When it comes to sales, nothing really surpasses the mania surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which together make up the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Whether you've got your eye on a new console, game, or piece of tech, there's no better time to snag the products on your wishlist at a discount. But if you're planning to do your shopping on Cyber Monday, it's still important to have a plan and know what to expect. While you may not see the other shoppers grabbing things off shelves and tossing them in their carts, know that the best deals will still sell out quickly online. Here's everything you need to know to prepare for Cyber Monday 2019.What is Cyber Monday?Cyber Monday is basically an extension of Black Friday, except you're sitting at a desk pretending to work while browsing deals instead of physically shoving your way through crowded stores (although many Black Friday deals are, thankfully, available online as well). The online shopping holiday is relatively new, dating back only to 2005, and it was created to encourage people to shop online and to compete with brick-and-mortar stores' sales on Black Friday.The online-only deals may not be as good as the doorbuster sales on Black Friday, but since those brick-and-mortar deals tend to have low stock and long lines, you really can't beat the ease and convenience of shopping on Cyber Monday (and online shopping in general).When is Cyber Monday 2019?Cyber Monday is always the Monday after Thanksgiving, and this year, that falls on December 2. Because of Black Friday, many sales will run that entire weekend and even into the following week, but certain deals will become available only on that Monday.Best Cyber Monday 2019 deals to expectCyber Monday deals will likely be on par with what we see during Black Friday 2019, and you can check out our full Black Friday 2019 preview for a guide to what we expect for holiday deals. For now, here's an overview of the kind of deals you'll likely see:GamesNearly any game from recent years will be marked down, but releases from early 2019, like Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5, should see some nice discounts in the $15-$30 range. More recent releases, like Zelda: Link's Awakening and Borderlands 3, may drop as low as $40.ConsolesDon't expect to see any crazy deals on the Switch Lite or newer Switch model with better battery life, though we may get some good console bundles during Cyber Monday. We do expect the original Switch model will get discounted to $250 or even less--and that's not a bad option if you've yet to invest in a Nintendo Switch, if you don't want to commit to handheld-only play.The PS4 and Xbox One are nearing the end of their lifespans, and as a result, discounts on those systems are common these days. If you're looking to pick one up during Cyber Monday, you can expect to see the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X as low as $300; meaning, the base consoles may go for less than $200. Keep an eye out for some great console bundles, too, which will throw in a game along with the system.Other dealsAside from games and consoles, Cyber Monday will also be a great time to snag a discounted membership for PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, or Xbox Game Pass. You'll also find discounts on VR systems, controllers, headsets, memory cards, computers, Blu-rays, and much, much more.How to get the best Cyber Monday dealsThe same way you get the best Black Friday deals: by paying attention to retailers in the weeks leading up to the event and having a plan. Some retailers will promote their upcoming deals for Cyber Monday, but you can also find leaked Cyber Monday ads online to get a heads-up on what products will be on sale. Of course, you'll want to stay tuned to GameSpot, as we'll be covering all the leaked and officially confirmed deals in the weeks leading up to Cyber Monday as well as during the event itself. And remember: If you spot a good deal, hop on it fast, as the hottest products will sell out in the blink of an eye. For the most up-to-date information, be sure to follow GameSpot Deals on Twitter--we'll keep you posted on the best deals in gaming and entertainment as we spot them.Info from Gamespot.com

Destiny 2's new moon location includes a series of quests you can repeatedly undertake to acquire certain armor and weapons. Through the Lectern of Enchantment and other means, you can acquire Essence quests such as the Essence of Vanity, which nets you the Tranquility sniper rifle. This process involves one tricky step, where you have to find the Horned Wreath in the Chamber of Night. Here's where the Wreath is located.Unfortunately, reaching the Horned Wreath is a much more complex process compared with the Captive Cord, for instance. The Wreath is found under the surface of the moon, deep in the series of tunnels that the Hive have constructed. It takes several minutes to get where you need to go. Once you do finally reach the correct area, you'll receive an objective marker once the Wreath is nearby. Here's a rough outline of what's involved.Where To Find Horned WreathSpawn at Sanctuary and hop on your sparrow, making your way out the right exitGo straight through the Anchor of Light into the HellmouthContinue straight until you enter a Hive structure through a hole in the sideTurn left and make your way down the stairs, then turn right to go down another set of stairsContinue advancing through the ensuing areas until you go down a hallway with a high ceiling and an exit on the leftMove forward and then take a right down the hallway in the next areaYou should now be moving through a series of caves, enter a room, and then exit into another set of cavesProceed into an area with platforms suspended high above a chasm; make a jump over the chasm to go through a door, which should trigger a message saying you're in the Circle of BonesMove through the tunnels and the room to enter a wide-open area; head right until you see a doorway with what looks like a bright Hive chandelier above itContinue along the path and you should be notified you've entered The World's GraveTake a left and go through the large doorway, then keep advancing until you enter a dark corridor that should trigger your flashlight; you'll be notified you're now in the Chamber of NightMove straight through a series of rooms and hallways filled with enemies until you come into a more wide-open room, and you should--finally!--see an objective marker for the WreathAs with the other quests like this, finding the Horned Wreath is the trickiest part, but it's only one of three steps you'll need to complete.Where to find Necromantic Strand in Hall of WisdomWhere to find Captive Cord in Lunar BattlegroundsEssence of Vanity Quest StepsActivities Completed (patrols, public events, Lost Sectors on the moon)Sniper Rifle killsHorned Wreath foundOnce you knock out all three steps, you can return to the Lectern to receive Tranquility, a kinetic weapon slot sniper rifle. As with other weapons obtained through Essence quests, you can reacquire the quest from the Lectern to try getting a different roll. Thankfully, the Horned Wreath step only needs to be done the first thing you ever do the quest.You can purchase Essence of Vanity at the Lectern for a Phantasmal Core, which can be earned from some Eris Morn bounties or bought for 20 Phantasmal Fragments. The Fragments themselves are earned by killing Nightmares, or you can buy them (again at the Lectern) for 25 Helium Fragments. Info from Gamespot.com

