Rockstar has revealed the details for its newest content update to Red Dead Redemption 2's online mode, Red Dead Online, which recently left beta. If you play on PS4, you'll have early access to some of the content, but those with an Xbox One will also get the update's entire collection of add-ons soon enough.
The update adds new Free Roam missions, which see the return of two characters from Red Dead Redemption 2's campaign. You can join Sadie Adler on a ride out to the Adler Ranch or head to Lemoyne to seek out Black Belle. These Free Roam missions will be made available on both PS4 and Xbox One at the same time.
Both PS4 and Xbox One players will also receive a 25% increase when it comes to A Land of Opportunity and Free Roam missions, as well as all Showdown modes, Races, and Free Roam events. If you're a part of a posse, you'll also earn an extra five Gold Bars, RDO$, and XP as a bonus when your friends play together.
The rest of the update's content is coming to PS4 first but will make its way to Xbox One eventually. On PS4, Red Dead Online will provide early access to the Ancient Tomahawk weapon, two new Showdown modes, and the Perlino Andalusian Horse, as well as new horse equipment, clothing, and emotes. The two new Showdown modes are Make It Count: Ancient Tomahawk and Last Stand. The new clothing includes items from the Wheeler, Rawson and Co. Catalogue, such as the Wescott Skirt, Valdez Vest, Citadel Boots, and Plaid Cap.
In a blog post, Rockstar also mentioned that the update makes several quality-of-life fixes to Red Dead Online. "We continue to work behind the scenes to address overall game stability and performance with recent fixes including closing some duplication exploits, resolving issues related to reduced numbers of animals in sessions, updating Defensive mode to revert Playing Style to Offensive and apply a Hostility penalty when stealing cargo from another player's horse and more," the developer wrote.
I felt a great disturbance on Sunday night. It was as if millions of tweets were suddenly sent out in anger (and millions of fans were definitely not silent). That's what happened after Game of Thrones aired its final episode. The North may have survived the Battle of Winterfell, but the internet looks more like the people of King's Landing right after Daenerys showed up and burned them all to death.
After the show became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, Game of Thrones turned its fans against each other with this final season. Beyond the online discussions on Twitter and Reddit, the disappointment-turned-into-hatred toward Game of Thrones has reached the point where well over a million people--at the time of writing this article--have signed a petition begging HBO to remake the last season with new writers.
Many critics have correctly pointed out that this season felt rushed. GameSpot's Michael Rougeau wrote about why the last few episodes have been full of misplaced fan service. Wired covered the notable differences in storytelling from when the show passed the books, focusing on how the showrunners gave themselves a fixed endpoint instead of accepting more episodes like HBO offered. That forced the narrative of this season to become more of a checklist of what people wanted to see than the natural story of the characters making decisions and following the consequences of those decisions. Daenerys going Mad Queen and slaughtering the people she vowed to free was the moment that seemingly broke the fandom, and many fans felt betrayed by the choices in this season.
Of course, this is far from the first time a giant franchise released a new installment that split the fandom right down the middle. Coincidentally, this past Sunday also marked the 20th anniversary of the release of the start of the prequel trilogy and a film absolutely everyone loves, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Remember that one? The movie people hated so much, with characters so loathed by fans, that one of the stars of the movie considered suicide because of the backlash against his character, and another one destroyed all his Star Wars memorabilia after being bullied endlessly? Maybe an online petition isn't so bad, considering.
That movie wasn't a masterpiece either, and despite news clips of early reactions showing satisfied viewers (watch this below), the film is now regarded as one of the worst things to happen to the Star Wars franchise and the start of a trilogy that threatened to destroy everything the franchise had built.
Except it didn't. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Star Wars in general? Is it Jar Jar Binks doing fart jokes? Qui-Gon Jinn talking about midi-chlorians? Probably not, unlike you actually love the prequels, which is totally fine. Otherwise, you probably think of scenes in the movies that you love, like the Binary Sunset scene, the Darth Vader reveal, or maybe even Han and Chewie arriving on the Falcon in The Force Awakens. No matter what your favorite Star Wars movie is, you always remember the moments that made you happy more than the ones that disappointed you.
