Microsoft has announced free Funimation anime titles on its store. Most of the series are shonen, but they represent a wide range of different types of the stories within the genre.
All of the free anime offered are the first part of the series' first season, so you can take advantage of these deals to easily jump into a new series you've had your eye on. We suggest starting with My Hero Academia if you haven't seen the anime yet. It's the uncut version of the anime, so expect a bit more blood, sexual fan service, and other adult material that might not have made it onto other streaming services. MHA tells the story of Izuku Midoriya, a young boy who wants to be a hero but is one of the few people in the world born without a superpowered Quirk. That won't stop him from trying to get into Japan's number one school for aspiring heroes though, and when the world's number one hero offers some unexpected help, Midoriya might have just found the strength he needs to fulfill his dream.
If you're looking for something a little more fantasy based, both Fairy Tail and Assassination Classroom are being offered for free as well. The former is about a guild of rambunctious wizards who fulfill contracts for non-magical folk and participate in fights that last for multiple episodes. The latter is about a classroom of students who suddenly get a strange octopus-like creature for a teacher, who promises to destroy the whole world if the class can't manage to find a way to kill him before the end of the school year.
Attack on Titan is also free. The story of humans striving to survive against monstrous Titans is jam-packed full of explosive action--all of which is beautifully animated--and the first season is regarded as one of the best anime series of 2013.
With 2019 right around the corner, we've polled GameSpot's staff to find out what games they are looking forward to most in the new year. To be eligible, a game must simply have a release date currently planned for 2019. Of course, we all know nothing is set in stone; there's always a chance some games could slip into 2020. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2018 hub.
As a longtime fan of Resident Evil that had felt let down by the fifth and sixth entries in the series, Resident Evil 7 was a welcome return to form. It showed that, when it wanted to, Capcom could deliver a heart-pounding survival-horror experience that is worthy of the Resident Evil name. From top to bottom, Resident Evil 7 was a masterful execution of the genre, and it seems Capcom is readying another expertly crafted Resi experience with the remake of the second game.
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The star of the show, based on what I've played, seems to be the Tyrant/Mr. X, a seemingly unstoppable force of nature that stalks the halls of Racoon City's Police Department, and who is ever advancing on you. The sheer terror of turning a corner or peering down a hallway and seeing his towering silhouette emerge into view was, in the moment, overwhelming. But even after time has passed, memories of that monstrous pursuer are still hair-raising. He leaves a lasting impression, and for fans of survival horror that is a very enticing prospect.
Capcom has pulled the entire experience apart and tinkered with it to heighten the horror, tension, and action
Of course, Resident Evil 2 Remake offers more than just a trenchcoat-wearing terror to get excited about. The gunplay feels snappy in a way modern games should, but at the same time you're not overly empowered by it. Instead, it's a means for getting out of sticky situation, as opposed to wiping out any and all zombies that appear in front of you. Puzzles, meanwhile, are also present, giving the thinkers among the Resi fanbase plenty of food for thought. And based on early impressions it all feels well balanced and paced. If what I played is representative of the overall experience, Resident Evil 2 Remake could be special.
With 2019 right around the corner, we've polled GameSpot's staff to find out what games they are looking forward to most in the new year. To be eligible, a game must simply have a release date currently planned for 2019. Of course, we all know nothing is set in stone; there's always a chance some games could slip into 2020. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2018 hub.
Animal Crossing Switch was revealed during a Nintendo Direct this past September, and you might remember that the announcement followed a bait-and-switch in which Isabelle was announced as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. As much as I like playing as Isabelle in Smash now, I was deeply disappointed in the moments between the two reveals. I knew my town in New Leaf was a neglected disaster; I needed a fresh start, and Pocket Camp just didn't do it for me.
If I had to guess, I'd say that I have over 1,000 hours logged across all the Animal Crossing games to date--and that's a conservative estimate. My phone background is Animal Crossing (springtime for the lock screen, night sky for the home screen), my makeup bag is Animal Crossing (for some reason), and I have a Chrome extension that plays Animal Crossing music in real time (K.K. Slider songs only on Saturdays from 8 to 12 PM). Most embarrassingly, I bought a second copy of Wild World a few months after I got that game so I could borrow my brother's DS and trade fruit with myself.
All this is to say that even though we know next to nothing about Animal Crossing on Switch, I am incredibly excited for it. But I do have actual reasons! And none of them are "I have sold my soul to Tom Nook." I promise. Actually, it starts with an Animal Crossing game you probably haven't thought about in a while: Happy Home Designer.
If you didn't play Happy Home Designer on 3DS, it's all the fun of decorating your Animal Crossing house with none of the debt, though it doesn't have the same pull as a main Animal Crossing game. The best thing about Happy Home Designer is how it refines the process of decorating; rather than manually pushing, pulling, and rotating furniture around a room, Happy Home Designer lets you stay in one place and manipulate furniture on the touchscreen. You can highlight and move multiple pieces at once instead of, say, dragging a chair across the room so you can move a table one space to the right, for example. It's honestly revolutionary.
I don't know exactly how that would work on Switch, given that it only has one screen, but that screen is a touchscreen, and I have faith that Nintendo would never let me clumsily shuffle my decor around again. The point is that small tweaks to the existing Animal Crossing formula--changes that I didn't know I wanted--are both possible and welcome, and I'm excited to see what else is added in the new game.
Like I said, we know very little about Animal Crossing on Switch except that it's coming out sometime in 2019. But I can't wait to jump back into the laidback, friendship-focused, chore-filled world of Animal Crossing, and I'm sure I'll practically explode with excitement when we do learn more about it.
With 2019 right around the corner, we've polled GameSpot's staff to find out what games they are looking forward to most in the new year. To be eligible, a game must simply have a release date currently planned for 2019. Of course, we all know nothing is set in stone; there's always a chance some games could slip into 2020. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2018 hub.
A lot of developers go to great lengths to explain characters, conflicts, and lore in detail, but I'm drawn to games that obscure identities and truths because they let my imagination run wild. When there's no clear answer, I'm bound to consider multiple possibilities rather than accept a single, static narrative, and sometimes that's exactly what I need.
Control, the upcoming game from Remedy Entertainment, is being pitched as a game that will inspire more questions than it will provide answers, and I am already sold on its twisted logic and air of mystery. Considering Remedy's background, it's a project that seems perfectly suited to creator Sam Lake and co's strengths. The Alan Wake games took them down a strange path, and you can already see how their experience making those games translates to Control's own brand of inexplicable weirdness.
I'll be the first to admit that I didn't love Quantum Break, Remedy's most recently released game. But a key difference between that project and Control is the fact that Remedy is building solely what its creatives want to make, rather than collaborating with a heavyweight partner like Microsoft. No hate for Microsoft, but it does have a vested interest in selling consoles and appealing to a broader audience. Quantum Break's needlessly convoluted mixed-media approach seemed designed to serve those objectives..
During separate interviews at E3, Lake, co-director Mikael Kasurinen, and co-writer Anna McGill, shared their mutual love of the New Weird sci-fi sub-genre, and discussed how it's inspired their work on Control. Rather appropriately, there doesn't seem to be an agreed-upon definition of what New Weird should be, but you can generalize it as a mix of fantasy, sci-fi, and supernatural horror in a modern setting. For Control, the set is a brutalist government facility. Hard edges, open spaces, and rough materials characterize your immediate surroundings, but they all get jumbled up when the game goes off the rails--a regular event, we're told. So far, that's included rooms materializing out of nowhere, structures warping and and dividing into patterns that form a tunnel leading to a void in space, and all manner of telekinesis. We've been given very little explanation as to the reason behind these phenomenon, but that's the point, after all.
