Microsoft has announced that two more games and their corresponding expansions are now backwards compatible on Xbox One. All four titles are a part of EA's Command and Conquer franchise.
As is the case with most new backwards compatible games, the announcement was made via a tweet by Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb. The two new games are Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert 3. The former's expansion, Kane's Wrath, as well as additional content for the latter, titled Commander's Challenge, are also now backwards compatible.
In our Tiberium Wars review, Kevin VanOrd gave the game an 8.7/10, writing, "Not only is [Tiberium Wars] a great game, but it's a great example of a console RTS done right. If you've never played a Command & Conquer game before, there's no better time than the present." VanOrd did not offer as much praise in our Red Alert 3 review, but also remarked that the Xbox 360 version of the game has "enough good, crazy fun that it might just charm you into forgiving its flaws."
EA is currently in works with Petroglyph Games in development of a Command and Conquer Remastered Collection, which will include new versions of 1995's Tiberian Dawn, 1996's Red Alert, and both games' expansion packs. EA stressed that the collection would launch "without microtransactions" on PC, and will attempt to recapture the "authenticity" of the original games. No exact timeframe has been announced for when the Command and Conquer Remastered Collection will launch, but EA has hinted it will release on the franchise's 25th anniversary in 2020.
If you're curious as to what games are backwards compatible on Xbox One, we've compiled the full list. We've also highlighted our personal favorites if you want to know the best games to play.
If you've yet to pick up a copy of Dragon Ball FighterZ, you can now try the game out for free on Xbox One. As part of Microsoft's Free Play Days promotion, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can download and play the critically acclaimed Dragon Ball fighting game at no charge this weekend.
The free period runs from now through 11:59 PM PT on Sunday, January 27. During that time, you'll have access to the full range of content in the game. To jump in, simply download Dragon Ball FighterZ from either the Microsoft Store or the Gold member area on your Xbox One's dashboard.
If you like what you've played, you can purchase a digital copy of Dragon Ball FighterZ at a discount. All three of the game's editions are on sale in the Microsoft Store until January 31. The standard edition is down to $24; the FighterZ edition, which comes with the game's season pass, is $47.50; and the Ultimate edition is available for $55.
Now's a good time to try the Dragon Ball fighting game, as this weekend, Bandai Namco is hosting the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals. The publisher has teased that it'll have some big Dragon Ball news to share during the tournament, including the reveal of a new DLC character: the Pride Trooper Jiren from Dragon Ball Super.
Additionally, Bandai Namco has announced a new Dragon Ball Z action RPG is in development. The publisher hasn't shared many details about the title yet, but more information will be revealed during the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals.
Midway through Alien, Ridley Scott's 1979 franchise-launching sci-fi horror film, the crew of the Nostromo hatches a plan to try to kill the deadly creature loose on their ship. After the loss of Brett, an engineer, the survivors realize the creature is moving around in the ship's air ducts. Captain Dallas heads inside the ducts with a flamethrower, planning to flush the creature out into an airlock so the others can blow it out into space. Back outside, the rest of the crew use motion trackers to identify the creature's location and guide Dallas through the complicated, pitch-black duct system.
Alien is a famously suspenseful movie, and possibly no other scene is as tense as Dallas' trip into the ducts. He's stuck in those tight tunnels, alone, exposed, and unsure of where the danger lies. Meanwhile, his crew outside can only try to warn Dallas as they helplessly watch the two dots on their motion trackers converge--one for Dallas, the other for the creature.
Alien: Blackout captures what makes the duct scene so fraught and frightening, distilling it into a game you play on your phone. A direct sequel to 2014's Alien: Isolation, Blackout makes for a strong companion to what remains the best Alien game ever made. Again playing as Isolation protagonist Amanda Ripley, you take on a new role in Blackout: Instead of moving through a space station, hiding from and avoiding the alien and receiving information from other survivors as you did in Isolation, Blackout puts you on the other side of the screen. You're watching cameras and motion trackers, trying to guide four other survivors to escape the alien. It's somewhat akin to the popular jump-scare horror series Five Nights At Freddy's, but the addition of more characters broadens the experience.
Information is your only weapon in Blackout. Armed with access to limited security cameras, a few room-spanning motion trackers, and a map of the facility, your job is to watch for the alien and provide warnings to the survivors as they try to repair their ship and get you all out alive. Using touchscreen controls to swap between the map and various camera views, you can give the survivors instructions, like telling them to hide or run or directing them through the facility. You can also remotely close doors between the creature and the survivors if they're lucky enough to be near one, which is often enough to save some lives in an emergency. But there are significant gaps in your awareness and the alien is fast and deadly--creating those same feelings of horror, helplessness, and dread drummed up by the movie.
Smart design that plays to the strengths of smartphones and tablets helps Blackout convey plenty of tension. That's also largely thanks to the game's excellent production value. Blackout's cast of voice actors, including Andrea Decker reprising the role of Amanda from Isolation, sell the anxiety of the situation as they talk and argue while sneaking through Mendel Station's halls. Appropriately low-fi visuals capture Alien's slightly dingy future-via-CRT television aesthetic, and Blackout uses Isolation's excellent art design and creature animations, which were extremely faithful to what was created for Scott's film.
It's the sound design where Blackout really excels, though. Fans will recognize many of Isolation's sound effects, which were as good as its visuals, heightening the anxiety and fear the game already creates. Growls and roars of the creature echoing through the ducts aren't just unnerving--they signal when the alien has found Amanda's safe haven, forcing you to tear your attention away from the security cameras for a heart-pounding scramble to quickly locate which vent the alien is in and close the right door before it reaches you. The telltale beeping of motion sensors often notes that your crew has only seconds to find hiding places before the creature finds them. And the tinny screams over the radio as the alien discovers the survivors are frightful reminders of your failure. All those elements get visual designators too, so you don't need sound to play, but Blackout is at its best when you can use all your senses to keep you and your crew alive.
Levels are only eight minutes long--Amanda's racing the clock before her equipment runs out of power, leading to the titular Blackout--which is great for small doses of mobile horror. It also means that failure has you replaying an entire stage at a time, which wouldn't be such a big deal except you're stuck listening to Amanda and the survivors have the same conversations over and over again to set up each level's goals. Sitting through the same two minutes of discussion every time you lose gets old in a hurry.
The alien is also not quite as smart as one might hope. Though it definitely responds to your actions and those of your crewmates, the alien often has set paths and actions at certain points you'll learn through repetition. In a few stages, not knowing to close a specific door at a specific time will get people killed, but that's information you'd only really have if you already played and failed. That some of the alien's actions aren't dynamic can undercut those great moments in Blackout when you're frantically trying to intervene to save your people after the alien does something you didn't predict or shows up somewhere you didn't expect.
For a $5 mobile game with no microtransactions, though, Alien: Blackout is impressive. It's surprisingly fresh in its presentation and use of the platform, and it captures a specific, frightening Alien experience that, frankly, deserved to be turned into a game a long time ago. It's not the full-scale sequel to Alien: Isolation fans were hoping for, but Blackout is still a smart, spooky return to its world in a bite-sized package.
While BioWare has slowly been releasing more and more information about Anthem, its upcoming online shooter, that give a sense of how it'll play, one big question remains: What will its endgame be like? Similar MMO-like shooters that hope to keep players around with long-term experiences, such as Destiny 2 and The Division, have struggled in that department, especially at launch. As players blast through story campaigns and hit level caps, they often find themselves with nothing left to do as they wait for the games' next big content drop. Anthem has a similar structure, so how it handles keeping high-level players engaged week in and week out will be a big part of the experience.
BioWare invited GameSpot to play several hours of Anthem at its studio in Austin, Texas, and we got a little bit of a sense of what the endgame might be like during that time. Lead producer Ben Irving gave us the general gist of what to expect when you hit Anthem's level cap of 30: you'll chase better and better loot so you can play tougher content.
The main endgame features in the base game are Legendary Contracts and Strongholds, Irving said. Legendary Contracts are more involved, tougher missions you'll get from the various factions in Anthem's Fort Tarsis, the town that functions as your home base in the world, and Strongholds are like MMO dungeons that include multiple tough encounters with enemies and boss fights. Beating that content will earn you epic, masterwork, and legendary gear, the stuff that's the rarest in Anthem and carries the best properties. We learned a lot more about the progression system, which you can read about here.
You'll also be able to replay all that content on three higher difficulty modes that unlock when you hit level 30, dubbed Grandmaster 1, 2, and 3. Each amps up the difficulty significantly, but results in better loot drops when you complete the content. As Irving explained, a big part of Anthem after you work through its story will be replaying content on harder difficulties in hopes of finding the game's best, rarest gear, which carries special perks and abilities.
Beyond Level 30
BioWare isn't talking about other endgame specifics yet, but Irving did say the developer has plans for tougher things that will keep players coming back to Anthem.
"We do believe in aspirational content," Irving said. "I think in other games you can call that raids. So we do have plans for aspirational content and live service. We're not talking about that and what the details are yet, but we do recognize the idea that, hey, like, you want to do something a couple of times a week with a group of friends that is hard, that really pushes yourself. And then the rest of the time, you'll do all the other parts of the game to kind of get yourself ready for the next time you go into that aspirational content."
Irving also said BioWare is exploring other ways to keep players engaged as well. Anthem includes a social space we didn't see in our preview that'll let players show off their Javelins to each other, for instance.
"There's a whole lot of stuff to do and the way we've tried to plan it is, by the time people are kind of working through [content up to Level 30], will have more things to drop and more things to incentivize play," Irving explained. "Including things like--you know, where a PvE-centric game, but we believe in social competition. So beyond the content, the loot, the progression, the exploration, like, it's fun to compete in a friendly way with your friends. And so we're not announcing what any of those things are yet, but we have some ideas that I think will promote that, that kind of help... making sure players have things to do."
Reshaping The World
The other major part of Anthem's endgame that BioWare has not yet detailed is its ongoing live service--the content that will pop up over time after Anthem's launch. The lore of Anthem offers a lot of opportunities for future events. It concerns a chaotic, uncontrollable force called the Anthem of Creation that, in conjunction with ancient artifacts from a long-gone race called the Shapers, can alter the world, tear open holes in reality, create cataclysms, and drop huge monsters for players to fight. (We've got more on Anthem's story right here.)
