It's been a big year for Path of Exile. Developer Grinding Gear Games held the first-ever fan convention, ExileCon, in the developer's home city of Auckland, New Zealand in November. At the show, the company made a series of big announcements, perhaps the most notable of which was the reveal of Path of Exile 2. Some of the other announcements included a Path of Exile mobile game, a 3.9.0 expansion for the base game, a Mac version and more. In a new interview, Grinding Gear founder Chris Wilson speaks to GameSpot about how the show went, if it will return for 2020, and lots more."I almost cried on the stage, it was such a strong set of emotions," Wilson tells GameSpot about his reaction to announcing Path of Exile 2 to a crowd of millions of people on-site and online.ExileCon may not return for 2020, Wilson says. The main driving decision will be if Grinding Gear has enough to show, and it's too early to say.Also in the interview, Wilson speaks about how Path of Exile 2 isn't afraid to compete with Blizzard's Diablo IV, a game that presumably has a bigger budget. He also discusses hot-button topics like cross-play, microtransactions, and how the studio has gone about avoiding crunch. Grinding Gear has been one of the most outspoken developers in the world regarding crunch, with Wilson saying in the past that he refuses to make his teams crunch. Wilson also talks about how he believes Grinding Gear has retained its identity in the past year following its acquisition by Chinese internet behemoth Tencent.Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability. Minor spoilers for Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2.GameSpot: Now that it's been a couple of weeks since ExileCon, when you look back and reflect, how do you think it all went and what were some of your personal highlights?Chris Wilson: It went so much better than we ever hoped. There were a hundred moving pieces and everything came together perfectly. There was so much energy and engagement between players and developers. It was a really special weekend for our team, and they're still buzzing from it a few weeks later.There were many highlights for me, but the one that stands out is the feeling of announcing Path of Exile 2 to millions of people. I almost cried on the stage, it was such a strong set of emotions. Another big highlight of the convention was getting to meet so many fans and hear their stories. It was so cool to meet people who like Path of Exile enough to fly all the way out to New Zealand!Do you think ExileCon will be back in 2020; what might you want to do differently?We haven't decided which year to bring the convention back, but it's unlikely to be every single year. We're thinking about whether 2021 or 2022 makes more sense for another event, and this honestly depends on when we'll next have a big enough set of compelling announcements to make. Maybe there's some scope for a smaller-scale fan meetup in the meantime?In terms of what to do differently, there are some internal processes we could improve (an extra setup day for example) but otherwise we were really pleased with how the event itself went!A lot has been said over the years about the approachability of Path of Exile. You're obviously having a lot of success with the way things are, but do you have anything in mind to help improve the onboarding experience for new players?We're constantly trying to improve the onboarding experience for Path of Exile. The new campaign and skill system in Path of Exile 2 are both designed to remove early frustrations and to improve retention for new players. Having said that, though, in our experience, every change we have made in the past to improve onboarding has had little or no impact on overall player retention. This is something we have seen echoed by other free-to-play developers as well.You've said from the beginning that Path of Exile is a hardcore game for hardcore gamers--but would you ever consider efforts to appeal to a broader player base?If we can achieve to a broader player base without in any way hurting what makes Path of Exile great for hardcore players, then that'd be great. Path of Exile 2 is a good opportunity for this, but we certainly have to be careful to not water down any systems that players currently enjoy. Ideally we'd want Path of Exile to be more approachable while also being deeper than it currently is.What is your response to Blizzard's recent Diablo 4 reveal? How do you feel Path of Exile 2 stacks up against what Blizzard is trying to do with their game?When other companies make a new Action RPG, they're taking a gamble. The game design decisions they make could be great for their game, or could detract from it. Does simplifying itemisation help or hinder long-term player enjoyment? Does an open world solve more problems than it causes? It's very hard to know the answers to these questions without playing the released game.To me, Path of Exile is a solid 90%. The ongoing popularity of the game is a testament to this, as evidenced by the millions of people watching ExileCon coverage, and the 1400+ die-hard fans who flew to New Zealand see it in person. The changes we are making for Path of Exile 2 are very carefully made, with the goal of only increasing that number. I know the new campaign is far better than the old one.I know the new skill system allows everything that was possible before, while being far easier to understand and solving many confusing problems. Therefore, I believe that Path of Exile 2 will be at least a 90% game as well, if not slightly more. We're only changing stuff that makes the game better. Maybe our competitors will release a 100% game, but there are so many new and untested-on-a-global-scale decisions that it's entirely possible that some may be the wrong call.On a more positive note, I'm rooting for everyone to make great Action RPGs. A genre with popular games in it is good for everyone, and if someone can bring an extra 20 million players to this genre, everyone benefits.A big theme today is cross-play and connecting communities--do you plan to offer cross-platform or cross-progression for content in Path of Exile 2?We would like to. There's still quite a lot of work needed to work out what that means and to what extent the different platforms are integrated (for example how to handle compatibility with updates deploying at different times on different platforms as that's often out of our control), but we're optimistic that we can work something out in 2020.Being a free-to-play game that uses microtransactions, I think many would say that Path of Exile is an example of free-to-play done right. What is your approach to MTX and how do you avoid its pitfalls like pay-to-win and other icky situations?Our philosophy is to not allow microtransactions to affect game systems. That way, there are never any game design considerations related to them, so the game development team don't really need to think about the business case for how the game is monetised and can focus on just making it fun.To this end, we only sell cosmetic microtransactions that let you dress your character up, and long-term stash storage space that doesn't benefit you in the field and is equivalent to (but more convenient than) just registering more free accounts to mule the items over to.The mobile version of Path of Exile that was announced at ExileCon was described as being "experimental." How are you going to go about gathering feedback and what will you need to see or learn to decide to go forward with the project officially?Our mobile team spent a lot of ExileCon chatting with players while they were playing the mobile project, and solicited