Untitled Goose Game--a game in which you play as a jerk goose who waddles through a small English town ruining everyone's day-- feels like a miniature version of Hitman, but with mischief instead of murder. Like those games, it's all about learning an environment inside-out and figuring out how to play various people and systems against each other to achieve your goals. You wander between four small, quaint locations and tick off objectives from your list by wreaking havoc on the people you encounter and generally being a nuisance. At first, you're annoying a man as he tends to his garden, turning on his sprinklers as he stands over them, stealing the keys to his gate, nicking his produce, and generally getting in his way. The game continues like this, as the goose's to-do list demands that it causes upset to most of the people it encounters. Working through the game means figuring out how each element interacts with everything else and how to corralling various people, who all react to the goose differently.It's a comedy first and foremost. Figuring out how to complete each objective might be essential to your progress, but the real fun is in seeing how harried you can make everyone. When you need to make a man spit out his tea, steal his shoes, and ruin his garden, you might start to feel sorry for him, but you also won't want to stop terrorizing him. The goose can only run, grab onto things, honk, and flap its wings, but through some combination of these actions you can manipulate the folks you encounter and cause chaos. One character might run in fear if you honk at them; another might bend over if you drop something for them, giving you a chance to steal their hat; another might leave their post if you steal something of theirs and drop it far away, giving you the chance to go back while they're distracted and steal the object you were really after all along.The humor of Untitled Goose Game is built into the mechanics and animations; seeing the goose waddle along, honking and flapping its wings, is inherently amusing and satisfying even before you start causing mischief because of how perfectly evocative it is of a real bird. The clean, colorful visual style is also a treat. But the reactive soundtrack is what really sells the goose's charms. The music, based on Claude Debussy's Préludes, springs into action dynamically based on the goose's actions, punctuating moments when it shocks someone and adding a buoyancy to any scene involving a chase. It gives the game a feeling of farce; at its best, it's reminiscent of a Buster Keaton film, especially since there's no dialogue.The objectives you're asked to complete often require some lateral thinking. Getting into the headspace of the goose and figuring out how a few actions can spiral into something that's going to annoy one of your targets is very entertaining. Sometimes it's immediately clear what you need to do, and sometimes the solution is more abstract, but most objectives will name an object that you can find within the environment. In the second location, for instance, you're told to "get on TV"--the solution isn't immediately obvious, but finding the TV you need to interact with is not difficult. Untitled Goose Game lightly leads you towards its puzzle solutions without explicitly holding your hand through them, so figuring out a clever solution is rewarding.You need to complete all but one objective in each location to advance, which is a nice concession, as it means you can progress to the next area even if one of the puzzles just isn't clicking for you. Sometimes it's just a matter of figuring out what needs to be done and then doing it, but you also need to practice some level of finesse: The goose can't get too close to anyone who's going to try to shoo it away, and you'll often need to be stealthy, sneaking under tables, causing distractions, and hiding behind bushes and in boxes like a long-necked, web-toed Solid Snake.Each area also features a fetch quest objective, for which you need to gather several items and put them in one place while making sure that you're not caught. These objectives are the least fun, generally, because too much is left to the imagination; the first one asks you to "have a picnic" by dragging a variety of particular items to a picnic blanket, but once you've done so the objective is immediately complete, with no additional vignettes or animations to reward all that effort. Untitled Goose Game's best objectives reward you not only with a feeling of satisfaction, but with a fun, charming bit of interaction between the goose and the people it encounters, whether that means watching a man stumble around with a bucket on his head or watching someone else wearily resign themselves to their favorite hat being gone.Untitled Goose Game is also extremely short. When I reached the end, I was surprised at how little time it had taken--I had only been playing for about two hours. Thankfully, after the credits roll you unlock a new list of objectives across the now fully unlocked map, but there isn't the same incentive to complete them when you know that you won't be rewarded with a new location to explore, or even, necessarily, new interactions. Most of them are twists on previous objectives or more complicated versions of things you've already done, often involving moving items between different locations.I'm glad that those extra objectives are there, though, and I had a good time working through them. It's just a shame that there isn't a bit more, because Untitled Goose Game ends far before I felt like I'd had my fill or seen everything the game was going to throw at me. Being short isn't inherently bad, but Untitled Goose Game's playground could stand to be bigger. I wished that I could keep riding the high of unlocking new areas and messing with new people, and it still felt like there was plenty of room to escalate things.For all the jerkiness I performed, my favorite moment in Untitled Goose Game was the one scene where the game leaned into the goose's charms. I wandered up behind two people having a chat at the pub and hit the button dedicated to honking. The two women turned to look at me, startled, but far less hostile than most of the characters I'd encountered. When I stood in a specific spot they mimed commands for me to perform, fulfilling one of my objectives while absolutely delighting the two women. Untitled Goose Game is a hilariously antagonistic experience most of the time, but I identified strongly with these characters and how lovable they found this horrible goose.The important thing is that Untitled Goose Game is a hoot. It's a comedy game that focuses on making the act of playing it funny, rather than simply being a game that features jokes. Wishing that it was longer speaks to how much fun I had with it. There's nothing else quite like Untitled Goose Game; it's charming and cute despite being mean, and both very silly and very clever. It's also probably the best non-racing game ever to feature a dedicated "honk" button.Info from Gamespot.com