Irving said the underlying feature of the Anthem of Creation means BioWare can add all kinds of interesting changes and events to the game, both temporary and permanent.
"You have the Anthem that's always trying to create, and so there's this idea that part of the world is the Anthem is changing stuff, and can you use the Shaper technology to harness it to your benefit?" he said. "Sometimes that works in your favor and sometimes it doesn't, and we want to really lean into that idea that sometimes, like, you may just log into the game and go out into Freeplay and there is just something different. And sometimes that's more mysterious and you have to kind of work to find it, and other times like you'll step out of Fort Tarsis and look up and be like, 'Oh my God, what is that?'"
Keeping You Busy
Anthem's nature as an ever-changing world will help BioWare with endgame content, but as Chad Robertson, BioWare Austin's head of live services, explained, a big part of the live strategy is about seeing how people are playing and responding to Anthem.
The goal for the Anthem live services team is to be adaptable and dynamic, Robertson said, because it's impossible to predict how players are going to respond to the game or what's really going to resonate with them until it's actually out.
"You never know exactly what the thing that people are going to, you know, glom onto the most and enjoy the most. ...So ideally we've got everything right coming out of the gate, but we're going to be prepared if we don't, and we'll be ready to react very quickly if we don't. And I think that's the best thing you can probably do in this kind of climate rightly."
Robertson said BioWare plans to continue doing what it has been leading up to Anthem's launch--sharing things like developer live streams with players and incorporating their feedback, in attempts to be transparent and conversant with the Anthem community.
The answer to the question of whether BioWare's experience with games like Star Wars: The Old Republic actually helps it avoid some of the stumbles of similar games won't be answered until Anthem is actually in the hands of players, though. Until then, we're still stuck waiting to see exactly what Anthem will look like post-launch, and how it'll keep players coming back.
Editor's note: Electronic Arts provided travel and accommodations for this preview event.
Though it might not be obvious from all the gameplay videos that show off the flight and shooting mechanics, a big part of BioWare's Anthem, much like other online shooters, is chasing loot. As you push through Anthem's campaign, about a nation that hopes to control the all-powerful Anthem of Creation for its own ends and might end up destroying the world in the process, and into its endgame, you'll get to deck out your Javelin mech suit with some spiffy gear and some big, powerful guns.
BioWare recently gave GameSpot a chance to play several hours of Anthem at its studio in Austin, Texas, that included early and late-game content, which gave us a pretty solid sense of how it'll feel. But our snapshot didn't include much in the way of how the game's loot-based progression system will work. Lead producer Ben Irving filled in the gaps: you'll level up your Freelancer by earning experience points for completing missions and killing enemies, with the power level of individual Javelins tied to the strength of their equipped weapons and upgrades that you'll acquire via loot drops or crafting. You'll chase after the best guns and gear you can get by replaying content on harder difficulties, similar to other shooters such as Destiny 2 or The Division.
"So the core of the game is you're a pilot," Irving explained. "The pilot enters the Javelin. And so the pilot is a thing that has the levels in it. And so as you play the game, you level from one through to 30. That gets you through the bulk of the [story content], and then you'll do some other activities to kind of get to level 30."
As you level up your pilot, you'll unlock all four Javelin classes, and you'll also gain loot--new guns of various types, like assault rifles and shotguns, and new equipment for your Javelin that changes some of its abilities. That stuff can include different kinds of grenades with elemental powers, alternate weapons, and support abilities. For instance, on the Ranger Javelin, you'll start the game with a shoulder-mounted single missile launcher. Later, you might find an energy pulse cannon that can replace the missile. Equipping it changes how your weapon works and what it does. You get three active abilities for each Javelin, activated by pressing the left bumper, right bumper, and both together when playing on a controller, and your equipped items can change each one.
Your Freelancer's level determines what level of loot you can use, and the total power of your equipment is reflected as a stat called a Gear Score for your Javelin, which gives you a quick summary of your total power. Loot also has rarity levels, Irving explained, starting with common, then moving up to uncommon, rare, epic, masterwork, and legendary. The more rare the gear, the more useful and interesting it is, as top-tier gear in the masterwork and legendary categories has unique properties that might influence the rest of your loadout, or your role on a squad with other players.
There also will be an element of crafting in Anthem, although we didn't experience it much. Weapons you don't need or want can be "salvaged," or broken down into crafting components.
"You're collecting loot out in the world, it'll then unlock blueprints that will actually allow you to create and build the loot that you want, as well," producer Thomas Singleton said. And loot can also come with additional perks, called Inscriptions, that will make some versions of a piece of equipment a little different from others like it.
Upping The Difficulty
Getting better loot is a matter of playing harder content, Irving said. That comes in two forms: seeking out tougher endgame-type missions that become available as you approach Anthem's level cap, and playing on harder difficulties. Through much of what we saw, Anthem sported three standard difficulty modes--Easy, Normal, and Hard, with each raising enemies' health and damage output--that could be set at the start of any given mission. And more difficulty modes will unlock later, Irving said.
"So at level 30, the three new difficulties open, that's Grandmaster 1, 2, and 3, and that again will increase the loot drop chance," he said. "So you get to a point where you really want those masterworks and legendaries. ...So when you really want lots of them, that's when you'll start pushing Grandmaster 1, 2, and 3, and you'll need to have, you know, at least a set of epics probably some masterworks to go in there again, depending on skill level and a bunch of things. But for those kind of high-end players, we want this almost infinite chase, that you can keep pushing harder difficulties for kind of bragging rights amongst your friends to try and get that better gear."
Irving said that BioWare will be paying close attention to how players engage with Anthem, particularly when it comes to difficulty, and that harder modes could be offered later. But he also said that BioWare is keeping accessibility in mind through Anthem's various difficulty modes. Strongholds are some of the toughest content in Anthem, but BioWare hopes the option for changing their difficulty will allow more players to experience them.
Better Together
Getting better loot with additional abilities and different properties all feeds back into how you can work together with teammates. We saw some of those capabilities in our playthrough, but at higher levels, teamwork will be an even bigger part of the experience.
The basics are that some abilities can "prime" enemies, leaving them open to another attack, and hitting them with a second ability can "detonate" them, dealing extra damage--a similar set of mechanics to those BioWare used in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. But which Javelin and gear you're using changes how those interactions will work. For instance, when a Colossus uses a detonation ability, it'll create an area-of-effect explosion that damages other enemies--great for crowd control. Ranger detonations do high damage to a single target. Storm detonations can spread status effects to multiple enemies, and Interceptor detonations give the Javelin an aura that allow you to afflict other enemies with status effects as you attack them.
"As you get on [further into the game], the teamwork question becomes more than, are we coordinating to set up combos, but also, like, who should combo, which is the most effective way to use up the detonator that you have available to you based on the combat space, and I think that's where we'll get interesting at higher levels on harder difficulties," Irving said.
Anthem has a lot of ways you can benefit your team offensively, but you can also add defensive and supportive abilities as well. For example, the Storm Javelin can create a wind wall that can block incoming projectiles as one option, or put up a dome that speeds up teammates' cooldowns when they're inside it. Choosing which loadouts and abilities you and your team want at the start of a mission adds another layer of strategy--do you want defense or offense? Is your gear better for priming enemies, or detonating them? Should you try to leave enemies with status effects or hit them with direct damage? Answering those questions will change which Javelins you choose, what loadouts you pick, and what strategies your teams employ.
We saw a lot of Anthem in action, but from the sounds of things, there's still a lot to uncover in terms of combining Javelins, skillsets, teamwork, and all the loot you can find along the way. Finding the game's best guns, and playing through tougher content to get it, is going to be a major concern for high-level players who want to get the most out of Anthem. We'll have to wait and see how Anthem's loot chase shapes up, and whether it's fun enough to keep players going after they finish the game's story campaign.
Anthem releases on February 22 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. BioWare is running a VIP demo January 25-27 on Xbox One, PlayStation, and PC for EA Access members and pre-order customers. There's also an open demo February 1-3 that doesn't require pre-ordering to play. Check out the rest of our Anthem coverage, including what it was like to play the game for several hours from its start, and what we know about its endgame.
Editor's note: Electronic Arts provided travel and accommodations for this preview event.
The best way to sum up Anthem, BioWare's online third-person shooter, is to call it a cross between Mass Effect 3 and The Division. On one hand, it's a lot like other, similar shooters: you'll team up with other players as you blast away at various creatures, causing numbers to fly off their bodies as you work to take them down, hoping to get newer, better guns for your powered Javelin mech suits. On the other hand, Anthem is definitely a BioWare game, even if it's a pared-back version of the more complex and story-heavy RPGs the developer is known for. Anthem hits a middle ground that, on the whole, makes it feel unique among the shooters like it.
BioWare recently gave GameSpot a chance to play the first few hours of Anthem at its studio in Austin, Texas, starting from the game's opening missions, as well as some late-game content. That gave us a pretty solid cross-section of what Anthem offers--from its team-based gameplay that feels a lot like the multiplayer of Mass Effect 3, to the way the game delivers story through conversations with its various characters, much like in BioWare RPGs of the past. We got the best sense we've had yet of what it'll be like to play Anthem, at least through the main story campaign.
Becoming A Freelancer
Here's how missions and activities go in Anthem. Starting in your home base of Fort Tarsis, you pick your Javelin, one of the four Iron Man-like mech suits at the center of the game's combat. Most missions start with you traveling to wherever the action is, guided by your Cipher Owen, a partner back at Tarsis who provides you with intel about the situation at hand. Javelins can fly thanks to their rocket boosters, although not indefinitely; eventually your suit will overheat, forcing you to wait for them to cool down. Strategically dipping through waterfalls and lakes, or diving straight down to increase airflow through your jets, can cool the suit down. Exploring Anthem is almost as much a part of the game as fighting in it, and there are lore drops to find and ruins and other secrets to discover out in the world.