Looking ahead, I'm hopeful that Remedy's charge to make something new out of an emerging literary genre--one that fits perfectly in its wheelhouse--will kickstart a new era for a studio that's bursting with potential.
On top of all of that, Control looks like a blast to play. The lead character Jesse Fadden can tap into whatever forces are responsible for the reality-bending going on around her, and that means you get the chance to control a character who's capable of levitation, of both herself and nearby objects. We've seen tidbits of combat where Jesse uses her powers to toss a desk across the room into an enemy, or grab another one to use as a shield. She's also got a gun that can transform itself on the fly--to what end remains unseen.
Control looks like one big, beautiful mystery that I can't wait to unravel next year. Looking ahead, I'm hopeful that Remedy's charge to make something new out of an emerging literary genre--one that fits perfectly in its wheelhouse--will kickstart a new era for a studio that's bursting with potential.
Xur is back for another few days of rare Exotic deal-making in Destiny 2. His arrival marks your latest chance to snag a few Exotics you might be missing from the Year One collection, provided you have a few Legendary Shards burning a hole in your pocket.
This week, you'll find Xur in the Tower, behind the Dead Orbit area on the Hangar side. Since we're halfway through The Dawning, Destiny's holiday event, you might want to bake a few Strange Cookies to deliver to him as well--and you're going to want to take advantage of this chance if you want to unlock all the Dawning event Triumphs. Use our Dawning baking guide to get all the recipes you need for the event.
As usual, Xur has Exotic weapons and armor from before the launch of the Forsaken expansion, so you're out of luck if you were hoping for one of those cool new Black Armory Exotics. Xur's bag of Exotics includes Merciless, along with one piece of armor for each character class. Merciless is a high-powered fusion rifle, with one of the highest damage outputs in Destiny 2. Its Conserve Momentum perk makes it handy in a lot of boss fights and PvP situations, too--every time you score a hit with Merciless but don't rack up a kill, the charge speed on the next shot is increased, making it possible to fire faster and faster until you finally wreck your opponent.
In the armor department, Titans can get the Aeon Safe gauntlets, which speed up class ability charge time for allies, especially if they're also wearing Aeon Exotics. For Hunters, there's the Knucklehead Radar helmet, which maintains your radar while you're aiming down sights and offers an enhanced radar when you're crouching. Finally, Warlocks get the Apotheosis Veil helmet, which instantly recharges your melee, grenade, and class ability when you activate your Super, and gives a buff to recharges for allies as well.
Here are all the Exotics Xur offers this week and what they'll cost you:
Merciless (Exotic auto rifle) -- 29 Legendary Shards
You can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. You can also snag a Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.
This week also saw the opening of the Izanami Forge, the third of the four Forges that are part of the Black Armory expansion. Here's everything you need to know if you're still working on the lengthy quest to unlock the Forge, as well as the latest on unlocking the Mystery Box, which requires a key from each Forge and seemingly holds an Exotic weapon.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has rolled out its December 20 update, and along with it a slew of new holiday-themed events and modes. Two pillars of the multiplayer shooter have gotten their own bit of eggnog and nutmeg flavor to ring in the season: a Blackout holiday event, Winter Calling in Zombies, and a Winter Event stream for the Black Market.
In the Blackout holiday event, Blackout players can use tactical Snowballs and holiday-themed supply stashes. The maps are also decked out with festive lights and decorations. In Zombies, you can complete some unique challenges for new exclusive personalization items. These special challenges can be accepted from the Barracks, and taken alongside your regular Daily Calling challenges.
Finally, the Winter Event Stream has come to the Black Market, offering some winter loot like warpaints and gestures. Those will appear in the Contraband section, and you can complete the new Winter Event tiers alongside the current Absolute Zero tiers to unlock scads of new loot.
Black Ops 4 is currently on sale at some retailers for $40, and Activision appears to be experimenting with letting players buy its pieces a la carte on PC. That means it's a relatively inexpensive time to jump in if you haven't yet. Read GameSpot's Black Ops 4 review for more on why, despite the lack of a single-player campaign, this is a substantial game.
Check below for the full patch notes from Treyarch.
Summary
Blackout Holiday Event: Snowballs, festive lighting/decorations, and holiday-themed Supply Stashes now live (Xbox One/PC)
Winter Event Stream in Black Market for MP and Blackout now live (Xbox One/PC)
Winter Calling in Zombies now live (Xbox One/PC)
Reactive Camo display issue fixes in Blackout
Enemy HUD fix for Killcam in Blackout
Dead of the Night added as Featured Playlist in Zombies
Misc. fixes in MP and Zombies
Xbox One and PC
General
Event
Limited-time Winter Event stream now live in the Black Market with new items to unlock for use in Multiplayer and Blackout.
Blackout
Event
Holiday Event now live in Blackout.
Added Snowballs, holiday lighting & decorations, and holiday-themed Supply Stashes.
Zombies
Event
Limited-time Winter Calling event stream now live with new personalization items to unlock in the Zombies Barracks.
All Platforms
Blackout
Reactive Camos
Addressed an issue that prevented unwrapped Reactive Camos from displaying as completed in the After Action Report.
Addressed an issue where unwrapped Reactive Camos would appear wrapped on the ground.
Outfit Unlocks
Addressed an issue with the unlock condition for "The Numbers" outfit for Seraph (PS4).
Miscellaneous
Contraband Stashes will now properly spawn on all platforms.
Addressed an issue that prevented the enemy HUD from appearing during the Killcam.
Multiplayer
General
Addressed an issue where "hacked" UI showed up for the rest of the match for players who watched the Killcam after being killed by a Gunship that was being hacked.
Zombies
Featured Playlist
Dead of the Night is now the Featured Playlist.
Gameplay
Closed an exploit that would allow specific uses of the Scepter of Ra to break enemy pathing.
Apparently not content with the buffet of discounts already on offer during Week 2 of the PlayStation Store's Holiday Sale, Sony has picked a selection of titles that missed out on the discount treatment and--you guessed it--given them the discount treatment. But instead of a multi-week sale, this PSN Flash Sale will only last through the weekend, with prices going back up on December 24. So if you see something you like, jump on it. Like all things in this crazy world, these prices are temporary.
Among the standout deals is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which is on sale for $45. It comes with the standard multiplayer and Zombies modes, plus a new battle royale mode called Blackout. If epic RPGs are more your speed, you can pick up Dragon Quest XI for just $36. And while the standard edition of Red Dead Redemption 2 is still full price, the Special Edition is on sale for $70, and the Ultimate Edition is marked down to $90.
If you're having people over for the holidays, you might want to grab a party game or two. To that end, you can get people up off the couch (and working off all those holiday treats) with Just Dance 2019 for $24. Or, if your cohort is more the trivia or creative type, you can grab The Jackbox Party Pack 5 on sale for $21; it comes with five mini-games that support up to eight players who can use their phones as their controllers.
PSVR owners can get the boxing game Creed: Rise to Glory for half price at $15, and Metroidvania fans can pick up Hollow Knight for a very reasonable $10.50. And if you just want to blow stuff up? Get Just Cause 4 for $48.
