How we access video games is changing all the time. Arcades gave way to home consoles with cartridges, before technology evolved to host games on discs. In recent years, the popularity of digital purchases has grown, as Xbox One X and PS4 Pro offer 1TB hard drives and Switch presents an easy way to play through both indie and triple-A titles on the go. Now, it looks like the next step is cloud gaming.
Several game publishers and hardware makers have already adjusted their long-term strategies to explore the possibilities that such a service could present--with Sony notably being one of the first which has allowed the company to get ahead of the curve. Cloud gaming puts more titles in front of more players after all, as it removes platform restrictions. If a game is running in the cloud, it can be streamed to consoles, PCs, handhelds, or mobile devices. The only true restriction to cloud gaming is internet speed, as you need a strong and constant connection to run your games without lag or stuttering.
In the following gallery, we point out the most prominent companies that are making strides in cloud gaming. Some are further along in developing their respective services in comparison to others, but each seems convinced to explore the technology or, at the very least, adapt their current subscription platforms to incorporate cloud-based support.
Sony / PlayStation
Sony is one of the earlier companies to take a stab at cloud stream gaming. In 2012, Sony bought Gaikai, a company that creates technology designed for streaming video games through a wireless or cloud-based network. Sony used this tech to develop streaming support for its PlayStation consoles.
Via Remote Play, you can stream PS3 games through your PSP or PS Vita as well as PS4 titles through PS Vita. Remote Play isn't seen on every PS3 title, but all PS4 games--with the exception of those that utilize additional peripherals--support the service.
There's also PlayStation Now, a cloud gaming subscription service which allows users to access certain PS2, PS3, and PS4 games by streaming the titles to their PS4 or PC for a monthly fee. In September 2018, Sony announced and released an update for PlayStation Now which allows subscribers to download PS2 and PS4 titles to the PS4, letting you play games even if you don't have the recommended 5 MB per second internet speed.
PS4 also supports Share Play, which allows you to stream a game to a PSN friend, even if they don't own the game themselves. Share Play also allows you and a friend to play the same game together if the title supports local multiplayer. Share Play is free, but both you and your friend need to be PlayStation Plus members to access it. Like PlayStation Now, the recommended internet speed is 5 MB per second, but the service can work with as low as 2 MB. Unfortunately, you can't just game with a friend on Share Play forever. You can stream your game with whomever you want and for as many times as you desire, but each Share Play session can only last up to an hour. You can only stream your game to one person at a time too.
Microsoft / Xbox
Microsoft officially joined the game streaming party with the reveal of Project xCloud in October 2018. The service allows you to stream games directly to your PC, phone, or tablet via hardware in remote data centers.
Although it isn't live yet, Xbox's head of gaming cloud Kareem Choudhry has said that public trials will begin this year. A demo of Project xCloud was shown off during the March 2019 Inside Xbox livestream, which showcased Forza Horizon 4 being played on an Android mobile device that was also wirelessly connected to an Xbox One controller.
Microsoft has also launched Game Stack, a platform specifically designed to help developers build and launch cloud-connected games. The dev kit combines Microsoft's services and platforms with Azure and PlayFab--giving aspiring creators access to DirectX, Mixer, Power BI, Havok, Visual Studio, Windows, Xbox Game Studios, Xbox Live, and Simplygon.
Xbox One doesn't have a streaming service yet, but it has the building blocks in place to do so, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer already claiming the plan is for the console's Game Pass to expand to "every device." During a November 2018 Microsoft earnings call, CEO Satya Nadella also mentioned bringing Game Pass to PC. And through Project xCloud, Xbox's subscription service could become a Netflix-style streaming platform.
Xbox Game Pass already offers hundreds of digital titles for download at a monthly fee. For as long as you pay for the subscription, you get access to any of the games offered through the service and can uninstall and redownload titles at your leisure. Much like Netflix, Game Pass' library changes over time, with unpopular titles being replaced with new ones--which include original Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games.
Nintendo
Nintendo hasn't made huge strides in cloud-based game streaming, but the company is already experimenting with the technology. You just need to live in Japan to experience it.
In Japan, you can play a cloud version of Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on Switch. You own the game, but most of it is saved on the cloud while a tiny download is on the Switch's SD card. Theoretically (we haven't tried it), with a strong internet connection, you can play either game fairly smoothly, even in handheld mode. Nintendo has made no announcements for whether more games will get this cloud-based treatment for Switch, or whether this service will extend internationally to other countries.
Electronic Arts
EA isn't in cloud stream gaming; not yet anyway. The company's current work on Project Atlas means it will most likely be a part of the conversation one day.
During EA's E3 2018 press conference, the company first showcased the then unnamed project, which is designed to bring the publisher's library of games to the cloud. EA ran a demo during the gaming event, and CEO Andrew Wilson promised that the new tech would allow you to play any of EA's games on whatever device you wanted.
Back in October 2018, in a blog post, EA chief technology officer Ken Moss announced 1,000 employees had begun work on Project Atlas. "This will be a fully integrated platform, capable of building the scalable, social, and large-scale experiences of the future," Moss wrote. "So, while in the past, features like cloud hosting, matchmaking, marketplace, data, AI, achievements, and social were separate from the development tools in the engine, the Project Atlas platform will be able to implement all of these services natively within a unified solution."
Since this announcement, EA has remained rather quiet about Project Atlas. However, Moss has confirmed the project is "already underway" so additional details will most likely come out within the next year.
Verizon
According to The Verge, Verizon is testing its own variation of a cloud streaming service for games. Called Verizon Gaming, the service downloads as an app to a Nvidia Shield and then can stream your cloud-saved collection of games to your PC or mobile device.
Verizon, however, has not confirmed the existence of such a service. Supposed testers for the alpha version of the service said, back in January 2019, that Verizon Gaming currently doesn't allow you to save your in-game progress and lags while you play. If Verizon Gaming does exist, it's most likely still in a very early stage of development. Screenshots from the test showcase a wide variety of supported titles, including PS4 exclusives like God of War and console-only games like Red Dead Redemption 2.
Google
Google has already finished beta testing for its cloud-based streaming service for games. Project Stream is designed to stream any game to your PC via the Google Chrome browser. It requires a much stronger connection than the other services listed here--Google advises a 25 MB per second internet speed--but it works pretty well.
During Project Stream's public beta testing, we played Assassin's Creed Odyssey and the game ran extremely smooth. There wasn't any perceptible input lag, and although there was some noticeable compression, image quality was still fairly high. Project Stream seems to already be in a playable state, so we wouldn't be surprised to hear additional details about the service this year.
Nvidia
Even if its service is still in beta, Nvidia has been in game cloud streaming since October 2015. Geforce Now offers access to a library of hundreds of games, all of which can be streamed to your PC.
Nvidia recommends a 50 MB per second internet connection to play games at 60fps at 1080p, but 10 MB per second is all you need to play at 30fps at 720p. There hasn't been an announcement detailing when Geforce Now will officially launch, but Nvidia has continuously updated the service throughout the years--adding additional features like Twitch streaming support and in-game voice chat.
Amazon
Next to nothing is known about Amazon's upcoming video game streaming service other than that it's being made and, according to The Information, unlikely to launch prior to 2020.
Amazon also owns Twitch, though. Admittedly Twitch isn't the same as cloud gaming, but it does offer a form of game streaming by letting you watch an entire video game you don't own be played on your PC, console, or mobile device via an internet connection. There's potential for Twitch to lay the foundation for a new cloud-based gaming platform.
Other Standouts
Though they don't carry large names behind them, there are a few other companies making notable strides in gaming via cloud streaming. We've detailed what they are below.
Blade has been expanding its service with its Shadow boxes, which are hardware machines that host its cloud streaming app. What's more convenient is that Shadow can also be used on any device that can run the application (Windows 7, 8.1, 10, macOS, Android, and iOS). It's worth noting, however, that paying the monthly subscription to Shadow allows you to stream a gaming-caliber Windows 10 PC anywhere--which can then be used to access and play your games. You're not streaming the games themselves. The most recent Shadow box, called Shadow Ghost, isn't the best cloud-based game streaming experience we've ever had, but as stated in our review, it "showcases where gaming can go and where gaming hardware could fit into that future."
Parsec also offers a means of streaming games to your device, specifically PC. However, like Twitch, it's designed moreso as a means of sharing the experience of a game with another person. Via Parsec, you gain access to many other players' streams, which you can then watch on your PC. Hosts can also invite a viewer to participate in the game they're playing or pass control of the game off to another person whenever they want. With Parsec, you and your friends (or strangers) can play the same game together even when you're miles apart.
Throughout the 2000s, the gaming industry saw tremendous growth and innovation. With the continuing rise of online games, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 reaching broader audiences, and Valve's dominating online marketplace Steam expanding PC gaming even further, 2009 served as a solid capper for a decade that saw great change. However, what made 2009 an especially interesting year was the amount of games that made some bold changes to established genres.
For this special feature, GameSpot is taking a look back at the standout games of 2009. Whether it was the PlayStation 3 hitting a stellar stride with exclusives such as Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2, From Software's Demon's Souls offering an uncompromisingly tough approach to online action-RPG gameplay, or Batman: Arkham Asylum aggressively bucking the stigma of bad superhero games--the year that was 2009 had a variety of titles that made it an especially exciting time.
In order of their respective western release dates, here are our picks for the games that made 2009 a very special year for gaming. If you want to see our previous roundups focusing on other fantastic years in gaming, be sure to check out our features below.
There are a handful of demos that I had a hard time deleting off the already pitifully-sized Xbox 360 20GB hard drive. Blitz: The League, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, Dead or Alive 4, Stranglehold, Ninety Nine Nights, Lost Planet, or Just Cause 2 were demos that I could pick up, goof around in for a half hour and put back down without a steep time investment. However, one demo stood above them all.
Skate was a game that not only was easy to pick up and play, but if you were willing to invest the time, it proved to have one of the most satisfying skill ceilings in all of gaming to break through. I must've spent over 100 hours replaying the Skate demo over the years, trying out new lines, experimenting with new tricks, and seeing how long I could keep that awesome 3x multiplier going which automatically turned up the music and over-saturated the colors to replicate what it was like to be in the zone. Finding that one perfect stair set and hitting it over and over gave me more satisfaction than the entirety of any Army of Two or Splinter Cell: Double Agent demo ever did. In fact, I never even ended up buying the original Skate, because the demo gave me all I needed, but in 2009, I couldn't help myself when Skate 2 was released.