Once you've gotten a foothold on the moon in Destiny 2's new Shadowkeep expansion, you're going to want to get down to business and track down some of that sweet moon loot. To do that, you'll want to complete the story campaign to gain access to the Lectern of Enchantment, where you can turn a new item, a Nightmare Essence, into a special moon-themed weapon or piece of armor. Once you find the Essence of Brutality, you can convert it into the Loud Lullaby hand cannon--provided you can find another item called a Necromantic Strand. Here's where to go and what to do to get it.If you check your Quests log for info about the Essence of Brutality, you'll get a hint as to where you need to go to get the Necromantic Strand--it's located in the Hall of Wisdom, which is a location somewhere on the moon. Unfortunately, the spot isn't marked on your map, and you'll only know you've reached it when the area's name pops up on your screen. This one isn't too tough to locate, however, provided you know where to start. Use these step-by-step instructions to get where you need to go:Where To Find The Necromantic StrandSpawn in at the Sanctuary landing zone, where you'll find Eris MornHop on your sparrow and head left toward Archer's LineWhen you enter the area, look up to the right. You'll spot a broken dome building. Head up toward that.When you reach the dome, head through it to the other side. Ahead you'll see a Hive building you can enter.Head down and into the structure, and keep descending. When you hit the bottom, the first room you'll enter is the Hall of Wisdom.Kill the enemies and move forward toward the small square outcropping of Hive architecture, just before you enter the next big room filled with enemies. The Necromantic Strand is on the ground right in front of it.Where To Find Other Essence Weapon ComponentsDestiny 2 Horned Wreath Location: Where To Go For Essence Of Vanity QuestDestiny 2 Captive Cord Location: Where To Go For Essence Of Failure QuestYou'll need to complete two more steps to cleanse the Essence of Brutality so it can be converted into a weapon.Essence of Brutality Quest StepsActivities Completed (Lost Sectors, patrols, public events on the moon)50 Hand Cannon KillsCollect Necromantic StrandWith the Essence of Brutality fully cleansed, take it back to the Lectern near Eris Morn to unlock the weapon. Once you've done that, you can repurchase the Essence of Brutality again from the Lectern, should you want to try for a different roll on the gun. Just note that buying the Essence will cost you a Phantasmal Core, which can be hard to come by. You can get them from completing some of Eris's bounties, or by purchasing them at the Lectern. They'll run you either 20 Phantasmal Fragments, which you get for killing Nightmares, or 25 Helium Filaments, the planetary material you'll find on the moon. Info from Gamespot.com

With the start of Season 3: Meltdown, Apex Legends received the largest update it ever has--implementing so much new content that the game is almost unrecognizable from what it was in Season 2. Whether a conscious decision or not, the new changes make for an experience that's more accessible to those who haven't played the battle royale in a while or are looking to start.Fundamentally, Apex Legends is still the same game. You still team up with two other players in a 20-team battle royale match. Every previous Legend is still playable as well, giving a leg up to those who've been playing the game since launch. However, with Season 3, a lot has changed, giving newcomers time to get acclimated to how Apex Legends works while veterans get readjusted.For one, the map is completely different. Everyone plays on World's Edge, as Kings Canyon has been (most likely only temporarily) removed. So all the strategies that tie into knowing the terrain--whether it's ideal drop spots, best sniping locations, or secret hiding nooks--all have to be discovered again. For the first time in a while, veterans don't have an advantage when it comes to knowing the map inside and out because everything is brand-new.World's Edge is also huge, easily more than twice the size of Kings Canyon. This provides two benefits for those who aren't used to Apex Legends' fast-paced firefights. For one, there are now way more viable places to land and find decent loot, so it's easier to avoid dropping next to another squad right at the start. And second, because the map is so big, you're not going to run into other squads nearly as often in the beginning of the match. There are now long stretches of nothingness between firefights--something that almost never occurred in Kings Canyon--providing numerous opportunities in a match to safely heal and loot for supplies. The vastness of World's Edge means you're likely to see enemy squads before they can ambush you too. You have to contend with snipers more often as a result, but the new map has certainly made Apex Legends matches play out a lot more slowly.All of which isn't to say the fast-paced battles are gone. For those looking for a more traditional Apex Legends experience, you have options. The blue circle that highlights high-tier loot areas is back and the loot-heavy dropship has been replaced by an equally loot-filled train. Both spots are clearly marked on your map, making them both easy to find and avoid.Weapon loot has also been changed to better appeal to new players. Respawn has redesigned many of the weapons so that you no longer need to know which guns are objectively the best, you just have to find the firearms you're best with. Two of the stronger weapon attachments in the game--disruptor ammo and skullpiercer rifling--have been removed, affecting every weapon that utilized either hop-up. Specifically, the Alternator and Wingman have dropped in utility, no longer being nearly as dominant as they previously were. Both guns were almost unfairly powerful with their corresponding hop-up attached, but only if you were a decent shot; the Alternator has a powerful recoil and the Wingman requires an exceptionally steady and patient hand under pressure to be effective. It's not easy to be proficient at either one at first, especially if you're new to first-person shooters, presenting a significant advantage for those who've been playing Apex Legends for a while. Now that advantage is just gone.In place of those weapon attachments, a bunch of guns that are fairly easy to use have brand-new hop-ups in Season 3. The two easiest assault rifles to use in the game, the R-301 and Flatline, (as they have no wind-up time and possess fairly low recoil and decent range) have a new attachment, the anvil receiver, that increases their semi-auto damage. The easiest sniper rifle to use, the G7 Scout (as it has low recoil and semi-auto fire), and the far easier of the two shotguns to use, the EVA-8 (as it fires very quickly), have a new double tap trigger hop-up that allows them to fire two shots with every trigger pull. Respawn has also implemented various buffs and nerfs across most of the library of firearms in Apex Legends, all of which have seemingly created a more balanced experience.The new weapon, the Charge Rifle, is also a nice addition, presenting a fairly beginner-friendly option for long-range combat. Though it requires time to charge, the weapon fires a targeting laser as it's warming up. Provided your scope has a powerful enough zoom to see what you're shooting at, the targeting laser assists in pinpointing your shot. The laser itself also does minor damage, so even if your shot misses its mark, you're still assisting your team just by pulling the trigger in the right direction.One of the cooler new features added in Season 3 is the brand-new audio cues, specifically warnings for when you're being attacked by more than one squad. Apex Legends' firefights can be hectic once the playable safe area becomes small enough, so it's occasionally difficult to discern one enemy team from another. For anyone who's worried about holding their team back by not knowing when to retreat, there's now an audio cue to help you out. If you're fighting an enemy squad and another squad suddenly tries to flank you, a teammate's character will call it out. Bangalore, for example, might yell, "Ambush! Ambush! There's another squad!" or Caustic may call out, "We're being attacked by two different squads!" It's a small change, but it makes it so much easier to understand how much the odds may be stacked against you--a boon for those who struggle with situational awareness.However, more than anything, Crypto's addition to Apex Legends provides the easiest way to join your friends