Likewise, no matter what you think of this last season of Game of Thrones, we will always have those early days. More than that, we survived up to this moment. We survived seeing Ned Stark beheaded in the first season, the massacre of the Red Wedding, and that awful, awful Dorne storyline. It is entirely within everyone's right to criticize the show, but a handful of disappointing episodes won't take away all those moments of thrilling political intrigue, staring in awe at the cunning conversations between Arya and Tywin, the horror of seeing Oberyn suffer such a horrible death, the collective anger after watching the Red Wedding, and the many tears we all shed every time a favorite character bit the dust.
I get it. You can only do the series finale of Game of Thrones once, just as you could only tell the story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader once--or could you? There probably won't be a remake of the prequels, and you can't go to the past and change the script or the acting, but you can build up from what's already there and try to make it better. Star Wars has the Expanded Universe, and even though most of it is technically not canon anymore thanks to Disney, there are still plenty of stories that expand on what we see in the movies and even improve them. After the prequel trilogy was over, Dave Filoni made Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and in the show's six (soon to be seven!) seasons: Darth Maul came back, Jar Jar became a bit less annoying, and we got to know more about Qui-Gon Jinn and how the clones were created and their purpose in the creation of the Empire. More importantly, it got us to care about Anakin Skywalker even if the prequels didn't. The Phantom Menace may not be fully vindicated in the eyes of fans who were burned after spending years waiting, but thanks to the ever-expanding EU, the prequel era feels fresher than ever.
And if even after all that you still don't want anything to do with the prequels, there's still Disney's sequel trilogy, and the recently announced non-Skywalker movies, and the Disney+ TV shows. Star Wars fandom survived the prequel era, and the dark times before it when fans had to wait a decade and a half for more Star Wars. There has truly never been a better time to be a fan of the galaxy far, far away.
The same thing applies to Game of Thrones. For better or worse, the series has become a cultural phenomenon bigger than any single episode or season of the show. Not only did we all become addicted to the endless cycle of rooting for a character only to see them mercilessly killed by their own stupid decisions, but an entire tourism industry flourishes in Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik thanks to filming locations for the show. A few polarizing episodes do not take away from all the discussions regarding what characters were secretly planning, debates over what Hodor meant, and the watch parties that occurred all over the world.
HBO is still working on those prequels. And best of all, we still have the books! Even if you end up disappointed by the finale, remember you can still look forward to reading George R. R. Martin's ending eventually. Being the rare adaptation that got ahead of its source material, we still don't know what the original ending is, or if it will change because of the show. In any case, that's as close as you can get to a remake, even if you have to use your imagination to picture how it all looks.
Game of Thrones, and by extension its fandom, will be OK. We may argue, we may fight, but even if we don't love it now, we all used to love this show and watched it religiously every Sunday night. Winter came and went, and there will be other shows in the future, but for now--and only for now--our watch has ended.
Nintendo is shutting down two of its mobile games in Belgium this summer, the company has announced. Both Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes will be taken offline on August 27, after which point players will no longer be able to download or play the titles in the country.
According to Nintendo, the decision to shut the games down is due to the Belgian government's stance on loot boxes (via Games Industry). The Belgian Gaming Commission ruled last year that loot boxes constituted gambling and recommended criminal prosecution against game developers who utilized such mechanics in their titles.
Nintendo is only the latest gaming company to change or outright pull its games in Belgium following the BGC's ruling. Valve, Blizzard, and Rocket League developer Psyonix have removed the ability to purchase loot boxes in their titles in the country, while Square Enix shut down three of its mobile games. Nintendo says it will not release any future titles that employ loot box-like mechanics in the country.
Like many other mobile games, both Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes feature a form of premium in-game currency. In the former, these come in the form of Leaf Tickets, which can be exchanged for Fortune Cookies that contain a random item. The latter, meanwhile, has Orbs, which can be exchanged to summon new heroes. Players in Belgium can continue to purchase and redeem these currencies until the cutoff date.