San Vanelona had huge hills to bomb, mega-ramps to conquer, skate-parks to unlock, and this time, you could walk up that 11-stair if you wanted to. Yet, like the original, nothing was more satisfying than skating around until I found that perfect staircase, setting a respawn point, and just hitting it over and over until it looked right--until it looked clean.
There's still a fervent fan base out there waiting for Skate 4, but don't forget that just like that elusive stair set, Skate 2--the pinnacle of skateboarding video games--is still out there. You just have to be dedicated enough to look for it. | Nick Sherman
Street Fighter IV (Console Release) | February 17
The wait between Street Fighter III and Street Fighter IV was an excruciating 11 years. In that time, an incredibly passionate community developed around Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and thanks to its incredibly deep, skill-based mechanics, that game remained exciting to play throughout--and still is. However, with each passing year, fans also felt the absence of a new entry in Capcom's fighting game franchise in a more pronounced way. So when the fourth mainline entry in the was announced, it felt like the community sprang back to life, energized and hungry to prove themselves as the best in a new generation of Street Fighter.
Street Fighter IV launched for Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2009 and was received as both fresh and modern, as well as true to its roots. It took the tried and true 2D fighting of the classic franchise but presented it with an eye-catching 3D visual style. Characters were bold and chunky, with designs and animations bringing out the unique characteristics of the eclectic cast. Environments were vibrant and dynamic, evoking the same sense of place that Street Fighter II did all those years back.
Most importantly, though, it was incredibly fun to play. The mechanics rewarded those fans that had spent years maintaining their skills with Street Fighter III: Third Strike, with demanding combos to master, tricky strategies to develop and employ, and various unique fighting styles to dig into and learn the ins and outs of. Crucially, however, it was also immediately fun for casual players looking to indulge in Street Fighter nostalgia. Mechanics such as the Focus Attack introduced a new kind of tension to the way matches unfolded, while also further increasing the depth of playing by having the ability to dash cancel or bait. Street Fighter IV re-ignited interest in fighting games and, in many ways, kicked off a renaissance for the genre. Fighting games wouldn't be what they are today without it. | Tamoor Hussain
Killzone 2 | February 27
Like many, I was swept up by the hype surrounding Killzone 2. Thanks to that 2005 reveal trailer, showing off bombastic, large-scale battles, I was really enamored with the potential of next-gen gaming--even if it seemed a bit too good to be true. It was a hell of a way to sell people on the game and the upcoming PS3, and at the time, there was a lot of debate if the final version could even come close to it. It eventually came out four years later in 2009, and surprisingly, it managed to live up to the hype. I really adored Killzone 2 for PS3, and it's one of my personal favorite games for the system.
When I think back on Killzone 2 today, I still remember all the intense firefights with the Helghast legion, with the orange glow of their helmet goggles and near unintelligible speech making battles feel eerie and hectic simultaneously. However, what really sticks with me now is how much of a jump the sequel was from the original game. Truth be told, I was really let down by the original game when it first came out. Known as the "Halo killer" in the lead up to its 2004 release, the Killzone on PS2 had also had a considerable amount of hype behind it. Unfortunately, that extra attention didn't do it too many favors once it launched. The game turned out to be a janky, technical mess with the campaign's spotlight set on an unlikeable cast of characters. To put it simply, I didn't care for it.
So it was surprising to see a game in such stark contrast to the original. In a lot of ways, Killzone 2 was where the series really grew into itself, as opposed to the sketch of concepts and ideas seen in the original game. Not only was I actively engaged in the lore of the world and the plot following the new lead protagonist, but the expanded multiplayer also offered a lot of fun with its take on class-gameplay. Unf Killzone, nor any of its sequels, ever became the "Halo Killer" that it was hyped up to be, and that's OK. I still hang onto the hope the franchise isn't dead, and that we'll see another return to the series on the next PlayStation console. If that happens, I wouldn't be surprised if they re-introduce it in a similar fashion to Killzone 2--with a trailer that seems almost too good to be true. | Alessandro Fillari
MadWorld | March 10
It was the breakout release of Bayonetta in 2009 that gave Platinum Games the reputation it has today as the studio that can deliver on stylish gameplay mixed with an over-the-top story and characters. But Bayonetta wasn't Platinum's first game. That honor goes to the oft-forgotten title for Wii, MadWorld.
A brutal romp of blood and violence, MadWorld puts you in the role of Jack, a contestant in DeathWatch, a game show where you score points for murdering people in the most violent way possible. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, with the over-the-top violence that takes a light-hearted comedic tone. Adding to the comedy is the voice talents of Greg Proops and John Dimaggio, who act as Deathwatch's commentators and deliver some memorably raunchy lines.
You'll throw people into fans, impale them on the side of a train covered in spikes, and hit them with a nail-covered bat into a giant dart board, to name just a few ways that you'll commit horrible acts of murder. Its simple controls and premise is brought a long way thanks to the creativity of your bloodbath and made more fun by acting moves out with the Wii's motion controls.
The gore and bright red blood stands out in a comic book-inspired black and white art style, which gives the game a visual look that still holds up despite having released on the aged Wii hardware. Tying the whole thing together is the game's excellent soundtrack. Platinum brought together local artists to record original songs for each level, and the mix of hip hop and industrial metal really sells the violent yet playful attitude of the game.
MadWorld never got an official sequel. Some characters and concepts from the game made their way into Anarchy Reigns, another Platinum joint that is underappreciated (but to be fair, kind of a mess). While Platinum has moved on at this point, with MadWorld's 10 anniversary having just passed, I still hold out hope we can get an HD remaster of this game someday. It deserves at least that much. | Jean-Luc Seipke
Resident Evil 5 | March 13
Arguably, the most successful sequels in video games have been titles that don't deviate too much from what made its predecessors great, but expand upon its originality or gameplay in meaningful ways. Obviously, Resident Evil 5 wasn't the first sequel in the franchise, but it was a continuation of 4's radical departure from the series norm that took it even further away from its survival-horror roots.
Resident Evil 5 had huge bosses, bloodier quicktime events, larger enemy variety, but what really sticks out in my mind more than any expansion in gameplay was, of course, the expansion in biceps. In fact, Chris Redfield's biceps could be an apt metaphor for the late 2000s of gaming in general. Resident Evil 5 featured bigger guns, bigger explosions, and bigger set-pieces--all of which were endemic to the then-burgeoning divide between indie games and AAA titles. I can respect that there were those who missed the thrill of bundling themselves up under the covers with the lights out ready to spook themselves silly, but wasn't there something equally as silly as teaming up with a friend to pull off the secret melee moves like Chris's haymaker on 10 enemies at once? What about pulling them off on Wesker's smug face? Don't forget that long before we were pressing "F" to pay our respects, we were pressing "X" to punch a boulder out of the way.
While I adore Resident Evil 7, and am thrilled that the Resident Evil 2 Remake was received as well as it's been, I'll always be grateful for the short, but sweet detour we took with Resident Evil 5. Not everything about it worked in its favor, but most of it did, and it still holds up as one of gaming's best co-op experiences. | Nicolas Sherman
X-Men Origins: Wolverine | May 1
They don't make games like X-Men Origins: Wolverine anymore. Mid-tier movie tie-in games used to be much more commonplace in the '90s and early 2000s, but their popularity waned given that most of them simply weren't very good. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was an anomaly--a tie-in that not only was pretty good, but was actually far superior entertainment than the movie it was based on (a movie that was so bad that it was retconned within the wider X-Men movie timeline in one of the post-credit sequences in Deadpool 2).
X-Men Origins: Wolverine worked in large part because it embraced the brutal, destructive nature of Wolverine just right. Previous games starring the grumpy Logan sanitized the effects that razor-sharp, indestructible claws would have on his enemies. X-Men Origins: Wolverine embraced the gore, putting up Mortal Kombat levels of blood, dismemberment, and decapitations. It was sick and it was gross, and it was one of the few times the character got to be that destructive in video game form. So while the gameplay itself could get rote, it more than delivered on the power fantasy of being Wolverine--a near indestructible superhero who's only ever one tortured snarl away from slicing someone's stomach open. | Randolph Ramsay
Minecraft | May 10
Among my friends growing up, I was always the pioneer when it came to introducing them to games they may have overlooked. Animal Crossing, Guitar Hero, Final Fantasy VII--these were all titles that at first glance, seemed too shallow, or too deep for them to pass up our nightly bouts over Xbox Live. I'd always considered myself the local trendsetter in that sense, but it wasn't until I finally got around to playing Minecraft after being too intimidated to try it that I realized just how square I was.
Originally released in 2009, I didn't play Minecraft until it was released on Xbox 360 three years later. I had just moved, and for two weeks, we didn't have cable or internet at our house. Without much else to do, I explored this new unfamiliar environment. I should clarify though--I went exploring in Minecraft, not my new neighborhood. To this day, I still feel a wry smile come to my face when I think about the first night I spent in that world, buried in a hole in the ground, petrified of the hissing spiders or moaning zombies festering above me. It wasn't long before I had built a three-story mansion, a greenhouse, a minecart track that took me from one side of the world to the other, a full set of diamond armor, a watchtower that overlooked my perpetual burning Netherrack blocks that spelled out "Nick is cool," and of course, my tamed wolf that accompanied my spelunking.
More than just a "Lego 2.0," the gaming industry would not be where it is today without Minecraft. I could point to the growth of YouTube, and how Minecraft single-handedly popularized Let's Plays. Public schools have used Minecraft to teach children computer programming. Famous paintings and cities have been recreated 1:1 using the game's Creative Mode. Minecraft took us to the moon, and down to the deepest depths of the netherrealm where the strongest enemies awaited our bravest explorers.