and not have to worry about knowing how everything works. Crypto is at his best when he's tucked away in the corner and using his tactical to get eyes on enemy targets. Playing as Crypto actually gives you an excuse to not jump headfirst into a firefight because you benefit your team most by initially pinpointing targets with your drone. You might not rank as high as your teammates for your post-game stats, but playing as Crypto allows you to contribute without being adept at shooters--so you don't have to worry about your teammates being too angry at you if you're still learning. Crypto is a great addition to Apex Legends as a result. He's certainly not the best character for aggressive styles of play, which is common if you decide to participate in Gold or higher ranked play, but he's definitely the easiest of the current eleven Legends to grasp. At the very least, simply playing as him helps you get acclimated to Apex Legends' role-centric gameplay as well.And once you do reach level 10 and go into ranked play, you don't have to worry about being judged for a low kill count at the end of a match. Ranked matches now also keep track of your assists, rewarding you for your performance if you manage to shoot an enemy a few times before your teammate finishes them off. It's immensely satisfying to know the game rewards you for fulfilling a support role. In Season 2, it was very difficult to engage in ranked, knowing you were primarily rewarded for only surviving and kills, as it then curated a competition within your squad to get the kill shot over winning together. Apex Legends--which has remained entirely squad-based save for a limited-time solo mode during Season 2--finally feels more like a cooperative experience. If you're just jumping into Apex Legends with Season 3, you don't have to immediately be good enough to get kills. And, of course, this new assist system means veteran players will most likely be more willing to come to their less experienced teammate's aid as well, now knowing their own performance and rank will get a nice boost even if they don't get the kill shot.There has never been a better time to get into Apex Legends. Crypto is the most beginner-friendly Legend ever introduced and the distance between veterans and newcomers has been shortened by evening the playing field in terms of guns and forcing everyone to drop onto a brand-new map. Some of these perks will diminish as the season goes on and new patterns settle into old habits but, for now anyway, Season 3 is the most accessible Apex Legends has been for new or inexperienced players since the battle royale game launched.Info from Gamespot.com

Code Vein establishes its own identity from the outset. It may latch onto a Dark Souls formula that has come to define a generation of action-RPGs, but Bandai Namco's latest manages to set itself apart from the rest by presenting a post-apocalyptic world filled with what are essentially anime vampires. Interesting concepts and mechanics filter out from this central blood-soaked idea, resulting in a game that feels familiar yet wildly different from its inspiration. Yet it's the parts that are most recognisable, such as its combat, where Code Vein stumbles.After an apocalyptic cataclysm ravages the world, those who died are brought back to life as immortal beings called Revenants. The only price they have to pay for reincarnation is an insatiable thirst for blood. There's no neck biting, disintegrating in sunlight, or anything else you would usually associate with traditional vampires here. If a Revenant goes for too long without satisfying its thirst for blood, however, they lose their humanity and transform into grotesque creatures known as the Lost. Fortunately, Revenants don't have to feed on the last remaining humans to survive. Blood Beads grow on plants throughout the world and function as suitable substitutes for human blood, nourishing a Revenant's bloodlust in much the same way. The problem is, Blood Beads are becoming increasingly scarce, so you have to find the source and hopefully attain a steady supply. That's the basic plot, anyway, but it doesn't take long to deviate into other areas and introduce world-ending stakes.In stereotypical protagonist fashion, you begin the game by waking up with amnesia before finding out you're the chosen one. You see, each Revenant in Code Vein has a class known as a Blood Code. Your created character is special due to the fact they're not confined to a single Blood Code like everyone else is. This malleability allows you to swap between various classes whenever you feel like it, with your arsenal of available Blood Codes expanding the further you progress through the game.Blood Codes are tailored to a specific style of play that often fits into a typical RPG class template--think warrior or mage. Gifts are Code Vein's version of abilities, granting you access to a wide range of passive and active skills that are tied but not limited to each Blood Code. You're able to mix and match Gifts to a certain degree, with the most exciting ones letting you unleash flashy special attacks in melee combat. That's not all they're capable of, however, as others allow you to fire projectiles of piercing Ichor, boost your attack power, temporarily add a stun effect to your weapon, and many more. The character creator is already comprehensive enough, but Code Vein provides a plethora of options when it comes to finding a playstyle that suits you.Killing enemies earns Haze that can be spent on levelling up your character, purchasing weapon and armor upgrades, or attaining various items like poison cures and throwing daggers. When you die, you lose all of the Haze you had accrued up to that point unless you can return to the location of your demise and pick it back up. Haze is relatively easy to accumulate, though, so walking around with pockets full of the stuff never feels as stressful as it maybe should. Levelling up your character is also simplistic to a fault because it doesn’t let you min-max your stats. Everything it tied to Blood Codes so it’s unclear why information such as your character's strength and dexterity is even surfaced.Either way, incorporating Gifts amid regular attacks makes for some satisfying combos, and there's a gratifying heft behind each slash and crunch of Code Vein's melee combat. Defeating enemies is based on rationing light and heavy attacks, and you have access to a decent array of weaponry, too, cycling through the usual assortment of broadswords, halberds, giant hammers, and spears. Most of them are ludicrously large in typical anime fashion as well. There's not a lot of variety between each moveset within a weapon's specific class, but bouncing around between weapon types offers some tangible deviation.Each Gift consumes from a pool of Ichor that's replenished by simply defeating enemies or refilled in larger doses by performing drain attacks, parries, and backstabs. This incentivizes you to use Gifts regularly, approaching each enemy with an offensive mindset to unleash a bevy of special attacks and then quickly regain any lost Ichor. You need to pick the right moment to use a drain attack because of its lengthy windup, but backstabs are relatively easy to pull off, while parries require precise timing.Wailing on enemies is satisfying, and Gifts spruce up each fight with their inherent flexibility, yet combat is a disappointingly by-the-numbers affair because of the AI's shortcomings. There's an adequate variety of enemy types, but this variety generally only applies to their visual design as opposed to their behavior and movesets. They're surprisingly static, spending most of their time simply idling instead of reacting to your attacks. Each weapon you