Loot boxes have come under scrutiny in a number of different countries of late, including the US. Senator Josh Hawley recently announced he was introducing a bill that would ban loot boxes in games targeted at minors. Meanwhile, New Zealand and France had also recently undertaken their own investigations and ruled that loot boxes are not gambling.
The latest title in Sony's long-running golf series, Everybody's Golf VR is the first to bring the series to virtual reality. The transition isn't without its bumps, with the biggest being a lack of Everybody's Golf's traditional competitive modes. But the PSVR golf game does deliver a fairly realistic golfing experience that's both accessible to play and fairly challenging to master.
Everybody's Golf VR abandons the franchise's usual third-person view for a first-person perspective. The three-click swing mechanic (commonly seen in most of today's golf games) is also gone. Instead, you swing your clubs with a PlayStation Move or DualShock 4 controller, hopefully in one smooth motion. The direction of the ball is determined by the angle you hit it, and distance is calculated by how hard you swing. There are other factors to consider when you're on the course as well, such as wind direction and your elevation in relation to the hole.
Actually swinging your arms to hit the ball takes a bit to get used to, but the motion controls are remarkably responsive with a DualShock 4 controller. Once you've got the form down on your swing, you'll be able to reliably hit the ball the way you want to. The same can't be said for the PlayStation Move controller. Occasionally, the Move controller works fine, but I found myself more often than not being unable to even reach the ball with my club while swinging the Move. I ultimately just had to stop using it, as it became too frustrating to play a near-perfect hole only to be stopped short just because my club would not reach down far enough to hit the ball no matter how much I crouched.
In Everybody's Golf VR, the golf balls behave as they're expected to, obeying the laws of gravity when it comes to the arc of your shot or elevation of a slope, and their roll realistically heeds to changes in friction when terrain is affected by different weather patterns, like rain. As previously mentioned, the motion controls are pretty precise. The camera measures whether your swing misses the ball, glances off of it, or makes full contact, and then takes the angle and power of your swing into account. Shifting too much of your body weight to one side or curving your swing typically results in a lousy shot, while maintaining good form sends your ball flying straight as an arrow (provided there are no environmental factors to take into account as well). The game isn't an exact representation of reality--you don't have to swing nearly as aggressively as a professional golfer to achieve distances like one--but Everybody's Golf VR sells you on the experience that you're actually playing golf in your living room.
There's a welcome variety of customization options in Everybody's Golf VR, allowing players of all skill levels to enjoy time on the course. If you're having trouble putting, for example, you can turn on vacuum holes--which suck the ball in provided you get your shot close enough. For a more challenging experience, you can tee up on longer versions of the courses where it's harder to hit par. There are some nice accessibility options as well, such as the choice to play while standing up or sitting down, the option to change your dominant hand from right to left, and the freedom to choose between several sets of clubs--including one that makes it easier to hit the ball straight if you have limited mobility in your arms. There's plenty in Everybody's Golf VR to make the experience appealing to all types of players, and helpful tutorials give newcomers a chance to grasp the basics of the sport until they can get the swing of things.
Everybody's Golf VR's courses are populated with everything you'd expect to see in a golf game, like sand traps and trees, as well as a few things you might not, like dinosaurs. Occasionally, a bee flies in your face or the sound of a wave crashes onto a nearby beach. These sights and sounds are never distracting, but via a PSVR headset and headphones, they do make it feel like each golf course is full of life. Decide to look closely enough, however, and you'll notice the golf resort's reception area and each course is always eerily empty save for your character and either the receptionist or your caddie. It's a tad unsettling.
Though it runs out of steam quickly, Everybody's Golf VR is fun while it lasts, and there are satisfying goals to chase for a time.
Each distinct environment provides more than just a cosmetic change, as a course's aesthetic translates into different environmental hazards to deal with; the Seaside Course is very windy, for example, and its holes have a lot more sand and water traps for your ball to be blown into. A course's hazards aren't enough to force you to drastically change how you play, but they do provide just enough of a welcome challenge to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. It's fun learning about how a new course works, and satisfying to successfully deduce how to adapt to it. In the Seaside Course, for instance, you can risk timing your shot to a powerful gust of wind in hopes it will send your ball flying over an out-of-bounds area--which could save you an entire swing in the long run.