Each Javelin type has its own strengths and weaknesses and work together in different ways. The Ranger is the middle-of-the-road class that specializes in single, high-power weapons like grenades and missiles, while the Interceptor is a faster, more agile Javelin that's good for close-range and melee attacks. The Colossus is a tank that lacks the recharging energy shield of other Javelin classes, which means it requires aggressively play and constantly grabbing health packs in order to be effective. Finally, the Storm generally floats above the battle, using elemental attacks to debuff enemies and aid other teammates.
All the Javelins also can carry two weapons, and you can equip a variety guns, from assault rifles to shotguns, rail guns, sniper rifles, pistols, and beyond. But in Anthem, shooting takes a bit of a back seat; using your Javelin's on-board abilities in smart ways is what combat is really all about.
In fact, the shooting portion of Anthem was sometimes a bit underwhelming, as the guns feel like generic shooter fare and never hit especially hard. Anthem's enemies are the sort of bullet-sponges that can make guns feel weak and ineffectual. It's clear that combining your different abilities together intelligently with other players is where BioWare wants you to put your effort in combat, and pulling off strategic moves with teammates to dominate the battlefield or escape a tough scrape is the best part of any fight.
Each Javelin has two abilities (on a controller, each is tied to a bumper button) that can be changed based on what you equip in your Javelin's four component slots. Grenades, missiles, and various other attacks can inflict status effects like freezing enemies or setting them on fire, and those effects can set up combos. Hitting an enemy "primed" by a freeze grenade with a missile, for instance, will "detonate" them, which can do bonus damage or pass the freeze status effect to other enemies.
The early part of the game demonstrated only easiest opportunities for combos, and they weren't especially exciting. As time goes on and you learn the strengths and weaknesses of each Javelin, though, the strategy of comboing looks to become a much bigger part of the game--it mattered a lot more, and was a lot more satisfying, in the high-level content BioWare demonstrated than the early stuff. BioWare told us a lot more about how progression and teamwork will come together in Anthem, especially late in the game.
Terminal Velocity
The other thing Anthem's combat has going for it is its sheer speed and fluidity. At any given moment, you can hop into the air and activate your jets to go flying away from a losing situation, find a shady spot to recover your shields, or get a better angle on enemy weak points. Much has been made about Anthem's verticality in exploration, but flying is also a huge part of combat and what makes it feel fresh. For instance, a Storm Javelin will mostly hover over a battle, somewhat out of harm's way, to rain down elemental attacks on groups of enemies and help control the battlefield. At the same time, an Interceptor can dart in and out of combat, inflicting heavy damage and bugging out before things get to hot. In all cases, using flight effectively and strategically is essential to winning fights and staying alive.
We faced several different missions during our time in Anthem. Some concerned Shaper Relics--powerful alien technology left behind by the race that created the world of Anthem, but has since disappeared. Those missions usually included the kind of sub-objectives familiar from other shooters, like defending a fixed position while a timer ticks down, or gathering items and bringing them back to a specific location--all of which were fairly generic activities you're used to seeing in shooters like this. The fact that you can fly around huge arenas helps break things up, but apart from the underlying combat and flight capabilities, most of Anthem's missions are the kinds of activities players will be very familiar with completing by now.
Other missions had us facing off against the Scars, an insect-like race of angry aliens with whom humans share the world of Anthem. The more interesting enemies were the Dominion, Anthem's main antagonists. These guys are human soldiers led by a big scary Javelin pilot called the Monitor, and they include fighters who are more comparable to the player, with Javelins that let them fly and some of the elemental powers that you can use. Their goal: grab Shaper Relics and try to control the Anthem of Creation for their own ends. They're ruthless and well-armed with powerful technology, and stopping their ambitions is what most of the story in Anthem seems to be about. (We've got a lot more information on Anthem's story here.)
Fort Tarsis: Your Story Hub
When you're not fighting weird creatures or the Monitor and his minions in your Javelin, you're hanging out at Fort Tarsis, the frontier town you call home. Tarsis serves the usual functions of a post-mission hub, allowing you to talk with faction leaders to accept missions or work on your Javelin at a station called The Forge.
You also pick up new missions from people in the town, including your contacts in the game's various factions, like Brin, one of the Javelin-wearing town guards called Sentinels, or Matthias, a member of the Shaper scholars known as the Arcanists. Both will give you missions that allow you to increase your standing with their organizations, which lead to more missions and better rewards.
The town is more than a compendium of shops and quest-givers, though. It sports a number of characters with whom you can hold lengthier conversations of the sort that feel akin to BioWare's traditional RPG titles. Some of these are just rundowns of what's going on before your next mission, but a few let you get to know the characters of Anthem a little better. Conversations all include a few choices, too, which allow you to shape your responses and your Freelancer's personality, at least somewhat.
Spending time talking to Owen, the Cipher character, revealed some of the strongest writing in what we saw of Anthem, as we dug into his past and revealed more of his character. Owen's funny, amiable, and pretty complex--the kind of character BioWare fans will expect to see--and is likely destined to become a fan-favorite akin to the companions of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. But even talking to quest-givers gives Anthem a chance to expand on their characters and make them a little more interesting and relevant than the next contract they hand over.
Wandering around Fort Tarsis and engaging in some of these deeper, more involved conversations felt like Anthem's answer to Mass Effect's Normandy: it's a place where you hang out between missions and learn about the other character with whom you share Anthem. While you won't engage in anything like the deep conversations that make up other BioWare games, Fort Tarsis changes the feel of Anthem compared to games like The Division or Destiny 2 by making the story and its characters feel a lot more close and personal.
Gussying Up Your Javelin
Working through missions will earn you better gear for your Javelin, and as you reach the higher levels, you'll start to find guns and Javelin pieces that have special properties and change your loadouts. Bringing loot you find in the game back to the Forge in Fort Tarsis allows you to check it out and equip it, or salvage it for crafting.
You can play Anthem solo, but it's obviously built for teamwork. Combat incentivizes working together and bringing a variety of Javelins into any given situation, and there's also the Alliance system, which rewards you for playing with others. Whenever you play with other people, whether they're friends or randoms you group up with as you work through the game, the Alliance system passively awards you and anyone you play with Alliance experience points. Those points get tallied at the end of the week and converted into Anthem's in-game currency, Coin--so playing with more people earns you, and them, more money.
There's also a surprisingly large amount of customization possible when it comes to Javelins. You start the game with a variety of paint options you can apply to your Javelins that can make it look pretty slick and unique, and there are more customization options you can purchase in Fort Tarsis as well. Anthem will also include a premium currency you can purchase with real money, and that currency can be used on additional customization options. But BioWare has previously said that premium currency will only be for purchasing cosmetic upgrades, and that you'll never buy things like blind loot boxes--you'll always know exactly what you're getting when you spend real money.
Early play in Anthem was fun, if a little similar in some respects to a lot of what's already available in shooters like it, specifically in areas like mission objectives and gunplay. It's the late-game and endgame content that's the real question at this point. Our chance to play the high-level Stronghold BioWare showed off at E3 2018 suggested what Anthem can do when it really pushes players to work together and coordinate. But BioWare hasn't revealed much in the way of details about endgame or live content yet, and if there's one big concern about shared-world shooters, it's how well they'll be able to keep players engaged once the story campaign wraps up.
What we've seen of Anthem so far shows that BioWare's online shooter is pretty familiar, but the elements it adds to the formula might be enough to make it stand apart. Verticality and speed from flight in particular make combat feel different from many of the things that are out there right now, and it's more character-focused approach to storytelling has the potential to make its world much more engaging than lore entries in an in-game codex--although Anthem has those, too. Our time with Anthem shows that BioWare has the moment-to-moment gameplay down pretty well in the early going, and there are a lot of good ideas in the game that might be enough to let it carve out a space in a genre of persistent shooters--as long as it can keep people playing long-term.
Editor's Note: Electronic Arts provided GameSpot with travel and accommodations for its preview event.
Note: This post contains spoilers for Alien: Blackout and Alien: Isolation. Read on at your own risk!
Alien: Blackout might be a small-scale mobile game you can finish an hour or two, but it still contributes to the larger story begun with Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien. Blackout is actually a direct sequel to the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation, which added a new character to the story: Amanda Ripley, the daughter of film protagonist Ellen. And while the tale of Blackout isn't as involved as what's in the films or in Alien: Isolation, it does provide a little context for Amanda Ripley's continuing story.
The interesting thing about Alien: Isolation is that it fills in a portion of the Alien timeline that was previously unexplored. The game jumps 15 years into the future from the end of Alien to tell Amanda's story, in which she heads to Sevastopol, a space station in the middle of being decommissioned. That's where a salvage crew has brought the flight recorder from the Nostromo, Ellen Ripley's mother's missing ship, which Ellen blew up in order to kill an alien that got on board and murdered the crew. Amanda joins a team from Weyland-Yutani, the company Ellen worked for, that's heading to the station to recover the recorder and find out what happened to the Nostromo and her mother.
Isolation fits nicely in the Alien canon thanks to the movie's 1986 sequel, Aliens. In that movie, Ellen Ripley is rescued after escaping the Nostromo, only to discover she's been in hypersleep for 57 years. In a deleted scene in that movie, Weyland-Yutani executive Carter Burke reveals to Ellen that Amanda had grown old and died in the years before Ellen was rescued. The Ripley women are never reunited.
Amanda was previously only mentioned in that one scene, so Isolation takes the opportunity to open up her story. When she arrives on Sevastopol, she discovers the salvage team also accidentally brought back an alien from LV-426, the same planetoid Nostromo visited. By the time Amanda and her group reach the station, a full-grown alien is picking off the people trapped there one by one.
Amanda works with survivors to try to eliminate the alien, but she soon discovers that it has created a whole hive, birthing more and more creatures in the bowels of the station. And like in the films, Weyland-Yutani is hoping to capture an alien from Sevastopol, even if it means everyone on the station dies in the process. Eventually, Amanda circumvents Weyland-Yutani's efforts and escapes the station before it's destroyed, but she's the only survivor. Isolation ends with Amanda entering the Torrens, the ship that first took her to the station, only to discover an alien has made it on board and killed the crew. She opens the ship's airlock, sending both her and the alien into space. It seems she's doomed to die in her spacesuit, before a final shot of a spotlight passing over her face--suggesting a ship has discovered Amanda and can save her.