You'll find more of our picks below, or head to PSN to check out the full Flash Sale. And to see a whole heap of additional games on sale, make sure to visit the PlayStation Store Holiday Sale, which runs through January 15.
The first season of Titans has come to a close, and the DC Universe original series is clearly unlike any other comic book TV show we've seen. Instead of aiming for a mainstream audience, Titans is a show whose primary goal is appealing to hardcore comic books fans and that was never more clear than in the Season 1 finale. Warning: The following contains spoilers for the finale Season 1 episode of Titans.
After spending an hour following Dick Grayson as he chases a homicidal Batman, it's revealed that he's actually mentally trapped in his darkest possible timeline. In this timeline, which is set five years from present day, Dick and Dawn have settled down to start a family, though they clearly don't trust each other when it comes to those they previously had relationships with. Meanwhile, Jason Todd has been paralyzed and left in a wheelchair, Commissioner Gordon was killed by the Joker, and Batman finally snapped.
The episode as a whole was thrilling, watching Dick team up with the Gotham City Police Department to track down his former mentor, even revealing Batman's true identity to the world before ultimately killing the Dark Knight to prevent him from murdering anyone else. None of this was actually happening, though. Instead, it was the doing of Trigon, who allowed Dick to embrace his darkness by infecting him with his demonic evil and essentially trapping him in his worst possible future. What this means for the future of Dick Grayson and the Titans remains to be seen and will obviously be a driving force in Season 2.
That wasn't the last image viewers were left with, though. In a post-credits scene, another major revelation was made in the form of two new characters that DC Comics fans know very well. We first saw Cadmus Labs, a notorious location in DC lore. Inside the building, viewers were briefly introduced to a very naked Superboy and Krypto the Superdog.
No, they weren't mentioned by name but that's clearly who Titans is bringing to the table for Season 2. First and foremost, Superboy is a creation of Cadmus Labs in the comics. He is a metahuman clone of Superman that was created after the Man of Steel's death in 1993. He was eventually given the name Kon-El by Superman himself--who obviously didn't stay dead long.
It will be interesting to see how he's woven into Season 2 of Titans. Just as intriguing, though, is the prospect of Krypto. The Superdog was first introduced in a 1955 issue of the Superboy comics, back when Superboy was just Superman as a teenager. He's made numerous appearances throughout the comics over the years and even had his own animated series at one point. Krypto the Superdog ran for two seasons between 2005 and 2006.
With Dick Grayson stuck in his darkest possible future and the addition of Superboy and Krypto, Titans sure has set up a massive cliffhanger for the second season. Now they just need to get to work filming it so we can see how it all turns out.
The entire first season of Titans is available for streaming on DC Universe.
In hindsight, it's easy to take for granted the success of Marvel's Spider-Man, Insomniac's hit game based on the classic character. It broke Sony's internal sales records, raised Sony's financial outlook, and helped lead the charge for an overall increase in game industry sales, according to the independent data analytic firm NPD. It all went so right for Sony and Insomniac that one may forget how it all could have gone wrong, how many times the webhead has been misused and mismanaged in sub-par material, and how badly he was in need of redemption.
Now, as the final piece of downloadable content is released, closing the book on plans for the PlayStation 4 game, we're taking a deep and expansive look back at its development--with access to the top creative minds behind the game. The story they tell isn't one of surefire success. Like many games, development was a messy process of discovery, compromise, and iteration. This is how Spider-Man came to be.
Spoilers follow.
Into The Spider-Verse
The genesis of Spider-Man began as Insomniac was wrapping up its work on Sunset Overdrive, its first Xbox exclusive. Without a formal deal in place, the talks were quiet and off-the-record, gauging interest in a potential project. At the time, it wasn't even focused on Spider-Man.
"PlayStation and Marvel had been talking about how they could work together and I remember I was one of the first people [Insomniac CEO] Ted [Price] talked to about it," creative director Bryan Intihar told GameSpot. "I went crazy. I was like, 'yes, I would give up one of my arms to work on a Marvel game.'"
"It's pretty daunting if you think about it, trying to make a great Spider-Man game and really do it justice," added game director Ryan Smith. "But also, when you think of Insomniac's strengths, Spider-Man is just a tremendous opportunity for storytelling and for building mechanics that really define the character, like the open-world swinging."
Part of that initial design work was pouring over research and reading every Spider-Man comic developers could get their hands on. Art director Jacinda Chew recalls her first reaction was fear, out of a desire to do justice to a character so many people feel a connection to. At the same time, the longevity of Spider-Man has resulted in lots of iterations and interpretations. This could have created even more difficulties by leaving little room for a new spin on the character, but Chew chose to look at the wealth of information as an opportunity.
"There is tons of reference online because of that," she said. "I can also work with a company like Marvel, who has a deep well of knowledge. They actually have archives of every Spider-Man comic ever written. Everyone there knows so much about Spider-Man, so in cases like that, it's actually a great resource, because so much has already been done."
Intihar collaborated with the team of writers, headed up by lead writer Jon Paquette. Intihar knew he wanted his Spider-Man to be different, but just how to make this version of the character stand in its own continuity while remaining true to the spirit of Spider-Man was its own challenge. The team also wanted to create a visual signifier that set this Spidey apart.
"Whenever Peter wins, Spider-Man loses; whenever Spider-Man wins, Peter loses."
That link between visual distinction and narrative kept coming back in the early discussions. Paquette had room to explore the character, and Chew gave visual clarity to this new addition to the Spider-Man multi-verse, resulting in a Spider suit with a big, white logo--Insomniac's take on the iconic look. The take has become so popular that it received a cameo in the recent film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Marvel plans to begin publishing a new comic book that takes place in what has become known as Earth-1048--the game's setting, and now the latest in Marvel's numbered designations for alternate universes.
"Marvel, Sony, and Insomniac all agreed that we wanted to do our own take on the character, we didn't want to adapt any other take on the character," Paquette said. "As a creative team we wanted to immerse ourselves as much as possible into all the other iterations of the character so that we can understand what makes a great Spider-Man story--and then after we did all that, we said 'okay let's forget all that stuff' because we didn't want to be too inspired by any single iteration of the character.
"When you're writing Spider-Man and there's something inside your heart, you're bringing a lot of love to the character. There were a few key lessons. For example, whenever Peter [Parker] wins, Spider-Man loses; whenever Spider-Man wins, Peter loses, right? We wanted to make sure we hit those things when we were creating our version of the story."
A Superior Spider-Man
That kernel of an idea, regarding the duality of the Spider-Man character and how his double-life stretches him thin, developed as work on the game started in earnest.
"That was from day one," Intihar said. "This has to be as much of a Peter Parker experience and story as it is about Spider-Man. We all come into loving the character of Spider-Man in different ways. It's kind of a similar journey. If you come into him younger, like I did, that's a really cool character with cool powers. I would love to swing around the city, I would love to shoot webs. As you get older you start to more identify with the Peter Parker side of the character.
"I feel like he's the most relatable of the heroes. As much as I love Tony Stark, it's harder to identify with a billionaire. As much as I love Thor, it's hard to identify with a god. Peter makes mistakes, he has ups and downs in his career, his relationships, his family. I think we can all relate to that. We all go through those things in our lives. Peter Parker's life is messy! We tried to do our best job of representing that, of having not only a big problem to deal with but big victories."
