiments, and Sally Field as Theroux's mother, a bestselling motivational therapist who maintains a strange emotional hold over her son. Maniac is one of those shows where it's almost impossible to predict where each episodes is going to go next, but the 10 episodes are so brilliant and unique you'll want to start it again the moment it finishes. -- Dan Auty
The Good Place Season 2/3
US premiere date: September 20, 2017 (Season 2)/September 27, 2018 (Season 3)
There's just something unequivocally lovable about The Good Place. Focusing on four people who find themselves trying to navigate the afterlife, the show keeps finding ways to reinvent itself, pushing its premise in new and unexpected directions and mining those directions for humor and heart. The writing is consistently top-notch, laden with hilarious one-liners and numerous hidden gems. Discussions of philosophy and ethics have never been this entertaining.
Enough good things can't be said about the cast, either--the ensemble is a perfect combination of personality types and each actor mines the material for a different kind of humor. Kirsten Bell's Eleanor and William Jackson Harper's Chidi are perfect foils for each other even through the twists and turns of the story in Seasons 2 and 3, and Jameela Jamil's Tahani only seems to get funnier the more self-aware the snobby rich socialite becomes. Ted Danson is generally a steady hand on the wheel as the afterlife architect Michael, but he and offbeat computer being Janet (D'arcy Carden) grab plenty of opportunities for deadpan deliveries and ridiculous moments as well. And Manny Jacinto's Jason Mendoza is a particular standout because it seems like he can't even change expressions without it playing as a subtle but hilarious gag.
Though everyone on The Good Place is funny, it's more remarkable that the characters, like the show itself, have gone through so many changes. Their essential natures are the same, but the show and its cast keep redefining the ensemble, and it's a big part of what makes the show so endearing. Even as they deal with experiencing life after death, the characters of The Good Place are being constantly reworked and refined in fun ways that give them a lot of depth.
The best thing about The Good Place, though, is that it's a show about people who, at their core, want to be better than they already are. It carries a positivity that's infectious. It's nearly impossible not to come away from an episode of The Good Place without feeling better than you did when you started it. The Good Place is smart enough to say something about the real world, but refreshingly, it never makes its comments with cynicism--the whole point is that there's hope for all of us. Nobody's beyond changing if they want to, even Kristen Bell's oft-awful (but always hysterical) Eleanor and her Soul Squad companions. -- Phil Hornshaw
Daredevil Season 3
US premiere date: October 19
The Netflix Marvel superhero universe had its ups and downs, and nothing could really have ever made up for how bad Iron Fist Season 1 was, and what it did to The Defenders. That may have eventually led to the whole thing getting canceled this year, but for a brief while in 2017 and 2018, things were actually looking up. The Punisher was pretty good, Luke Cage Season 2 was a step in the right direction, and even Iron Fist Season 2 was watchable. And in 2018, we returned to where it all started: Daredevil. And you know what? It was extremely good to be back.
The original season of Netflix's Daredevil series set a high bar that most of the subsequent shows, from Luke Cage all the way to Defenders, failed to match. But thanks to a new showrunner and the return of fan favorite villain Wilson Fisk, Daredevil Season 3 somehow did the impossible and actually surpassed the show's first season to become the best season yet from Netflix and Marvel's uneven collaboration.
Daredevil Season 3 was about rebuilding. Matt (Charlie Cox) suffered his most emotionally and physically devastating defeat yet when an entire building fell on him at the end of Defenders, and he was forced to find the time and will to heal on multiple fronts. Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) had a scheme to get out of prison, and he put himself at great risk to pull it off. Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) were still dealing with the fact that Matt was gone, trying to put the pieces of their lives together without their best friend. Naturally, his eventual return only complicated things further.
But most of all, Daredevil Season 3 was a relatable parable for the very real dangers we're facing in our real life societies, from manipulative, evil "leaders" undermining the foundations of our lives, to fear being weaponized and used against us. Fisk was always a great villain, but in Season 3, when he seemed more real than ever, he became something more. This incarnation of Daredevil may be done, but boy did it go out on the right foot. -- Mike Rougeau
While the rest of this list was presented in chronological order rather than any particular ranking, we wanted to save the full reveal of our absolute, number 1, top, best TV show of the year for a separate article, so we could fully express why we loved it so much.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds started out as an early-access PC game before coming to Xbox One last year for a period of console exclusivity. That period is officially coming to an end, because PUBG is set to release for PlayStation 4 on December 7. It took a while, but better late than never.
The PS4 version will include most of the content the other versions contain, although custom matches and event mode will be arriving later. Publisher PUBG Corp. also notes that "map and mode selection will be turned on after servers fill up to a suitable population that can support these features." You can find more details on the PUBG PS4 FAQ.
If you're a PS4 owner who's been jonesing to see what all the fuss is about with this blockbuster battle royale game, you might be wondering where you can get it and what bonus goodies you can expect. Read on, and all your questions will be answered.