Alien: Blackout picks up sometime later, although it's not clear how much time has passed since the end of Isolation. The game takes place on Weyland-Yutani's Mendel Research Station, and starts with the arrival of the USCSS Haldin, a ship carrying two crew members, Saito and Studwick, and two people from W-Y: Yutani--an executive and second cousin to the company's namesake--and Thorncroft, a scientist. When they board the station, they discover Amanda, who warns them that an alien is loose on the station and that everyone else is dead. Amanda has only survived because she's slipped into Mendel's air vents, where she's connecting into the computer system to use motion sensors and cameras to keep an eye on the alien--and stay one step ahead of it.
Most of Blackout is concerned with the moment-to-moment attempts to keep the survivors alive, and the story is pretty simple. But the game does give a few larger hints about the Alien world. Amanda tells the crew that the alien on Mendel Station was born there, and she blames Weyland-Yutani for it. Both Yutani and Thorncroft say they've never heard anything like the alien, though. The Alien franchise is full of Weyland-Yutani conspiracies to try to get the alien at any expense, but apparently, nobody brought either of them into it.
Amanda's discovery that there's another alien on Mendel Station is a significant change what we've seen in most of the Alien film canon. In Alien, Alien: Isolation, and Aliens, the creatures all come from the same place: LV-426. In fact, dialogue in Aliens states that after the Nostromo is destroyed, no one encountered the alien across "more than 300 surveyed worlds." And in the intervening years, LV-426 becomes home to a small human colony called Hadley's Hope--and people live there successfully for years. It's not until Ripley reports back to Weyland-Yutani about what happened to her crew that the company sends colonists out to see if the creatures are still there.
So if Mendel Station had an alien of its own, that suggests there's another source of the creatures that the company has discovered between Alien and Aliens. There's some precedent for that idea in recently released Alien novels that expand the story. In 2014's Alien: Out of the Shadows (which takes place between Alien and Aliens) and Alien: Sea of Sorrows (which takes place years after Ellen Ripley's death in Alien 3), more aliens are discovered on other planets--but they tend to kill everyone who knows about them. With Ripley and her crew the only survivors of Mendel Station, that might explain why Aliens suggests nobody knows about the creatures: everyone who ever encounters them, save the Ripley women, winds up dead.
Like most Alien stories, Blackout has another wrench from Weyland-Yutani: Special Order 941. When Amanda and the survivors try to escape the station aboard the Haldin, they find they're blocked by the station's artificial intelligence under the company's orders. The special order echoes similar instructions that diverted the Nostromo to find the creature (Special Order 937) and the instructions to protect the alien at the expense of the humans on Sevastopol (Special Order 939). We still don't know who specifically is issuing those particular orders.
Blackout ends with Amanda escaping Mendel Station, along with any of the survivors you manage to save, before the station blows up with the aliens on board. She notes in her log that the group's next stop is KOI-125.01, a manufacturing colony, and that she plans to go on to Earth after that. If Yutani survives, she also mentions plans to make a full report of everything that happened.
We don't know what happens at KO1-125.01, but Amanda, at least, makes it back to Earth. This week, Fox's official Alien Twitter account announced the launch of Aliens: Resistance, a four-comic series that continues Amanda's story back on Earth. In it, Amanda teams with a former Colonial Marine, Zula Hendricks, in an attempt to bring down Weyland-Yutani and expose its alien bio-weapons program. Resistance links the story of Isolation with the greater Alien comics world: Hendricks was a protagonist in the 12-issue series Aliens: Defiance, in which she also encountered the alien, lived to tell about it, and discovered Weyland-Yutani's evil plans. So Resistance looks to be a sequel both to that series and to the Amanda Ripley games so far.
The description of Resistance suggests that what Amanda found in Blackout is just one of several facilities where Weyland-Yutani is trying to weaponize aliens, which means there could be a lot more going on for Amanda. That might also be another clue to the situation 40 years later in Aliens: if Amanda manages to take down W-Y's alien program, it would explain why the company is still desperate to get hold of aliens decades later.
There's also a lot of leeway for additional stories, as Isolation, Blackout, and Resistance are showing. After all, most of the information in Aliens about what happened to Amanda and the creatures comes from Weyland-Yutani themselves, and the company has never been especially trustworthy. Maybe Blackout and Resistance suggest more games starring Amanda Ripley could be part of the Alien-infested future.
In the Resident Evil 2 remake, you'll play as either Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield and experience their unique perspectives on the viral outbreak that's hit Raccoon City. Their different stories are further enhanced by the game's differing scenarios, which swaps their roles in the overall story and results in a total of 4 unique campaigns between the two protagonists (Leon A/B and Claire A/B).
In my review, I mentioned that it took me about 15 hours to complete both of Leon and Claire's first stories--which each character's scenarios running at 6-7 hours each. Keep in mind, this was the initial attempt and the ensuing runs after that were shorter due to having familiarity with the game. While many events and puzzles are similar to the original game, allowing you to get a better handle on what to do, the overall structure and pace is quite different. In order to get the elusive S rank, you'll need to finish a particular character's story in less than 4 hours.
As stated earlier, Resident Evil 2's campaigns are structured out through isolated scenarios. After finishing the story for the first character, a new option in the main menu called New Game (2nd Run) will open up. Carrying over from the original game--formerly called the Zapping system--the first character you pick will essentially be the lead of the story, with the other protagonist experiencing their own encounters as they tie up the overall plot's loose ends. Depending on who you played as before, you'll start the second scenario with the other character.
While both characters will experience similar events and explore the same locations, the choices and impact of each scenario are totally isolated from one another. With the original game, there were key moments where you could decide which character should take certain items over the other--that has since been removed in this game. In another big change from the first game, completing the first two campaigns will open up all 4 campaigns. So if you want to jump straight into the other second scenario, without having to play the other scenario that precedes it, then you can do that.
I greatly enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 2. Seeing how much the original game's plot and structure had evolved with the remake was a pleasure to see play out, despite how nerve-wracking it could get. If you want to learn more about the game, go ahead and check out my review in which I state:
"Resident Evil 2 is not only a stellar remake of the original, but it's also simply a strong horror game that delivers anxiety-inducing and grotesque situations, topping some of the series' finest entries. But above all, the remake is an impressive game for the fact that it goes all-in on the pure survival horror experience, confidently embracing its horrifying tone and rarely letting up until the story's conclusion. Though Resident Evil 2 has its roots firmly in the past, it reworks the familiar horrors into something that feels brand new and all its own."
For more info on Resident Evil 2, be sure to check out our helpful Beginner's Guide on how to survive in Raccoon City, and along with our recap on the story so far with the survival horror series.
The Dude is coming to the Super Bowl. Whether the arrival of one Jeff Lebowski is a matter of circumstance for the sellin' of goods--and that's something we've come to expect from the Super Bowl almost more than the actual sport it's supposed to be about--or the portent of some greater, less-knowable purpose, well, it'll be February 3 before we find out for sure, I guess.
Jeff Bridges, who played The Dude in the Coen Brothers' 1998 stoner detective comedy, tweeted a short video teasing his return to the role some 21 years later. The video doesn't show much--just that nothing about The Dude seems to have changed, except maybe his hair color--and ends with the cryptic date of February 3, 2019. You might recognize that as the date of Super Bowl LIII.
Now, the thing about The Dude is, his story has become what might be known in some circles as a cult classic. So much so, in fact, that there's been at least one attempt to expand that story, by looking into the lives of the fellers who populated it. One of those hombres was Jesus Quintana, who also goes by the handle The Jesus, played by John Turturro in the movie.
Turturro wrote and directed Going Places, a movie that sees him reprise the role of The Jesus. It also stars Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man, Homecoming) and Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code, Amelie). That movie is complete according to its IMDb page, and though it was originally slated to see the light of day in 2017, that page now says its release is coming this year. So might be The Dude is out here ready to shill for his brother bowler.
Then again, maybe not. You might recall from The Big Lebowski that, at least according to one Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), The Jesus was a sex offender. According to Walter, The Jesus did a stint in the big house for exposing himself to a kid. And seeing as The Big Lebowski has become a pretty well-loved comedic gem in some circles, a revisit to those characters to tell the story of somebody like that--well, it does seem at least a bit ill-advised. Then again, Walter's not exactly the most trustworthy of sources as relates to facts.
Guess it's not for us to know, though, at least not until the big game. It is nice to see The Dude wander back in, even if does end up to be about slingin' some product. If I had to lay a wager, I'd say maybe the folks at Kahlua might be responsible for all this. After all, The Dude loves himself a White Russian.
The PlayStation Classic was pricier than some other retro consoles at $100, but bargain hunters who were waiting for the right price may want to take advantage of it now. The mini-console is down to just over $50 now, half off the original price.
Amazon has the system listed for $54, which is likely a temporary price. Other stores may be willing to price match depending on their policies, so check if another one could be more convenient for you. This is the lowest price we've seen yet on the mini-console, though just after the holidays it was marked down to $60 across the board.
The PlayStation Classic packages the mini-console with a controller and 20 games, including bona fide classics like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil Director's Cut, and Final Fantasy VII. The library on the whole was marked as a disappointment in our review, and the emulation quality and UI presentation is uneven.
"I'd like nothing more than to tell you that the PS Classic is a pleasant surprise, that it will match your excitement and then some," wrote critic Peter Brown. "This sadly isn't the case, and short of Sony refreshing it, or the hacking community breaking it open and reconfiguring it, the PS Classic may never be more than a puny PlayStation with good looks."
Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the most anticipated games of the year. Fans have been waiting years for the release date of the third mainline entry in the series to arrive, and that moment is nearly here.
We awarded the game an 8/10 in our Kingdom Hearts 3 review, while critics across the board seem pretty positive about this concluding chapter. Read on below for a selection of other reviews or check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic for more, or head over to CNET for thoughts from a series newcomer.
