Just a day after a Borderlands 3 patch was released, Gearbox has come right back with a new hotfix update. This one primarily deals with balance changes for weapons, enemies, and the various characters. While that might not sound as exciting as new features, it's actually a big deal, as it stands to dramatically impact both your character skill tree choices and the effectiveness of numerous weapons. The patch should be live soon (Gearbox said it would be out by 3 PM PT on Friday, September 27), and it has some pretty significant buffs and nerfs to be aware of. Here's a look at the highlights and the full patch notes.Each Vault Hunter got an adjustment except for Moze, but in very different directions. Zane had his tools significantly increased in power to address a lack of impact as he leveled up. FL4K, meanwhile, had their Guerillas in the Mist duration and critical damage bonus reduced. Amara sits in the middle, having gotten a nerf to her Guardian Angel ability but a buff to Glamour.In the patch notes, Gearbox also says that it used data analytics from players to adjust the weapons. "Billions of guns were fired and after collecting some data, we wanted to balance some weapon types and weapon manufacturers," it says. "These adjustments are intended to even the playing field and increase build diversity for all Vault Hunters." Borderlands 3 News Borderlands 3 Patch Notes: New Update Is Out Now Borderlands 3 Starter Guide: 17 Spoiler-Free Tips You Should Know Before Jumping In Borderlands 3 Shift Codes: All Active Shift Codes And How To Redeem Them The changes are quite sweeping, as many of them impact an entire weapon type (sniper rifles are now easier and more effective overall) or manufacturer (all Maliwan weapons now have higher damage and rates of fire).Gearbox has said that it plans to regularly issue hot fixes between its slate of patches. "In between the larger patches that will continue to expand and improve the game, we're able to make more minor adjustments via these hot fixes or 'micropatches' to improve and fine-tune your experience at a quicker pace. We'll continue to roll out these incremental improvements while evaluating gameplay data and identifying necessary balance adjustments, and will be keeping record of all patches on our site."You can check out the full patch notes from Gearbox below. This comes just after a patch aimed at more technical issues. Borderlands 3 has already become the fastest-selling 2K game at launch. If you're already deep into your Vault Hunting, make sure to claim some free high-level loot with Shift Codes.Borderlands 3 - Sept 27 Hot Fixes PatchWeapon HotfixesSniper Rifles Sniper rifles deal high damage but felt a little cumbersome to use in certain scenarios. This change will increase their overall damage and increase usability in more combat engagements.Critical Damage increased by 20%Fire Rate increased by 15%Time to Aim Down Sights (ADS) reduced by 15%Time to Equip reduced by 20%PistolsJakobs and Torgue Pistols were outperforming other manufacturers, dealing damage to groups of enemies at a much higher rate than other pistols. This change keeps their identity intact but reduces overall group control. TEDIORE, DAHL, and Children of the Vault Pistols have manufacturer penalties that affected their overall damage. Increasing their overall damage will overcome some of the penalties while retaining their unique gameplay style and feel.Increased damage on all TEDIORE Pistols by 15%Increased damage on all DAHL Pistols by 15%Increased damage on all Children of the Vault Pistols by 20%Reduced damage on Jakobs Pistols by 15%Reduced damage on Torgue Pistols by 10%Maliwan ManufacturerMaliwan weapons had reduced overall damage because they applied elemental DoTs at a rate and damage greatly above other manufacturers. This effect was toned down before launch, but the overall damage was not sufficiently adjusted to compensate for the reduction in elemental DoTs. We’re adding back some of the overall damage and making the weapons faster so elemental builds can really take advantage of Maliwan weaponry.All Maliwan Weapon Damage increased by 25%All Maliwan Weapon Fire Rate increased by 20%Atlas ManufacturerAtlas weapons relied on a game loop that we felt gave players a greater advantage when used correctly. Turns out the loop is not used if the damage doesn’t compensate for the time to set up. So now damage on Atlas weapons should facilitate players using them in general on top of feeling badass when they take advantage of Atlas technology.All Atlas Weapon Damage increased by 25%Miscellaneous Adjustments The Jakobs Assault Rifle change was to differentiate the Assault Rifle from the pistol as more of a mid to long range powerhouse. Since the Assault Rifles have low mag sizes compared to other Assault Rifles, they’re getting a slight increase to overall damage to compensate. DAHL SMGs had their Fire Rates adjusted down before launch but their damage was never sufficiently increased so they should feel more appropriate compared to other SMGs. And the Vladof Heavy Weapon damage has been increased to share in the full Heavy Weapon treatment.Jakobs Assault Rifles Damage increased by 20%DAHL SMG Damage increased by 10%Vladof Heavy Weapon Damage increased by 25%E-Tech TEDIORE Shotgun Damage increased by 50%Legendary ModificationsWe’re going to be making a larger, comprehensive Legendary gear pass but we have included the following changes. King’s