Unfortunately, there aren't many courses for you to play on. And other than Practice Range, the only game mode in Everybody's Golf VR is Course. In Course, you do have the choice of whether you play a random three holes from a course, the first nine, the last nine, or all 18. But with only three courses total, you'll end up replaying the same holes repeatedly in order to unlock all the in-game rewards. It gets tedious after a few hours.
The lack of additional modes in Everybody's Golf VR is a step back in comparison to previous titles in the series, many of which have one or two modes where you can face off against NPCs. As is, the only thing you can do in Everybody's Golf VR is play a course by yourself while your nearby caddie yells words of encouragement. Everybody's Golf VR does lessen some of its tedium with those caddies, though, as the eagerly helpful Riko and teasingly friendly Lucy help make your repeated trips out to the same collection of courses far less lonely.
Replaying courses allows you to unlock additional outfits for your caddie to wear, which is a fun cosmetic reward to chase after. You can also unlock a handful of Events by partnering with a caddie long enough. Some play out like romantically-charged mini dates, but most are just goofy distractions good for a laugh or two. Each caddie has her own unique set of four Events, and though their unlock rates are spread out enough that it will take you a few hours to see them all, once you do there's nothing compelling to work towards in the game.
Despite the lack of different activities in Everybody's Golf VR, the one thing it does do--provide a means of playing golf without actually having to go outside--is relatively enjoyable. Though it runs out of steam quickly, Everybody's Golf VR is fun while it lasts, and there are satisfying goals to chase for a time. Everybody's Golf VR's best feature is its assortment of customization and accessibility options, though, as they allow both golf newbies and veterans to curate their desired experience and just enjoy playing a round.
While Miz just had a battle with Shane McMahon at the WWE PPV Money in the Bank, he and wife Maryse are wrapping up the first season of their reality series on USA Network Miz and Mrs. on May 21. Neither of them are strangers to television, with nearly 30 years combined experience on WWE programming.
18 years ago, Mike "The Miz" Mizanin appeared on the Real World, and following that, he had a career on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge, so jumping into a new reality series following he, his wife Maryse, and their newborn daughter Monroe Sky isn't uncharted territory. Their USA Network series was actually in the works long before filming actually began. "It was actually pitched to us three years before," explained Miz. "They saw the way we were together on Total Divas a little bit and, from there, they were like, 'They need their own reality show,' but I was a little hesitant because I was on The Real World about 20 years ago. I loved being on The Real World and I always thank MTV and Bunim/Murray for putting me on that show because it gave me, I feel like, everything."
There was a stigma on reality stars the first decade the genre existed on television, as early reality TV was a lot more reality-based and a whole lot less scripted. "Hollywood looked at it as that I had no talent," continued Miz. "Whoever is on a reality show, like, you have no talent, you're just standing in front of a camera, and that's who you are, and that's what you did, back in those days. But things have changed in the world and back then, we didn't have camera phones. We didn't have social media. So now, everything has changed to where everything is a reality show, whether it's YouTube, internet, Instagram, and Twitter. Everything. I know exactly what people are doing. The biggest stars in the world, I know what they're doing because they're on their Instagram all the time doing stories.
"So, I looked at that and I said, 'You know what? We can make something really special here.' And my wife and I looked at each other and we were like, 'We really could.' We have the family, we have the friends, and we have the support we need. And our stories are so well done and my experience on The Real World and on The Challenges, as well as being at WWE has taught me how to tell a story. How to create characters. How to make sure that you entertain an audience while being true to who you are, who we are."
Three years later, both Maryse and Miz are executive producers on USA's Miz and Mrs., and they're doing the show the way they want to. "I feel like Maryse and I have made a show that both of us are very proud of," Miz explained. "And when people watch it, the only negative thing that I ever see or ever hear is that it's not long enough, it's not 60 minutes, and I like the 30 minutes, though, because I think it's fast-paced, it's fun, and you can watch it with your whole family."
The season finale of Miz and Mrs. airs on Tuesday, May 21 on USA Network at 10 PM. For more from the "It Couple," check out Maryse talking about her potential return to WWE and the women's revolution.