GameSpot -- 8/10
"What sticks with me is the exciting battle against elemental titans with Hercules, taking Rapunzel out into the unfamiliar wide world for the first time, snapping selfies with Winnie the Pooh, and going toe to toe with Davy Jones. In 2002, as Sora, I left Destiny Islands to travel across the universe and make new friends. In 2019 I brought old ones home, and I had so much fun doing it." -- Tamoor Hussain [Full review]
IGN -- 8.7/10
"I thoroughly enjoyed Square Enix's evolution of Kingdom Hearts' gameplay and fidelity to Disney's beloved animated movies. While the storytelling could use some punching up, Square has done a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of these worlds while giving us a massive toolbox for battles and exploration. Even as I watched the dust settle on the story I wanted to jump right back in to collect everything. But to see all of the events of the Kingdom Hearts games so far culminate is, frankly, weird. Having been given so much time to ruminate, its specific resolutions aren't all that surprising, but only a marginal impact is lost as a result. I still loved seeing so many characters from throughout this series interact in new ways and rekindle old bonds. It's nice to see that, even so long after the very first game, Kingdom Hearts 3 is so full of heart." -- Jonathon Dornbush [Full review]
Game Informer -- 9.5/10
"While not perfect, Kingdom Hearts III is the game I've been waiting for. After finishing it, I was delighted by how satisfied I was with the journey. I traversed worlds with some of my favorite Disney characters, persevered through challenging boss battles, and saw a triumphant finale that only makes me more excited for the future. The series still has a lot of heart, and that's what makes it so endearing." -- Kimberley Wallace [Full review]
Polygon -- No score
"Kingdom Hearts isn't simple anymore; it isn't just joy and bright colors and Disney heroes. Instead, the conclusion of this story is tangled up in so many conflicting threads, each one a heavy burden on its hero, whose smile now feels unnerving. Kingdom Hearts 3 is an example of what can go wrong when a series that once stood in contrast to its peers as a lighthearted alternative loses its way." -- Allegra Frank [Full review]
GamesRadar -- 4/5
"Whatever the flaws, there is nothing quite like Kingdom Hearts 3, and it's a wild, wonderful ride as a result. Name one other game where you can watch Elsa belt out Let It Go before hammering some monsters to death with a giant key. I'll wait." -- Rachel Weber [Full review]
Kingdom Hearts 3 is finally almost upon us. The long-awaited conclusion to Square Enix's Disney mash-up series has been a long time coming, but how long will it last? Even as anticipation reaches a fever pitch, fans may wonder how many hours they can expect to put into this charming Disney showpiece.
Based on our reviewer's time with the game, Kingdom Hearts 3 lasts roughly 30-35 hours for the main story quest. Besides that, though, it has loads of side-content that can make the game last significantly longer for those who want to fully explore all it has to offer.
"Many of the worlds offer extra gameplay activities to engage with after the story within them is wrapped up," critic Tamoor Hussain wrote in GameSpot's Kingdom Hearts 3 review. "Toy Box puts you in a Final Fantasy XV parody where you're in a mech destroying enemies and chasing high scores. Traverse Town has a cooking mini-game which involves collecting ingredients from across the worlds and then bringing them to Ratatouille's Remy to make meals. Pirates of the Caribbean lets you sail the open sea in search of treasure and do battle with enemy ships, or defend Port Royale in a wave-based mini-game. The amount of gameplay variety in Kingdom Hearts 3 is impressive, and although the extras may be short-term distractions, for those who want to spend more time in their favourite worlds, they're a fun reason to make the return trip."
As the resolution of a huge franchise, Square Enix leaned hard into setting up the story in its final trailer for the game. Some of the story is still being saved for after launch, though, as the studio is releasing two special epilogue cutscenes post-launch, to avoid spoilers circulating online. If you need a hand recalling the story so far, we have a recap to catch you up to speed.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming on January 29, 2019. That means there's still time to pre-order if you so choose, so check out our pre-order guide for more info.
Square Enix has trademarked a term closely associated with its recent retro throwback Octopath Traveler, suggesting it may plan to use the phrase more in the future.
Gematsu reports that the company filed trademarks for "HD-2D" and "HD2D" in Europe. This isn't the first time Square has used the term, though, since it commonly referred to the aesthetic of Octopath Traveler this way. That game blended classically styled sprite art with 3D environments for a unique effect. Trademarking the term could mean the company is planning to use the technique again, either in a sequel to Octopath or some other project altogether.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting to hear what's coming next from the Bravely Default series. Last year the Octopath Traveler social media channels began teasing an announcement, seemingly leading to the reveal of Bravely Third. No formal announcement has been made yet, though the teaser still sits as a pinned tweet on the Bravely Twitter.
Producers Masashi Takahashi and Tomoya Asano were both involved with Bravely Second before moving on to produce Octopath Traveler. Despite wildly different appearances, the two carry some gameplay mechanics in common like the ability to store attacks for a multi-attack later. If a Bravely Third announcement is on the horizon, the studio could be splitting its efforts between the two series or alternating between them.
Bethesda, developer and publisher of Fallout 76, has denied the PS4, Xbox One, and PC game is going free-to-play. Rumors of the online title switching its payment model surfaced after consumers noted at least one retailer was no longer stocking standard versions of the game. However, it seems that was simply a decision made by the retailer to place greater emphasis on special editions.
Bethesda itself stated "there is no truth to this rumor," while Australian store EB Games confirmed it still planned on supporting the boxed edition of the game both in-store and online.
Hi Andrew, This information is categorically incorrect. EB Games will continue to support Fallout 76 both brand new and preowned, and it remains an active product through both our stores and website. Customers can now pick up the EB Exclusive Tricentennial Edition for $79.95.
Fallout 76 launched in November, but was met with a somewhat negative critical reception. "Bethesda has stated it intends to continue supporting the game for a long time, but at launch, Fallout 76 is a poor experience," wrote Edmond Tran in GameSpot's own verdict. "There are echoes of the series' admirable qualities, but look past that facade, past the cute Vault Boy animations, past the familiar radio tracks, and you'll find no heart--just an inconsequential wasteland doomed to be nuked over and over again." For more, check out our full Fallout 76 review.
As part of Fortnite Season 7, Week 8's challenges, you'll need to go on a bit of a Battle Star hunt. One of the challenges in the free section asks you to search between a mysterious hatch, a giant rock lady, and a precarious flatbed. Even if you're familiar with the island, it can be tricky to remember those locations and then figure out where exactly the Battle Star can be found. So, to make it easier, we've done it for you--here's where you need to go.
The mysterious hatch in question can be found in Wailing Woods near the cabin, while the giant rock lady is south of that just outside the wood, and the precarious flatbed can be found in the east, on the edge of the island overlooking the sea. Triangulate that position like you're Sayid from Lost standing on top of a hill because that seemed to be the only way he knew how to solve any problem for, like, the first two seasons, and you'll find the Battle Star at grid reference J3.
To make it even easier for you, we've put together a map of the location below. Remember that you don't actually have to visit all of those landmarks before going to the location of the Battle Star, just launch yourself out of the Battle Bus and aim to land right on top of it. You can also watch the video above to see us do it, if you need an additional guide to help you along.
To see the other challenges for Season 7, Week 8, check out our full challenge list. As you'll no doubt have noticed, the island has undergone quite a significant change. On January 18 the orb hovering around Polar Peaks cracked open and the Ice King emerged, bringing with him his horde of monsters. On top of that, the island was blanketed in ice and snow. This marked the start of the new Ice Storm daily challenge series too, where fresh rewards are on offer.
Fortnite's 7.20 content update also included some icy additions for the game, the most notable of which is the Sneaky Snowman, which can be worn as an outfit to blend into the surroundings or can be thrown out to distract enemies. See the full Fortnite 7.20 patch notes for more details.
Epic Games is giving away a free PC game every two weeks this year via its new Store, and the next of those titles goes free today. From January 24 until February 7, the first JackBox Party Pack is available for the low, low price of nil.
All you need to do is create an Epic account on the company's Store and claim the game within those dates. You'll then be able to play it for free whenever you like, even after February 7. Currently, the free game is What Remains of Edith Finch, but that promotional price will expire in the next few hours.
The Jackbox Party Pack is, as the name suggests, a collection of minigames designed primarily for party situations. It utilizes players' smartphones as controllers in competitive activities. These usually involve some form of interpretation of user-created drawings or jokes--as you can imagine, this often ends in mischief.
A new entry in the series has arrived every year since the original's launch in 2014, with the most recent, Jackbox Party Pack 5, coming out towards the end of last year. The series is also available on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
The mysterious orb that has been hovering around Fortnite's Polar Peak has opened and unleashed quite the cold snap. Ice has consumed the island and the Ice Legion wander its surface, attacking players on sight. But there's no time to worry about that because there's new challenges to complete. We're now in Fortnite Season 7, Week 8 and, like clockwork, new Battle Stars are available.
To get them you'll need to complete the weekly challenges listed below. As you're probably aware of, the first batch of challenges is available to all players. However, the second is exclusive to those that have spent the cash to get V-Bucks, and then use that virtual currency to upgrade their Battle Pass to a premium one. Naturally, doing that means you get more Battle Stars on a weekly basis if you complete all the challenges, and this in turn levels up your Battle Pass and unlocks cosmetics faster.
In the free category, players will need to place three Cozy campfires or Launch Pads, build structures, and find a Battle Star hidden between a mysterious hatch, giant rock lady, and precarious flatbed. On the paid side, you'll need to complete a multi-stage challenge that begins with visiting Paradise Palms and Salty Springs in one match. Then search seven chests at Shifty Shafts or Lonely Lodge, deal damage to enemies, and get a few explosive weapon eliminations on top.
Free
Place a Cozy Campfire or a Launch Pad in different matches (3) -- 5 Battle Stars
Build structures (250) -- 5 Battle Stars
Search between a mysterious hatch, a giant rock lady, and a precarious flatbed (1) -- 10 Battle Stars
Battle Pass
Stage 1: Visit Paradise Palms and Salty Springs in a single match (2) -- 1 Battle Star
Search chests at Shifty Shafts or Lonely Lodge (7) -- 5 Battle Star
Deal damage to opponents while riding in a vehicle (100) -- 10 Battle Stars
On January 23, Fortnite developer Epic Games released the 7.20 content update, which made tweaks to a number of items, alongside introducing the Sneaky Snowman. Additionally, it vaulted a few weapons and added a limited-time mode. One of the new items is the Sneaky Snowman disguise which, as you can imagine, will make subterfuge extra effective in the current, snowy state of the island. Interestingly, you can either choose to wear the disguise or throw it out as a decoy, which is a nice extra option. You can read the full Fortnite 7.20 patch notes for more details, as well as information on what else it does.