feedback as people finished their sessions. This has yielded heaps of feedback on the current version that we're still processing and making changes as a result of. We haven't yet announced how we're going to get the next iteration into the hands of players, but their feedback is really important to our process so we'll certainly do more rounds of community playtesting.In terms of going ahead with the project officially, we'll release it if it's a great game. So far it's looking promising, but we have no financial requirement to rely on income from the mobile project so we're able to take our time and make sure it's what we need it to be before we release it.Streaming seems like it could finally be taking off with Google Stadia and xCloud and other similar services; would you want to make Path of Exile available for streaming?Certainly, it seems harmless to offer it as an alternative way to play and might help us bring the game to users whose PCs aren't powerful enough to play the game. There's just the question of manpower in terms of being able to commit to a project like that.In 2018, Tencent came aboard as a majority investor. Now that it's been about a year, can you reflect on that acquisition and how things have changed or stayed the same since then?My goal was for things to stay the same, both for our staff and for our players. After a year and a half now, I feel that I can confidently say that we have achieved this. I do not believe that anything has changed either internally or externally at the studio as a result of the acquisition, other than a little more CEO work on my plate.You've been very open and passionate about avoiding crunch at the studio. How have you been able to achieve this while still being active in releasing new content all the time, especially now as you take on more projects like Path of Exile 2 and the mobile game?We have been actively expanding our studio over the last few years so that we have the capacity to deliver both our regular thirteen-week cycle and also work on other projects such as Path of Exile 2 and the mobile game. As we continue to ramp up the team size, we'll be able to make even faster work on these side projects. Our core developers working on our regular expansions have a good idea of what they can achieve in thirteen weeks and unless some big design aspects of the expansion need to change, it's usually quite comfortable.Having said that, we completely underestimated the amount of effort required to arrange ExileCon, so I will be forever grateful for the hard work that many team members put in making sure that the convention went amazingly. We may have developed expertise in scheduling game development, but organising conventions was an area that was very new to us.Info from Gamespot.com

Looking back at the past 35 years, cannabis has long had a strained relationship with the video game industry. Because games were often targeting youth, cannabis was seen as taboo, a drug not worth mentioning unless it was to warn kids to refrain from trying, as with the FBI's messages of “Winners Don’t Do Drugs” running on screens of most arcade games of the era, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Wrestlefest.But today, tolerance of cannabis is at an all-time high, and game developers have taken notice: An entirely new gaming segment has sprouted, such as running cannabis empires and becoming a fast-moving drug kingpin. From the early BBS days to the weed-tycoon games you can jump into today, this story of cannabis in video games has changed drastically over the years. We spoke to gaming experts and developers to reveal the history and challenges of bringing cannabis into video game culture.When looking at drugs in video games as a whole, cannabis might seem unattractive to developers to include in gameplay, as video game theorist Jesper Juul said. “Big-budget video games tend to operate at two steps removed from the player’s life: you don’t just control a somewhat talented basketball player slightly better than yourself--you control the best basketball player in the world; you don’t just drive a car slightly better than the one you have, you drive a Ferrari,” he notes. “Cannabis is the most popular recreational drug, and generally perceived as somewhat harmless, so video games tend to refer to drugs that are less widespread, but more dangerous in order to show that the game world has been cranked to 11. For that reason, I think cannabis gets comparatively little exposure in video games.”Drugwars focused on making as much money from narcotics as possible.But most gamers would be surprised to learn cannabis gets mentioned in games as far back as 1984, when programmers were developing BBS door games and dial-up modems gave players this rudimentary software to share content. Slick graphics weren't expected, but instead, users clamored for off-filter premises you couldn't find at arcades or on Atari cartridges. A title of the era, Drugwars, is a game that lets you play a New York City drug dealer trying to unload cannabis, coke, speed, ludes, and much more, went viral quickly at the time. The goal of the game is to accumulate the most money you can from selling drugs in one month.More mainstream titles took a, well, more mainstream approach. Four years later, one of the most popular arcade shoot-em-ups of the time also included a focus on drugs --but cast you not as a dealer, but as a police officer. Narc let you control a narcotics officer to arrest or shoot dealers and kingpins and even drug users. Like a lot of games that cast players as police, it painted drugs, including cannabis, and their users as villains and enemies.The 1990s were largely devoid of any major marijuana references in games, perhaps due to the chilling effect of the War on Drugs and the threat of stringent ESRB ratings on a game that included any drug usage. While it was a lay-low period for cannabis in gaming, the 2000s were about to usher in a new era of drug-friendly gaming culture.Some publishers saw value in bringing back the arcade classic with a 21st-century sheen. Narc's 2005 remake wanted to amp up the drug use. Steve Allison, chief of marketing for Narc's publisher, Midway, told the New York Times about its foray into depicting drugs such as cannabis, crack and cocaine: “This is something that nobody else has tackled.” In this iteration, the narcotics officers you play can not only confiscate drugs, but also smoke them. Puffing a joint will slow down the game's action, while taking crack makes you a sharpshooter, for some reason.Using drugs was a big part of Narc, turning their effects into game mechanics.As depictions of cannabis in video games started to shift, they began to mirror opinions of weed in the rest of the world, as well. Back on terra firma, American policy-makers and cannabis enthusiasts saw a shift in how cannabis was viewed. In 2006, Colorado introduced Amendment 44 to legalize cannabis but the measure was defeated in the polls by a 60-40 margin. Still, that 40% figure gave hope to Americans who wanted to see the old drug laws shift hard left to reflect the rising acceptance of cannabis. That same year, Volition brought cannabis into its open-world game, Saints Row, letting you fill bong bowls or blunt papers with the bud. As you can see in this video of the joint-smoking in Saints Row, you cough and blow smoke, eventually clouding your vision momentarily.As cannabis became less taboo and the smoke cleared from the hysteria sparked by the War on Drugs, more developers devoted entire games to running cannabis enterprises. In 2010, another iteration of the tycoon-type cannabis game launched. Pot Farm was a