Most crucially, this Spider-Man story is unflinchingly optimistic and hopeful. This version of Peter is an experienced veteran, but the story pits him against impossible odds with heavy emotional stakes. For all the light-heartedness of the character, Peter is put through the ringer. After a difficult battle, and with the city turned to chaos, he casually references having broken multiple bones, but he still jumps straight back into the fray. His relationship with his friend and mentor implodes to tragic consequences. In a tearful ending, he makes an impossible decision, choosing to make the unselfish choice. Through it all the character is driven and righteous, and even as he struggles, he doesn't give into cynicism.
"When we broke down what makes a successful Spider-Man story, one of them was that he always uses humor as a defense mechanism," Paquette said. "Keeping the positive side of things and optimistic viewpoints I think is important, not only for the character but just kind of for our times as well. It's easy to get sucked into the negativity of where we are in society and the world in general. But I like to smile. I think players like to smile while they're playing games."
True Believers
Naturally, you can't create a Spider-Man story without his cast of surrounding characters. Peter Parker has a well-established support system, and those connections also serve to balance the human aspect of the character. Given the vision for a story that is as much about Peter as it is about Spider-Man, the studio set about giving his friends and family their own unique applications in the narrative. And that all started with Mary Jane Watson.
"[MJ] is that one thing in Peter's life that he can't let go," Paquette said. "They start the game broken up but he's still thinking about her all the time. She is kind of that centering thing in his life and he's not complete without her. Our goal in this game with MJ was to show that she can be a hero using her own skills and in her own way. And he's got to learn how to allow her to do that--not be protecting, he's gotta get beyond that and understand that there are other heroes in the world. Other people can be heroic, it's not up to only him to protect the city."
To that end, MJ had some of her own gameplay sequences--stealth-focused scenes meant to illustrate her career as a reporter. And she's dressed the part, with a smart but sensible outfit that belies some of the character's history as a supermodel or actress.
"MJ is an aspiring reporter," Chew pointed out. "She's not a nightclub owner, or model, so because of her job as an aspiring reporter, I wanted to make sure she had a very modern, useful New York wardrobe.
"I'm also really proud getting different body types in as well. From Aunt May to MJ to Black Cat. We didn't just copy paste the same female body onto every single character, I'm really proud of that fact, because I do think we need more body diversity amongst our female characters. Obviously I always want to do a lot more, but it's a start."
The functional, girl-next-door look for MJ goes hand-in-hand with a kind of easy familiarity that she shares with Peter. In one quiet scene, Peter and MJ fill each other in on the details of their individual investigations, and when Peter receives a phone call, she casually tosses the phone behind her, only for Peter to web it back to him. The game is full of tiny touches like that which illustrate the relationship and lived experiences of the characters.
One surprise inclusion is less a tried-and-true part of Peter's history, but no less a crucial part of the game. Miles Morales, who began as a character in the Ultimate universe where Peter Parker died, has exploded in popularity and become folded into the main Marvel continuity. Despite his greater presence, Miles' interactions with Peter have been passing, and the two mostly operate individually. The story in Marvel's Spider-Man gives them an established relationship from the start, while Peter is operating as Spider-Man but well before Miles gets his matching set of powers. Rather than individual heroes who team up, they're personal friends.
"Our goal was to weave these stories together in a way that felt like a coherent whole," Paquette said. "I think the younger part of the audience really needs another character in there to say, 'Oh that's more like me.' It's like when we made the decision to bring Peter out of high school and not do the origin story, we still felt like there was a part of great Spider-Man stories that are like that really energetic fun pop in a teenager and we wanted to kind of hit that with Miles as much as we could."
Of course, any inclusion of Miles has to include him getting bitten by his own spider and obtaining his own set of powers. This is left as a tease in Spider-Man, and perhaps something for the next game to explore. Paquette playfully noted that it felt natural to tee up for more stories, and that "we just scratched the surface."
The energetic presence of Miles is a stark contrast to the story arc of Aunt May, who meets her unfortunate end in the game. Paquette says that he knew dealing with the death of such a major character would be a challenge, and the writers seeded a slightly bittersweet but happier scene with Peter and MJ right afterwards to go out on a less dour note. At the same time, he thinks it's vital to the story this game tells and the lesson it's teaching to Peter.
"You want that hero to make a sacrifice because that reveals the character, that reveals what he really cares about."
"For me the Aunt May death at the end really had to be earned," he said. "Early on where Peter gets kicked out, he has to sleep on the couch. Aunt May gives him some money and she says to him, 'You have to remember that you're human like the rest of us.' That's a lesson that goes beyond just that moment. The overall message there for Peter is: don't try to take on too much, you're trying to do all this by yourself, you need to learn to trust other people who are trying to help you. And that's what happens in the story until act three [when he teams up with MJ and Miles]. But because of the events of the story, that kind of happens a little too late. In some readings that could be seen as the reason Aunt May died. And of course Peter's going to feel all this mixed guilt and is gonna think it's all his fault because that's who that character is."
Part of the sacrifice of Aunt May is an echo of Uncle Ben's death. After losing his uncle for selfishly making the wrong choice, Peter ultimately loses his aunt by selflessly making the right one. That theme of the impossible choice and personal loss for the protagonist comes through in a lot of superhero fiction because it expresses something deep about the character.
"For any superhero story, for any hero story, you want that hero to make a sacrifice because that reveals the character, that reveals what he really cares about," Paquette said. "The more difficult that decision is, the more character it reveals and the stronger the moment is."
Not all of Spider-Man's associations were quite so successful. Spider-Man's relationship with the police, in particular, became a point of critique, especially given ongoing real-world discussions regarding police accountability. For some players, Spider-Man having a cozy relationship with the police and even jokingly referring to himself as "Spider-Cop" was tone-deaf to the cultural moment. Paquette understands the critique and acknowledges that Spider-Man's relationship with the police is traditionally complicated, but he wanted to give him a kindred spirit in the character of NYPD detective Yuri Watanabe. That theme is further explored in the DLC.
"I think Spider-Man does see himself as being responsible for the city, that's a core part of his character," he said. "Both [Spider-Man and Yuri] feel this huge responsibility to making sure that people are safe and they're willing to suffer the slings and arrows of the public in order to do that."
Arms Dealers
Another of Peter's friendships is equally fraught: the one with his mentor, Dr. Otto Octavius. Even casual comic fans would immediately recognize Octavius as the supervillain Doc Ock, one of Spidey's most iconic nemeses. Instead, though, this iteration takes its time and patiently establishes the character and his personal relationship with Peter first. Rather than a megalomaniac, Otto is a soft-spoken, optimistic man of science, and a mentor to Peter.
"The Otto relationship had multiple layers to it. At first we wanted to put Peter in a job that maybe people didn't expect," Intihar said. "We said, you know he is a really smart guy, the comics have pushed the science thing, we could do that. How could we make that job interesting? Who could he work for? What if he worked for Otto? What if in some ways Peter was responsible for helping create one of his greatest adversaries?"
The reveal comes slowly throughout the course of the game, and on more than one occasion, the foreshadowing makes the turn appear imminent. When it finally does come, Otto has become a tragic figure.
"I wanted to show the story of their friendship. Without that, Otto's eventual turn wouldn't have the impact that I hope it did," Paquette said. "And so there's a part of me that wanted to write that for people who don't know that Doctor Octavius is eventually going to become the villain. My hope was that if we attack it from that direction, assuming that people don't know the characters but come at it from a real genuine and heartfelt direction, that the people who do know the characters will fall in love with them all over again but will have this unexpected kind of experience with Otto. You know he's going to turn bad, but oh man, he's such a good guy for a while."