It's been nearly four years since Quentin Tarantino had a movie in theaters. That's about to change, though, thanks to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. A trailer for the director's latest film--his ninth overall-- has released, showing what Hollywood in 1969 looks like through the eyes of the man also responsible for titles like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Django Unchained. Spoilers: It's weird.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an aging movie star, with Brad Pitt playing his closest confidante and stuntman. The film intertwines multiple stories, including some that pull from actual Hollywood history, to set the stage for what an official synopsis calls "a tribute to the final moments of Hollywood's golden age."
One of those stories, which Pitt's Cliff Booth seemingly finds himself a part of in the trailer, is the Manson family murders. In the first look at the film, Booth ends up at George Spahn's (Bruce Dern) movie rank, where Manson (Damon Herriman) lives with his followers--Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (Dakota Fanning) is shown in the trailer, however "Tex" Watson (Austin Butler) and Catherine Share (Lena Dunham) are among those appearing in the film.
The movie also features Luke Perry, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Rumer Willis, Maya Hawke, Al Pacino, Damian Lewis, and Emile Hirsch, to name a few.
The release of the trailer coincides with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's premiere screening at the Cannes film festival. It will be in theaters on July 26.
Finally, you can explore the universe with No Man's Sky, which is on sale for $37.49. With last year's large-scale update, "Next," and the upcoming "Beyond" free expansion releasing this summer, No Man's Sky has come a long way since its initial launch and is worth picking up if it's not already part of your collection.
The action-RPG Dauntless has officially launched, ending a year-long open beta. The free-to-play game is now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC through the Epic Games Store. Phoenix Labs notes that this official launch fulfills its promise of cross-platform functionality, letting you play with friends regardless of platform or take your account with you.
The launch also comes alongside several updates. A new Mastery system lets you refine your skills and achieve rewards, and each Behemoth and weapon have their own unique Mastery cards to customize. The campaign has also been revised, and the update includes the new Season 5 Hunt Pass, named Hidden Blades. Hidden Blades opens a Moon Blossom festival and unlocks a bunch of new cosmetic rewards as you work your way through the levels.
As previously announced, this update launches alongside the new Arcslayer pack. It comes with a set of mech-inspired armor, consumables, and some premium currency. Switch and mobile versions are in development but a release date for either has not been announced.
"No one has ever launched on console with full cross-play support from the start, but we believed in our vision and, thankfully, our friends at Epic Games, Sony, and Microsoft did too," said Phoenix CEO Jesse Houston. "Keeping the community connected is one of our top priorities, and with all the new players coming in at launch, there's never been a better time to be a Slayer in Dauntless."
Fans of Netflix's acclaimed sci-fi satire Black Mirror had much to celebrate last week when the company announced that Season 5 will be released on June 5. The first trailer was very impressive but it edited all three of the new stories together, and it wasn't always clear what the episodes would be about. But now individual trailers and details for each episode have been released.
The episode titled "Striking Vipers" features a trio of actors best known for their roles in superhero movies. Avengers star Anthony Mackie, Aquaman's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Guardians of the Galaxy's Pom Klementieff feature in the episodes. Netflix's synopsis states that it focuses on "two estranged college friends who reunite in later life, triggering a series of events that could alter their lives forever." This promo actually reveals less than the first trailer, which included shots of a VR-style fighting game, but it still looks very intriguing. Check it out below.
The other episodes in the new season of Black Mirror are titled "Rachel, Jack and Ashley, Too," and "Smithereens." The former stars Miley Cyrus as a pop star whose "charmed existence isn't quite as rosy it appears," with Madison Davenport (Sharp Objects) as a teenage fan, while "Smithereens" features Andrew Scott (Sherlock) and Topher Grace (Blackkklansman) and looks at the dangers of app addictions.
Black Mirror Season 5 will be the first release from the show since the interactive special Bandersnatch, which hit the service in December 2018. Prior to that, Season 4 was released in December 2017. For more on Black Mirror, check out our look at the most WTF moments in Season 4 and all the Season 4 Easter Eggs.
Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online, received a huge update last week, finally bringing it out of its beta phase. Rockstar has now rolled out another update for the online mode, introducing yet more Free Roam missions and other content--including a new batch of timed-exclusive goodies for PS4.
With this week's RDO update, PS4 players have early access to a brand-new weapon, the "devastating" Ancient Tomahawk. You can pick one up for free from your local Fence, regardless of your rank. Going along with it is a new Showdown mode called Make It Count, a battle royale-style free-for-all that has players vying to be the last one standing on a shrinking battlefield using nothing but the Ancient Tomahawk.
Additionally, PS4 players can pick up the Perlino Andalusian Horse, which has higher stamina than a standard steed. There's also a new assortment of clothing and emotes, as well as a second brand-new Showdown mode, Last Stand. This mode has players fighting to survive in frantic two-minute rounds. You can read more details on the PlayStation Blog.
On top of the new content, Rockstar is extending a special offer for PS4 players. Those without a PS Plus subscription, which you typically need in order to play online games on the console, will be able to jump into Red Dead Online for free until May 27. You'll still need to own a copy of Red Dead Redemption 2 to get access to Red Dead Online, but you'll be able to try its online mode out for a limited time at no cost. You'll also be able to get a discount on a PS Plus subscription if you decide to sign up after the trial period.
Like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and a handful of other games, Red Dead Online offers some timed-exclusive content for PS4. Those playing on Sony's console get early access to select weapons, modes, and other things 30 days before they go live on Xbox One. Past timed-exclusive content included the Red Chestnut Arabian Horse and the Open Target Races mode.
Rockstar has more updates in store for Red Dead Online over the next few weeks. On May 28, the developer is introducing another new Showdown mode, Head for the Hills, as well as a Wild Animal Kills Free Roam challenge. You can read more about what's on the way to Red Dead Online soon on Rockstar's website.
The sci-fi anthology satire Black Mirror is set to return to Netflix on June 5, and following last week's first trailer, we now know more about the three new episodes. While the first promo didn't always make it clear what the individual stories would be, the streaming giant has now released separate details and trailers for each episode.
The episode featuring pop star Miley Cyrus is titled "Rachel, Jack and Ashley, Too." Cyrus plays--you guess it--a pop star, but one whose public persona and private life seem very different. In addition, she's loaned her name and voice to a series of sinister robo-dolls, which a lonely teenager called Rachel (Madison Davenport) has recently acquired. Check the trailer out below.
The other episodes in the new season of Black Mirror are titled "Smithereens" and "Striking Vipers." The former stars Andrew Scott (Sherlock) and Topher Grace (Blackkklansman) and looks at the dangers of app addiction, while "Striking Vipers" features Marvel stars Anthony Mackie and Pom Klementieff, alongside Aquaman's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. According to the official synopsis, this episode focuses on two estranged college friends who "reunite in later life, triggering a series of events that could alter their lives forever."
Black Mirror Season 5 will be the first release from the show since the interactive special Bandersnatch, which hit the service in December 2018. Prior to that, Season 4 was released in December 2017. For more on Black Mirror, check out our look at the most WTF moments in Season 4 and all the Season 4 Easter Eggs.
If you're looking for something new to watch at home but don't want to wait until it releases on one of the various streaming services like Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, or Netflix, then you're probably aware that each week, various digital storefronts release new movies. Additionally, on Tuesdays, physical copies of movies come out at various retailers as well.
This is a pretty light week for releases on both the digital and physical fronts. If you don't subscribe to Netflix--which feels like a weird statement--and you want to check out one of the service's more popular series, Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why is available for purchase today. The show follows teenagers at a high school and how they deal with the suicide of one of their peers. There aren't a lot of other notable releases, aside from Tyler Perry's latest Madea movie.
If you want to head to an actual store--or just jump on Amazon--you can pick up The Upside or the latest How To Train Your Dragon movie. However, one of the most fun releases this week is Isn't It Romantic. Rebel Wilson stars as a woman stuck in a rut who somehow gets transported into a typical romantic comedy, but only she realizes this. Her cynicism drives the comedy in the film, and it's the perfect date movie, with a little something for everyone. It may drag at times, and it flat out becomes a rom-com towards the end, but this is still a solid watch.