huge hit on Facebook, because it didn't sway too far from the core appeal of the extremely popular Farmville--you were growing cannabis plants rather than corn. By finding such a massive and engaged audience on Facebook, cannabis-empire games slid into a new space they never occupied before: enjoying word-of-mouth marketing courtesy Facebook’s connected users, who loved to show off their latest fad with a quick post or “Share” click.By some estimates, Pot Farm was raking in, at its height, $140,000 a month for its developer Brain Warp Studios. Most importantly, it laid the foundation for a new genre of cannabis-focused games devoted to running farms or dispensaries and cultivating strains for users to buy. Currently, it doesn’t seem to be available as a mobile or Facebook app.As Pot Farm took off, American views of cannabis softened, most notably on the political level, state-by-state. Washington was the first state to legalize cannabis for recreational use in 2012, closely followed by Colorado. California, Michigan, Oregon, and Maine also legalized cannabis in that decade, and the country’s perception on the drug liberalized as the decade wore on: In 1988, only 24 percent of Americans supported legalization but by 2018, 66 percent of U.S. residents voiced their approval. Why? One theory floated by several sociologists and criminologists believe “support for legalization began to increase shortly after the news media began to frame marijuana as a medical issue.”No longer viewing cannabis as dangerous and harmful as cocaine and heroin, despite its continued status as a Schedule 1 narcotic along with those drugs, Americans didn’t have a problem seeing cannabis in their movies and in their video games. The 2010s gave publishers the legroom to liberally throw in some cannabis references, devoting entire plotlines to the plant, such as in LA Noire's Reefer Madness case. Far Cry 3 has protagonist Jason setting fields of cannabis plants ablaze with a flamethrower, and Jason can also get high from the smoke. Call of Duty: Ghosts got in the game with cannabis-themed camouflage skins to lay over your weapons, which you could purchase with microtransactions. Infinity Ward couldn't resist throwing a few puns in the product description: "Deliver chronic lethality when you customize with the new Blunt Force Personalization Pack."And in Battlefield Hardline, a massive underground cannabis grow-up made its way into one of the game's multiplayer maps.Smoking might mostly be a joke in Grand Theft Auto V, but its depictions might have helped games on the path of normalizing cannabis.One of the most well-known games to feature cannabis is Grand Theft Auto V. While San Andreas mentioned cannabis in missions, in V, player characters Michael and Franklin can hit the bong like they're in a Cypress Hill music video. We're also introduced to Smoke on the Water, a medical marijuana pharmacy that Franklin can buy.In Grand Theft Auto Online, you can smoke so much cannabis you eventually die. In an update to Online, you also have the chance to buy a cannabis farm to get you more leaf to sell."Thing is, with GTA, I'm not sure if they spoke to the cannabis community in a real way," said Solon Bucholtz, creator of the Hempire tycoon-genre game. "But it definitely did push the boundaries of what's acceptable in gaming."It only seems fitting that the past two years have created a boom in cannabis-focused games, perhaps inspired by the middle finger Rockstar threw up in the air any chance they got. But centering a game's premise around cannabis probably has more to do with the political tides shifting: Today, 11 states and Washington D.C. have legalized cannabis for recreational use and 33 states have legalized medical cannabis.With more Americans interested in the beneficial effects of cannabis, more Americans, especially in areas such as Humboldt County in California, began to grow cannabis crops. A new job sector opened up, as well as a now-legal gardening hobby in states where personal grow-ops were allowed. Economic incentives and new technologies in cannabis grows opened the door to other peripheral companies excited to ride this green wave.In the late 2010s, more cannabis business-sim games popped up, such as Hempire, Weed Farm, and Weed Shop 2, each trying to sway gamers away from other sims and get them breaking bad and winning the weed wars.Bucholtz said Hempire has just surpassed 10 million installs after celebrating its two-year anniversary on the market. Cultivating strains, learning about the science of THC, and entering your bud into the "Hempire Cup" are some of the ways the game corrals this budding community of players."One of the reasons why the gaming and cannabis scenes work so well together is because both are social activities," Bucholtz said, "and a lot of us grew up enjoying cannabis and playing games like Goldeneye with friends."After Hempire came Wiz Khalifa's Weed Farm mobile game, where the rapper stays on-brand by showing you how to grow and sell cannabis. And Weed Shop 2 made a bigger splash than its predecessor with a premise as on-the-nose as its name.Another sim called Weedcraft Inc. arrived in early 2019, bearing similarities to Hempire, but also featuring a mode where you can play a middle-aged man who has just been released from prison and needs to start to build his cannabusiness from scratch.While public sentiment over cannabis has softened over the past few decades, the tight regulations surrounding cannabis-focused games remained unyielding. The challenges Weedcraft faced made global headlines just months after its launch."Marketing the game turned out to be problematic due to platforms' rules and perception of ethics," Vile Monarch Studios game director Grzegorz Mazur said. "This included Facebook temporarily blocking our ads, which they lifted once the situation got covered in media, and YouTube demonetized videos featuring the game, which discouraged some YouTubers from featuring Weedcraft."Weedcraft Inc. is all about growing your cannabusiness, something that's happening in the real world--but its developers still had a tough time advertising it to potential players.On the minds of many developers adding cannabis to gameplay is what rating their game will get from the ESRB, which could determine how accessible that game can be for youth. ESRB spokesperson Max Jay clarified how the board makes its ruling on games featuring cannabis. “The mere presence of cannabis as a crop may not result in a more restrictive rating assignment, but if it is actively being smoked or consumed, it's possible that the game in question could receive a more restrictive rating,” Jay said."Growing cannabis on an industrial scale shifts with the legislation, from being an absurd hypothetical (like fighting aliens) to being something that one might actually do under the right circumstances," said game theorist Jesper Juul, the author of the upcoming book on indie games Handmade Pixels. “For example, it's no longer a fantasy, but a somewhat achievable daydream. Paradoxically, this probably makes the actual video game less exciting for most."If you want your cannabis game to join Apple's platform, you might face the kind of headache Justin Woodward of Interrobang is enduring. He's the lead developer on the Kevin Smith-licensed Jay & Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, a Double Dragon-esque beat-'em-up starring the two stoner mainstays of Smith's iconic films. Only available to those who pledged to the project on Kickstarter, the game hasn't yet made it through Apple's gates.