One would be remiss not to recognize that a game based around building blocks was so fundamental in laying the foundation for the next generation of gamers. A generation that, even years later, fervently contributes to the cultural acceptance and appreciation of games as a whole. | Nicolas Sherman
Punch-Out!! | May 18
After a major success on the NES, and a well-received sequel on the Super Nintendo, Lil Mac, and the Punch-Out series skipped a generation before finally landing a sequel on the Nintendo Wii. As someone who grew up absolutely loving the Punch-Out!! games and boxing, I was beyond excited to hear a sequel had been announced for the Wii and picked it up immediately to put back on my virtual boxing gloves.
You could imagine that one of the difficult things to do with the Punch-Out series was to make a sequel with modern sensibilities. The original game is a product of its time--an era when a small simple design concept could formulate an entire game. And while the simplicity of its design is precisely why I love the series so much, that does make it a challenge to bring something new to the table in terms of a sequel while capturing the original spirit.
So, with Punch-Out!! for the Wii, a gimmick was introduced. Similar to Wii-Sports, Punch-Out!! would allow players to use the motion controls of the Wii to box against its opponents. And, upon trying this out, I immediately realized something: This absolutely doesn't work for a game like Punch-Out!!, which requires immediate and precise reactions. Thankfully, the game allows you to play without motion controls, and as a result, I finally got to play a Punch-Out game the way it was meant to be played. I have no idea when or if Nintendo will ever release another sequel, so I'm glad I at least got to live out the dream one last time with Doc Louise at my corner. | Dave Klein
Infamous | May 26
Playing through Infamous for the first time was something of an odd experience for me. I generally enjoy superhero games, especially when set in an open world, but this game, coming from Sly Cooper creators Sucker Punch, felt like it was trying way too hard to distance itself from the developer's past work. In a large contrast to Sly Cooper, which was a very upbeat and family-friendly series, Infamous was a much darker game, and it often felt off-putting in how much it went out of its way to present a gritty superhero origin story. Though its tone matched that of some darker comic book stories, like DMZ or The Dark Knight Returns, its approach initially rubbed me the wrong way.
This really hit me when it came time to explore the setting of Empire City. Following a major disaster, much of the city is left in disarray, which made for an especially depressing time exploring and testing out protagonist Cole McGrath's lighting-infused abilities. After spending some time getting used to the movement and flow of traversal, I slowly started to come around to Infamous. One of the most surprising things I liked about the game was how enjoyable it was to move around, and it was clear that Sucker Punch put their experience working on Sly Cooper's platforming mechanics to good use. Featuring a morality system, I generally stuck with playing the good guy in Cole's story, which made for an especially satisfying arc to see through.
After playing through the game for the first time, and seeing how different the game can be with your different choices, Infamous made for a really fun open-world adventure game that offered some great payoff. Though I feel that the sequels ended up totally surpassing it, thanks in part to its efforts to lighten up the story, the original game still holds up well on its own. | Alessandro Fillari
Red Faction: Guerrilla | June 2
The original Red Faction never seemed to get the level of attention I thought it deserved. Thanks to its GeoMod tech, which allowed you to freely destroy the game's walls, floors, and ceilings--even in multiplayer--the game was an incredible technical achievement. Its sequel dialed that back, and it wasn't until eight years later, in Red Faction: Guerrilla, that the series came back with a game that tries to do something interesting with destruction.
Guerrilla's approach to destruction was quite different; whereas the original Red Faction had been about destroying the world, Guerrilla gave you the ability to destroy what was in it. Whether with explosives or your trusty sledgehammer, you were free to destroy buildings, bridges, and other structures. The surrounding open-world third-person shooter gameplay was fine, but it was the freedom to wreck whatever was in front of you--and have it actually collapse into pieces--that made Guerrilla so much fun.
The level of destruction found in Guerrilla remains a rarity in games, which made the 2018 re-release, the offensively titled Re-Mars-tered Edition, an exciting proposition. It's not a full-on remaster, and its open-world gameplay has aged poorly, but blowing things up is still wildly satisfying. | Chris Pereira
The Sims 3 | June 2
I struggle to think of a game that has swallowed more of my life than The Sims 3. While The Sims 4 moved in a new direction with some interesting mechanical changes, my biggest disappointment with it was the lack of an open world free of load screens, which was first introduced in The Sims 3 and resulted in a wonderfully seamless experience. Removing discrete lots divided by load screens not only enabled each town to feel more like a real city replete with social spaces, workplaces, and homes, but it also opened the door for my favourite expansion in the Sims series, The Sims 3: World Adventures. World Adventures lets you travel to Sim versions of Egypt, China, and France where you can explore and puzzle your way through tombs, undertake a wide variety of quests, and uncover artifacts which you can store in your home or sell for sweet Simoleons.
The joy in playing Sims games is so alive and well in The Sims 3 especially given there are so many ways to play. You can approach it as a home builder, fashion designer, chaos bringer, virtual dollhouse, or the way I do, as an RPG, where I work my little Sims to the bone in order to achieve all of their short- and long-term aspirations in as little time as possible. I still constantly return to The Sims 3 and it astounds me that the game is already ten years old. The simulation genre has seen so many iterations and entries but none compare to the feeling of freedom and joyful variety that can be found in The Sims 3. | Jess McDonell
Prototype | June 9
I was a big admirer of Radical Entertainment's game The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. As an open world where you play as the giant green bruiser, you get to break, pulverize and smash stuff at your leisure. It was a simple concept, but its setting and surprisingly in-depth mechanics made for a really fun game that was way better than it had any right to be. The developers eventually went on to make another game called Prototype, taking the basic concept of their previous game and fitting it around an original story. When looking at Prototype in the broader sense, it's got a lot of parallels with Infamous, the other open-world superhero game released in 2009. But in stark contrast to its rival game, this one gradually shifts from the initial superhero formula into something of a full-blown monster movie by game's end.
Unlike Infamous, there's no morality system in Prototype. You play as the brooding anti-hero Alex Mercer, who possesses bio-organic powers that allow him to shapeshift, form sharp objects with his hands, and generally just wreck stuff around New York City. It plays very similarly to Hulk: Ultimate Destruction; matching its traversal and combat mechanics to a tee. Surprisingly, Infamous is a far more low-key game compared to the wanton destruction and carnage seen in Prototype. I knew going in that I was playing as an anti-hero, who was more than likely making things worse for everyone by simply existing. Though there were a few heroic actions to be found, they were peppered in-between moments where I'd pick up taxis--likely full of innocent civilians--and chuck it at a group of soldiers wielding rocket-launchers in Time Square.
By the end, Prototype went from a dark superhero origin story to a creature-feature showing similar shades to The Thing--with tendrils and bio-organic viscera caking much of the cityscape. And honestly, I really respected the game for taking such a turn. Prototype would eventually get a sequel, but it would, unfortunately, be Radical Entertainment's final game; which is a real shame. Throughout 2009, there was a lot of talk about the comparisons between Infamous and Prototype, but in truth, they're totally different games. Whereas the former tries to contextualize its setting and player-agency through its morality system, Prototype chucks all that out in favor of some dumb, guilt-free, anti-hero thrills. | Alessandro Fillari
Shadow Complex | August 19
I've been a longtime fan of games under the metroidvania tag. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night remains one of my favorite games to this day--and I'm always down to replay Super Metroid at any point in time. So, when Shadow Complex was announced for Xbox Live Arcade's Summer of Arcade promotion, I was definitely intrigued. Let's not forget: At this point, Xbox Live Arcade had been absolutely crushing it with titles, and the first Summer of Arcade brought what I felt were some of the best games of its console generation with Castle Crashers, Braid, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 in 2008.
And, to my great joy, Shadow Complex completely held up with the best of them. The game was a fine-tuned metroidvania game with well-placed secrets, interesting power-ups, and balanced gameplay. It also managed to stand out from both Metroid and Castlevania, creating its own style within the sub-genre. Outside of utilizing a more modern day-inspired, militaristic setting, the game also featured a 2.5D perspective, with enemies not just appearing on a flat plane, but also along the player's z-axis.
While these games can get repetitive at times with their inherent backtracking, somehow Shadow Complex managed to hold my attention the entire time, and I absolutely loved exploring the map for all of its hidden goodies. It was truly a treat to have a brand-new and well-crafted IP within the metroidvania genre, and it's just a shame we have yet to see a sequel. | Dave Klein
Batman: Arkham Asylum | August 25
No one expected Batman: Arkham Asylum to be anything but yet another mediocre attempt at cashing in on a popular property. Games based on superheroes were notorious for being sub-par--why would Arkham Asylum be any different? Its developer, Rocksteady Studios, had only shipped one title--the unremarkable first-person shooter Urban Reign. Why would anyone expect much out of the studio? How wrong we all were.
Batman: Arkham Asylum surprised players like a gunshot in a dark alley. Not only did it exceed expectations, it set the standard for how games based on licensed properties should be. But even that is underselling its achievements, as Arkham Asylum was exceptional in so many ways. It went above and beyond in everything from its storytelling to the way it characterized by iconic DC heroes and villains. It was immediately clear that Rocksteady's developers were fans of the source material and had gone the extra mile to make sure that reverence was represented. They brought back Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to voice Batman and Joker; worked with Paul Dini, writer of the beloved Batman: The Animated Series to guide the story, and ensured that the core tenets of what makes Batman, Batman was represented. Arkham Asylum is a game in which players get to live out their fantasy of being the Dark Knight, using their wits and physical prowess to stalk bad guys and dispatch them with a cold, calculated precision.
It depicted the universe of Batman in a way no one had before and, to this day, remains one of the most compelling Batman entertainment experience out there. Rocksteady would, of course, push their vision even further with Arkham City and Knight, but the fundamentals of those follow-ups were established--and in many cases perfected--in Asylum. | Tamoor Hussain
Scribblenauts | September 15
I remember when I first heard of the incredibly unique concept behind Scribblenauts. It was a game where you had to solve puzzles, but in order to do so, you had to use a notepad. And anything you wrote, would become conjure up into existence. It was so simple, yet so brilliant. And at the same time, there was hardly a game that could match its originality.