To illustrate this take on Otto, Chew researched the many character design elements throughout the comics--from the bowl cut with green glasses to the giant belt. She wanted her take on the character to feel more modern. He's "balding and nerdy, and he's very lovable" and Chew wanted his look to illustrate that. For the ultimate turn, Chew wanted his iconic arms to be sleeker and more high-tech than they had been throughout other versions. And true to any nemesis, the hero and villain are reflections of each other.
"In many ways they're parallels: they're both really smart, they have big hearts. Our major goal for the game was to have the lens that's very believable motivations," Intihar said. "So we wanted to, especially with Otto, spend time with that character, understanding everything about him. Which is why we spent that time, almost the full first two acts, building the relationship and understanding what Otto's journey is.
"The one thing with working with these characters that have been around for 50, almost close to 60 years now, there's a lot of stories been told already and it's hard to surprise people. We said to ourselves, 'Imagine if we could make people like Otto so much that there's a part of you that doesn't want him to turn evil.' Can we do that? Can we build it up to the point where you may know what's gonna happen but there's a part of you going, 'Maybe they're not going to do it?'"
When the relationship does collapse, it leads to a climactic confrontation with emotional performances from the voices behind Peter (Yuri Lowenthal) and Otto (Bill Salyers). Paquette recalls the electricity when the two were acting against each other during the capture sessions.
"Imagine if we could make people like Otto so much that there's a part of you that doesn't want him to turn evil. Can we do that?"
"I think [that connection] was probably the strongest one that we discovered while shooting and making this game," he said. "The scenes with the two of them were just magical. When you get really great quality performances from the actors, it can elevate the material. I remember our animation director was directing [the final] scene and Bill would yell 'Peter!' And our director didn't want to yell cut because we're all like 'Oh my God, what's gonna happen?'"
The ultimate reveal of Doc Ock and his Sinister Six serves as something of a bait-and-switch twist. The majority of the game centers on an entirely different villain: Mister Negative. The character was chosen both for functional gameplay reasons--his superpower allows him to generate henchmen to fight--and to contrast against Octavius and Osborne. Those two are at each others' throats constantly, and it's ultimately revealed that Mister Negative is at the center of their falling out. Just like Octavius, and even ultimately Osborne, Mister Negative is treated sympathetically.
"Like any good villain, he's a hero of his own story," Paquette said. "We wanted to give him a really interesting motivation and a way to connect to Norman and Otto that allows their stories to rise above as well. Something happened to him when he was young, and you know it was mostly Norman's fault; but then at the end, you learn Norman was doing this to try to save his own son. All these people are trying to do the things that feel right to them."
Chew noted that Negative was a particularly fun villain to design around, especially given the freedom to create their own interpretations of characters. At one point he was a youthful character with a leather jacket and sunglasses, in a look she characterized as a "rebel." Ultimately, the character itself drove the visual style, including a spooky negative-photo effect that twitches and blurs as he moves.
"As we were getting to know the character, we realized that it was important that the visual reflected his true nature," said Chew. "The negative and the positive parts. What showcased that the best was the really simple black and white suit. And it's the same thing, with the actual effect as well. We kept it very black and white. The original character design of the comics are really inspired by still negatives, so we looked at still negatives as well, to get that feeling of a monochromatic world."
The full roster of the Sinister Six includes Otto, Negative, and some other classic villains from Spider-Man history: Vulture, Electro, Rhino, and Scorpion. These are treated as boss fodder, and they have little story outside of having been kept in a super-prison known as the Raft after their defeats at the hands of Spider-Man. They all have their own grudges against the webhead, and some passing attention is given to how Otto recruited them all to further his plans, but for the most part they exist to fight Spider-Man.
This isn't to say that they don't help illustrate the core story, however. As the game rockets towards its conclusion, Spider-Man is clearly in over his head and overwhelmed with villains, resulting in the aforementioned broken bones and new reliance on his friends. But gameplay may illustrate the idea the best, when Spidey is pitted against two of his adversaries at once. The fight against Electro and Vulture is frenetic and breathless in a way that few other moments in the game are. But it didn't start that way.
"You plan for so long, you have this idea in your mind of what this is, you almost write it in stone and then you just assume that that's how it has to be."
"If you look at the final act of the game, everything from the Raft mission into our third act, that was actually a much bigger act but we were just realizing that things weren't clicking, looking at the quality bar," Intihar said. "Originally, the Vulture fight and the Electro fight were supposed to be separate. They actually were supposed to be separate events. Then you're like, 'Alright, we've got to start cutting some stuff from the game.' But because you plan for so long, you have this idea in your mind of what this is, you almost write it in stone and then you just assume that that's how it has to be.
"Someone had an idea, if we could combine the Electro and the Vulture into one boss fight, more of like an aerial boss fight. That's when you just learn to trust the team. They got a feeling about something, you give them some time to go prove it. They just did a really quick version of putting those two characters together and it instantly felt better. Then when you get the iteration, the polish and all the bells and whistles with audio effects, it just becomes even better."
Intihar chuckled at the changed plans and how much he had clung to the original. "It's funny," he said, "we originally always had the Scorpion and Rhino fight to be the dual fight."
Swinging Into Action
That fight with Electro and Vulture relied on pitch-perfect web-swinging mechanics, which was one of the studio's first challenges from a gameplay perspective. There was no magic bullet or established physics package for creating the web-swinging. It was just a matter of iteration and experimentation until they figured out what felt natural.
"It's amazingly hard to make it feel that good," Intihar said. "I think one of the biggest accomplishments of the game is that we, at least in my opinion, I think we make you feel like Spider-Man almost instantly. That just comes from a ton of iteration. Putting the game in peoples hands and seeing what is not feeling right. Where you getting tripped up? Where do you feel like you're losing momentum? How are you losing momentum? What do you wanna do that you can't do?"
The resulting system is littered with tiny touches the player may never notice. When casting a web, for example, the game takes into account your current momentum and direction to help determine where the web should stick. If you're going for speed and distance with longer strides, it will automatically stick to a further point with a longer pendulum swing. If you may be making some hairpin turns, it will cast a shorter web to a nearer object to help pull you correctly in the right direction.
Similarly, Spider-Man had to feel like Spidey in the combat challenges. The timing-based combat bears a passing resemblance to the Batman Arkham games--a comparison that Intihar shrugs off. He says it was more about determining what felt right for the character, and the team was influenced as much by Kratos (God of War) and Dante (Devil May Cry) as Batman.
"We wanted to feel the improvisation," Smith said. "For a long time, for example, you pull things down. That was really cool but we didn't open up so that you could pull things from the air for a long time. That was something we had to discover in the process. But it still all came from that sort of core of being an acrobatic improvisor in combat."
Less universally praised were the MJ and Miles segments. These brief snippets of stealth gameplay were divisive. Some players found them a refreshing way to break up the pace of swinging webs and fists as Spider-Man, while others critiqued them as slow or half-baked. In particular, the immediate fail-and-reload consequences of getting caught rubbed some players the wrong way.
"I definitely think they're an important part of the game. They have a chance to develop all three of the pretty important characters in sort of the Spider-Man, Peter Parker's life and universe," Smith said. The mechanics build to a crescendo with layers of complexity by the last instance of each, which was intentional.
