The new Star Wars TV show, The Mandalorian, makes use of a variety of special effects that Lucasfilm created in partnership with iconic effects studio Industrial Light and Magic and Fortnite studio Epic Games. A new behind-the-scenes video showcases the fascinating technology that was used to bring The Mandalorian's sets to life.The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau says the technology, which uses Epic's Unreal Engine to project scenes onto LED screens surrounding the physical set, will impact and influence how TV shows and movies are made in the future. In the video, it's not hard to see why.With LED screens in the background projecting anything imaginable, the actors on set can physically point at things and actually see what they're looking it. Not only that, but this technology allowed the producers to have sunrises and sunsets that could last all day. They could also literally move mountains in the background because they're digital. This opens up incredible new possibilities for digital filmmaking."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Platinum Games, developer of Bayonetta, Astral Chain, NieR: Automata, and other action titles, is set to make a major announcement in the February 27 issue of Famitsu. That's according to this week's edition of the magazine, as translated and reported by Gematsu.Earlier this month, Platinum Games launched a mysterious teaser website called Platinum 4. This led to the studio kicking off an official Kickstarter campaign for a port of the former Wii U-exclusive The Wonderful 101. The campaign was immediately successful, meeting crowdfunding goals that ensure the remaster is set to release on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam. The website now displays The Wonderful 101 as the first of the Platinum 4, with next week's announcement presumably being the second.Bayonetta 3 and Babylon's Fall are both already in development at Platinum, so if the mysterious Platinum 4 only concerns unannounced games they're unlikely to be included. The secrecy would indicate that, but you also never know. Last year, the studio revealed plans to self-publish two brand-new IPs, with recent investment from Chinese tech giant Tencent possibly contributing to this.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you enjoy streaming Fortnite you're likely annoyed by its emotes. It's not that they're bad, but rather that many of them feature music that could get you into trouble on Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer. But with the latest update to the Battle Royale game, that won't be an issue anymore.Fortnite is getting a handy options toggle on PC, allowing you to use emotes without playing any licensed audio that may be attached to it. That means no accidental mutes or content strikes on your streams and videos. Just the same silly dance moves, without some of the audible fanfare behind them.PC Players: In the 12.00 update, we've added the ability to mute Licensed Emote Audio. This option is available in the game's Audio settings. pic.twitter.com/UHGYAlXKgH — Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) February 19, 2020That will definitely come in handy if you're a fan of Rick Astley, who Epic Games struck a deal with recently to have his now infamous dance join the growing collection of emotes.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

March is a good time to get outside and remember that life isn't the cold, pale existence we've come to know over the past few months. However, with streaming services like Hulu, you may just want to stay inside and binge-watch a bunch of movies and TV shows. Here is what is coming to the streaming service in the upcoming month along with a few recommendations.On March 1, Hulu is dropping plenty of new content, primarily movies you will want to check out again and again. If you're looking for some scares, keep an eye out for The Descent and its sequel. The films follow a group of spelunkers who venture into a cave and find a group of monsters in there, hunting them down one by one. These movies are especially creepy if you have claustrophobia.If you're looking for something brand-new, FX has some TV shows coming to Hulu beginning in March, and the first show exclusive to the streaming service is Devs. Arriving on March 5, The series stars Sonoya Mizuno (Maniac), Nick Offerman (Parks & Recreation), and Jin Ha (Hamilton) and follows a Silicon Valley tech company that is dealing with theoretical quantum computing. This is a limited series, consisting of eight episodes.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The PlayStation Store has been handing out deals left and right in a series of great PS4 sales this month, and that streak continues with the latest sale kicking off on PSN today. The Essential Picks PS4 sale is live now with up to 70 percent off some of the system's best games, including The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition and last year's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, so this is a great opportunity to snag some games on your personal wishlist. The Essential Picks sale is live now until March 3 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET.It's been nearly five years since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt first released, but there's no question it's one of the most acclaimed and influential games of this console generation, and with the popularity of the new Netflix Witcher TV show, its audience continues to grow. The Complete Edition is on sale for just $15 and includes all DLC and expansion packs as well as the base game.You'll also find Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which just released in November, on sale for $45. That's a great deal on the action-adventure game, which follows the adventures of a young Jedi named Cal Kestis. Quite a few older PS4 hits are discounted as well, including Bloodborne - Complete Edition bundle for $17.49, The Last of Us Remastered for $15, and Until Dawn for $15. We've seen these games on sale for cheaper--PlayStation discounted its Greatest Hits collection to $10 each for Black Friday--but any one of these games is still worth picking up for a few bucks more if you've never played them.