wield is usually able to stagger enemies on the first or second hit, allowing you to dispatch each foe with almost no resistance, and this remains true throughout the entirety of the game. There are a few enemies that break away from this mould, requiring you to actually dodge and make use of your Gifts, but they're an anomaly amid a sea of one-sided slugfests. Bosses aren't quite as easy to take down, but they're not far from it. There's no need to learn patterns or delicate back-and-forths that require you to engage with every aspect of Code Vein's combat. It's simple enough to beat each boss on your first or second attempt by simply manoeuvring behind them. This only deviates as you approach the end credits and bosses receive a sudden difficulty spike as they rely on powerful area of effect attacks and homing projectiles.Code Vein doesn't have to adhere to Dark Souls' challenging difficulty, but it also misses the mark by never forcing you to learn or deepen your understanding of the game to progress. Combat devolves into a mindless task where the only thing you need to watch out for is enemy placement and quantity. Difficulty is contrived by throwing numerous enemies at you at once which feeds into a focus on cooperative play. You can traverse through Code Vein's world with another player or by using one of its many AI companions. The latter can more than hold their own in a fight, proving especially useful when you're overwhelmed by multiple enemies--though their presence against singular opponents doesn't do much to quell the simplistic routine of defeating them.Exploring each environment is engaging, at least. The level design has a tendency to wrap in and around itself, offering secret paths and capturing the elation that's derived from opening a shortcut or discovering a new checkpoint to rest at and spend the Haze you just acquired. One sprawling area even borrows Anor Londo's distinct Il Duomo-inspired aesthetic, reimagining the pearly white castle as a labyrinthine maze. It's just a shame the visual design is regularly pedestrian. You spend the vast majority of your time traversing through bland post-apocalyptic streets and damp caves where rubble is Code Vein's most distinguishing feature. The addition of fire and sand shakes up the typical dilapidated cityscape, but it's not nearly enough to shake the feeling that you've seen it all before. There's even a late area that adopts the Anor Londo aesthetic for a second time, with the only difference being that it's now inside and slightly darker. Evoking memories of Dark Souls' most memorable location doesn't do it any favours.Code Vein adopts the Souls-like formula in its structure, presenting a familiar cycle of progression and basic combat similarities, and there are some interesting ideas here, too, built around the use of various Blood Codes and their distinct Gifts. You can see the fragments of a fantastic game hidden within these systems and its meaty combat feedback, but the mundanity of its enemies and the effect they have on nullifying the combat's enjoyment prevent Code Vein from ever realizing its potential.Info from Gamespot.com

Lucas Pope's celebrated puzzle game Return of the Obra Dinn is currently exclusive to PC, but that is changing soon. Pope announced on Twitter that the swashbuckling game will launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on October 18.The London-based Warp Digital handled the console versions of Obra Dinn. According to Pope, the different console versions have "feature and performance parity" across all versions.Return of the Obra Dinn releases on October 18th for Switch, PS4, and Xbox One! pic.twitter.com/2r35Rw4eXP — Lucas Pope (@dukope) October 3, 2019All the heavy lifting to get it on consoles is being handled by @WarpDigitalUK, who hit feature and performance parity on all platforms. Harder than it might look for a 1-bit 800x450 game. — Lucas Pope (@dukope) September 4, 2019GameSpot picked Return of the Obra Dinn as one of the best games of 2018. In the game, you play as an insurance adjuster working for the East India Company in the early 19th century. Your job is to discover the fates of all 60 crew members and passengers aboard the Obra Dinn, which was lost at sea only to drift back to harbor several years later with no one on board alive.GameSpot's review of Obra Dinn scored the game a 9/10. The game's developer, Lucas Pope, previously made Papers, Please.Info from Gamespot.com

Actors turn down movie roles all the time, and now we've learned about another big name who said no to a movie that went on to become very successful.Oscar winner Matt Damon told GQ UK that James Cameron offered him a role in his 2009 blockbuster Avatar. Damon added that Cameron offered him 10 percent of the box office grosses, which would have been a huge sum of money in the area of $250 million."Jim Cameron offered me Avatar," Damon said. "And when he offered it to me, he goes, 'Now, listen. I don't need anybody. I don't need a name for this, a named actor. If you don't take this, I'm going to find an unknown actor and give it to him, because the movie doesn't really need you. But if you take the part, I'll give you ten percent of...'"Damon trailed off here but he was seemingly referring to 10 percent of the Avatar box office grosses. The movie made $2.78 billion at the box office, so 10 percent of that would be around $278 million.It's unclear what role in Avatar turned down, but it could be that of Jake Sully, the male lead that would ultimately be played by Australian actor Sam Worthington.Damon might have turned down the Avatar role for any number of reasons, and few could have known what a blockbuster success Avatar would become. He's not the first big actor to say no to a role in a movie that would go on to be a smash hit.Damon himself turned down the role of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight; the role went to Aaron Eckhart. Emily Blunt, meanwhile, said no playing Black Widow in Iron Man 2 in a role that eventually went to Scarlett Johansson. Al Pacino turned down Han Solo, while Nicolas Cage passed on playing Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings.Avatar 2, the first of multiple sequels in development, is scheduled to hit theatres in December 2021 after multiple delays. Info from Gamespot.com

After negotiations between Disney and Sony over the future of Spider-Man movies stalled, it was believed that Spider-Man would leave the MCU and the two companies head their separate ways. However, a new deal announced on September 27 confirmed that Marvel will produce a third Spider-Man film for Sony, with Spider-Man appearing in one Marvel movie (or more). Now, more details about the deal have emerged.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney will get 25 percent of the box office net gross for the third Spider-Man film starring Tom Holland, which comes to theatres in July 2021. The terms of the deal also reportedly specify that Disney will pay 25 percent of the movie's budget.According to sources, Disney originally wanted even more favorable terms. The House of Mouse reportedly asked for a 50-50 co-financing deal before the two sides agreed to 25-25.The report states that Disney originally made the 50-50 offer in January, and Sony didn't come back with a counter-offer for nearly six months. In June, Disney's top movie boss, Alan Horn, "abruptly broke off negotiations" just before the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, according to the report.So what helped the two sides finally come to terms? The report states that Spider-Man actor Tom Holland himself--who is only 23 years old--contacted Disney CEO Bob Iger and Sony film boss Tom Rothman multiple times to help encourage them to make a deal.According to the report, Holland held some additional sway because he is attached to star in another major upcoming Sony movie, Uncharted. A potential partnership between Disney and Sony for a third Spider-Man movie was "100 percent dead" before Holland stepped in, according to the report.The Hollywood Reporter's sources said Disney earned a "nominal" producing fee of less than five percent of the box office grosses for the previous two movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. With the new terms giving Disney 25 percent of net grosses, the company is earning 400 percent more money in the new deal. Adding to this, Disney already owns the lucrative merchandising rights to Spider-Man.Far From Home, which made more than $1 billion at the box office, ended on a massive cliffhanger. For more, check out GameSpot's spoiler-filled video in the embed above. Info from Gamespot.com