Still, Smith knows the segments weren't as highly praised as the rest of the game. "I think we can always look at [the feedback] and consider going forward you know what is the best way to take the part that people like and if there's any lessons we can learn," he said.
Great Responsibility
With the game and its only announced DLC now released, Insomniac is taking stock. Having headed up one of the biggest games of the year has made Intihar reflective of his own philosophy and approach toward his work. If he could travel through time, he has advice for his younger self.
"I would tell him that there's going to be a lot of highs and there's going to be a lot of lows," he said. "When you're so invested in the game and the character--from a personal level, I've been a Spider-Man fan since I was a little kid. Everything just means that much more to you and you're so concerned about getting it right that the lows can really impact you emotionally. They can really cause a lot of doubt in your head. I would just say: Stay calm and you're gonna get through it and at the end of the day, the bumps are actually what makes the game better."
"I want to continue to make more Spider-Man stories... They're a heavy investment but it seems like people really like them.
Meanwhile, this likely isn't the last we've heard from Insomniac and Spider-Man. The game was a bona fide hit that left some very clear threads for a sequel to expand upon. Miles and his newfound powers and the mystery of Harry Osborne's health are just two intriguing story breadcrumbs that are awaiting resolution. We may not even have to wait that long. Insomniac consciously structured its DLC in comic fashion. The final installment that releases on December 21 is the last chapter in a distinct story arc, called The City That Never Sleeps. There's nothing to stop the studio from planning another multi-part story and releasing it as well.
"I want to continue to make more Spider-Man stories, for sure," Intihar said. "We've had a lot of fun putting these DLC packs together and I think that for us, one thing that's really great is we know single-player games don't usually get a ton of downloadable content. It just takes such a huge investment to put them together, the presentation level is right up there with what we delivered in the main game. They're a heavy investment but it seems like people really like them."
That's far from a promise, but it certainly shows Insomniac is open to more Spider-Man if the market demands it. And if the last 60 years have shown nothing else about the wallcrawler, it's that there's always room for more Spider-Man stories.
This week's Xbox One game sale on Xbox Live was suspiciously weak. A sale like that right before Christmas might have clued you in that Microsoft was working on a bigger sale that would be unveiled later. If so, you were right. The Xbox Countdown Sale, which drops prices on a heap of blockbuster games, is now live. And if you're an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you'll get a bonus discount on many of the items. The sale runs through January 3, so read on to see if any of the deals spark your interest.
Those up for a challenge can pick up Dark Souls Remastered on sale for $30 / £26; the rest of the series has gotten deep discounts as well. Fighting game fans can nab SoulCalibur VI for $42 / £35 or prepare for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 11 by picking up Mortal Kombat XL for $5 / £16.
Some of the best recent indie games have also gotten the discount treatment, like Dead Cells for $20 / £13 and Overcooked 2 for $19 / £15. The narrative-driven game What Remains of Edith Finch and the puzzle-platformer Inside are both down to $10 / £8 each.
That only scratches the surface of the games on sale between now and January 3. You can check here for the full list of games. There's a good chance you'll find something worth trying.
If you thought Christmas seemed to get earlier every year, how about this: Sony has kicked off its January sale on the European PlayStation Store already. Hundreds of PS4, PSVR, PS Vita, and PS3 games are on offer, including some of the biggest games of this year.
A couple of standout open-world games are also on offer: Assassin's Creed Odyssey is down to £30, while the PS4 version of Grand Theft Auto V is available for £13 and Bethesda's latest title, Fallout 76, is on sale for £30.
The sale runs until January 18, with more deals to be added on January 4. For the full list of games on offer, head over to the PlayStation Store. Sony US is also holding a holiday sale right now--check out all the big PS4 game deals on PSN US for more.
While Bumblebee may not have a proper post credits sequence, it does tack on an extra little bit of story before the credits actually roll, rounding out the plot and setting up for sequels--maybe? Bumblebee's stinger (pun intended) doesn't have a lot of meat to it, but it does start treading some strangely murky water when you actually look at it in the scope of the whole live action Transformers franchise, which Bumblebee appears to have rebooted--emphasis on "appears to."
Needless to say, spoilers to follow--not just from Bumblebee, but from whole swaths of the Transformers franchise.
Bumblebee highlights the first major Earth-based interaction of Bumblebee the Autobot, and a human girl named Charlie who finds him as a VW Beetle in a junkyard. The whole story is set in the 1980s, not long after the "fall" of Cybertron to the Decepticon army. Charlie and Bee are chased around Earth for a while by two new Decepticons, Shatter and Dropkick, as well as John Cena, before eventually saving the day and--tragically--going their separate ways. Charlie gets a new car--a refurbished classic Camaro she and her late dad had been working on--and Bee, having effectively blown his VW Bug cover, takes a new alternate form of a black and yellow modern Camaro.
Then, following their bittersweet goodbye, we see Bee rendezvousing with a recently arrived Optimus Prime, who hopefully directs his attention to the sky where around seven Cybertronian crafts can be seen entering the atmosphere. It's all very obviously working to set up the next movie in the sequence--though it seems to simultaneously be working to slot itself into the groundwork laid by the first Michael Bay movie back in 2007. It was that first movie in which Bumblebee chose a modern Camaro as his alt-mode, after all, and the place where the whole idea of Bee using his radio to talk was first introduced. If this movie does anything, it's provide Bee a worthy origin story expressly for that 2007 debut, filling in all the gaps that any fan would ever want filled as charmingly as possible.
However, filling those gaps and answering those questions also creates new ones. The Bay arm of the Transformers franchise began getting seriously off the rails with its own history right off the bat by establishing the presence of the "AllSpark" (a mythological Cybertronian artifact) on Earth as early as the 1800s in the first film. Later, in the most recent installment of the Bay movies, Transformers: The Last Knight, it was implied that Cybertronians had reached Earth back in the days of Arthurian legend. Prior to that, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen raised the idea that Cybertronians had been aware of Earth since antiquity and even been involved in the rise of Ancient Egypt.
But Bumblebee gives us a look at not only the fall of Cybertron itself--happening, apparently, in relative real time to the mid '80s on Earth--but also explicitly tells us that this moment was actually the first time Optimus Prime had ever scanned for or sent anyone to Earth at all, making Bumblebee the first Cybertronian to set foot on the planet. This later seems to be supported by the arrival of the movie's main antagonists, Decepticons Dropkick and Shatter, who make the whole "first contact" schtick an ongoing gag.
Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that future installments in the post-Bumblebee Transformers franchise are going to have to work from the ground up. Everything regarding the timeline is just vague enough that, with a little narrative hopscotching, it's possible to slot stories into the mix that justify the temporal strangeness. After all, if we're to assume that the AllSpark just hasn't been "activated" yet in the '80s, it's completely possible than the Transformers arrived on the planet and were none the wiser, left, and then came back when it was. The characters that would, in theory, be duplicates of robots who have already shown up in the Bay movies--like Starscream and Ravage--could easily just be seen here in older alt-modes or less advanced forms. There's no real limit to the amount of hand waving that can happen in a universe like this.
Or, more likely, future Transformers movies are just going to cherry pick exactly what they want from the established canon and easily forego the rest. Bumblebee may not represent a direct, hard reboot of the entire franchise, but it's certainly a major departure in tone and direction--while it may be making a vague attempt to at least loosely hold things together, it's absolutely not beholden to weave the entire shared universe into one cohesive thing. And to be honest, that's probably for the best.