“Because Apple is trying to launch Apple Arcade to a wide family-friendly audience, Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch was denied for being on the platform at launch. due to the rated-R nature of the content, as well as cannabis usage,” Woodward said.When the smoke clears on this cannabis games scene surging in the past few years, it's clear to see two types of genres: the ones that take themselves seriously, like Weedcraft, and games veering into more tongue-in-cheek territory, such as Stone. In this indie game, you play a joint-loving koala detective named Stone who needs to find his missing boyfriend, but he's also jonesing for spliffs every few minutes. It feels like an Australian gamer's fever dream, with a large set of mysteries that unbraid themselves along each step.As you'd expect from a country that legalized medical cannabis in 2002, Canada is home to several cannabis-focused publishers, including LBC Studios, who created Hempire. If you've played a Bud Farm or Pot Farm game, you've likely played an East Side Games title, based out of Vancouver. "ESG has always made their mark by doing something different and that's where the idea for cannabis-themed games was born. We wanted to build this community out of nothing. It was a great business opportunity because there wasn't a market for it, and very few other games in that space," a company rep told Canadian media recently.So what makes an engaging cannabis video game? Weedcraft's Mazur said, "I think it generally needs honesty, a sense that it's portraying not only the plant but the culture around it. It needs to feel like it's part of their [cannabis users'] world, not just a heartless product trying to monetize an emerging trend."He also recognized a game's limitation in how it can incorporate cannabis into gameplay. "I hope there will be more games portraying different aspects of cannabis and the culture around it, but I don't expect it to be a huge wave," he said. "There's only so many ways you can use it that will be appealing to players. But I do think that the rapid law changes and general increase of public acceptance will make it featured more often in games that are not primarily focused on cannabis."Info from Gamespot.com

2020 is almost here, so we've asked GameSpot's staff to share which games they're looking forward to most in the new year. New consoles are going to dominate the headlines, but at the end of the day it's all about the games, and there are a ton of exciting ones to look forward to. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2019 hub and our Most Anticipated of 2020 hub.Announced at Gamescom 2019, Little Nightmares 2 was a sequel I never saw coming, but I'm absolutely delighted that it's happening. The upcoming horror puzzle-platformer from Tarsier Studios is confirmed to be released in 2020, although no exact date has been revealed.I still remember the exact moment I first caught a glimpse of Little Nightmares at a convention in late 2016--the cute-but-creepy, Tim Burton-esque style immediately grabbed my attention. If you're a fan of horror, Little Nightmares does not disappoint. The game follows Six, a hungry little girl in a yellow raincoat, as she makes her escape from a terrifying vessel known as the Maw. Six encounters a host of gruesome residents aboard the vessel, including a dreadful long-armed Janitor, the grotesque Twin Chefs, and blood-sucking leeches.Little Nightmares is similar to games like Limbo or Journey in that the story is communicated through the environment and silent encounters rather than dialogue. Even without her speaking or even revealing her face, you grow attached to Six and emotionally invested in her escape as she makes her way through the dangerous Maw. And while the end may leave you with questions, Little Nightmares offers up a unique and unforgettable world that sets the stage perfectly for a sequel.We know that Little Nightmares 2 will introduce a new character, a little boy named Mono, who teams up with Six after her escape from the Maw. In the sequel, you'll play as Mono, and Six will be your guide as you set out to explore a mysterious humming transmission from a distant Signal Tower. Of course, there will be new monstrous residents after them, including a sadistic Teacher, and stealth and puzzle-solving will be a major aspect of the gameplay. The trailer even shows some light combat, a new addition to the series.I'm incredibly excited to see how the sequel expands on the story started in Little Nightmares and its mobile prequel, Very Little Nightmares. In the first game, we caught a glimpse of the monstrous Guests boarding the Maw, and now we'll finally learn what horrors lie in the world outside. We know Little Nightmares 2 will mostly take place outside of the Maw, introducing new settings like a creepy forest and an ominous cabin occupied by the bloodthirsty Hunter.Even more intriguing are the retro-style TVs that appear to be scattered throughout the game, which are likely connected to the Signal Tower and seem to hold hypnotic powers over the residents. There's also the question of that shadowy figure on the cover, who also appears in the TV at the end of the trailer. Is he our big bad in Little Nightmares 2?It's a testament to the first game's incredible worldbuilding that there's so much ground to cover in the sequel. The world of Little Nightmares is about to get a lot bigger in 2020, and I can't wait to be absolutely terrified by it. See Little Nightmares at Amazon Info from Gamespot.com

2020 is almost here, so we've asked GameSpot's staff to share which games they're looking forward to most in the new year. New consoles are going to dominate the headlines, but at the end of the day it's all about the games, and there are a ton of exciting ones to look forward to. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2019 hub and our Most Anticipated of 2020 hub.When the original Psychonauts launched in 2005, the platformer's heyday was already fizzling out--contemporary action games like God of War, Resident Evil 4, and Gears of War saw to that. Fortunately, platformers are far more common again these days thanks to indie developers, which has once again saturated the genre. Still, I look to Psychonauts 2 to remind me why I love the platformers, but in new ways.In Psychonauts 2, I am most excited about the level design. The original game's stages were created around the psyche of various characters whom our hero Raz is trying to help. Physical education teacher Coach Oleander sees the world as a Normandy-esque battlefield; conspiracy-theory loving security guard Boyd Cooper is plagued with anxieties of undercover milkmen secretly spying on suburban households. This reflexive level design is the embodiment of "show, don't tell," a narrative concept that lets the player discover more about characters without overlong cutscenes or expository text boxes. And the ideas are ridiculous enough that you can laugh at each stage you're leaping through--there's a circus made of meat in there for Crueller's sake.I'm excited to see what level design concepts the sequel explores, especially since we'll be meeting a whole new cast of characters. The adventure picks up right where VR spin-off Rhombus of Ruin left off, with Raz and company arriving at Psychonauts HQ. Apparently, the organization has been up to no good, and at least one agent has been dabbling in necromancy. I can't even imagine what mental gymnastics they did to justify that--or what literal gymnastics I'll do in the level based on this necromancer's mind.It's been a long journey for Psychonauts 2, one that started with a super successful Kickstarter campaign in January 2016. We didn't end up seeing an official first trailer until The Game Awards 2018. Despite the surprise reveal, the sequel was later pushed back until at least 2019--the first of two delays. The second came after Microsoft acquired developer Double Fine, who, despite announcing it'll be publishing Psychonauts 2, will still be releasing the game on PS4 and PC as well. However, just a few weeks after that announcement, the game was delayed again, this time into 2020. I genuinely hope that's the last one because I want to get my telekinetic hands around Psychonauts 2 soon. Info from Gamespot.com