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Despite one of the biggest games of the month--Final Fantasy 7 Remake--getting pushed to early April, March is still packed to the gills with releases. And two of those upcoming games are seeing some unexpected and wholesome cross-pollination: Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal.Both titles launch on March 20--Animal Crossing: New Horizons lands on Nintendo Switch, while Doom Eternal comes to basically everything else (Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, as well as Switch sometime this year). And both subreddit communities are cheering each other on.Over in the Doom subreddit, fans are posting a variety of artwork featuring the Doomguy and Isabelle, Animal Crossing's adorable little Shih Tzu. The crossover art is rendered in a bunch of different styles, from traditional Animal Crossing fare to memes and everything in between.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Go's latest Legendary, Tornadus, won't be around for much longer. The Cyclone Pokemon is scheduled to leave Raid Battles on Tuesday, February 25 at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET, making this your last chance to catch one in the game.Until then, Tornadus will appear in Gyms as a five-star Raid Boss. Before you can catch it, you'll need to team up with other players in-person and defeat the Legendary in a battle. Tornadus is a pure Flying type, making it vulnerable to Rock, Electric, and Ice Pokemon like Rhyperior, Zapdos, and Glaceon.If you don't yet have a Rhyperior, you'll have a chance to get one during this month's Community Day, which takes place this Saturday, February 22. The featured Pokemon this time is Rhyhorn, so there will be plenty of opportunities to catch some during the event. If you can evolve Rhyhorn all the way into Rhyperior up to two hours after the Community Day ends, it'll learn the Rock-type attack Rock Wrecker, which should prove to be very helpful against Tornadus.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Netflix-produced adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá's cult comic book Umbrella Academy was one of the most acclaimed comic adaptations of the last few years and anticipation is high for Season 2. While we don't yet know when in 2020 the second season will arrive, a new series of posters have been released.The posters were tweeted by the show's official account. There's seven of them and they're incredibly stylish--each gives us a look at a different member of the Hargreeves family. There's Ellen Page as Vanya, Tom Hopper as Luther, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Allison, David Castañeda as Diego, Robert Sheehan as Klaus, Aiden Gallagher as Number Five, and Justin H. Min as Ben. Check two of them out below, and the rest over at the Umbrella Academy account.pic.twitter.com/53QoguCHmA — NX (@NXOnNetflix) February 19, 2020pic.twitter.com/7gU0x3wDS2 — NX (@NXOnNetflix) February 19, 2020Umbrella Academy Season 1 hit Netflix in February 2019. The show focuses on a dysfunctional superhero family and ended with a massive cliffhanger, increasing anticipation for Season 1. In her review of Season 1 for GameSpot, Meg Downey said "Umbrella Academy stumbles a few times in the pacing department," but although it "throws a lot at the wall, most everything sticks."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The indie Diablo-like Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem had a big launch on Steam, but quickly hit server issues and other launch hiccups. The studio has now delivered a promised hotfix, which addresses some of those problems along with several other bugs.In an update posted to Steam, Wolcen Studio thanks the audience for its patience with the admittedly rocky launch, including a data loss issue that occurred last week. It says it is halting its previous approach to hotfixes to prevent another data loss issue, and instead it will slow the pace of fixes and coordinate with partners more carefully. As a result, in the future it will cap server capacities and only push out one patch per week.This week's patch, version 1.0.4.0, fixes an issue that would prevent offline characters from being saved, along with several other bugs. It states that it fixes an issue regarding network load and unretrieved data, but it's clear Wolcen Studio still feels it has a lot of work to do. In a future patch, it plans to make more bug fixes, including issues with the Act 1 and Act 3 bosses, a Korean language option, and PTBR localization selection.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The PS5 is set for release at the end of the year, but we're only a few months away from Final Fantasy VII Remake and The Last of Us Part II--not to mention Ghost of Tsushima this summer--and if you want to play the best versions of those games, then there's a great deal on the PS4 Pro at Amazon. The PS4 Pro is currently $300, down from its original price of $400, and it comes with free Prime two-day shipping. See PS4 Pro at Amazon The PS4 Pro is the more powerful version of the PS4 Slim. It's capable of playing enhanced versions of the PS4's games, displaying them at higher resolutions with better performance. Of course, developers can take advantage of the extra power in different ways, so the results vary between games. The PS4 Pro is also capable of streaming 4K video from services like Netflix and YouTube.