Aquaman may only have a mid credits scene--sorry anyone hoping for more Deathstroke teases this time around--but it makes it count if you know what you're looking for. We'll break it down for you right here, right now, but first: Be warned, obvious and major spoilers from the movie to follow, so please proceed with caution.
Black Manta fans may have found themselves just slightly disappointed at their favorite villain essentially being defeated at about the midpoint of the movie, but never fear: David Hyde is far from done in the franchise. The mid-credits scene follows him from where we last saw him, knocked unconscious and thrown into the water off the Italian cost, drifting on a piece of wreckage out at sea. He's not dead, but he's certainly seen better days. Fortunately for him, an unlikely ally shows up just in time to make a heroic rescue: Dr. Stephen Shin--you remember, that guy who showed up for about half a second on the news with some strong opinions about Atlantis, right?
Don't panic if you don't. The movie doesn't give Dr. Shin a ton of time in the spotlight, but we promise he is there, and better yet, he is actually from the Aquaman comics, so we've got some history to work from. A relatively recent addition to the Aquaman pantheon, Dr. Shin was introduced at the start of the New 52 era in 2011 as a friend of both Tom and Arthur Curry. He believed, wholeheartedly, in the existence of Atlantis, and was thrilled for a chance to interact with Tom's half-Atlantean son. He even helped Arthur develop some of his abilities and powers, a role that was largely given to Vulko in the movie.
However, as time passed, Shin became increasingly frustrated about Arthur's reluctance to share Atlantis's location and eventually turned on him. He even tried to murder him, so naturally, you can imagine there's some bad blood there. Shin eventually comes back around to help Arthur out when the aquatic monsters known as the Trench start attacking the surface world, however, so things (sort of) worked out in the end.
Of course, things aren't exactly following the same trajectory for the movie universe. It doesn't look like Shin has had any real connection with the Curry family at all, so where and why he got the ideas about Atlantis in his head remain a mystery. He does, however, seem to be suitably unhinged, which leads us to believe he's definitely got "attempted murder in the name of science" potential somewhere down the line.
Add to that the actual mid-credits scene itself, in which Dr. Shin rescues Black Manta and promptly becomes totally fascinated with his tech, and we're looking at a recipe for full blown villain catastrophe. Manta may not have hung out in the foreground for too long in this first outing, but an alliance with someone like Shin would lay some real groundwork for a comeback. After all, Manta knows more about Atlantis than any human on the planet right now, as far as we know, and Shin has both resources and scientific platforms at his disposal. The two of them putting their heads together could mean a world of hurt for both Arthur and Atlantis itself.
That raises some questions. What, beyond the ethically dubious thrill of discovery, does Dr. Shin actually want? What beyond killing Arthur and avenging his father does Manta really want? What will Manta have to say about Orm now? And will Orm want in on Manta and Shin's little cabal if he ever finds out about it?
Hopefully we actually will get an Aquaman 2 that is able to explore these potential plot threads--there are certainly enough of them to go around.
During a livestream, 343 Studios announced more details for Halo Infinite, the upcoming sixth mainline entry in Microsoft's first-party series. Based on what was announced, it seems like Halo Infinite is still a long way off.
343 Studios is working on a new engine for Halo Infinite, which could push the game's release date to after 2019. We can expect four-player splitscreen in Halo Infinite as 343 is testing the feature in the new engine right now. During the stream, 343 Studios also announced the armor customization in Infinite will be inspired by the system seen in Reach. Also, players who reach level 152 in Halo 5: Guardians will receive a special reward in Infinite. The studio did not announce what that reward might be.
The stream did reveal a few details for Halo 5 as well. 343 Studios announced the team did not have much left to add to the game in terms of armor and emblem customization. Although it was not explicitly expressed, it was implied that post-launch development on Halo 5 is winding down as more of the team refocuses on Infinite's development. For more of the announcements during the stream, check out Reddit user murwo's post.
343 Studios has teased that Halo Infinite features the coolest design that Master Chief has ever had. The developer hasn't revealed many details about the game other than that. It hasn't even been decided whether Halo Infinite will strive for a Teen rating like Halo 5 or return to the franchise's Mature rating like in the past.
Halo Infinite is currently in development for Xbox One and PC, but it has no definitive release date.
Fortnite Season 7 rolls on with a new set of challenges to complete on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, and mobile. As usual, if you finish all the tasks from a given week, you'll complete a corresponding Snowfall challenge--this season's equivalent of the Hunting Party challenges from Season 6. In turn, you'll unlock a special loading screen, which features a cool piece of artwork, as well as a subtle clue pointing to a free item hidden somewhere in the game.
Just as in Season 6, the item in question is either a free Battle Star (which levels your Battle Pass up by one tier) or a Banner (which you can use as a profile icon) depending on how many weekly sets of challenges you've completed. If you've finished three weeks' challenges, you'll be rewarded with the loading screen pictured below. It depicts a group of characters standing in the hangar of Frosty Flights, one of the new areas introduced to Fortnite's map at the beginning of the season.
If you look closely at the furthest hangar, just to the right of Sgt. Winter, you'll be able to make out the faint silhouette of the Battle Star atop a stack of boxes, giving you a clear indication of where you need to go. Head to Frosty Flights at the beginning of a match, find the easternmost hangar, and the Battle Star will appear inside. Collect it as you would any other item to level your Battle Pass up by one tier, putting you one step closer to unlocking the new Ice King skin.
As is the case with other free Battle Stars, the usual caveats apply. You won't be able to find the item unless you've completed three weeks' sets of challenges and unlocked the aforementioned loading screen. The Battle Star won't appear on the map if you haven't first finished all of the necessary steps, so you won't simply be able to go to the right location and collect it unless you've done the required work.
Developer Epic Games recently rolled out Season 7's Week 3 challenges. This particular batch of tasks is fairly straightforward, although the one that may give you the most trouble if you aren't familiar with Fortnite's map asks you to search between three ski lodges. You can find all of our tips and guides in our complete Season 7 challenge roundup. You can also find our guides on this season's free Battle Stars and Banners below.
Hot on the heels of its release on PC, Vikendi has arrived in the mobile version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. The new snow map is now available on both iOS and Android as a free update, and it comes alongside a handful of other new features.
Unlike PUBG's other maps thus far, Vikendi is 6x6 km large, making it smaller than Erangel and Miramar--both of which are 8x8 km--but larger than the 4x4 Sanhok. Its defining feature is its snow-covered terrain, which encompasses mountains, open fields, frozen lakes, and deserted villages.
The map also boasts some unique elements, including an exclusive vehicle--snowmobiles. Players will also be able to take part in snowball fights on the spawn island. You can take a closer look at the map in the trailer below.
In addition to Vikendi, the latest update for the mobile version of PUBG introduces cross-server matchmaking and improved anti-cheating measures. PUBG Corp. and Tencent have also added a firearm finish upgrade system, as well as "Lucky Treasure," which gives players a chance to get the Glacier - M416 after completing daily missions. You can find the full patch notes for the update on Reddit.
Vikendi arrived for the PC version of PUBG this week, following its release on the game's test server during The Game Awards earlier this month. PUBG Corp. also released the Vikendi: Survivor Pass on PC, which lets players unlock exclusive skins and rewards by completing certain milestones. Vikendi is slated to come to Xbox One and PS4 in January 2019.