Below, you'll find the full list for this week's releases, both digitally and physically. There are also links to connect you to purchase them if you like.
We're well into the era of the Nintendo Switch, but there's still a nostalgic charm to Nintendo's handheld consoles of the past. Released in 2013, the Nintendo 2DS isn't that old, but even at the time it was released, it felt like a step back from the 3D technology introduced with its predecessor, the 3DS. The 2DS was marketed as a more affordable option ($40 cheaper than the 3DS at launch), and some find the tablet shape more comfortable than the 3DS' clamshell design.
If you've been wanting to pick up a Nintendo 2DS, GameStop currently has a great deal on the handheld console. When you purchase a 2DS bundle with New Super Mario Bros. 2, you'll also receive your choice of a free game. The free games available include:
Each of the above games sells for $20 at GameStop (and New Super Mario Bros. 2 sells for $30 on its own), so getting a brand-new (not refurbished) 2DS with two games for $80 is a pretty solid deal. This offer expires Sunday, May 26, so act fast if you want to claim it. You'll have to add both the console bundle and your selected game to your cart, where you'll see the discount applied.
As a reminder, the 2DS can play both DS and 3DS games; it'll just show the 2D visuals. The handheld is a perfect way to revisit some of the best games of the 3DS era, and it also makes a great gift for young ones who are just getting into gaming.
Last week it was announced that the sci-fi anthology satire Black Mirror will be returning to Netflix on June 5. Season 5 will consist of three new episodes and while the first trailer was very impressive, it wasn't always clear what the individual stories would be. Now Netflix has released separate trailers and details for each episode.
The first trailer is the episode that opened that initial promo. It's titled "Smithereens," and the official synopsis states that it focuses on a "cab driver with an agenda who becomes the centre of attention on a day that rapidly spirals out of control." This episode stars Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Spectre), Topher Grace (Blackkklansman), and Damson Idris (The Twilight Zone) and seems to center on the dangers of app addiction. Check it out below:
The other episodes in the new season of Black Mirror are titled "Rachel, Jack and Ashley, Too," and "Striking Vipers." The former stars Miley Cyrus as a pop star whose "charmed existence isn't quite as rosy it appears," with Madison Davenport (Sharp Objects) as a teenage fan. "Striking Vipers," meanwhile, features Marvel stars Anthony Mackie and Pom Klementieff, alongside Aquaman's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. This episode centers on "two estranged college friends who reunite in later life, triggering a series of events that could alter their lives forever."
Black Mirror Season 5 will be the first release from the show since the interactive special Bandersnatch, which hit the service in December 2018. Prior to that, Season 4 was released in December 2017. For more on Black Mirror, check out our look at the most WTF moments in Season 4 and all the Season 4 Easter Eggs.
Join GameSpot as we celebrate gaming history and give recognition to the most influential games of the 21st century. These aren't the best games, and they aren't necessarily games that you need to rush out and play today, but there's no question that they left an indelible impact on game developers, players, and in some cases, society at large.
It's hard to explain what it was like to be a console first-person shooter fan in 2001. While PC players had been enjoying FPS games for years, the experience was never as strong on consoles. Where PCs had the fluidity of the mouse-and-keyboard setup, controls on console struggled to capture the same feel--to this day, two of the best-regarded FPS games of the era, GoldenEye 64 and its follow-up, Perfect Dark, were played with controllers that didn't even sport dual analog sticks. In the nascent days of console online multiplayer, squaring off against other players, the thing that could really make shooters exciting, was limited to split-screen battles (often on tiny TVs). There were standout titles of the era, of course, but the FPS field was nothing like what we experience today.
Imagine, then, the arrival of Halo: Combat Evolved. For the first time, the discussion around console shooters opens up to a huge number of new possibilities. The Xbox's system link multiplayer, the console market's first experience with LAN, meant you could play with seven other friends--and more than that, you could work together as teams and execute tactics that your opponents couldn't anticipate simply by glancing over at your side of the screen. For those whose gaming consisted purely of console experiences, it was the first time a shooter experience would become something similar to playing paintball or laser tag. It was a glimpse of the possibilities of the shooting genre's future, and it was glorious.