It's no secret that theater attendance in the US has been steadily dropping over the past few years, as prices rise and the old-fashioned theatrical experience faces increased competition from streaming services. However, it has been reported that ticket sales rebounded in 2018, making it the most successful year for some time.
As reported by Variety, movie admissions rose by 5.5% on the previous year, to a total of 1.3 billion tickets sold. In terms of money, $11.85 was spent at the box office, which was a 6.9% rise on 2017. The figures come from the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). The hugely successful movies that helped these numbers include Black Panther, Avengers Infinity War, and Incredibles II, all of which were made by Disney.
2017 was the worst year at the box office since 1995, with a number of high-profile movies underperforming, including the commercial failures Transformers: The Last Knight and The Mummy. Even though 2018 had a few disappointments--most notably the Star Wars spin-off Solo--the huge moneymakers were more than enough the push the figures high.
Overall ticket sales peaked in 2002, the year of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Spider-Man, and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. There were 1.57 billion tickets sold that year, and while the subsequent two years saw a decline, these three consecutive years remain the highest over the past three decades.
While it is obviously too earlier to know how 2019 will pan out, there have already been some major successes. Aquaman opened at the end of December, and has made $307 million in the US so far; worldwide it is already the most successful DC movie of all time. Later this year, films such as Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Dark Phoenix, and Star Wars Episode IX will open, making it very possible that 2019 tops 2018's admissions.
343 Studios has teased an upcoming announcement concerning Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The announcement will occur during the HCS Invitational at SXSW 2019.
In terms of what the announcement might entail, 343 was pretty vague. "Not only will you be treated to amazing matches and gameplay, but we've also got some exciting MCC news to reveal during the show," 343 wrote in a blog post. The HCS Invitational takes place March 15-17 at SXSW, and begins each day at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 6PM UK. If you're not at the event, you can watch both it and 343's Halo announcement on either Mixer or Twitch.
The HCS Invitational is a large-scale tournament-style event that 343 created to showcase competitions for both recognized esport players and Halo fans. In terms of professionals, the best six teams from the Halo Classic in St. Louis will battle it out onstage in a Halo 3 double elimination competition for a $100,000 prize pool. More casual competitive Halo players have also been invited to participate in a smaller, two-versus-two tournament for a $5,000 prize pool. Fans who attend HCS can also sign-up to join an open free-for-all tournament for a $5,000 prize pool.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection includes the anniversary editions of both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, along with the standard versions of Halo 3 and Halo 4. Halo 3: ODST was added to the collection after release, and fans have long asked for Halo: Reach to get the same treatment. We'll have to wait and see whether 343's announcement is about that, the addition of Halo 5: Guardians to the collection, or something else entirely.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is exclusive to Xbox One. Although the collection released almost five years ago, 343 is still implementing updates to this day. The game was added to Xbox Game Pass in September 2018, making it free for players who are subscribed to the service.
It's been a very long wait, but the release date of Kingdom Hearts 3 is nearly upon us. It's set to launch on January 29, 2019 for PS4 and Xbox One, and you've got multiple options when deciding how to buy it.
Kingdom Hearts 3 takes you and series protagonist Sora on a journey to a variety of Disney-themed worlds, including everything from Toy Story to Monsters Inc. to Pirates of the Caribbean. It marks the conclusion of the story that's been told across the series, but if you're eager for the very end, you'll have a bit of a wait. The video epilogue will be released shortly after launch.
For those who have not kept up on the many twists and turns of the Kingdom Hearts story, that's okay. If you want to get caught up, we have a Kingdom Hearts story recap to help you get ready.
Reviews have finally been released, and you can read what we thought in our Kingdom Hearts 3 review. In it, critic Tamoor Hussain writes, "But the story of Keyblade wars, time-travelling villains, body-hopping also-rans, and world-ending darkness isn't what I'll remember about Kingdom Hearts 3 or the series as a whole. What sticks with me is the exciting battle against elemental titans with Hercules, taking Rapunzel out into the unfamiliar wide world for the first time, snapping selfies with Winnie the Pooh, and going toe to toe with Davy Jones. In 2002, as Sora, I left Destiny Islands to travel across the universe and make new friends. In 2019 I brought old ones home, and I had so much fun doing it."
If you're eager to pre-order, you can get the full rundown on what to expect in terms of bonuses, special editions, and pricing below. Just be prepared for a lot of options.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Pre-Order Bonuses
Amazon Prime and My Best Buy members get a $10 rewards certificate with every pre-order of the title. Amazon is also offering the Dawn Till Dusk Keyblade DLC for free with pre-order. GameStop offers an exclusive fabric poster, while PlayStation Store is giving away a dynamic Kingdom Hearts 3 PS4 theme.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Standard Edition
The standard edition only comes with the game and no extra goodies. Amazon Prime and My Best Buy members each get a $10 reward certificate for buying the game at the respective retailers.
The Deluxe Edition will include a steelbook case, artbook, and collectible pin featuring Sora with the Kingdom Hearts 3 logo. It will not come with any digital content.
PS4
Amazon -- currently unavailable (includes $10 reward certificate)
For $150 more, this Deluxe Edition will come with everything from the base Deluxe Edition and three Bring figures of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. All three figures appear to be in their Toy Story world garbs as each appear to be more toy-like than collectible premium statues. This bundle will be available exclusively from the Square Enix store.
Sony has announced a Kingdom Hearts 3 PlayStation 4 Pro bundle. It features the console and the deluxe version of the game, which contains an exclusive Sora pin, steelbook, and full-color hardback artbook alongside the game. This was available for $400 exclusively from GameStop but is sold out at the time of this writing.
Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far
If you could use a refresher on the Kingdom Hearts story, you're in good company. Thankfully, Square Enix has released a collection of nine Kingdom Hearts experiences for PS4 that will get you all caught up and ready to roll once KH3 lands.
BioWare's upcoming third-person shooter RPG, Anthem, is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on February 22. In Anthem, you can go it alone or take to the skies with up to three friends to tackle story-based campaign missions, fetch quests, and challenging raid-like strongholds.
You'll take on the role of a Freelancer in Anthem, one of the soldiers trained to survive the grueling landscape of a hostile world. The city you protect will task you with different types of expeditions, ranging from exploring uncharted caverns to fighting off dangerous monsters. You'll do this with the help of armored exo-suits, called Javelins, that gift Freelancers with superhuman abilities, such as flight.
There are four Javelins scheduled to be included in Anthem at launch. All players start with the Ranger, which is designed for those who want to fight with precision or have access to an array of support abilities and grenades. While playing, you'll also unlock--in whichever order you want--the close-combat specialist Interceptor, long-distance and elemental caster Storm, and hulking tank-like Colossus. You'll also find new weapons and craft different pieces of armor for your Javelins, allowing you to shape your exo-suit in whatever way you desire.
There are two editions for Anthem, and pre-ordering either one nets you certain bonuses. We've outlined those bonuses, along with each editions' price and where you can pre-order them, below.
Anthem Pre-Order Bonuses And Demo Access
Regardless of edition, you'll get two bonuses for pre-ordering Anthem. The first is access to the exclusive VIP demo--which is happening this weekend from January 25 through January 27. The second is a Founders-themed player banner, which you can use to customize your in-game profile when Anthem launches. Certain retailers are offering their own exclusive pre-order bonuses as well.
Anthem Standard Edition
If you pre-order the standard edition of Anthem, you'll also get the Legion of Dawn armor skin for your Ranger Javelin, as well as a special weapon.
Here's where you can pre-order the standard edition now:
Amazon -- $60 -- (digital copy) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Best Buy -- $60 (includes $10 reward certificate) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Pre-ordering Anthem's Legion of Dawn Edition nets you the armor for all four Javelins, as well as a special legendary weapon and a few more bonuses, such as a Gear Attachment for Ranger and the digital soundtrack of the game.
Here's where you can pre-order the Legion of Dawn Edition now:
The remake of Capcom's survival-horror classic, Resident Evil 2, is nearing its release. After the original version launched for PS1 back in 1998, the Resident Evil 2 remake releases on January 25, 2019 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. While still maintaining the same core as the original, it makes a variety of refinements to both its visuals and gameplay but still brings back welcome features like Tofu mode.
The most notable and obvious change, graphical improvements aside, is the new camera perspective. Rather than the classic, fixed-view camera of the old games, the remake uses a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective not unlike that of Resident Evil 4. You can try this out for yourself as part of the 1-Shot Demo that gives you 30 minutes with the game, although it will only be available for download until later in January.
Some of the changes are a noted shake-up for the game, but you needn't worry--as you can read about in our Resident Evil 2 review, this remake has turned out quite nicely. Critic Alessandro Fillari writes, "Resident Evil 2 is not only a stellar remake of the original, but it's also simply a strong horror game that delivers anxiety-inducing and grotesque situations, topping some of the series' finest entries. But above all, the remake is an impressive game for the fact that it goes all-in on the pure survival horror experience, confidently embracing its horrifying tone and rarely letting up until the story's conclusion. Though Resident Evil 2 has its roots firmly in the past, it reworks the familiar horrors into something that feels brand new and all its own."
Even more is on the way for Resident Evil 2 post-launch, as it will receive a free DLC game mode. If you're eager to get your hands on the game for release day, you can read on for a complete rundown on pre-order bonuses, special editions, and pricing. Or if you want to catch up on the story to be ready for RE2, we have a Resident Evil story recap you'll find handy.
Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-order Resident Evil 2, and you'll receive two bonus weapons: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine's signature Samurai Edge handguns.
If you pre-order from the PlayStation Store, you'll get a free Resident Evil 2 PS4 theme.
Resident Evil 2 Standard Edition
The standard edition just comes with the game. Your best deal on a console version is to buy a physical copy from Newegg.
The Deluxe Edition comes with the core game, plus a download voucher for two Leon costumes, three Claire costumes, Samurai Edge - Albert Model, and a classic Resident Evil 2 soundtrack swap. Here's where you can buy Resident Evil 2: Deluxe Edition.