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker finally arrived in cinemas over the December 20-22 weekend, and as expected it opened to #1 at the box office. The ninth film in the Skywalker saga, and fifth Star Wars film released under Disney, had a huge opening weekend--albeit not as huge as one might expect, performing well below The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.The Rise of Skywalker opened to $175.5 million domestically, while also pulling in $198 million internationally for a global total of $373.5 million. For reference, The Force Awakens opened to $247,966,675 domestically in its first weekend, and The Last Jedi made $220,009,584. Both managed global opening weekends well above The Rise of Skywalker's total too.This is not necessarily a disappointing result, though--it's the third best December opening weekend of all time, and above Disney's own conservative $160 million prediction. It also opened well above Rogue One ($155,081,681) and Solo ($84,420,489.) But a $175.5 weekend is also on the lower end of industry predictions. The mixed reviews likely did not help; GameSpot gave the film a 4/10, calling it "a galactic disappointment."It's too early to tell if The Rise of Skywalker will become Disney's eighth 2019 film to cross the $1 billion mark globally. Christmas Day often sees huge cinema attendance, and the film's performance this week will give us a better idea of how high it might ultimately rise.Speaking of disappointments, Cats bombed in its opening weekend, openingto $6.5 million on 3,380 screens. For a film opening on over 300 screens, that's the 18th worst performance ever; the reviews, which suggested that the film is a nightmare, likely didn't help. Cats carries a budget of $95 million, and is unlikely to recoup production costs. The version of Cats in cinemas reportedly features various clear visual errors, with a new print being shipped to cinemas in the wake of reports like the one below.This isn’t a joke: CATS was rushed into theaters before being finished so a new version is being sent to theaters with updated effects. How do you know if you have the old version? Look for Judi Dench’s human hand, wedding ring and all. pic.twitter.com/VDUOevePU9 — Jenelle Riley (@jenelleriley) December 22, 2019Holdovers Jumanji: The Next Level and Frozen 2 performed well, while Bombshell, starring Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, and Margot Robbie, is struggling as it expands wide.Here's the domestic top 10 for the weekend of December 20-22. The full charts are available at Box Office Mojo.Star Wars: Episode XI - The Rise of Skywalker: $175,500,000Jumanji: The Next Level: $26,125,000Frozen II: $12,300,000Cats: $6,500,000Knives Out: $6,125,000Bombshell: $5,075,000Richard Jewell: $2,565,000Queen & Slim: $1,850,000Black Christmas: $1,800,000Ford v Ferrari: $1,800,000Info from Gamespot.com

Half-Life: Alyx, which was surprise announced back in November, is coming in March 2020. We've dug up plenty of details about the game so far, but one thing we haven't seen much of is actual gameplay footage. Now, thanks to Adam Savage's Tested, we've got a much better sense of what playing the game will look like.In the video below, recorded at Valve's offices, we see how Half-Life: Alyx plays across eight different VR kits, including the Valve Index. Beyond showing off the various benefits and downsides of these kits, though, this video also gives us a few looks at how the game actually looks when a regular person is playing it.In this video, we see how warp movement works in the game, and an few glimpses at how the guns work. We can see the player steadying the gun in their right hand using their left hand a few times, and interacting with elements of the environment. Thus far, all we've had to go on is the game's trailer. The off-screen gameplay footage is spread out over the video, but we get some interesting looks at a variety of actions, like gripping a doorway with both hands to pull it open and navigating UI elements with your hands. The video will also give you some insight into how the game will handle on your VR set of choice.Half-Life: Alyx is being developed by much of the team that was originally working on In the Valley of Gods. It will only be playable in VR.Info from Gamespot.com

Silent Hills, despite having been cancelled back in 2015, continues to serve up new mysteries and reveals years later thanks to the work of one enterprising YouTuber. The town of Silent Hill appears briefly in the final cutscene of the game's demo, P.T. (short for playable teaser,) and game hacker Lance McDonald has found a way to walk through director Hideo Kojima's version of it.McDonald, who previously revealed that Lisa follows you throughout the game and that you're playing as Norman Reedus the whole time, was able to connect the map for the town to a doorway from early in the demo, but there was an initial problem--because the town was not designed for the player to walk through, there's no collision, and you fall through the ground immediately. Incredibly, Lisa pops up and grabs you if this happens, allowing the game to reset any player who manages to clip through the environment (which also gives the video below a proper jump scare.)To counteract this, McDonald had to patch the game to make the player float slightly above the ground, which allows him to explore the town without issue. If you've finished P.T., you'll recognize the trail of blood on the ground--McDonald follows it, but it doesn't lead anywhere too exciting. In fact, Silent Hill, quite eerily, feels like a regular town in many ways. There are a lot of low-poly assets, but also lots of attention to detail--the air conditioners and staircases have been hand-placed on each building to avoid repetition, for instance, and potted plants are placed realistically.As McDonald notes, the town feels simultaneously under construction and abandoned, which is a hallmark of the Silent Hill series. It also stretches back quite far, and features a mysterious bridge that you can walk under right in the middle of the street at the edge of the map.There are no major revelations or reveals here, but it's a very interesting look at how Silent Hill itself might have looked if the game was ever completed. Instead, Kojima and Norman Reedus went on to create Death Stranding. Kojima has recently hinted at a return to horror, and while we won't be seeing him work on the Silent Hill franchise any time soon, it's possible that he'll return to some of his ideas for the game in the future. Info from Gamespot.com