Halo's arrival on the console FPS scene didn't just herald the shooter future, it manifested it. From the jump, the game was unmatched. In the very first mission, as players took on the role of genetically enhanced supersoldier Master Chief, developer Bungie was throwing together elements that shifted how playing shooters felt on a fundamental level. First and foremost was the enemy design. The alien Covenant were generally not idiots--they fought hard and smart, taking cover when they were hurt, grouping up to channel their fire, throwing grenades to flush you out of your hiding places, and charging up when they knew they had you on the ropes. Every encounter with an Elite enemy in the original Halo was a harrowing one, because the bastards weren't just tough and didn't just absorb a lot of shots. They were also very good at finding ways to kill you (and never missed a chance to laugh about it afterward).
Bungie set a standard with enemy AI design in Halo. But it also did a lot to make its fights feel more like battles, capturing a feeling that many shooters have chased ever since. The mostly-pretty-good AI extended to allies as well, and much of the time in Halo, you're fighting the Covenant with the support of a squad of UNSC Marines. You might be a one-player army in Halo, but you always felt like part of a team, and excited shouts of your squadmates as you take down a big enemy or set off a big explosion (as well as their cries as they got blasted by grenades) created the sense that there was more to Halo than just your role in the game. Few titles captured the feeling of stepping straight into a full, realized world the way Halo did, and a huge part of that was the idea that you were just one (really good) soldier in a much larger, active army.
Halo felt like it was doing something video games had always wanted to do, but had never quite achieved before.
So many of those battles managed to take on an epic scale thanks to Halo's perfect combination of elements. Huge fields often had vehicles crossing them, some of which you had to deal with on foot, others which you could battle in tanks or Warthogs of your own, with marines jumping into the gunner positions to back you up. A phenomenal soundtrack and Bungie's cinematic approach made those moments even more exhilarating, expanding the scope even further. The game's smart level design gave you tons of agency--you could pick your way through engagements, slamming straight into enemies or finding ways to flank them out while your squad distracted them, hunting down vehicles or rocket launchers to turn the tide in your favor, or sneaking past enemies and avoiding fights altogether.
Halo felt expansive in a new way for shooters, setting the tone for massive, cinematic, action movie-like games that would follow. Level after level, Halo felt like it was doing something video games had always wanted to do, but had never quite achieved before. It wasn't necessarily inventing new things, but it took the best ideas of the genre and turned them into a singular experience. When it comes to the AAA shooter experience as we now know it, Bungie cracked the code with Halo.
Shooters are still feeling the influence of some of the best and freshest ideas of Halo. The ability to carry only two weapons and think strategically about which you pick up? Halo. Recharging shields that force you to find a shady spot and consider your tactical options mid-fight? Halo. Grenades on a trigger button, ready at all times? Halo. The standard in console FPS control schemes? Halo again. The franchise it spawned was such a powerhouse that for years, developers and publishers hoped their games might become the "Halo-killer" to usurp its place at the top of the shooter heap.
Bungie elevated console shooters with Halo, but the even bigger lasting influence of the game might be how it shook the console landscape by legitimizing Microsoft's Xbox. When Microsoft decided to leap into the console market, there was no shortage of skepticism, but Halo was the reason to purchase the new machine. The game proved that Microsoft was not just some late-comer trying to use an abundance of cash to muscle out the dominant PlayStation, and it would be Halo's sequels that helped make Microsoft a bigger force through Xbox Live. Through its role as an Xbox exclusive, Halo helped lay the foundation for the next two decades of what gaming would become.
Halo changed the conception of what games could be for a lot of players. It rocked the shooter world with ideas that have become standards to this day, and its approaches to gameplay and presentation made for that truly "epic" experience that games have continued to try to capitalize on ever since. But more than anything, it altered gaming for console players, elevating the experience with an amazing single-player campaign, a huge and expansive game world, and the first steps into the future of multiplayer. Playing Halo in 2001, it felt like things had changed--almost 20 years later, we're still feeling the shockwaves.
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