The GameStop-exclusive Collector's Edition comes with everything you get in the Deluxe Edition, plus a 12-inch Leon statue, a collector's art book, and R.P.D. renovation blueprints, all in R.P.D. item box packaging.
Most people know Jay Reso for his work in WWE as Christian. Over the years, he became a tag team and world champion with the company, and now co-hosts the E&C Pod of Awesomeness with his former tag partner Edge. Additionally, he's a host and judge of the new History Channel competition series Knight Fight. Although Reso has moved away from in-ring action, he is still a valued voice in the wrestling community.
In 2012, Reso inducted his former partner Adam "Edge" Copeland into the WWE Hall of Fame, which was a fantastic moment. However, seven years later, Reso has yet to be honored with an induction of his own, which has many wondering when it will be his time. "I get asked it a lot," he told GameSpot while promoting Knight Fight. "I appreciate that people think of me and hold me in that regard. I honestly don't think about it that much. It's not going away. It's gonna be there every single year. I'm sure at some point, my time will come. I don't think about it; I don't worry about it too much. But I appreciate people feeling like I should be in there."
While Reso continues to discuss WWE's product on his podcast and create programming on the WWE Network--like The Edge And Christian Show That Totally Reeks Of Awesomeness--he's still in touch with what's happening with the sports entertainment giant, including the recently announced All Elite Wrestling. "It's pretty ambitious," Reso said. "You have guys like Cody and The Young Bucks, and they've done some pretty big things--outside the box--here in the last year or so. And yeah, I wish them all the luck. I don't ever think it's a bad thing to have a place for performers to go and perform. I wish them all the luck and I hope they do well with it."
Reso went on to say he's interested in seeing who Jericho faces. "I think, by far, he's the, internationally, probably the biggest star on the roster, as far as that goes. So it'd be interesting to see who he gets paired up with off the top."
You can see more of Reso on Knight Fight, which premieres Wednesday, January 23 at 10 PM ET / PT on the History Channel.
After nearly 12 years of operation, Nintendo is shutting down the Wii Shop Channel next week. The service will officially be discontinued on January 30, after which point it will no longer be possible to purchase any WiiWare or Virtual Console games from the storefront.
Prior to the Wii Shop Channel's shutdown, Nintendo removed the ability to purchase Wii Points on the service last March. Unlike the company's current digital store, the Eshop, the Wii Shop Channel didn't allow users to buy games directly with real money; rather, they had to first purchase Wii Points with either a credit card or a pre-paid card and redeem those for digital titles.
While it may no longer be possible to add more Wii Points to your balance, you can still spend any remaining points up until the service is discontinued next week. Although many of the Wii Shop's Virtual Console games would later be released on Wii U and 3DS, the service still has a range of legacy and original titles that haven't appeared on other Nintendo consoles, making this your last opportunity to stock up while you can.
With the Wii Shop Channel's shutdown imminent, Nintendo says that any remaining video-on-demand apps for Wii will also be discontinued. It will still be possible to redownload any purchased software and transfer content to Wii U, although Nintendo says these services will likewise be shut down "in the future." Any unused Wii Points will also vanish. You can read more details about the termination on Nintendo's website.
While the Wii Shop Channel is notable for being Nintendo's first mass market attempt at a digital storefront, it will be best remembered for its wonderful music, which will thankfully live on in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate soundtrack.
This week marked the all-new number one issue of Marvel's latest Guardians Of The Galaxy series--an ongoing comic that has been ominously teased for the past few months by releasing a roster of extremely eclectic heroes as potential candidates for the roster. It's eclectic even by Guardians' standards, which is certainly saying something. But with the wait finally over and the truth of the new lineup revealed, the new trajectory for everyone's favorite rag-tag space heroes has finally been revealed.
Of course, as with most superhero comics, there are some things you should probably be aware of before you pick up this new #1. First, it directly jumps off from the latest crossover event, Infinity Wars--not to be confused with the MCU's Infinity War, though it did involve Thanos and the Infinity Stones--which means some characters have been shuffled around in major ways. The most obvious of the lot is Gamora, who had a rather disturbing heel turn during the Infinity Wars fiasco as she finally found herself more than fed up with her adopted father's antics. It's a bit dicey whether or not she could be called a proper villain right now, but she's certainly not one of the good guys.
And speaking of that adopted father, Thanos himself is, well, dead--but that's another semi-complicated thing to understand if you're making the jump from the movies to the comics. Comics Thanos is obsessed with Death--that is Death with a capital D, the personification of mortality--and his insane universe purging with the Infinity Gauntlet is motivated by his desire to impress her. As such, death (lowercase "d" this time) is a little bit tricky for Thanos, even by comic book standards. During Infinity Wars, he was summerily beheaded, leaving him about as "dead" as any one person could be--but things may not be what they seem.
That's where the new Guardians come in. Everything kicks off with a massive gathering of cosmic heroes (and villains) to see the Mad Titan's last will and testament when things go a bit awry.
It's just turns out that maybe things aren't so final for him after all, and, for as much as Thanos is in love with Death, he's more than happy to try and cheat her, too. So that's really the inciting incident for the formation of the new team--whether they like it or not, Star-Lord and Groot have to join forces with some friends to clean up Thanos' mess, yet again. Hopefully, it'll go a little bit smoother than the time Peter faced off against him on the big screen and basically got everyone killed in the process.
The rest of the team has less cinematic baggage to carry. Beta Ray Bill, one of the most eccentric (and beloved) offshoots of the Thor mythology is tagging along with cosmic telepath Moondragon and kree-hybrid Phyla-Vell, who are joined by a newer addition to the Marvel pantheon: Cosmic Ghost Rider, an alternate take on Frank Castle--yes, that Frank Castle--who has all the powers of Ghost Rider and is also based in space. If that all sounds like nonsense to you, think "Deadpool, but different" and you're most of the way there.
So, yeah, okay, maybe Frank has had his time in the live-action arena on screens both big and small but not this particular version of Frank. You've never seen anything like this, we promise.
At the end of the day, Guardians of the Galaxy #1 manages to serve up a surprisingly accessible on-ramp for one of the Marvel universe's trickiest and most complicated corners by cherry picking just the right of familiarity for new readers and mixing it in with some of the most bonkers deep cuts the cosmic superheroes have to offer. If you're looking for a way to dive into the deep end and you're not afraid of having to do a handful of Wikipedia searches for added context, this is the book for you. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may be in an endless spiral of development controversy, but the dream of the plucky space heroes is alive and well in the comics.
On PS4, Treyarch has kicked off a special four-week event stream in the Black Market dubbed Barbarians. As part of this event, the developer has added 25 new tiers of loot below the Operation Absolute Zero stream, meaning players can unlock more loot than usual per tier. Among the new rewards are outfits, gestures, Reactive Camo, and the KAP 45 pistol.
The developer has also introduced a new Featured playlist on all platforms: Chaos Domination. This mode features two teams of six players and three-second zone capture time. Team Tactical Moshpit, Mercenary Deathmatch Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, and Mercenary Capture Moshpit have also been added to the Featured category.
On Xbox One and PC, Gauntlets are now available for Zombies mode. These are 30-round challenges that have unique rules for each round, and players can earn medals and rewards depending on how many rounds they're able to complete. There are also three new Elixirs, with even more set to arrive in the coming weeks.
Finally, rounding out the update are a handful of improvements and bug fixes across platforms. Among other things, Treyarch has fixed an exploit that allowed players to get a full equipment charge when they switched classes. You can find the full patch notes on Reddit.
Beginning January 23, the Down But Not Out limited-time mode in Blackout will expand to Xbox One and PC, following its debut on PS4 last week. Meanwhile, Black Ops 4's ongoing free Blackout trial is scheduled to end on January 24.
Every January, the Royal Rumble stands out as one of WWE's biggest and more important events of the year. It's the beginning of the road to Wrestlemania and helps to set the tone for how the rest of the year will play out. The annual spectacle has some serious competition this year, though, thanks to NXT. Each time the developmental brand airs one of its TakeOver events on the WWE Network, it has the chance of surpassing the main roster's product in terms of excitement and quality--and the next event, TakeOver Phoenix, is no different.
This is the third time NXT has presented a TakeOver the night before the Royal Rumble, and with all of the brand's championship titles on the line, it has the makings of a historic event. Among the high-profile matches on the card is Tommaso Ciampa defending the NXT Championship against Aleister Black, and Bianca Belair attempting to best reigning NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler.
Also in action are Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong of the Undisputed Era, defending their NXT Tag Team Championships against the War Raiders, as well as Johnny Gargano fighting Ricochet for the NXT North American Championship. Interestingly, there are some major names missing from the TakeOver card, including Velveteen Dream and Undisputed Era leader Adam Cole. While that might be a hint at their involvement in the Royal Rumble, it's entirely possible they'll make some sort of impact during TakeOver.
NXT TakeOver Phoenix airs live on the WWE Network on Saturday, January 26 at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT. A kickoff show will begin one hour prior. Make sure to check out the full card for the event below, as well as our predictions for who will walk out of the Royal Rumble victorious.
NXT TakeOver Phoenix Match Card:
Tommaso Ciampa (c) vs. Aleister Black -- NXT Championship Match
Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Bianca Belair -- NXT Women's Championship Match
The Undisputed Era (c) vs. War Raiders -- NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Ricochet (c) vs. Johnny Gargano -- NXT North American Championship Match
The video streaming service Hulu has announced plans to drop the price for its most popular subscription tier. Starting next month the ad-supported basic plan will drop to $6, down from $8. Its other pricing tiers will remain as they currently are.
The Hulu site already lists the new price, so it'll already be effective for new subscribers. Existing subscribers will see the new price take effect as of February 26. The $6 tier is ad-supported but includes all of Hulu's on-demand programming from participating channel providers, as well as Hulu's slate of original content. A separate $12 tier removes the ads, while a significantly higher $45 tier includes live TV and is aimed at competing with cable subscriptions.
This comes just days after Netflix announced that its own plans would be rising in price. The $8 plan, which was comparable to Hulu's ad-supported plan, will be raised to $9. Netflix's own most popular tier, which includes higher-quality streaming and device compatibility, rose from $11 to $13, while its 4K Ultra-HD plan went from $14 to $16. Netflix was reportedly planning to use the new prices to reinvest in its original programming.