Playing Sayonara Wild Hearts' best levels is an intangible, hard-to-describe feeling. When the art, the movement, and the music all come together in a track, it's absolutely captivating. But it's also fleeting, and I spent the majority of my time playing Sayonara Wild Hearts chasing that feeling. It came through in a few standout levels, but for most of the game, I found myself on the verge of falling in love with songs only to fall short of that high.It's an interesting kind of music game. The main goal is to simply flow with the music, rather than hit a series of precise rhythm-based inputs or dance along to beats. Crystalline hearts line the paths you ride (or fly) through, and often, following the hearts is the best way to get through a level safely without scrambling to avoid oncoming obstacles. Timed inputs are reserved for flashier moves--big jumps, deft dodges, graceful attacks--and these sequences are all scripted, so all you have to do is hit the button somewhat on time and then watch as the moves play out to the music. The camera and forward movement, including your speed, are automatic, too, leaving you to move only from side to side with rare exception. This all lends Sayonara Wild Hearts a dreamlike feel; you are both participant and observer, somewhat in control but mostly just along for the ride.Initially, the dreaminess of Sayonara Wild Hearts is enchanting. The scripted moves, which often come during fight sequences against brightly colored antagonists, have a distinct magical-girl flair. Dodging an attack becomes a balletic leap, a flurry of punches culminates in an explosion of color, and even punch-induced vomit (in one level) is so colorful and abstract that it flows seamlessly with the overall aesthetic. Some levels are bathed in electric neons, while others are more pensive, dark blue interdimensional affairs. And yet all of them, even at their most bright and exciting, are tinged with melancholy, largely due to the heartbreak-infused pop soundtrack--it's the kind of music that, if it were to come on in a bar, would make you feel incredibly lonely but also kind of like dancing.When this all works together, it really works. My favorite level, Dead of Night, closely matches the music with the action and, as a result, the song has impact. During the buildup, you ride your motorcycle through the forest, weaving between trees and picking up hearts while all is calm. Ahead of you are four masked enemies; they strike a group pose, and then, right as the drop hits, their three-headed wolf tank appears and the mini-boss-like sequence begins. You slide side to side to dodge attacks, then hit X with the prompt to leap over the tank as the music swells. It's timed beautifully, and you feel a sort of abstract sadness as the singer belts, "I'm the only one alive in the dead of night," and the tank slides, defeated, on the forest floor. You've "won," but it's bittersweet.Most of the levels, however, aren't as finely tuned. A lot of times, the timing-based moves feel offbeat, like you should hit them a moment or two early or late to really be in-time with the music--or like they aren't really set to the tempo at all. It makes it hard to get into a lot of the songs, even though the soundtrack as a whole is excellent, and distracts from the overall spectacle of a level--you have to watch the prompts' visual cues rather than listen for the right timing most of the time.Movement, too, can disrupt the flow of things. It can be hard to line yourself up properly for hearts, turns, and jumps; you might find yourself a little bit to the right or left of where you thought you'd be. This is largely caused by the independent camera, which sometimes leaves you blind going into turns or unsure of how obstacles and collectibles will line up. The highly stylized, dreamy feel of each level also leaves some ambiguity as to the placement of things. I found myself wishing there were either fewer obstacles or tighter controls; while the flowy feel of moving side to side fits the aesthetic perfectly, it's hard to stay in the zone when you're constantly tipping the analog sticks slightly to better line yourself up.Each level continues into the next not like tracks on an album would, but with short breaks in between. On top of that, the main story mode kicks you to the menu after each level to see your score and select the next song. There is a seamless mode of these same levels in the extras section, and the broken-up structure lends itself well to mobile or handheld play--but the story is the first mode you're introduced to, and it's only about the length of a long album. Where you might listen to an album all the way through at least once before jumping around and picking songs, you do the opposite in Sayonara Wild Hearts, and that saps it of its momentum.On repeat playthroughs, I found myself getting more and more used to Sayonara Wild Hearts' quirks and better appreciating each level as I gained the muscle memory for them. Only a few hit me like Dead of Night did, and those levels are stellar. But the rest are either forgettable or somehow discordant, whether because of movement issues or strange timing. I wanted to get lost in the daydream it presented, but I kept getting ripped back to reality, just a bit more melancholic than when I started.Info from Gamespot.com

You spend almost all your time in Neo Cab sat behind the wheel of a cab, but as a player, you never get to steer it. Instead of choosing routes and getting to destinations quickly, you're deciding which passengers to pick up and how you're going to talk to them. It's the near future, and the game's protagonist, Lina, has just moved to the "automated city" of Los Ojos, California, a glittering, impersonal metropolis surrounded by desert. Lina, who is planning to move in with her best friend Savy, is one of the few drivers in a town that now runs mostly on self-driving cars owned and operated by Capra, a monolithic tech giant (and clear Tesla/Apple analogue) that has fundamentally changed American life. These are Neo Cab's best features--its examination of what it means to live in futuristic cities and the value of the human connections Lina manages to forge makes for a compelling experience.Neo Cab has the framework of a mystery, and its initial hook is that you're solving the case of your best friend's sudden disappearance. But ultimately, the search for Savy takes a back seat to, well, the people in your back seat. This is a game about the susceptibility of people working within a gig economy, what happens when a single company is given too much power, and how humanity can and will adapt to the changes that seem to be on the horizon. It's a clever examination of the world we live in today and the world we could find ourselves in 10 years from now. Neo Cab is well-written