Once I popped in the game, I immediately started scribbling the first things that came to mind. "Ninja!", "Samurai!", "Sword!" (You can see a theme here). What's that, there's a pit in front of me? "Wings!" And, lo and behold, a pair of angelic wings would appear, allowing my character to fly. Or maybe, if I was feeling a little more steampunk that day, I'd give myself a jetpack. It was a beautiful sandbox adventure, and the later games would improve upon it in exciting ways. | Dave Klein
Halo 3: ODST | September 23
Halo 3: ODST felt like the first truly experimental Halo game. Bungie had firmly established a formula by the time of its release in 2009, and while ODST might not have abandoned the core first-person shooter gameplay of past entries, it did represent a fairly bold foray for a game series that was still Microsoft's crown jewel and Xbox's biggest core franchise.
ODST has the expected action-packed levels, but they are stitched into an open-world environment, letting you approach enemy positions from multiple angles. Missions can be tackled in any order as part of an investigation into what happened to your squad. You play as a member of the ODSTs, rather than the Master Chief, and are effectively weaker as a result. At the time, it wisely didn't seek to undercut the multiplayer audience of Halo 3 by offering a new, standalone mode, instead delivering a Horde mode in the form of Firefight. Combined with the ability to play the campaign with a friend, ODST was a great co-op package, although I appreciated the solitary feeling of traversing New Mombasa in the rain alone.
These were gambles, but they paid off. The deliberate pacing of the campaign helps it to stand out amongst its fellow entries in the series. Its noir-style storytelling and moody soundtrack help distinguish it further. ODST was the first solid indication that a Halo game could work without the Master Chief (even if Halo Reach is the only other game to truly capitalize on that).
As the name suggests, ODST is essentially a spin-off, and its campaign is not as lengthy as that of the core entries. But it's nonetheless a game that's more than worthy of the Halo name, and one that's thankfully made easy to check out today; an enhanced version of its campaign is playable through The Master Chief Collection. | Chris Pereira
Demon's Souls | October 7
At this point, it's hard to say anything new about Demon's Souls. GameSpot's 2009 Game of the Year might not have had the same impact as its follow-up Dark Souls, but it's a watershed release for developer From Software and the games industry overall.
Demon's Souls was a difficult game. It was incredibly easy to die to basic enemies, monstrous bosses, and hidden traps--and when I went down, I lost all my hard-earned progress. But the loop of finding my corpse, regaining what I lost, and overcoming that same beast that beat me? It led to a sense of triumph that few other games can offer.
Demon's Souls passed these traits on to its descendants Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and its DNA is easy to see in pre-release material for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which I am also very excited to play. The "live, die, repeat" mentality of the game inspired others like Nioh, Salt & Sanctuary, Lords of the Fallen, and The Surge. And let's not forgot how often the term "Dark Souls of X" crops up in games coverage--that wouldn't have happened without Demon's Souls first.
Revisiting the game now, however, isn't quite the same experience. I could still try to conquer the Arches alone, but the online servers are shut down. All hope isn't lost though: director Hidetaka Miyazaki said he's OK with another studio remastering the game, a la Dark Souls. | Tony Wilson
Brutal Legend | October 13
Brutal Legend is one of my favourite games of all time. It's not just a wacky and over-the-top adventure game from Double Fine, it's basically a love letter to metal music featuring the voice of Jack Black in what I have no doubt about saying is one of his finest performances to date. All you need to know is that Black's character, Eddie Rigs, gets sucked into another dimension where metal music is everywhere. It's great. The game features a terrific soundtrack featuring classic hard rock songs by Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, and Iron Maiden, as well as more contemporary headbangers from the likes of Mastodon and 3 Inches of Blood, among others. The game also features rock legends like Lemmy, Rob Halford, and Lita Ford in cameo roles.
I recently went back to Brutal Legend for GameSpot's Extra Life livestream, and while some of the mechanics and presentation are dated, the witty writing and charm--and all the metal music--remain solidly and impressively intact. Go play Brutal Legend. | Eddie Makuch
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | October 13
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the greatest action-adventure games of all time. While Drake's Fortune was enjoyable, Among Thieves took the Uncharted formula and iterated in subtle but smart ways. Developer Naughty Dog kept the charismatic Nathan Drake and his quips, the globe-trotting adventure, and--somewhat controversially, the supernatural element that only revealed itself toward the end of the first game. However, the developer also tightened up the combat to make it far more satisfying--you were no longer forced to use Sixaxis controls to throw grenades!--and infused some real heart to proceedings.
Nate's already complex relationship with Elena is further complicated by the introduction of Chloe--who has of course gone on to star in a new Uncharted game of her own. Sully also returns and cements himself in the player's mind as Nate's most trusted ally.
Despite having not played the game for approximately seven years, I can still remember a number of standout moments from Among Thieves. The Istanbul night-time break-in. The tundric climb up a perilously hanging train.
Uncharted 2 is also home to that exquisite section in Tibet where Tenzin comes to Nate's aid and--despite sharing not a single word of common language with the all-American hero--escorts him back to civilization. The sequence that follows, exploring Tenzin's peaceful village, is a rare and beautiful moment of tranquility amidst what is otherwise a breathless, relentless roller-coaster.
Thanks to 2015's Nathan Drake Collection, Uncharted 2 is now playable on PS4 in all its glory, and its gameplay and visuals have been further improved since 2009. If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to play this masterpiece of an adventure that remains the most accomplished in the Uncharted series. | Oscar Dayus
Borderlands | October 20
Borderlands represents 2009 to me in many ways. It's a game with attitude, both in its dialogue and its art style. It's a game about working with friends online, taking on different combat roles and tackling big, bad bosses--together.
Borderlands launched at the tail end of my high school days, the exact time when I needed these things. I could end the day at home by shooting away at minions, seeing who discovered a crazy new weapon and enjoying the game's irreverence after a buttoned-up school day. Knowing we would all soon part ways for college and the "real world" made us savor the time online even more.
The Borderlands experience didn't end when we finally found the Vault. The shooter-looter--a term that has a very different connotation 10 years later--was one of the first games for which I happily purchased all the DLC. My school friends and I ganged up to conquer The Zombie Island of Doctor Ned and Mad Moxi's Underdome Riot, but they weren't online with the same frequency when the other two expansions launched.
But those magical moments don't have to be lost forever. A decade later, developer Gearbox continues to tease what is likely Borderlands 3. Now I have a new squad who regularly plays Apex Legends and other online multiplayer games. When the inevitable next Borderlands game drops, I know we'll relive those 2009 adventures all over again. | Tony Wilson
DJ Hero | October 27
There was a time when plastic instruments were the hottest things in the video game market, and anyone's house you'd visit, displayed in front of the TV, would be multiple fake guitars and possibly a fake drum kit. During the chaos, a steady stream of uninspired follow-ups and seemingly easy cash-ins were released to capitalize on the craze. While Harmonix had originated the series, Activision purchased the rights to the 'Hero' games in 2006, and did what Activision does best: Pump out constant sequels.
But, one oft missed game during this was DJ Hero. Being a fan of both hip hop and electronic music, DJ Hero was immediately interesting to me as something different enough from Guitar Hero, but still keeping the engaging rhythmic fundamentals that made the series a hit. And what I found upon plugging in my newest piece of plastic was a fantastic game that was far more fresh than Activision's other 'Hero' games.
Part of the appeal of these games is feeling like you're actually playing the instrument. But, maybe it's because I play drums and guitar, the fakeness of it was always pretty apparent to me. DJ Hero, on the other hand, for someone who's never used a turntable, instilled the feeling of really mixing the various tracks together to make something great. Similar to the Guitar Hero games, there was a great selection of mixes to choose from, and I honestly think if I had to pick one up on a whim to play today, I'd probably choose DJ Hero. | Dave Klein
Dragon Age: Origins | November 3
I was a latecomer to Elder Scrolls' particular brand of western RPGs, so I was glad to enjoy Dragon Age from the very beginning. Dragon Age: Origins was and remains a rich and rewarding world. The lore is a mixture of dark fantasy tropes and classical swords-and-sorcery storytelling, and the story makes you both an active part in the world's mythology and an observer and influencer of other major events.
As a Grey Warden, you're thrust into the world with a heavy burden from the beginning: to stop an Archdemon from bringing about a curse called the Blight. On top of the traditional warrior, mage, and rogue class types, you're able to select from six factional options. This is a rich avenue for world-building, allowing six different prologues that each explore the roles that race and class play in this world. Though I only played to completion with two characters, I made sure to play all six prologues for the sheer joy of seeing how each of their backgrounds differ.
Even after the prologue, the choice of race and class is vital and influences how other societies and even individuals perceive you. Elves are looked down upon by humans, while Mages are viewed with a combination of awe, fear, and disdain. The result is a sprawling tale that explores fantasy tropes while upending them, all set within the warm-blanket familiarity of a traditional class-based RPG.
By the time Dragon Age: Origins ended--and it does, in spectacular fashion--I was utterly sold on the land of Ferelden and its inhabitants, and I couldn't wait to explore it all over again. | Steve Watts
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | November 10
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been tremendously influential, and with good reason; it was great fun, and I had extremely high expectations going into Modern Warfare 2. And it delivered the goods on many fronts, offering a brand-new co-op experience in the form of Special Ops mode's bite-sized missions, which gave you a way to experience CoD's excellent shooting experience with a friend.
Multiplayer also grew in a variety of ways. The vaunted Create-a-Class of CoD4 had new categories to customize, more killstreaks, and just generally more, though it was a relatively minor change that I appreciated most. Infinity Ward tried to overcome its progression system giving experienced players an unfair advantage by offering everyone pre-made loadouts with high-end gear. I love unlocking new weapons and attachments in multiplayer shooters, but it's always off-putting to think that the competition has better equipment just because they've played more than me. While not a perfect solution, the pre-made loadouts helped to mitigate those problems in Modern Warfare 2.