Halo is gearing up for a big year in 2020, with the Halo Master Chief Collection continuing to release for PC and the planned launch of Halo Infinite alongside the Xbox Series X. In a new update on Halo Waypoint, developer 343 Industries has dropped some information about everything on the Halo slate, including the upcoming 2021 Showtime TV series.First up, The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 are both offering double XP from now until the end of 2019. You'll also be able to unlock the Ugly Sweater nameplate in The Master Chief Collection by completing one of these two objectives by January 6, 2020:Complete (without quitting) 10 matchmaking (Multiplayer and/or Firefight) matches on snowy mapsBeat the par score on any two snowy campaign missionsUpdates are also coming to improve performance across the PC and Xbox One versions of the game.343 Industries provides an update on Showtime's upcoming Halo show, which will star Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black's "Pornstache") as Master Chief. Production on the show has begun, and a behind-the-scenes shot makes it clear that Halsey will feature in it.The show will be directed, at least in part, by Black Mirror's Otto Bathurst.An update is also given on Halo Infinite, alongside some new concept art (below). The team currently has split-screen running internally, according to the post, and the game is confirmed as taking place after Halo 5. Forge will also return, and for the first time it will feature undo and redo buttons, making it easier to edit together levels.Halo Infinite is coming to Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. It will support LAN play and will feature extensive armor customization options.The next major Halo release will be the Anniversary edition of the original Halo for PC. It will enter beta in early 2020.Info from Gamespot.com

Virizion has arrived in Pokemon Go, but that's not the only Legendary Pokemon you can encounter right now in Niantic's hit mobile game. The Gen 2 mascots Ho-Oh and Lugia have both returned for a special Raid weekend event, giving you another chance to capture the fan-favorite Legendaries.Until 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET on Monday, December 23, players around the world will be able to encounter Ho-Oh and Lugia in five-star Raids. Each Legendary is part-Flying, so Rock and Electric Pokemon will prove to be effective regardless of which one you face. Water Pokemon will also be helpful against Ho-Oh, while Dark and Ghost types have an advantage over Lugia.During the Raid weekend, you'll also still be able to encounter Virizion, Pokemon Go's newest Legendary, in five-star Raids. Virizion is the third member of the Swords of Justice trio from Pokemon Black and White and is a dual Grass/Fighting Pokemon, so you'll want to bring along Flying, Fire, Psychic, Ice, Poison, or Fairy Pokemon when challenging it. Both Ho-Oh and Lugia will be especially effective against it if you can capture one of them before they leave Raids again.Shortly after the Raid weekend ends, Niantic will kick off Pokemon Go's annual holiday celebration. This year's event runs from December 24 to January 1. During that time, you'll be able to encounter holiday versions of Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu, and Stantler, as well as two new Gen 5 Ice Pokemon: Cubchoo and Cryogonal. You'll also have your first chance to catch a Shiny version of Snover.In other Pokemon Go news, Niantic recently rolled out a new Buddy Adventure feature, which gives you new ways to interact with your Buddy Pokemon. Once you've fed your Buddy enough berries, it will follow you around on the game's world map. You can also raise your friendship level with your Buddy Pokemon the more you interact with it, which in turn will unlock other bonuses.Niantic has also announced the date of Pokemon Go's January 2020 Community Day. The event takes place on Sunday, January 19, and runs from 11 AM-2 PM local time in the Northern Hemisphere and from 3 PM-6 PM local time in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the featured Pokemon for next month's event has not been revealed yet. Pokemon Go News Pokemon Go: New Legendary, Virizion, Now Available Pokemon Go's First Community Day Of 2020 Dated Pokemon Go Adding New Buddy Adventure Feature Pokemon Go December 2019 Field Research Task List New Pokemon Go Event Makes It Much Easier To Get Evolution Items Info from Gamespot.com

2020 is almost here, so we've asked GameSpot's staff to share which games they're looking forward to most in the new year. New consoles are going to dominate the headlines, but at the end of the day it's all about the games, and there are a ton of exciting ones to look forward to. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2019 hub and our Most Anticipated of 2020 hub.There isn't a video game series I love more than Resident Evil. We've had our ups and downs, but like any good relationship, we've stuck it out through thick and thin, through the good times and the bad (I'm looking at you, Resident Evil 6). Lately, things have been going well. Resident Evil 7 proved that Capcom can still make an excellent, scary Resident Evil game, and this year's Resident Evil 2 proved that Capcom understands what's good about the classics and how to modernize them properly. That's why I'm particularly excited about Resident Evil 3 next year.We're still fresh off the announcement of Resident Evil 3's remake, but from what we know, it's going to be similar in style to Resident Evil 2. Producer Masachika Kawata--also the producer of Resident Evil 7--noted that the original Resident Evil 3 edged further into action than Resident Evil 2, but despite the bigger methods of firepower, it still wasn't an action game in the same vein as Gears of War. It'll be interesting to see how far they take the remake in the action direction, and I hope they're able to strike the same balance the original had. We've already seen a new dodge move Jill has, which I'm sure will be extremely handy when face-to-face with Nemesis.I'm also curious how they’ll follow-up on Mr. X with Nemesis. The thing about Mr. X in the original was that he was a much more scripted enemy and only appeared in the B-side of each character's campaign--if you played Leon's A campaign, then he'd appear in Clarie's B campaign and vice-versa. In the remake, however, Mr. X is a much more persistent threat and can show up almost anywhere in that whole dang police station. I worry this could make Nemesis less impactful since that's basically his whole M.O. (except with a rocket launcher in tow). I'm hopeful Capcom can evolve that character in a meaningful way, as they did with Mr. X.The Resident Evil 2 remake also changed up some events, characters, and story beats. Like your typical movie remake, it shares similarities with the original but draws its own path with a different take on its events--and in some cases, different locations and events entirely. We know how the story is going to play out, but exactly how it happens will be new and interesting. I would play through Resident Evil 3's remake if it was the exact same game, beat-for-beat, but the chance of some new surprises has me clambering to get my hands on it.It's a rarity to be treated to a remake like Resident Evil 2's, and while it's not guaranteed Capcom will strike gold twice with Resident Evil 3, I feel the developer has earned my trust with the direction it's taking the series. It's funny; Resident Evil 2 released in 1998 and 3 released one year later. Never would I have expected the same release timing for the remakes, a full 20 years later. If Resident Evil 3's remake can refine the formula like the original did in 1999, then we're in for another great nightmare.PS4: Pre-order Resident Evil 3 at Amazon Xbox One: Pre-order Resident Evil 3 at GameStop Info from Gamespot.com