Hulu's decision may have had nothing to do with Netflix's, of course, but it's a clear sign of different approaches to increasingly fierce competition among streaming services. Each service is balancing the development of original programming with its pricing structures to find an ideal match. Meanwhile both services are set to get more competition soon, with the launch of Disney+.
Mortal Kombat 11 went big by holding a kommunity reveal event and livestream to unveil the details of the next entry in this storied, brutal fighting game franchise. Several facets of the game were covered, which included new mechanics, a developing story, a brand new playable character, and a high-profile collaboration with UFC and WWE star Ronda Rousey. But behind the extravagant tongue-in-cheek gore and detailed combat system is series creator and long-time director Ed Boon. During the Mortal Kombat 11 reveal event, we had a moment to catch up with him to talk a little bit about the upcoming entry, how the NetherRealm team has evolved with Injustice and past MK games, and where the wild ideas for the gruesome fatalities come from.
We have Mortal Kombat 11 covered from all angles, so if you aren't caught up, be sure to check out our compilation of all the fatalities so far from the seven playable characters from the event, the story trailer, the introduction of the new character Geras, and the stage presentation of breaking down a few new mechanics. The following interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Ed Boon tells us fatalities are born out of meetings with the NetherRealm team. They have quite the imagination.
How do you and the team keep things fresh after so many years of Mortal Kombat?
I think the big thing is we always want to introduce change. The last thing we want to do is take the last game and just kind of reskin it with better graphics, and then people play it and realize that it's the same game as before. So, we change things around. We change the story, we change the characters, we change the fighting mechanics. Every new Mortal Kombat introduces new elements that keep it fun.
Walk us through the new mechanics and how they change the game in your eyes?
In our last several games, we've had a meter in the bottom of the screen that the players would use. It was like their one resource for enhancing offensive moves, enhancing defensive moves, or saving it up for the big super move. And we split those three elements into two meters: one for offense and one defense. So, when you do an offensive move, you're not using any of the resource for your defensive move or your super move. That defensive move meter and the super move is now up with the health meter. When you get down to 30%, your fatal blow becomes available and that really changes the dynamic of the game that you're playing. It makes for a lot more fun and kind of [creates] tension in the fighting mechanics.
Coming off of Injustice 2 in 2017, what are some of the lessons that you've learned and how have they carried into MK11?
You know, in everything that we do, I think we look at what have we learned from each game, what can we take away, what do people like that we can apply? And I think the meter that players use, we had to kind of make the decision of: should I use it during gameplay or do I save it up for the big kind of super move thing? And when we looked at that and said, you know, we don't want people to never do super moves, the cool cinematic attacks. So, that was a lesson, and we kind of separated that, and it had just be a separate component of enhancing your moves versus doing a Fatal Blow. We're really excited about that change in our game.
What else have you learned in terms of customization, gear, and maybe microtransactions?
A lot. Like with Injustice, that was heavily focused on gear and changing gear. Players constantly getting rewards and stuff like that. And we're certainly trying to separate the visuals of what the gear looks like to what it actually does. Because with Injustice, they were kind of married together. You got a mask or something, it did A, B, and C. In Mortal Kombat 11, you just get the visual mask and then the player programs what it does. So it's really kind of separating the visual and the gameplay. That was one of the lessons that we learned from Injustice 2.
Any comment on what microtransactions will look like in MK11?
Yeah. Well, I guess you know, we absolutely divorced gameplay from any kind of advantages you could get. We really wanted to have it so you can't buy your way to a better character. And honestly, for this game, we're veering away from [that], we're not gonna have loot boxes or anything like that. So, that's big--it's more of an industry direction than it is a fighting game or Mortal Kombat direction. I think the loot boxes worked fine in Injustice because it didn't affect the gameplay and whatnot. But at the same time, we're just kind of steering away from it.
Are there any other games that you look to for inspiration, fighting game or otherwise? When I play this new version of Sub-Zero, maybe I see little bit of Kratos in there with his frozen axe and Fatal Blow.
Yeah, there absolutely has to be some kind of subliminal influence. In our discussions, we've probably said, "Oh, yeah, kind of like how Kratos does this," or maybe we're describing a move, "Oh, maybe how Ryu from Street Fighter does this." For the most part, we're trying to be as original or different as possible. But I think it's inevitable when you make 10 Mortal Kombats, you're going to draw influence from other games, movies, or TV shows.
Do you anticipate any issues with YouTube cracking down on blood and gore, and the platform being used as a streaming service for the community?
I'm not as familiar with the rules of YouTube and stuff like that, but I have seen some stuff of showing blood and gore if you're trying to monetize or advertise, then that'll definitely be conflicting with that. And I kind of understand it. You don't want Pampers advertising over a Mortal Kombat video! So, there is audience-appropriate content, so I certainly wouldn't object or say, "No, Pampers should advertise with Mortal Kombat!"
Are there any thoughts about having a bloodless mode?
We've had that actually for a number of our games, we've had a bloodless mode. Usually, somebody who buys a game called Mortal Kombat, that's had this history of whatever, they kind of know what they're getting. So it's kind of like, "let's make a G-rated version of The Godfather." People are gonna say it doesn't work.
It's always tough to keep fighting games balanced. How do you appeal to a new player base making MK11 accessible while also sustaining a hardcore player base at the same time?
Yeah, that's the million-dollar question and that's the challenge we're facing with every game we make. The right balance of accessibility so most people can enjoy the game and depth where the hardcore players can do it. So, we try to make the input start moves as broad and reaching as possible in terms of players who can do them, then also put nuances in the fighting where people can count frames and are able to kind of dissect the fight. And it is something that we work on every single game.
Let's talk about Geras. MK has a long history with many of its characters that we've been playing for so long. How do you work in a new character? And also, how do you incorporate some very different mechanics? What was the inspiration behind bringing Geras into the mix?
A lot of Geras came from the stories that were being written. This [new] character Kronika, she hates her minions and her allies, and we knew that we needed a character to be her ally. We started talking about a couple of the visual designs and features, and that's when Geras was born.
With that kind of framework in mind, our designers thought, "Okay, what can we make him do in the game?" That's where they came up with things like, he can rewind time in the middle of the game. It's kind of like a multi-step process. In terms of in Geras, his original idea came from what the writers were doing for the story.
We've seen NetherRealm games have an esports following and played at EVO. Any different type of push you'll be making with MK11? Are you doing anything specific for the fighting game community?
Yes, well, as far as the fighting game community is concerned, in our last two games, Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2, we've had Pro Series tournaments. There'll be qualifiers and there'll be a big tournament. Or we'll hold an event that's a tournament that involves prize money and all that. So we've been very heavily supporting our games long after launch, or as long as a year or more after launch.
How did the Ronda Rousey collaboration come up? How did that happen?
We have relationship with people in different industries, WWE, UFC, and there's always collaboration and discussion. At one point somebody said, "Wouldn't it be cool to have Ronda Rousey in a game?" We're like, "Yes, it would be cool. Let's make her Sonya." Sonya and Ronda just seemed like a perfect fit, perfect marriage. So that kind of felt like it was meant to be.
Ronda comes with some baggage, so are there any concerns with past history in terms of who you collaborate with?
I guess I'm not aware of it. Everything from our experience with her, she's just been awesome. She's an unbelievable partner to work with. She brought so much energy to the recording sessions and promotion, so she's been great.
You've probably been asked this before, but we have to know, how keep do you topping yourselves in terms of fatalities?!
Oh god! Well, the fatality process is...it's a meeting. There's a meeting and everybody who has an idea comes with them written down, and then we go, "Okay, it's your turn," and that person stands up and says, "Okay, now Scorpion starts off by doing this. And then he does this."
And every once a while someone will go, "Oh man, that's kind of over the top, you know? I don't think we should...we kind of cross a line." And then, "Okay, well, how about he does..." And it's like a negotiation.
The ones that kind of resonate with the group, and myself, we'll say "Okay, let's storyboard that one, see how it'll work." And then after we storyboard, we motion capture, get cameras on it, and then we add effects, sound effects, and everything.
Do you or any of the team ever step back and think, "Oh boy, that's pretty messed up! I need to re-think some things real quick!"
Well, the fatalities are an absolute work of the NetherRealm team, a sort of community of all the developers. So the ideas come from all over the place. It's not one person coming up with all the fatalities.
BioWare has announced two demos for Anthem, and the first--the VIP demo--launches for select players this weekend. The second demo will be open for all, and will launch closer to Anthem's release date.
Regardless of whether you plan on playing the VIP or free demo, you can pre-load the client right now. It's a 26GB download on consoles and 44GB on PC.
The VIP demo is available for anyone who pre-orders Anthem or is an EA or Origin Access subscriber. You don't have to go it alone either, as getting access to the VIP demo nets you three free invites you can send to others. In order to refer a friend, just download the demo, install it, and launch. Then, go to the "refer a friend" tab to receive a unique link you can send to someone else.
According to VG247, your friends don't even have to use the same system as you. An Xbox One player can send a free invite to someone to use on PS4 or PC, for example. However, Anthem does not support cross-system play. If you want to play with your friends, you'll need to tell them to use their free invite on the same system you're using.
The VIP Anthem demo goes live on Friday, January 25 at 9AM PT / 10AM ET / 5PM UK. It ends Sunday, January 27 at 6PM PT / 9PM ET, which is January 28 at 2AM in the UK. The follow-up free demo will be February 1-3, and begin and end at the same times as the VIP demo. Anthem is an always online game, so you'll need an internet connection to play either demo, as well as Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus if you're planning on playing on Xbox One or PS4.
Both Anthem demos are identical in content, so you won't miss out on much playing the second free one. You'll start at level 10 about halfway through Anthem's campaign, and have access to the Ranger with the choice to unlock another Javelin of your choice. Your character will be able to go up to level 15, and you'll be able to explore the world, as well as complete a story mission and a stronghold. Any progress you make in the VIP demo carries over into the free demo, but neither one will carry over into the main game. However, playing the VIP demo will unlock a free gift in the main game at launch.
Anthem releases on February 22 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. If you have EA Access, you can play the Xbox One and PC version on February 15.
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