As much fun as I had with Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer, it's not what stands out in my memory, nor is the infamous No Russian level, which drew a great deal of negative mainstream attention. The part of Modern Warfare 2 that still sticks with me is essentially the follow-up to CoD4's scene in which a nuclear bomb detonates. Modern Warfare 2 attempts something similar but shifts the perspective to great effect. You help to detonate a nuclear bomb in the atmosphere to create an EMP meant to cripple an invasion of the US. Rather than seeing the entire sequence unfold from the ground, as it first seems, you suddenly assume control of an astronaut outside the International Space Station. In a truly haunting sequence, you helplessly track the missile's approach and subsequent explosion. Your concerns for the impact on the ground quickly become secondary as your communications are cut off; aside from some tense music, you only hear your rapid heartbeat increase as the space station is destroyed in front of you and you're sent hurtling into space to your death.
Call of Duty's multiplayer may have evolved beyond what Modern Warfare 2 has to offer, but its campaign remains worth playing today for that moment alone. | Chris Pereira
Assassin's Creed 2 | November 17
Assassin's Creed 2 was one of those cases where the sequel outshined its predecessor. While the original laid the groundwork for what became Ubisoft's incessant push toward open-world games, Assassin's Creed 2 represents the early, idealized version of it. It was a journey through the Italian Renaissance, rich with historical figures and events as a backdrop to the ongoing drama of Assassins versus Templars that transcends time itself.
Ezio Auditore is one of most memorable protagonists in the series, with his irreverent and reckless personality in the face of a high-stakes. After his father and brothers are framed for treason and subsequently executed by the state, Ezio falls deeper into the bigger conspiracy and evils of the Templars and takes up the Assassin robes to bring justice across Italy. As Ezio, you travel to a number of Italy's iconic locations, namely Florence, Venice, and Rome. You team up with Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli, and discover the Pope Alexander VI himself, Rodrigo Borgia, is a Templar grandmaster. It's a wild adventure rooted in a fascinating historical period.
While Assassin's Creed 2 was a refinement of the stealth and combat mechanics from the first game, it was the mission structure and variety of side quests that pushed the gameplay forward. Incredible set-pieces laid the foundation for the variety of objectives many of the story missions asked from you and set the stage for you to pull off slick stealth kills and cleverly avoid detection. Tombs were a nice addition that highlighted the series' iconic parkour-style platforming. And the glyphs, oh man the glyphs--these fourth wall-breaking peeks into a chilling, deeper conspiracy throughout history and in contemporary politics that tied the core narrative into something more. I can still remember moving the cursor of fire over a Joan of Arc painting only to hear her scream as image burned down in flames, or examining a Supreme Court photo and seeing a Templar ring on Chief Justice Roberts' hand. Assassin's Creed 2 built a huge world with so much to do and nailed nearly aspect of what it tried. | Michael Higham
Left 4 Dead 2 | November 17
I can say with certainty that I would not be working for GameSpot if not for L4D2. My friends and I formed a Left 4 Dead team that got together every Tuesday night to play through a campaign together. Sometimes we set the difficulty too high to finish, but we would always get together after our session at a local bar to talk about how we did. It was a tradition that lasted a few years, and two of those friends eventually hired me to work for GameSpot. Left 4 Dead is always going to be a very personal game to me for that reason, but it was also a pretty great game with no real comparison at the time of its release.
L4D2 improved on the first game's map design and story. Some missions covered so much territory that it was easy to forget that you were not playing an open-world game. The new characters to the series, an unlikely quartet of misfits, were even more charming than their counterparts from the first game. Some of its mechanics were also revolutionary for the time.
Long before battle royale swept the gaming scene, Left 4 Dead 2 brought the unpredictability of loot drops and survival to gamers with a penchant for zombie horror. The AI director would always trip you up just enough to put you on your back foot when the inevitable special infected or horde would arrive. You would run into an alley hoping for the health pack that saved your life last time but instead found nothing. Even worse: as the horde of zombies was descending upon you, the alley's back exit that you remembered was gone.
L4D2 was so great that it is a terrible shame that Valve has not returned to the series with a legitimate Left 4 Dead 3. | Ryan Schubert
Though Capcom's action game series has always had a particular sound for its gothic-horror-aesthetic, the current game, Devil May Cry 5, features music that really goes the extra mile to get players to feel something more as they're working their way up to SSS rank. GameSpot recently interviewed DMC5 composers Cody Matthew Johnson and husband-wife team Casey and Ali Edwards about the making of the action game's main tracks for its cast of characters. During this talk, they spoke about their collaboration with Capcom, how the game's energizing and dynamic soundtrack is a game-changer, and what it's like having the internet embrace their new sound.
Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
Can you talk about what it was like working with Capcom for this project, and how they first got in contact with you?
Casey Edwards: Funny enough, even though I ended up writing the track Devil Trigger, I got found through one of Ali's older tracks that she did for another video game called Killer Instinct with Mick Gordon [B. Orchid's Theme, in particular]. I actually did some work on that game as well, assisting the composer.
Ali Edwards: Yeah, it's like they wanted both of us without knowing that we even knew each other, or that we were married at all.
Casey: Yeah, Capcom heard that particular track and they really liked the drive that it had. It really just stood out to everyone. When I wrote Devil Trigger, I pitched her as the vocalist and they just immediately fell in love with it. So, it kinda just worked out in a weird, coincidental, ironic way.
And Cody, this is actually your third collaboration with Capcom, the first being for Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite?
Cody M. Johnson: That is true. My career is still in the early stages, which is really exciting as all these things are happening. My collaborator Jeff Rona and I did three games back to back for Capcom. We didn't really stop. We started off with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Right after that came out, word got around to another development team about what we were doing, and they liked what they heard. So they came back to us. Right out of the gate I was working with Jeff, who wrote "Crimson Cloud" [V's Theme], and I ended up writing "Subhuman" [Dante's theme]. We worked on Devil May Cry 5 first, but then shortly after that, another team at Capcom hit us up to do Resident Evil 2 shortly after. So it's been pretty exciting.
Were you fans of the series before you worked on this game?
Cody: I had played Devil May Cry 4 and the previous games a lot. I was still young enough to sneak away and play them with my friends, but it was so hard, I didn't get very far. Even as an experienced gamer now, I've come back to try to play them, when I first picked up Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite--but they're just so hard. They're still one of the hardest games I've ever played to date.
Casey: I actually grew up playing Devil May Cry. So I remembered the whole Devil Trigger aspect of the game pretty vividly, and that was what was sticking out in my head as I was writing the song. I couldn't get it out of my head and yeah, I don't know, I just wrote it and we just went with it. I thought for sure someone from Capcom was gonna send me an email back saying, "Hey, you need to change that."
Ali: But that didn't happen. They all loved it.
The big line of the song, "bang, bang, bang, pull my Devil Trigger," is such an earworm, and it feels so appropriate for the series.
Casey: Right, I remember writing that. I wrote all these lyrics in one sitting, pretty much. For that particular part, I was looking at Ali, and then I verbalized what she was about to sing.
Ali: You were so worried I was gonna hate it!
Casey: To me, that was kind of a fun phrase. I just wasn't sure if it would latch on to the Devil May Cry fans, you know?
Last I checked, Devil Trigger has over 21 million views on YouTube. Having those earlier reservations, are you surprised to see how much it has taken off?
Casey: Well, first of all, it's pretty freakin' crazy. That's a lot of plays. It kinda blows my mind a little bit. I think there might be a few factors involved in that. People have been really excited to see a continuation of [classic] Devil May Cry. I guess in the sense that you say, the song is holding its own water a little bit as well, yeah, I don't know what to say other than it's pretty insane that people have played the song that many times.
Ali: Yeah, it's definitely something we didn't expect. We were more worried that fans would hate the track, and it would become a meme. Instead, it became a meme in the best possible way.
Both of you even got to perform the song live at The Game Awards. They had Rivers Cuomo from Weezer introduce your performance.
Casey: Yeah, that was awesome. We actually got to run into Rivers after that, and it was pretty great getting to take pictures with him and nerd out. I mean gosh, yeah, I was listening to them back in high school, so that was pretty awesome. And yeah, getting to play at The Game Awards was, I mean, a dream come true. And I know it's a relatively new awards show, but they had so many awesome people on stage, and we got to share a stage with Hans Zimmer. That's nuts.
Ali: Yeah, that was pretty crazy, it was a blast. It was such a crazy production if you think about it. It takes a huge team to put on a production of that magnitude. It's crazy seeing it all happen, and being a part of it, continuously.
As far as working on Devil May Cry 5, I can only imagine how much planning went into writing the tracks and getting them just write. Can you talk about what the collaborative process was like with the other composers at Capcom.
Cody: Yeah, from the very beginning, Capcom wanted, I should say, independence. They wanted to make sure each of these key tracks could exist separately from one other, but still work together within the Devil May Cry universe. We worked with Kota Suzuki [DMC5's main composer], who actually wrote the track "Legacy," which was in the final trailer. He was part of the development team that flew out to LA when we did the recording sessions for the bigger tracks, including "Subhuman" and "Crimson Cloud." Other than that, Capcom didn't really restrict us; they really wanted the score in these scenes to give identity to their characters.
Casey: When we were working with Capcom Japan, they had some clear visions for what they wanted for some of these tracks, and it was really nice getting to implement previous work I had done in the game, and getting to bring it to new light towards the end of the gaming experience.
Ali: After they heard me on "Devil Trigger," I guess maybe that's when they reached out for "Legacy" with me. I didn't think was going to happen until the game was released. I wasn't sure that was ever going to see the light of day in trailer form. And so I remember being pleasantly surprised when that came out. It's an exciting track, it's really beautiful, with swelling strings, and it was amazing for the fans to finally hear that. Working with Kota on that was a great experience as well.
That song really comes up at such a great moment in the game. It also highlights how different a lot of the tracks are in the game, yet they work really well when you bring it all together.
Casey: Yeah, for sure. I think that's one thing people can get lost sometimes. They forget, "Devil Trigger," for instance, is some weird hybrid rock pop thing, but I am also a classically trained orchestral composer and Ali does anything from soft, ethereal vocals to just mind-blowing powerful pop vocals, and stuff like that.
Ali: I started out as a jazz singer, so there's that, too. But we got to be totally crazy with it. Working on a session musician, you can be asked to do anything, and I think your willingness to be a chameleon is really where your usability as a session musician really comes into play. The more I can become a chameleon and adhere to different genres of music, I mean, that's why I'm being asked to work on video games. If I couldn't do that, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to work on so many incredible games so far.