2020 is almost here, so we've asked GameSpot's staff to share which games they're looking forward to most in the new year. New consoles are going to dominate the headlines, but at the end of the day it's all about the games, and there are a ton of exciting ones to look forward to. When you're done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2019 hub and our Most Anticipated of 2020 hub.Though the first Watch Dogs never grabbed me, I was delighted by Ubisoft's tack with the second. It centers on a young, diverse, and mostly well-drawn group of characters, it's a smart send-up of tech culture, and it has a lot of interesting things to say--while being a fun open-world game that utilizes Watch Dogs' interesting hacking gameplay ideas in a story that's actually engaging. After playing Watch Dogs Legion at E3 2019, I'm even more excited for the third entry in the series, which appears to be expanding on all the good things of its predecessor, while adding some truly engaging and innovative gameplay mechanics and story conceits.The crux of Watch Dogs Legion is that you can play as any character in the game: all the NPCs are recruitable to your ever-growing underground hacker insurgency, and each character has a unique backstory and set of perks and drawbacks. It sounds like a pie-in-the-sky idea about the capabilities of procedural generation that will immediately collapse under close scrutiny, but after playing Legion, I was blown away by how well the game actually does integrate the idea of pulling characters from its future London into your group, and how well-realized they feel. You add characters to your group by helping them deal with the problems in their lives, almost all of which are caused by the draconian, fascist surveillance state (one that's an outgrowth of our real-world political climate) in which they find themselves. So Watch Dogs Legion feels like you're completing a series of loyalty missions specific to the characters.Once they're on your team, you can switch between your characters on the fly, making use of different people's particular skills to complete your missions. When you get into trouble and the authorities are closing in on you, it's the other characters you've recruited that come to your aid with special passive abilities, like setting up roadblocks to divert police that give you time to escape. While "any NPC is playable" sounds like a gimmick, the complex systems at work in Legion do well to make all those characters feel distinct, rather than just a series of random attributes attached to a random character model. Legion sees the return of Watch Dogs' long-running scanning ability that lets you see into the lives of people on the street, but for the first time in the series, that ability is essential to the game as you recruit characters, and helps create a London that feels populous and alive.The character recruiting system goes beyond gameplay, though. Legion's random NPCs actually feel like bespoke characters created for the story as you play through its campaign, and each has their own voice actors and dialogue pieces that slot seamlessly into cutscenes. Ubisoft didn't hire thousands of actors, obviously, but there are enough that, at least in our preview and in gameplay footage, we haven't yet heard the same voice repeated on two characters. It all works together to create a feeling that you're creating a unique take on the game's story through the people you choose to bring into Ded Sec, and who you choose to take on missions. What's more, you find yourself caring about these characters because of the history you have with them and the time you've put into them--which makes it all the more devastating when they're arrested or killed.Though we got hands-on with Watch Dogs Legion at E3, Ubisoft recently delayed the game from its original March 6, 2020 release date. As of now, Ubisoft is expecting to launch Watch Dogs Legion in the second half of the year. Given the level of complexity in the game (not to mention its politically charged story, which deals with the repercussions of Brexit), the development team using that extra time is probably for the best. We also know that Legion will be one of the first Ubisoft games to appear on the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett, so it'll be interesting to see how Legion will leverage the capabilities of new hardware.For a brief rundown on everything you need to know about Watch Dogs Legion, be on the lookout for our explainer highlighting all the essential details. See Watch Dogs Legion at Amazon Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft is pleased with the success of Xbox Game Pass but is looking to improve the service going into the next console generation. As Microsoft transitions from Xbox One to Xbox Series X--the official name for Project Scarlett--it wants to make it easier for subscribers to try new games without having to wait through long download times."We now have a generation where our customers have access to hundreds and hundreds of games in their portfolio and we've never really had that," Xbox head Phil Spencer told GameSpot in an exclusive interview. "[Previously] my portfolio of games is usually down to what discs do I happen to own right now and what games have I purchased digitally. But if you're a Game Pass subscriber, you have access to hundreds of games and your friends list has access to that same shared library of games."Spencer continued: "And we think that community opportunity--as we bring the community of our players together with a really creative community of developers [who are] building some immersive games and creative games that land on Game Pass--there's some things that we wanted to work on to make it easy to try your next game." Spencer admits there's too much waiting when it comes to trying new games. After seeing a screenshot of a cool-looking game in the Xbox Live store, it's not like you can then start playing right then and there."Download times are an issue, time to get into the game, load times, these things," Spencer said. "And when you have such a broad portfolio of games that you have on Game Pass and the community of people who are in Game Pass, where somebody might literally drop you a line on Xbox Live saying, 'Hey, you should go try Minit it's a really cool game,' we want you to be able to browse games the way you browse other forms of media."In this regard, with Xbox Series X, Microsoft is focusing on cutting down on the overall load times of the platform--even to the point where you'll be able to keep multiple games suspended at once and load back into whatever you want to play next. Xbox Series X News Xbox Series X Price: Everything Microsoft Has Said About How Much It Will Cost Xbox Series X: Everything We Just Learned About Microsoft's Next-Gen Console Xbox Series X Exclusive Details: Say Hello To Microsoft's Next-Gen Console Inside The New Xbox Controller For The Series X Console Why You Can't Pre-Order Xbox Series X Yet Xbox Series X: Release Date, Specs, Price, And Everything We Know Info from Gamespot.com

Whether it's video games, movies, or TV shows, entertainment is filled with iconic tools of warfare, and much of the stories we love are defined by them; the Pulse Rifle is synonymous with the Aliens franchise; the Man With No Name's mystique and effortless cool is heightened by the revolver he whips out in the squint of an eye; and the sound of a bullet from the Intervention hitting an enemy immediately conjures up Call of Duty-flavoured nostalgia.These weapons are the focus of Loadout, a new show that will identify some of pop culture's most influential armaments and explore them in-depth. Each week, host Dave Jewitt will tackle a different weapon, delve into its origins, examine how it has been used, and lay out the impact it has had on pop culture.In Episode 1, Loadout takes hold of the revolver, a legendary weapon that has been present from the earliest days of cinema to the current era of video games. Why is it so popular? For Episode 2, Dave takes a look at The Intervention, a weapon that Call of Duty players will be intimately familiar with and, given its status as arguably the most meme-able video game weapon, you may know it even if you haven't played the shooter series. For Episode 3, Dave delves into the world of Warhammer 40k to explore the history of an iconic sci-fi weapon.New episodes of Loadout will air every Saturday and you can find them on GameSpot's YouTube channel--make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.Episode 3: The BolterEpisode 2: The InterventionEpisode 1: Revolvers Info from Gamespot.com