and enjoyable, and it's consistently engaging despite some presentation issues.For each night that Lina works, you're given a few choices that dictate how the story unfolds. You get to choose which passengers you're going to pick up from your map, and once they're in your car, you get to make choices during your conversations with them. Those choices will affect how the conversations go, what state of mind Lina will find herself in afterwards, and--crucially--what rating your customers will give you at the end of the ride. A few passengers are "Prime" members who will only ride with you if you have a five-star average, and the average is seemingly calculated based on the last few rides rather than your lifetime performance, so a single unhappy customer can tank it and impede your search for Savy.It's a familiar gameplay model, but thanks to strong writing, interesting characters, and the script's willingness to dive into the complexities of the technology and social issues it explores, Neo Cab's choices consistently feel significant. Neo Cab's greatest success is in how it feels simultaneously futuristic and of its time. Although Neo Cab has some fun with its world (there's talk of infinite timelines and giant worms that roam below the city), it's also depicting a world you can easily imagine living in, one that is more convenient but also less personal, where privacy has eroded and the job market demands intensely specific specialization. Lina's outsider perspective in the city makes her a perfect player surrogate, meaning that I found myself wondering how I would respond to the questions my passengers posed, not just how Lina might feel.The conversational options you can choose from are dictated by Lina's mood. Early on, Lina is gifted a "Feelgrid" wrist strap, which glows different colors depending on how she's feeling. The Feelgrid can indicate if certain options are going to be opened up or closed off; if Lina's in a good mood, the green glowing light on her wrist will prevent her from being able to choose aggressive or angry responses, or if she's got a blue light to indicate that she's sad, it might allow you to pick a downbeat dialogue option. It's not the deepest system, but it's an interesting approach that gives you a clear sense of how Lina is reacting at any given moment, and the in-game discussions around the ramifications of openly sharing your feelings at all times are interesting, too.You might expect a game set predominantly inside a car would eventually grow tedious or samey, but the stream of characters that step into the Neo Cab keeps the game interesting. The way each passenger is animated tells you something about their lives; some won't crack a smile, while others will immerse themselves in screens the moment they step into the car, while a few more outlandish figures are used to build up Neo Cab's increasingly strange world. There's the young girl who has spent her life locked into a horrifying suit of armor for her own "protection"; the gold-hearted ex-con with a secret; the German pals who are convinced that Lina is a robot. The passengers not only help to flesh out the politics of the game world, but often offer discussions that will force you to confront numerous life philosophies. Some characters worship technology, while others go so far as to condemn cars entirely; many relish human interaction, while others prefer to be driven by a machine. The most consistent feeling is isolation, and Neo Cab does a great job of examining the straightforward benefits of simply talking to others without putting too fine a point on it.Like the passengers in the back of Lina's car, every player is going to have their own thoughts and feelings on automation, capitalism, and the way technology can and will alter our lives. As such, the game presents multiple perspectives while also suggesting that we should be wary of any company that aims to build a monopoly, and it gives players the options to explore the grey areas in their conversation options whenever possible (which isn't to say the game is impartial; by the ending, it has taken a clear stance on the dangers posed by Capra). Some passengers can become friends with Lina, or at least begrudging acquaintances, and developing these relationships and learning the ins and outs of how these characters operate--and how living in an automated city has shaped them--is a pleasure that builds over time. Neo Cab is, ultimately, a hopeful game; it's about the importance of human connections in a world that has made it easier to stick to yourself.Neo Cab's conversations provide a rich tapestry of lives that show how inescapable Capra's influence is, but while you can build a picture of the city in your mind easily enough, the focus on the cab means that Los Ojos feels visually underdeveloped. Whenever the camera cuts to outside your car for a moment, assets will pop in from nowhere on the side of the road as you drive past, and the streets you see are all functionally identical and empty, meaning that sometimes characters will describe an area in a way that does not match up with what you see. The dissonance between how the city is described and how it's visualized can be isolating, and I found myself having to actively ignore any imagery I saw of the city itself, focusing on the game's words over its visuals. There are a few additional technical issues in Neo Cab that can take away from the experience. Animations don't always match up to text; during one conversation, the dialogue told me that a character had fallen asleep, but their avatar was visibly awake, their open eyes darting around. The driving animation is canned, too, which means that Lina might reference taking a left during conversation, but you won't see her make the turn. Neo Cab often requires you to fill in the blanks, but these stumbles often make the game world and characters, which are fleshed out so well in text, feel more artificial.There are other issues with the game's presentation that are inconvenient, or take away from the experience. There's no conversation log, which means that if you skip something accidentally or miss a piece of conversation, you can't go back to see what it was--a real possibility, especially since there's no voice acting. There are also very few music tracks in the game, and hearing them loop became tiresome by the game's ending. The autosaves are weird, too; after the game ended I wanted to jump back to a specific point to check out a passenger I hadn't collected the first time, but found that the game had saved frequently up until the halfway point and then stopped, so aside from my most recent save right near the game's ending, everything else was from hours earlier. These are not game-breaking by any means, but the game is lacking a few basic gaming creature comforts.Neo Cab's interactions still manage to be interesting and feel important despite these issues. While I didn't feel like the decisions I made had a tremendous impact on how the game ended, the experiences I had through the six in-game days that led up to the conclusion felt personalized to how I played. Certain characters that were name-checked never appeared within my game, or plotlines that started up were never finished, but I always had some idea of what I could have done differently to see these things through. The overarching mystery plot isn't so great, and once the credits rolled it felt like certain things I'd done, and the strict budgeting of my limited income, were far less important than the game had made me think they were. But Neo Cab's main appeal is in the side-stories presented by your passengers, and in the relationships that form between them and Lina. Most passengers can be collected multiple times, and stories will play out across several trips. I jumped back into Neo Cab after the credits rolled not to see if I could change the ending, but because I wanted to delve deeper into the lives of the people I had met and try to follow up on the storylines I hadn't seen all the way through in a single playthrough.Neo Cab might suffer from inconsistencies and presentation issues in some places, but as a depiction of a near-future society corrupted by tech fetishization, and an exploration of how humans are adapting to automation and the rise of the gig economy, it's got plenty to say about how important it is that we all look out for one another. This is a forward-thinking game, but the issues it explores are extremely relevant in 2019, which makes for an engaging, stimulating narrative experience, even if the central mystery of your friend's disappearance is not particularly interesting.Info from Gamespot.com