Looking back on the history of the series, Devil May Cry has this really deep focus on presenting bombastic and energizing tracks. Another game in the series that had a really eclectic soundtrack was Ninja Theory's DmC: Devil May Cry--featuring Noisia and Combichrist. Did the style of that game have any influence on this one?
Cody: Well from the very start, everything was based on Devil May Cry 4, as in all the references they sent us. But of course, it was something I personally looked into. It's important to understand the trajectory of all these games, where it's been, and how the fans reacted. And you need to make a decision about where you want your art to align with. It was very conscious from the very beginning that this game is Devil May Cry 5. That was a very conscious decision, not to stay away from that version of DmC, but to separate from it, stylistically. But yeah, the combat system that matures and alters the music was something we really liked about that game.
It's really thrilling to hear DMC5's music evolve depending on how well you're playing.
Cody: Yeah, It was just something we were very conscious of from the very beginning. We don't want to leave any players behind, but we didn't want to make it easier for players either. It's all about challenging yourself. But the worst thing that could happen would be if the game's music was boring. I know this as a gamer, I know this as someone who goes listens to the same 32-second track on loop for hours. It's the worst thing in the world: You're stuck on a level for three days, you don't wanna be listening to the same piece of music.
We really tried to craft these songs in a way, that if you don't hit SSS rank, you don't ever hear the chorus or the breakdown. By doing that, those parts of the song will never get boring. The goal from the start was to incentivize the player. There is something more, you should do your absolute best to get to your SSS, and you'll get the payoff. There should be rewards for those players that accomplish that, and I think we achieved something beyond the normal combat music.
Did you enjoy your experience working with Capcom on Devil May Cry 5?
Cody: They've always been happy with what we've done and we're always happy to give it to 'em. They're such an amazing collaborator, and they really care about artistic vision, and they care about what you can bring to the table, and it's truly an amazing experience working with them.
Casey: I was super excited to work on Devil May Cry. I've been playing this game since Devil May Cry 1, which came out in 2001. I remember my mom taking me to Blockbuster to rent it. And then you fast forward to 2017, when I was asked to work on it, I was already so freaking pumped to get started on it. We're classically trained and I play guitar as well in the STEM program, right? I love doing so many different things and different genres. So being asked to genre hop is one of the best things about working in the field. TV and video games and film, all alike, and one day you could be writing a solo piano piece and the next day you're writing "Devil Trigger."
Ali: Yeah, for me, video games have always been a pretty large part of my life. It's always been a love of mine. So, I remember playing games with my cousins when we were all kids and it was this bonding experience for all of us. And I never would've imagined that I'd be working on video games today. It's kind of crazy to think about, but I absolutely love what I do. I love being able to work on various projects across various genres and kind of become a different person for a little while. And it's really, really humbling, seeing how the fans have accepted our work. It's very humbling, it's very exciting, and, all in all, we're very grateful to be a part of the Devil May Cry family.
By Anonymous on Mar 16, 2019 07:03 am Discovery infiltrates Section 31's headquarters while Lieutenant Commander Airiam is not quite herself. Greg & Chastity break down the story and references from Star Trek: Discovery season 2 episode 9, "Project Daedalus". Disclosure: CBS is GameSpot's parent company.
By Anonymous on Mar 16, 2019 07:00 am To help you be the best you can be in The Division 2, we've compiled essential tips you should know as well as important details about the game's myriad systems.
By Anonymous on Mar 16, 2019 06:55 am Smells like porkchops. That's right. We're diving into the Apex Legend Mirage, showing you how to best bamboozle your opponents.
Like its predecessor, Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is packed with all sorts of powerful guns. There are six tiers of weapons: Worn (white), Standard (green), Specialized (blue), Superior (purple), High-End (Orange), and Exotic (red-orange). The latter four tiers have special Talents assigned to them, which enhance their capabilities.
There's a ton of guns to discover with plenty of cool Talents attached to them. We've compiled the best guns we've found so far. Below, you'll find all the ones we've been modding and taking into the game's numerous firefights.
Be sure to check back often as we update this feature with more weapons. For more guides, check out our feature highlighting tips you should know before starting. Otherwise, keep an eye out as we put up even more guides in the coming days.
GameSpot gave The Division 2 a 9/10 with Senior Editor and Producer Edmond Tran saying in his review in progress: "After spending 30 hours completing the campaign and beginning to dabble in the endgame, I'm still enamored with The Division 2. The range of enemy types continues to keep combat encounters challenging, the equipment I earn and pick up continues to feel different and valuable. The ravaged environments continue to intrigue, and sometimes they're so stunning I find myself needing to take a screenshot before I move on. There is still so much to see in The Division 2, but I want to take the time to see it. I have absolutely no clue why I'm here or what anyone's motivations are, and I wish I had a narrative purpose to my endless hunger for progression. But I'm glad to be here right now."
Which cool guns have you found in The Division 2? Let us know in the comments below.
Model 700 Replica (High-End)
Talents
Breadbasket: Landing body shots adds a stack of bonus +5% headshot damage to the next headshot for 10 seconds. Max stack is 10.
Jazz Hands: +10% reload speed.
Rooted: While equipped and in cover, all skill damage and healing is increased by 25% for 10 seconds. Buff is lost when exiting cover. Can occur once per 25 seconds.
Police Mk17 (High-End)
Talents
Breadbasket: Landing body shots adds a stack of bonus +5% headshot damage to the next headshot for 10 seconds. Max stack is 10.
Distance: +15% optimal range.
Rooted: While equipped and in cover, all skill damage and healing is increased by 25% for 10 seconds. Buff is lost when exiting cover. Can occur once per 25 seconds.
Surplus SVD (High-End)
Talents
Vindictive: Killing an enemy with a status effect applied grants all group members within 15m.
Stable: +15% stability.
Greased: While holstered, weapon swap speed is increased by 10%.
Military M60 E4 (High-End)
Talents
Perpetuation: Headshot kills grand +5% skill duration, ammo, and charges to the next skill used. Max stack is 10.
Optimized: +15% weapon handling.
Doubly Duty: While holstered, reloading from empty gives you 20% of your magazine back as free ammo. Can occur every 30 seconds.
Police UMP-45 (High-End)
Talents
Outsider: Weapon fire rate is lowered but optimal range increases as the weapon is fired.
Allegro: +10% Rate of Fire.
Wascally: While holstered, you are able to resist 2 ensnare attempts.
Custom M870 MCS (High-End)
Talents
Preservation: Killing an enemy repaits 5% armor over 3 seconds. Headshot kills improves the repair.
Jazz Hands: +10% reload speed.
Rooted: While equipped and in cover, all skill damage and healing is increased by 25% for 10 seconds. Buff is lost when exiting cover. Can occur once per 25 seconds.
Officer's M9 A1 (High-End)
Talents
Salvage: Killing a target has +50% chance to refill the magazine.
Extra: +20% magazine capacity.
Cannon: While equipped, this weapon increases throwing distance by 10%.
Double Barreled Shotgun (High-End)
Talents
Vindictive: Killing an enemy with a status effect applied grants all group members within 15m +20% critical hit chance for 10 seconds.
Stable: +15% stability.
Greased: While holstered, weapon swap speed is increased by 10%.
Military M60 E4 (Superior)
Talents
Extra: +20% magazine capacity.
Killer: Killing an enemy with a critical hit grants +50% critical hit chance for 5s.
Military G36 (Superior)
Talents
Allegro: +10% rate of fire.
Ignited: Deal +20% weapon damage to burning enemies.
ACS-12 (Specialized)
Talents
Distance: +15% optimal range.
Lullaby (Exotic)*
Talents
Lullaby: Landing a melee attack on an enemy after swapping to this weapon grants 35% bonus armor.
Evasive: While equipped, dodging reloads 1% of your current weapon's magazine.
I don't know why I'm in Washington DC; some lady just told me to be here. But there are civilians in distress, armed gangs roaming the streets, and me, my pals, and the second amendment are apparently the only ones who can actually do anything about it. I have no idea what, if anything, is going on with the bigwigs I met in the White House. But so long as I'm helping folks, sending relatively bad people to bed, walking the pretty streets, and picking up a new pair of gloves every so often, I'm very happy to hang around.
In the world of Tom Clancy's The Division 2, the USA has been ravaged by a virus and society has crumbled. While those who remain try to survive by banding together in groups of various dispositions, the Strategic Homeland Division activates highly specialized sleeper agents to try and restore order. It's a setting ripe in potential, perhaps to tell a ripping techno-thriller story that scrutinizes the structures of our modern society and government, or perhaps to make a video game that leverages the chaos that occurs when multiple idealistic groups clash in a vie for power in a lawless city. The Division 2 only does one of these things.
It's not the story. Throughout the entirety of The Division 2's main campaign, never did the game spend a satisfactory amount of time on any semblance of an overarching plot, or the predicaments of its supposedly important figures. There are no character arcs, only abrupt setups and consequences. Narrative devices, like audio logs found in the world, add nothing of consequence. Even the game's biggest macguffins--the President of the United States and his briefcase containing a cure for the virus--have a minimal amount of absolutely forgettable screen time. The opportunity to use The Division 2 to create meaningful fiction is wasted.
Instead, The Division 2 focuses its narrative chops into worldbuilding. The city, a ravaged Washington DC, initially feels a little homogenous in the way most Western cities do. But after some time, the personality of the different districts--the buildings, the landmarks, the natural spaces, and the ways they've been repurposed or affected by the cataclysm--begins to shine through. It's this strength of environment which lays a very strong foundation for The Division 2 as a video game, creating an engrossing, believable, and contiguous open world.
Moving from your safehouse to the open world and your next mission area is almost entirely seamless. It's something that was also true of the original Division, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the simple act of going from place to place in The Division 2 is one of the game's more rewarding aspects. One road may lead to a skirmish with a rival patrol or an optional activity, another might simply give you another stirring scene of urban decay in the morning sun. An obscured shortcut through an apartment block might turn up some useful items in an abandoned home, which you might decide to donate to the makeshift settlements where civilians have attempted to rebuild their lives.