For all its mechanical issues, there is one very crucial reason why Skyrim, another major game that got an after-the-fact VR port, worked so well: It was breathtaking to be in that world. There were dragons and dangers and perils, naturally, but there was also peace, serenity, beauty, and an undeniable sense of grandiosity. These are all things that, unless you're specifically making a horror game, make a virtual experience worthwhile. The biggest problem, then, with porting Borderlands 2 to VR is that right from its first minutes, Pandora is such an ugly, cruel, obnoxious place that immersion works against it.
That's the tip of the iceberg as far as Borderlands 2 VR goes, however. By and large, it's still the same game, with all the problems it's always had. Story-wise, every aspect of the game either actively insulting you or trying to kill you at every turn with little to no respite can get grating. Gameplay-wise, it is still very much the old MMO-inspired shooter it's always been, where the goal is more about increasing your stats and collecting better loot than the sheer thrill of killing maniacal wastelanders ad nauseum. Even still, the game has its charms: the sheer variety of weaponry and enemies, the wild comic cel-shaded art style, and a sense of humor that, when it lands, lands big. These are the things that Borderlands 2 VR maintains.
Having said that, Gearbox giveth and Gearbox taketh away for this port. The big loss here is that co-op is entirely gone, which is the one thing that made the grind of Borderlands 2 tolerable. Borderlands 2 solo is a frustrating experience the deeper you go, and this exacerbates that problem. On top of that, Borderlands 2 VR is just Borderlands 2--as in, the Pre-Sequel and the DLC are nowhere to be found. Combine all that with the fact that the game's cutscenes haven't been rendered in VR, meaning frequent and jarring shifts to Theater Mode, which makes this feel more like a protracted experiment rather than a well-curated, definitive experience meant to stand on its own.
The feeling that the game is just throwing ideas about how Borderlands should operate in VR at the wall to see what sticks extends to the way it controls. There's only two ways to control the game: the DualShock 4 or the PS Move controllers, which means yes, once again, the often-neglected PS Aim controller has gone ignored in a game that could have been better for its inclusion. Between the two, weirdly enough, the advantage goes to the DualShock, which is mostly using the same control scheme as The Handsome Collection, save for jump and crouch. The PS Move, on the other hand, is a convoluted mess of commands where the only button that adheres to logic is the trigger to fire your guns.
Movement is handled by holding down the Move button and tilting the left controller whichever way you want to move, which is fine for simple traversal, but Borderlands' enemies are hectic and know how to use cover; a weapon's accuracy has never been more crucial, and it's the stat you find at acceptable levels in new guns the least. The DualShock scheme is superior here as well, with aiming handled entirely with the PSVR headset by itself instead of the controller, which surprisingly feels far more intuitive than aiming with your hand. Much of that has to do with how wonderfully comprehensive the options are in terms of customizing your VR experience to scale with your personal level of VR sea legs. If there's any one thing Borderlands 2 VR gets 100% right, it's this.
The one other major change to the game is a rather fundamental one: the addition of a slo-mo mechanic called BAMF Time that allows you to slow time to a crawl for a brief period. It's balanced just well enough so that it doesn't break the game, and it does make up for VR's shortcomings, especially in the early, clumsy stage. More than this, it turns out to be just the tool the doctor ordered to deal with some of the more frustrating areas--read: any place where there's Threshers involved--without having a rage-induced heart attack.
Thing is, even with the net positives, Borderlands 2 isn't necessarily better with the PSVR involved. The things that make Borderlands appealing mostly boil down to the humor and the meticulous management of your arsenal, neither of which are easier or prettier in VR--Borderlands is still best experienced with the Handsome Collection, which also includes co-op and and hours hours more of Tiny Tina. The things Borderlands 2 in VR brings to the table are all things we've seen better executed elsewhere. Pandora ain't no place for a hero. Even with slo-mo, and the ability to point and shoot with your own eyes and hands, it still isn't.
Sure, you could peruse the Steam Winter Sale for big discounts on PC games. Or you could hop on over to the Humble Store and grab a copy of Lego The Lord of the Rings for free. All you need is a Humble account and a willingness to subscribe to the Humble newsletter (you can always unsubscribe later), and you can add it to your library. No other strings are attached. Get your copy here.
The only problem is that the deal doesn't last long. It goes away December 22 at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET). It's also possible codes for the game will run out, so head to the Humble Store quickly to secure your freebie.
As for the game itself, like the book and film trilogy it's based on, it follows the adventures of Frodo Baggins, an unlikely hero who ends up transporting a ring of great power into the realm of the enemy to see to its destruction. The big differences are that many parts of the game are made of destructible Legos, and it's suffused with the Lego franchise's signature brand of humor.
In GameSpot's 8.5/10 Lego The Lord of the Rings review, Jason Venter wrote, "TT Games and Lego struck gold when they united for Lego Star Wars in 2005, and that rich vein is still yielding worthwhile results. Lego The Lord of the Rings is perhaps the finest treasure that the partnership has yet produced, a compelling mixture of cooperative gameplay, secrets galore, and a story that remains one of the most fantastic that Hollywood has ever captured on film. If you haven't given the Lego games a chance yet, there has never been a better time to start."
Grab your copy before the game goes back to regular price.
Skybound Games has announced that the final two episodes of the PC version of Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season will be exclusively available through the Epic Games Store. The PC version of the previous two episodes of the final season will also be added to the store.
This does not apply to anyone who's already purchased the Season Pass for TWD: The Final Season. If you've purchased the Season Pass through another PC game store--such as Steam--then you will still get the last two episodes through said retailer. However, if you've been buying episodes of the PC version of The Final Season individually, then you'll have to go through Epic for the last bits of the story.
"The team at Epic owns a major chapter in the history of the game industry," wrote Skybound Games CEO Ian Howe and president of interactive Dan Muray in a prepared joint-statement, according to Variety. "We're excited to work together on their latest transformative event with the launch of the Epic Games Store. Epic stepped up to the plate immediately to work with us in order to bring the original team back together and ensure fans will receive the completed season of Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season."
For Honor is mingling with another Ubisoft property, with a limited-time Assassin's Creed crossover event. The "For the Creed" event will run from December 20 to January 10 and will feature familiar Assassin's Creed characters with trappings of the animus.
During the duration of the event, you can play a special 4v4 Dominion mode called "Assassini e Templari" in which you capture zones to lure out one of two commanders: Ezio Auditore da Firenze or Cesare Borgia. Defeating either commander gives you 300 points, and reaching 1000 points and defeating the opposing team during the breaking period will win the match.
The maps rotating in the Assassini e Templari mode will feature animus glitches and soldiers will be themed after the factions in the AC series. Your drop attacks will appear as Leap of Faith and air assassination animations, and game modes will be displayed using an animus theme. Some game modes will also be narrated by Warren Vidic of the Animus Project.
You can also earn some new customization items, like the Odyssey of the Misthios mask from Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a Haystack emote, Hidden Blade execution, animus effects and battle outfits, Assassin and Templar outfits, and weapons from the franchise. A special For the Creed bundle will be available for 35,000 Steel per hero.
For Honor and Assassin's Creed seem tonally similar enough that a crossover makes sense. Ubisoft recently played matchmaker for two of its other franchises, with a special event that put Rainbow Six characters and story beats into Ghost Recon Wildlands.
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