The freshly launched Call of Duty: Mobile is not starting for several players, with many finding themselves stuck on the loading screen and receiving an "update download failed" error message, which you can see below. [Update: Activision says the issues have been resolved, so you should be able to jump in iOS or Android now if you were having issues earlier.]Issues logging in to Call of Duty: Mobile have been resolved. Thank you for your patience. Get back into the fight! Please let us know if you continue to experience any issues — Activision Support (@ATVIAssist) October 1, 2019GameSpot can verify the issue is still ongoing.Activision addressed the issue earlier this morning on Twitter and just recently posted an update, indicating high levels of traffic as it continues to investigate the problem:Update, Call of Duty Mobile. We’re experiencing an incredibly high-volume of traffic currently. We’re working to resolve as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience — Activision Support (@ATVIAssist) October 1, 2019Call of Duty: Mobile launched earlier today on iOS and Android. The free-to-play shooter from Tencent Games and Timi Studios features several classic game modes from the popular franchise as well as a Battle Royale mode.Info from Gamespot.com

The Mario & Sonic Olympic crossover games have been a staple of Nintendo consoles ever since the series made its debut on Wii and DS back in 2007, so it came as no surprise to see a new installment announced for Switch during Nintendo's E3 2019 presentation. This year's entry, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, introduces a handful of new features such as a story mode and 2D events, but by and large, the game offers the usual brand of simple-to-play sports mini-games.Like previous installments, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 features nearly two dozen Olympic events to compete it. Horse racing, soccer, the 100m dash, volleyball, and other classic events make their return in this year's entry, and this time they're joined by a handful of new competitions such as skateboarding, karate, surfing, and rock climbing.Like the returning events, these new mini-games are all designed around easy-to-grasp controls, offering a simplified take on their respective sports, but they're more than mere button-mashers. Rock climbing in particular is quite tricky because you need to time your button presses correctly to scale the wall, but this trickiness made it one of the most intense competitive games we sampled. In addition to the standard sports, the Mario & Sonic games feature a handful of "Dream Events." These are more exaggerated takes on Olympic competitions, and Sega has introduced a handful of new ones in this year's installment. One of the highlights is hoverboarding, which has players racing around neon-colored tracks much like the Sonic Riders games. There's also Dream Karate; unlike the standard sport, this version has you launching your opponents around the ring to light up colored titles, and the player with the most tiles lit up by the end of the round wins.That's just scratching the surface of the mini-games included in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. You can take a look at some of the aforementioned 3D events, as well as other like rugby, badminton, and more in the video above.Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 arrives on Nintendo Switch in the US on November 5 and in Europe on November 8. As previously mentioned, this entry features a brand-new story mode, which takes Mario, Sonic, and friends back in time to the 1964 Olympics for some retro-style 2D events--and they're the clear highlight of the package. You can check out some gameplay of Mario & Sonic's 2D events here.Info from Gamespot.com

NetherRealm has debuted the gameplay trailer for the Terminator in Mortal Kombat 11, and true to the character, he makes quite an entrance. The character is as he appears in the upcoming Terminator: Dark Fate, which means it resembles actor Arnold Schwarzenegger with greyed hair and a beard.Arnold's T-800 is no less deadly in the trailer, though. The gameplay shows him facing off against (who else) Jax, teleporting himself through time, using his metal exoskeleton to shrug off projectiles, and using lots and lots of guns. His fatality is grisly as you'd expect, but the very end gives it an extra movie homage twist.The Terminator will be available starting on October 8 for Kombat Pack owners. That date will also bring alternate skins for the T-800, a new Cassie Cage skin based on the DC villain Harley Quinn, and a new skin pack with new looks for Sonya Blade (Cyborg Hunter), Kano (Cash Machine) and Johnny Cage (Red Carpet).In case you haven't tried out MK11 yet, NetherRealm also announced a free trial coming October 11-14 for PS4 and Xbox One. It will include the full suite of multiplayer modes, a portion of the story mode, and all of the base game roster. It will also let you sample the Kombat Pack fighters who have been added so far: T-800, Nightwolf, and Shang Tsung.The Terminator was one of several new fighters announced for the full DLC roster. The others will be Sindel, Joker, and Spawn. Those will be coming in November, January, and March, respectively.Info from Gamespot.com

The PlayStation Store is almost never without a sale on games, and the latest one has quite a few great titles discounted to a decent price. The Games of a Generation sale seems to be celebrating many of the best games that were released this past generation, such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Monster Hunter: World, as well as this year's Kingdom Hearts III.The sale also includes many PS4 exclusives--Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, and Days Gone to name a few--and if you haven't dipped into Spider-Man's DLC, you can grab all three packs at a reduced price.Spider-Man's Game of the Year edition, which includes both the game and the aforementioned DLC, is also on sale. Actually, several premium editions are discounted, including those for Red Dead Redemption 2, Battlefield V, and Grand Theft Auto V, as well as Titanfall 2, Overwatch, and Kingdom Hearts' All-In-One Package, which includes Kingdom Hearts Collector's Pack: HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III.You can check out some of the best games and their sale prices in the list below or see them all at the PlayStation Store.Discounted PS4 gamesGamePrice (USD)Price (CAD)Red Dead Redemption 2$36$48Battlefield V$24$32Jump Force$24$32Burnout Paradise Remastered$5$6.50The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition$16$20Bloodborne$12$12Monster Hunter World$20.10$26.80No Man's Sky$25$33.50Dragon Ball FighterZ$15$20Kingdom Hearts III$36$48The Sims 4$16$20.80Days Gone$42$56Info from Gamespot.com