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Though the Animal Crossing Switch console is sold out at every major retailer, you can still add some New Horizons flavor to regular 'ole Switch and Switch Lite systems. Three Animal Crossing console skin sets are available now for both the Switch and Switch Lite. The officially licensed skins from Controller Gear also cost a lot less than the special edition console. Switch console skins are $20, and Switch Lite skins are $10.Controller Gear's console and controller skins are scratch resistant and leave no residue on your console, dock, or Joy-Cons after removing them. Since the skins are officially licensed, it's no surprise that the artwork is great. You can check out all six options--three for Switch, three for Switch Lite--below. The Switch skins come with screen protectors as well. Controller Gear also has Animal Crossing tech decal sets for $7 featuring characters like Isabelle and Tom Nook, which can stick to your Switch, laptop, smartphone, and other devices.Animal Crossing: New Horizons releases March 20 on Nintendo Switch, so there's still time to pre-order and get some nice bonuses. The controller skins are just a few of the many cool New Horizons Switch accessories available. For newcomers and series veterans alike, you may want to check out the official New Horizons companion guide, which includes everything you need to know about your island getaway.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Dangerous Driving developer Three Fields Entertainment is back with a sequel, and it's taking a page out of the Burnout Paradise playbook this time. Dangerous Driving 2 will arrive later this year, with support for Nintendo Switch and a new open-world environment.Also coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC this holiday, Dangerous Driving 2 features racing events as well as a free driving mode that lets you cause massive wrecks in classic Burnout fashion. The first Dangerous Driving was a spiritual successor to games like Burnout 3, while Dangerous Driving 2's open-world should allow for experimentation like in Burnout Paradise.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you're a gamer above a certain age, you're probably well-familiar with the NES Zapper, the electric orange light gun that served as one of the most popular accessories for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. While you could use it to blow away bad guys in a variety of games, like Hogan's Alley and Wild Gunman, it's often associated with Duck Hunt, the bird-shooting game that starred one of video game's most annoying canine companions.Well, Japanese gamers looking to blast some ducks these days will need to fork up some serious cash for the privilege. According to a tweet by Kotaku features editor Chris Kohler, the humble Zapper has climbed in price in Japanese markets in recent months. For comparison, the cheapest orange Zapper in the image had a price of 6,000 yen (~$54), whereas Amazon postings for a US Zapper start around $15, including shipping. This can be attributed to two main factors: the Zapper never came out in Japan, since the Famicom had its own light gun that bore a strong resemblance to a real-life revolver; and the gun's appearance as a weapon in Splatoon 2 has raised its profile significantly.Thanks to its newfound worldwide popularity by appearing in Splatoon 2, the NES Zapper (unreleased in Japan) now sells for a bunch of money on Japanese sites, where it's tagged with "N-Zap" and "Splatoon" pic.twitter.com/u4fBZMjpzB — Chris Kohler (@kobunheat) February 19, 2020This isn't the first time that Nintendo has included the Zapper as a bit of nostalgic fan-service. The character Duck Hunt in Super Smash Bros. serves as an elaborate tribute to the light gun, complete with many references to characters from NES light gun games.Info from Gamespot.com

If you dream of crane kicking anthropomorphic squirrels in the face, your wait is almost over: The open-world RPG Biomutant has entered the last stages of development, according to a tweet from developer Experiment 101.pic.twitter.com/dc6Hh8RJvf — Biomutant (@Biomutant) February 19, 2020Published by THQ Nordic, and first announced in late 2017, the martial arts RPG made a splash at industry trade shows like Gamescom with flashy trailers that show off its unique world and cartoonish combat. Still, as the tweet says, there is no release date to announce as of yet. The game's Steam store page references a planned release window of 2020.If you're looking for more games starring bipedal mice, check out Ghost of a Tale, a stealthy adventure RPG. If eking out an existence in a mutated world is more your thing, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an excellent tactical shooter with plenty of depth. In our review, David Wildgoose called it "a superb tactical combat campaign that you shouldn't let sneak past."Info from Gamespot.com

Sony won't be attending E3 this year, and now it has confirmed that it will not make a scheduled appearance at this month's PAX East event. On the PlayStation Blog, the company cited the coronavirus epidemic as the cause for the sudden cancellation.SIE content communications manager Justin Massongill said that avoiding the event was the "safest option" in the face of the erratic nature of the coronavirus (officially called COVID-19). The virus has affected more than 75,000 people and the death toll has risen above a reported 2,000 cases."Update: Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment made the decision to cancel its participation at PAX East in Boston this year due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as 'novel coronavirus')," Massongill said. "We felt this was the safest option as the situation is changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation in this event, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com