At long last, the Skywalker Saga has reached its conclusion--for now, at least. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters and fans are getting the opportunity to see how director JJ Abrams wrapped up a long-running story that was first started by George Lucas 42 years ago. In GameSpot's review of The Rise of Skywalker, Michael Rougeau wrote of the movie, "It should never be so clear to audiences that something in the filmmaking process has gone so terribly wrong--that the people who made the first film in a trilogy apparently didn't bother to sketch out a plan for the second and third, and that the movies' directors had visions for the series' future that were so fundamentally at odds."But how does it end? With so much at stake--and so many characters to wrap up--The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of ground to cover. Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. If you haven't seen the movie and don't want any twists, turns, or surprises spoiled for you, do the smart thing and look away now. This is not the story you're looking for.If you want to know how each major character in the film ended their individual stories in The Rise of Skywalker, we have you covered. As for the ending of the film itself, there's quite a bit to unpack. The broad strokes are that the First Order and the Sith were ultimately defeated by Rey, who was revealed to be the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.In a final showdown in the Sith temple on the planet Exegol, Rey used both Luke's lightsaber (his first, which originally belonged to Anakin), as well as Leia's--because it was revealed she also trained to be a Jedi--to deflect Palpatine's Force lightning, shooting it right back at him. In destroying him, though, she sacrificed her own life energy and died.That didn't last for long, naturally. After shedding his Kylo Ren moniker and the dark side of the Force, Ben Solo came to her aid and used their connection through the Force--which this movie decided is called a "Force dyad"--to give his life energy to her. She woke up long enough to kiss him, before he keeled over and died.Thus ended the battle of the Jedi and the Sith until the next time a movie about Jedi fighting Sith is released. The Rise of Skywalker didn't end there, though. Following the death of Palpatine and the destruction of the Sith temple, Poe Dameron commanded the resistance and its allies in eliminating the armada of star destroyers the Emperor had created, bringing an end to the First Order once and for all.After the Battle of Exegol, the resistance celebrated in their forest camp, as everyone realized they'd somehow actually won the war. This is the last time we see most of the franchise's major characters. It's Rey alone who figures into the final scene of the film.Some time after the battle and celebration, she found herself at the moisture farm Luke Skywalker grew up at on Tatooine. There, in the sand, she buried the lightsabers of Luke and Leia--her mentors--putting their spirits to rest. She also revealed a lightsaber of her own, powered by a yellow Kyber crystal. It's clear that Rey is not giving up on the way of the Jedi.At that point, a woman passed by, asking who she was. Rey offered a simple response as the final two words of the Skywalker Saga. "Rey Skywalker," she told the stranger.With that moment, Skywalker has officially risen. While Rey's bloodline may have a strong connection to the dark side of the Force, she chooses to align herself with those who taught her about the Force in the first place--the Skywalker twins.Now that you've been able to watch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, don't forget to check out our massive compilation of Easter eggs from the film, as well as a look at the latest episode of The Mandalorian--the live-action Star Wars TV show on Disney+.Info from Gamespot.com

Compulsion Games isn't too worried about operating under Microsoft's banner as part of the company's growing collection of Xbox Game Studios. The development team behind We Happy Few actually asserts that the Microsoft acquisition has afforded them the chance to more easily create unique experiences."That's actually removed a lot of the focus from finding where we're going to find the next paycheck to actually concentrating on what is it that we need to make great games," founder and creative director Guillaume Provost said in The Cost of Joy, a documentary recounting the history of Compulsion Games. "I can be more forward-looking to what we actually need in order to actually succeed. And [there's] a huge difference from having a big backer like Microsoft that's allowing us our creative space and our creative freedom, from being an independent developer that's starving all the time and looking for money. Build the team not just for the next game, but for the next series of games.""Trying to maintain creativity inside an organization like Microsoft is not as hard as people think it is," producer Sam Abbott said. "It's really just about having a leadership group inside Microsoft that understands the value of creativity and creative games." Community developer Naila Hadjas added, "We have been told to keep making really weird, just different things. So, on the creative standpoint, it's just been all positive."Microsoft's decision to acquire Compulsion Games as a first-party studio was one the We Happy Few developers did not anticipate. "I don't think that ever crossed our mind," Abbot said. "We're spending a lot of time figuring out, do we think that we can raise the standards of quality of the games we're building--can we become a real first-party studio?" Hadjas thinks they are up to the task, citing the team's history with Gearbox as an example of Compulsion Games efficiently working with a larger studio. "Working with Gearbox prepared us to work with Microsoft in a lot of ways because we let them into our world and we learned to be very concise and precise with our feedback back and forth," she said.With the recent release of the We All Fall Down expansion, Compulsion Games has officially wrapped up We Happy Few. The game launched to mixed reviews--including ours here on GameSpot, where Alessandro Barbosa wrote, "[We Happy Few's] entire gameplay loop is underpinned by boring quests and long stretches of inaction. And even when it forces you to interact with its world beyond just walking to waypoints, combat, stealth, and otherwise fascinating societies fail to impose the right balance of challenge and tension."Despite the rough start, Compulsion Games' continued support for We Happy Few is commendable, and the bug fixes, updates, and DLC expansions have created a much better, more cohesive experience overall. With the game now complete, Compulsion Games is probably hard at work on an upcoming Xbox first-party title--which, based on the timing, is likely to release for Microsoft's next-gen console, Xbox Series X, which is scheduled to launch during the holiday season in 2020. Info from Gamespot.com