Visiting those settlements--initially as hovels, before they gradually grow and become more charming, vibrant places thanks to your efforts in the world--becomes a strong motivator in the absence of a plot to chase. Outside main missions, which are dedicated to the weakening of rival factions and achieving indiscriminate objectives, the game's "Projects" are one of the most lucrative means of earning experience to better your character. Projects ask you to donate resources you find out in the world and participate in side activities, encouraging you to spend more time in the world, see new areas, fight new battles, search for new equipment to use, and find enjoyment in that. The Division 2 is, after all, a game devoted to providing you with a continuous stream of gripping conflicts, valuable rewards, and a perpetual sense of progress and satisfaction from doing these things. It does those things very well.
You spend a lot of time hunkered behind cover, popping out to fire at any enemy dumb enough to expose themselves. With the large amount of weapon variety available, this familiar facet of combat is solid in itself. Add to that the ability to equip two special abilities from a possible eight--which include tools such as riot shields, drones, and from what I can gather, robot bees of some sort--and combat gets pretty interesting. But the vector that really keeps The Division 2's combat lively for upwards of 30 hours is the behavior and diversity of its enemy types.
That time you spend in cover? The Division 2 doesn't want you to just stay there. You can go down very quickly if you're out in the open, but the game has a dozen ways to alway keep you taking those risks and finding better firing positions--aggressive melee units, remote control cars equipped with sawblades, even the regular assault units regularly attempt to outflank you. Those special abilities? You absolutely need to use them to their full potential to survive some encounters, whether by throwing out the seeker mines or the automated turret to keep enemies at bay while you focus on a priority target, or perhaps utilizing the chemical launcher to start a fire and create a zone of denial.
The effort needed to take out an adversary is relatively reasonable for a shooter that prioritizes the RPG nature of its combat model, but some of the tougher enemies have additional, visible layers of protection which you need to focus on breaking if you want to land critical hits. On the flip side, some enemies have additional, obtuse weak points which can work to your advantage, but only if you can hit them. The fuel tank on the back of a flamethrower unit might be feasible, but when you start running into the terrifying robotic quadruped in post-campaign activities, whose tiny weak point only reveals itself seconds before it fires its devastating railgun, you have to assess whether you can afford to take on that challenge among all the other things pressuring you. The Division 2 throws a lot of hurdles at you, but also gives you the means to quickly counter and resolve them. Whether you can juggle that many balls at once is what keeps combat tense and exciting.
What's also exciting is the treasure at the end of these gauntlets. These Washington locations, refashioned into memorable combat arenas, are often rewarding in their own right (a fight in a planetarium is an early standout). But improving your equipment is the vital, tangible part that keeps you feeling like you're making progress. You receive new gear in generous amounts, some dropped by an enemy or looted from a container found in the world, others rewarded for completing a mission, and the next dose always feels in reach. The weapon variety forces you to consider something completely different to take advantage of a power boost, and the armor variety provides an impressive number of different cosmetic looks. The Division 2 incorporates a microtransaction and loot box system for its inconsequential clothing options, though these can be found in the world and earned of your own accord, too.
Like combat, gear remains intriguing throughout Division 2 not just because of the abstract desire to have bigger numbers attached to your person and progress further through the game's challenges, but also through a raft of "talents." These add unique perks that complement particular skills or styles of play, like doing extra damage within a certain range, when enemies are burning, or your armor is depleted. The brands of armor also have a part to play, whereby equipping a number of pieces from a single manufacturer provide additional advantages. These bonuses become particularly attractive to obsess over in the endgame, when the world is retaken by a tougher, more merciless enemy faction called Black Tusk, and you need to ensure your ability to fight them is the best it can be.
For the hundreds of pieces you will inevitably want to discard, the ability to sell or dismantle them for parts to either purchase or craft pieces you want gives value to everything you pick up. Or you might retain them in order to move their talents to better gear of the same type, And, as a wonderful convenience, The Division 2 implements numerous features to inspect, mark, dismantle, or equip things you find so quickly and elegantly--sometimes without ever having to enter a menu--that it improves the whole experience of being in its world.
The same can be said of the game's multiplayer integration, which allows you to easily group up and progress with friends (the game will scale any underpowered players to match the most powerful). Alternatively, you can join a clan, which opens up a variety of weekly challenges, granting valuable rewards, and which features integrated game-wide group communication options. Even if you're only interested in playing alone (which is more challenging, but entirely feasible), the ability to matchmake with other players at any time, whether that be in the open world, before you start a mission, or when you're at a final boss, is a very welcome feature.
And when you beat that final boss of the game's final mission (though, such is the Division 2's lack of plot framing, I honestly couldn't tell you his name to save my life) and you think you've finally run out of treasure to keep luring you through more fights, the metaphorical table gets flipped. Flipped hard. The Washington DC you spent so long liberating from rival factions becomes completely retaken by the aforementioned Black Tusk. You unlock three unique class specializations, each with their own skill trees to work at unlocking. Your focus on growing two-digit numbers on your character (your level) moves to three-digit numbers (the quality of your gear). Even after finishing the campaign, the game still feels enormous.
More challenging, remixed versions of campaign missions and open-world challenges featuring Black Tusk become available. The idea might sound trite, but in practice, these "Invaded" missions often leverage the new enemy types to create terrifying new combat scenarios that maintain the steady ramp-up of challenges, and they give you a fantastic reason to revisit the more memorable combat arenas with a purpose. However, there's still a lot I haven't seen. I've yet to dabble in the three Dark Zones, reward-rich areas where players can potentially find themselves up against other, malicious agents as well as the usual enemies. I'm also yet to participate in Conflict, The Division 2's take on traditional team-based competitive multiplayer modes.
But after spending 30 hours completing the campaign and beginning to dabble in the endgame, I'm still enamored with The Division 2. The range of enemy types continues to keep combat encounters challenging, the equipment I earn and pick up continues to feel different and valuable. The ravaged environments continue to intrigue, and sometimes they're so stunning I find myself needing to take a screenshot before I move on. There is still so much to see in The Division 2, but I want to take the time to see it. I have absolutely no clue why I'm here or what anyone's motivations are, and I wish I had a narrative purpose to my endless hunger for progression. But I'm glad to be here right now.
Note: This review-in-progress will be finalized once substantial time has been spent in The Division 2's endgame content, including Dark Zones and Conflicts.
Like many games in this genre, The Division 2 plays best with a well-coordinated squad of friends covering each other and using unique abilities to fend off mobs with tactical efficiency. Even a squad of random players simply taking down enemies together is sufficient enough to get through most of the game's missions. But sometimes I just want play as a lone wolf and go at my own pace without the pressure of keeping up with others. And I often ask with these types of games, how viable is it to go solo?
It's the same question I had recently with Fallout 76 and Anthem, and one I've been asking since jumping into the original Destiny. Naturally, I thought about the same thing going into The Division 2, and I'm glad that more so than other loot shooters, playing by yourself turned out to be an enjoyable experience that still captures many of the game's high points.
My Division agent can take care of the evil that's permeated Washington DC on her own.
Something about The Division 2 makes the lone wolf approach work. I mainly attribute it to the fact that it revolves around being a cover-based shooter that taps more into a tactical mindset rather than your ability to eliminate enemy hordes and huge bosses that soak up tons of damage. Don't get me wrong, The Division 2 has elements of that, but your ability to control combat scenarios and find clever ways to handle sometimes overwhelming firefights are much more important factors.
One particular experience solidified this feeling. The initial firefight in the Air And Space Museum mission proved more difficult than anything before, despite me being the proper level for it. I was downed in short time, twice. In the first attempt, I got caught out of cover for a little too long, and on a second try, flanked by enemies while desperately trying to find safety as my riot shield got torn to shreds. On the third and successful effort, I scouted for higher-level (purple) enemies so I could plan to take them out first before a full-on firefight broke out. With the use of my chem launcher skill and a few well-placed sniper shots, I took out the biggest threats at the outset.
I made my way through the rest of the mission consistently challenged, but ultimately relying on smart use of cover and taking advantage of openings. In the final phase of the whole mission, things played out differently; it forced me to think my way out of a heavily-armored boss pressuring me and encroaching on my space of limited cover. With my back against the wall, I pulled out all the stops; grenades, skills, and unloading both primary weapons directly on a weak spot while dancing around a slim pillar to keep changing my cover angle. I finished the fight by the skin of my teeth.
After 15 hours spent as a lone wolf, I'm still going, and I think that says a lot about how great it executes the core gameplay loop in a playground of fascinating set-pieces.
These moments aren't unique to solo play by any stretch, but they illustrate why The Division 2 works as a single-player experience. You're constantly on your toes, considering your position in these battles and trying your best to take out enemies before they get the jump on you and catch you off guard. Of course, there were a number of cases where I simply took aim and landed precision shots with a semi-auto rifle to get through the many phases of missions, but even fairly standard tactics still have a definite satisfaction thanks to a variety of tools at your disposal that have an effective, impactful feel upon using.
Another thing to consider is that playing solo means no one is around to revive you. Missions are usually generous with checkpoints and keeping your progress even when you get killed, but it's not always the case. As a result, the not-so-forgiving moments give combat somewhat higher stakes like 'no respawn zone' phases. Dying in the open world also forces you to respawn at a fast travel point and run back to what you were doing. It's not ideal, but it does play into how carefully you approach combat when you're alone.
The Air And Space Museum is rich with detail and real exhibits.
The Division 2 makes the lonesome journey worthwhile in another capacity; I had the time and space to embrace the wonderfully detailed--albeit dilapidated and abandoned--environments. This is a fairly accurate rendition of the nation's capital after all, and I'll be damned if I didn't treat it as a little field trip. I found the ViewPoint Museum mission to be utterly fascinating as a display of history, media, and politics just as much as the American History Museum's Vietnam War exhibit. Calling back to the Air And Space Museum, I took the time to actually examine what was on display. It's a testament to the incredible set-pieces featured in several of the game's main quests, real-world locations, and museums and landmarks that communicate a history that eerily complements the dark backdrop of The Division's storyline.