Pre-Order Bonus
Pre-order PUBG for PlayStation 4, and you'll get some Naughty Dog digital goodies: a Nathan Drake outfit from Uncharted and Ellie's backpack from The Last of Us.
Pre-Order PUBG PS4 Disc Edition
This version comes with the pre-order bonuses listed above, and it comes on a disc.
Sony is offering three digital editions of the game on PSN. The Looter's Edition is the standard edition. Although the game description states it comes with "unknown avatar," it seems safe to assume that means it will come with the Uncharted and Last of Us cosmetic items detailed above. It also comes with a PS4 theme based on the game's Miramar map.
The Survivor's Edition costs an additional $20, and includes everything from the Looter's Edition, as well as the Vikendi Event Pass, 2,300 G-Coins, and 20,000 BP.
The Champion's Edition costs $10 more than the Survivor's Edition and comes with all the same items, except it includes 6,000 G-Coins rather than 2,300.
The Game Awards show is imminent, and we've already seen developers teasing big announcements for the event. The show will boast ten new game announcements along with updates on current games, alongside the awards. But while some companies like Obsidian are eager to tease that they'll be showing new wares, others have taken the opportunity to set expectations by stating they definitely won't.
Rocksteady has announced it won't be showing its next game at the show, and also took a moment to dispel some persistent rumors about what that next game actually is. Game director Sefton Hill wrote that the team is looking forward to the show, but they're "still hard at work in [their] development bunker." He ended the statement by flatly stating, "Spoiler: it's not Superman." That marks the first time the studio has openly addressed the rumors that it is working on a Superman game to follow its acclaimed Batman: Arkham series.
CD Projekt Red, by comparison, has already announced its next game: Cyberpunk 2077. However, to stave off expectations that we'd get a fresh look at the award show, community lead Marcin Momot said on Twitter that it won't be sharing any new details.
Similarly, Naughty Dog has stepped forward to state that The Last of Us 2 won't be appearing at The Game Awards either. This one seemed the most likely of any, because we already know the game is relatively close. Given that Sony bowed out of a PlayStation Experience event this year, the Game Awards seemed like the next most likely venue for another look at the anticipated sequel.
Epic Games has announced Fortnite Creative, a new mode that will give players the opportunity to design games and build unique Fortnite experiences with friends. Fortnite Creative will be available to play on December 13, but those that pick up the Season 7 Battle Pass can check it out from December 6.
"It's a brand new way to experience the world of Fortnite," Epic says on its website. "Design games, race around the island, battle your friends in new ways and build your dream Fortnite. It's all happening on your own private island where everything you make is saved."
Epic has said it plans to add new features and make improvements to Fortnite Creative in coming updates. "Like Battle Royale and Save the World, we're committed to making this bigger and better over time," it explained.
As noted in the video above, Epic is expecting initial rollout of Fortnite Creative to be "rough" and is encouraging those interested to get in early via the Battle Pass. Fortnite Season 7 is set to launch on December 6 and, alongside it, the new Battle Pass will be available. In addition to early access to Fortnite Creative, the Battle Pass entitles owners to a special set of challenges every week for as long as the season lasts. In turn, this means they can accrue Battle Stars faster and unlock cosmetics quicker.
Fortnite Creative mode is one of the many ways Epic Games is encouraging players to keep returning to the game. The company has made a point of trying to both vary and broaden the kind of experiences it offers, and the successes resulting from this has had a knock on effect on Epic as a business. On December 4 it revealed its own marketplace, which competes directly with Valve's Steam.
The Epic Games marketplace seems to be very developer friendly, giving creators 88% of their revenue. There is no profit-sharing and, instead, it's an 88/12 split between developers and Epic for listing on its marketplace. Developers that use Unreal Engine to create their game will have the 5% engine royalty covered by Epic out of its own 12% cut. Although this incentive encourages developers to use Unreal Engine, Epic says games created using other engines are also welcome.
By Anonymous on Dec 05, 2018 08:30 pm In this special end of year episode we roll through our picks for the PC games that you must play from this year including Return of the Obra Dinn and Into The Breach. Did your favourite make the list?
Nintendo has plugged the upcoming Game Awards, with the implication that we could see something related to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at the event. The tweet doesn't explicitly promise any reveals, though, so it could just be tying the two together for promotional purposes.
The Game Awards will air on Thursday evening, just hours before the launch of Smash Ultimate. This wasn't lost on Nintendo, which told its fans to tune in live before the game launch. It's possible, though far from definite, that the company has a reveal planned for the event. It could be presenting info regarding the upcoming Smash DLC, for example, or another project altogether. The Game Awards itself has teased ten new announcements along with updates on released games.
Of course, tying the two together could be completely innocuous, as Nintendo is up for some awards itself. The company may just be promoting a big industry event, with plans to attend.
The Game Awards will kick off on Thursday at 8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT / 1:30 AM GMT (Friday) / 12:30 PM AET (Friday). You can watch it right here at GameSpot. In the meantime check out the full list of nominees.
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