Speaking of story, there's unfortunately not much to see. I often go into these types of games solo in order to soak up narrative bits, reflect on in-game events, and speak to every NPC possible to get the full picture, but that's certainly not the case here. In the original Division, I loved finding ECHOs, which painted a vivid picture of New York was before the Dollar Flu and right when poor folks scrambled to survive, and in turn, tried to understand an entirely new lore. However, The Division 2 falls short in delivering a story worth caring about. The canon has already been built, we know how dire the virus made things, and it rests on that. It's a generic story about rebuilding with perfunctory attempts at emotional stakes. Factions exist to put a name and evil archetype on enemies that you don't feel bad fighting against. And NPCs primarily serve functional purposes at settlements and bases, nothing more. In a way, The Division 2's design flows like it's specifically tuned for the squad that wants to churn through missions at a rapid pace with narrative as an afterthought. If anything, this approach keeps the action moving and places less emphasis on a weaker aspect of the game.
It's not an entirely seamless experience on your own; there will be times when waves of Hyenas or True Sons just become too much to handle, and prove more frustrating than challenging. These are often scenarios that would've been easier with a mate or two to pick you up when you get downed, lay down covering fire, or take out imminent threats. Admittedly, I haven't delved too deep into the Dark Zone, so I can't speak to how one of the more captivating features of this game fares with no one to watch your back. But for the majority of The Division 2's main questline, a solo player should be just as excited to engage in the game's satisfying combat system while being able to handle its bigger fights.
At some point, you'll inevitably squad up with randoms or friends because, of course, that's what a multiplayer shared-world game is going to push you to do. But overall, the grind of The Division 2 delivers plenty of fun and a challenge that's manageable, especially when incorporating more of your skills and devising ways to move from cover to cover and create your own flanking routes. After 15 hours spent as a lone wolf, I'm still going, and I think that says a lot about how great it executes the core gameplay loop in a playground of fascinating set-pieces.
By Anonymous on Mar 16, 2019 04:17 am With the releases of the live-action remakes of Dumbo and Aladdin coming soon, let's take a look at the 10 strangest live-action Disney movies ever made, including some you may have never heard of.
Captain Marvel is now in theaters, and the wait is on for the fourth Avengers movie, Endgame, which arrives on April 26. But after the Avengers defeat Thanos, what's next? After Endgame comes out, there will have been 22 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe--many of which you can watch on streaming services--but we honestly don't know where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going next.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is keeping a tight lid on the future of the MCU. "As we've been doing for years, we aren't going to announce anything post Avengers: Endgame or Spider-Man [Far From Home] until post Endgame and Spider-Man," Feige told ComicBook.com. So, as of this writing, we'll have to wait a few more months to know confirmed details about what's to come from the MCU. However, there are a couple of hints as to what's coming down the line, and it's going to be a whole new direction for this universe and probably a lot of rebuilding.
Take a look at Marvel's calendar for 2020 and beyond. There are a lot of theatrical dates with nothing attached to them:
May 1, 2020
July 31, 2020
November 6, 2020
February 12, 2021
May 7, 2021
November 5, 2021
February 18, 2022
May 6, 2022
July 29, 2022
Piecing together all the information available, let's figure out what's next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Endgame comes out--or at least theorize a bit. Keep in mind, we're not discussing any of the X-Men movies or Spider-Man spinoffs--like Venom--as they are not a part of the MCU.
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Release Date: July 5, 2019
The Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel is the only movie in the MCU with a set release date. After the first trailer dropped, we all realized that both Peter Parker and Nick Fury would survive Endgame. However, Tony Stark--who was Parker's mentor in Homecoming--is nowhere to be found.
Jake Gyllenhall will be playing Mysterio, who is traditionally a villain in the comic books. However, in the trailer, it looks as though he'll be teaming up with Spider-Man in Europe. Obviously, we have plenty of theories about what happens in Far From Home, and a few of them are pretty out there.
Black Widow
Ever since The Avengers, fans of the MCU have been waiting and waiting and waiting for a solo Black Widow movie, and it's finally starting to come together, but it has been a bit of a bumpy road with not much to report on.
Back in July 2018, Marvel approached more than 60 female directors to helm the project, and Cate Shortland was tapped to direct. Ned Branson was brought on to write the film, and it's been in pre-production ever since. There have also been reports that the movie is about to go into production. HN Entertainment has stated that Black Widow will allegedly begin production in the UK in March, but we haven't heard much else yet. Seeing as though this movie could be ready to start shooting, it may be the first Marvel film of 2020.
Our guess for release date: May 1, 2020
Black Panther 2
At the 2019 Academy Awards, Black Panther won three Oscars for Best Original Score, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. The movie made $1.3 billion dollars worldwide. Obviously, it was a huge hit and a cultural phenomenon.
Of course, that means a sequel should be coming our way. The only things we know are that Ryan Coogler will return to write and direct the next installment of the franchise. Additionally, it will go into production in late 2019 or early 2020. That being said, we're thinking it will have a summer release at earliest.
Our guess for release date: July 31, 2020
Shang-Chi
Marvel is moving forward with Shang-Chi, its first feature film with an Asian lead. Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984, The Expendables) will be writing the upcoming movie, which will follow the titular comic book character. Most recently, Destin Daniel Cretton has been tapped to direct.
Shang-Chi is a martial arts expert with no superpowers, but he's really good at defending himself and beating people up. His training has given him the abilities to dodge bullets, focus in on sounds, and have keen reflexes. He's a mortal human who has spent his life training in his craft. Sure, in the past few years he gained the ability to duplicate himself, but the movie will more than likely ignore that.
Our guess for release date: November 6, 2020
Doctor Strange 2
Things are slowly coming together for Doctor Strange 2. Director and writer Scott Derrickson will return to helm the film, but there is still a search going for a script writer. Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong will be returning to play Dr. Strange and Wong respectively.
There are no other firm details, but it is believed that the movie will begin production in spring 2020 with a May 2021 release date.
Our guess for release date: May 7, 2021
The Eternals
It's a year since The Eternals was teased. Back in April 2018, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige spoke about the upcoming film with The Wrap. "Eternals is one of many many many things that we are actively beginning to have creative discussions about to see if we believe in them enough to put them on a slate," Feige explained. He again teased The Eternals at a press day for Captain Marvel, saying he wanted to introduce an ensemble team to the MCU, like Guardians of the Galaxy, but not tonally.
So who, or what, are The Eternals? Out of the legendary mind of Jack Kirby, The Eternals are an evolutionary offshoot of humans. The Celestials--the oldest beings in the Marvel Universe--came to Earth and altered some human genes, a million years ago. These superhumans are not immortal, but they live long lifespans and have incredible superpowers. That's the short and sweet of it, but it goes a lot further than that because Kirby's science fiction work is incredibly complex. This one is still in the earliest phases of pre-production so don't expect it any time soon.
Our guess for release date: November 5, 2021
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The third movie in Marvel's cosmic franchise has been through some trying times. Director and writer James Gunn was fired from the movie, and recently, was rehired by Disney. Gunn took to Twitter to say he was grateful for all the support.
As of August 2018, the movie was on hold indefinitely, but with Gunn returning, that will change. However, considering Gunn is writing and directing Suicide Squad 2 for 2021, we don't expect to see Marvel's cosmic team returning to theaters any time soon.
Our guess for release date: May 6, 2022
Ms. Marvel
Kamala Khan is better known as Ms. Marvel, an Inhuman superhero who idolizes Captain Marvel. Back in May 2018, Kevin Feige stated that there is a plan for a Ms. Marvel movie, but they wanted to introduce Captain Marvel first.
Khan made her debut in 2013 at Marvel Comics and found a legion of fans who loved the character who "embiggens" as her super-power (she can stretch, grow and shrink, and even shapeshift). That's all we know. At this point in time, it's unknown as to whether this is actually in pre-production or not.
Our guess for release date: February 18, 2022
Captain Marvel 2
After one week in the theaters, Captain Marvel amassed $569 million dollars worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. It's not slowing down and will continue to make money right up until Avengers: Endgame hits theaters. However, a sequel for this movie is not out of the question. The only MCU movie to not get a sequel--or have one in the works--was The Incredible Hulk because that was a box office flop.
There is no confirmation or even a hint that Captain Marvel 2 will happen, but why introduce this huge character and only give her one movie?
Our guess for release date: July 29, 2022
February 12, 2021
This was the only date from Marvel's list we couldn't figure out what fit here. Could it be Ant-Man And The Wasp 2, Nova, or a new Blade movie? Maybe, just maybe, we can finally get a proper Fantastic Four movie. Considering it's less than two years away, this date is probably reserved for something already on this list, and one of the movies we just mentioned will pop up in 2022.
Is this too soon for another Avengers movie? We'll find out more after the release of Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Valve has announced it's revisiting user reviews on Steam in order to combat review bombing. In a blog post, Valve wrote it will now "identify off-topic review bombs, and remove them from the Review Score."
"We define an off-topic review bomb as one where the focus of those reviews is on a topic that we consider unrelated to the likelihood that future purchasers will be happy if they buy the game, and hence not something that should be added to the Review Score," Valve continued. The company admits there's still a bit of a grey area with this definition, so it's developed a tool that "identifies any anomalous review activity on all games on Steam in as close to real-time as possible."
After the tool has identified possibly troublesome reviews, it will inform Valve and the company will then begin an investigation. If Valve decides the user reviews are an off-topic bomb, the company will inform the developer that every review within the time period of the review bomb will be removed from the game's overall Steam score. At this point, however, the user reviews will still be live. It will be up to the developer's discretion over which are deleted.
The downside to this process is that every user review during an off-topic review bomb will be removed from a game's overall Steam score, even the good ones. "But as we mentioned back in our first User Review post, our data shows us that review bombs tend to be temporary distortions, so we believe the Review Score will still be accurate, and other players will still be able to find and read your review within the period," Valve wrote. Plenty of negative comments that focus on DRM or EULA changes will also be considered off-topic review bombings as well.
Developers who don't want this new tool combing through their games' comments and Valve declaring when an off-topic review bomb is happening can opt out of the process by going into their Steam Store options. Valve is working on a few more changes to user reviews as well, but they'll be shipped out at a later date.
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