and Queen’s Call were modified to lower the fire rate. The weapon has a limited burst shot count so overall feel of the gun isn’t dramatically affected.King’s and Queen’s Call Fire Rate reduced by 50%Firestorm and Storm base Charge Times were reduced to 1 second (down from 2)GravewardGraveward’s beam attacks did not properly scale based on level so at higher levels, the two beam attacks hardly phased players. Players will find his attacks to be more lethal now. In addition, Graveward is a very large enemy and is too easily susceptible to elemental damage unlike the other large bosses. Elemental damage on Graveward is now greatly reduced but to compensate, Graveward’s overall health was reduced.Attacks of Graveward now scale based on levelReduced overall health by 20%Increased resistances to Elemental Damage- Elemental Chance Resistance increased by 70%- Elemental Resistances increased by 30%- Elemental DoT Duration taken reduced by 30%Miscellaneous ChangesHollow Point Guardian Rank has been temporarily disabled. We plan on addressing this further in a future patch.Vault Hunters should no longer scream when affected by a DoT while shields are active.Vending Machines will now be restocked with higher quality “Items of the Day”.Adjusted a visual concern on Maliwan Shotguns with Cryo Element.Legendary loot drops have been balanced throughout the game. Crew Challenge enemies will drop their intended specific loot, and some enemies like Troy and Rampager will be a bit more stingy and no longer drop Legendaries every kill.Vault Hunter AdjustmentsZaneZane’s gadgets were great at providing additional utility but lacked impact as players leveled up. We increased the Digi-Clone damage with all equipped weapon so the skill can scale better with players as they get to higher levels and harder content. The Drone requires a lot of player involvement to take full advantage of its damage output and increasing the base damage as well as the augments will greatly increase the Drone’s versatility and reward players even more for using it effectively.Digi-Clone Damage Increased by 38%Drone Damage increased by 50%- Cryo Bullets damage penalty removed- Drone Rocket damage increased by 50%- Almighty Ordnance Rockets damage increased by 75%AmaraGuardian Angel health restoration reduced from 100% to 50%Glamour damage penalty reduced from -30% to -10%FL4KGuerillas in the Mist’s bonuses greatly outweighed its penalty to the base skill. We don’t want to remove the playstyle completely, but the overall damage output had to be slightly adjusted because it was outperforming other builds. We’re monitoring the changes and may make another change to the ammo return in a future patch.Guerillas in the Mist duration reduced from 8 seconds to 6 secondsGuerillas in the Mist Critical Damage Bonus reduced from 50% to 25%Info from Gamespot.com

It's a great day to be a fan of Spider-Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment have finally come to an agreement for the beloved Spider-Man franchise. As part of the new deal, the studios will joint-produce another standalone Spider-Man film, and the character will appear in one more MCU movie--though there are no specifics on how soon that will happen or which film Peter Parker will pop up in.The untitled third film in the new Spider-Man franchise is now scheduled for release on July 16, 2021, according to Variety, and as part of the new working arrangement between the two studios, Spider-Man is back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, there is no news as of this writing to which movie he'll appear in."I am thrilled that Spidey's journey in the MCU will continue, and I and all of us at Marvel Studios are very excited that we get to keep working on it," Marvel Studios President Feige explained. "Spider-Man is a powerful icon and hero whose story crosses all ages and audiences around the globe. He also happens to be the only hero with the superpower to cross cinematic universes, so as Sony continues to develop their own Spidey-verse you never know what surprises the future might hold."Sony has already commented on this news, publishing a simple tweet of a spider.🕷 — Sony (@Sony) September 27, 2019Actor Tom Holland didn't write anything or record a video expressing how excited he was. Instead, he posted a video on Instagram from The Wolf of Wall Street. It's very fitting. View this post on Instagram😏A post shared by Tom Holland (@tomholland2013) on Sep 27, 2019 at 8:41am PDT The past month for the Sony/Marvel relationship over the rights to Spider-Man has been a rollercoaster ride to say the least. It was first reported that Sony and Marvel couldn't come to an agreement on the movie rights--Sony currently owns the rights to the Spider-Man character. There was a lot of bizarre back-and-forth between the two studios, and it seemed like Spider-Man was out of the MCU for good, until today. Fans of Marvel's films will surely be exceptionally excited about this news.Amid all of this, Holland discussed early plans for his next Spider-Man movie, saying it would be "very different." Whether that will still be the case is unknown.As for Sony, they're still working on Marvel movies that take place outside of the MCU. A Spider-Verse sequel is still happening, there's a Venom sequel on the way, a Morbius movie starring Jared Leto is coming, and most recently, a Madame Web movie is in the works.Info from Gamespot.com

The Uncharted movie from Sony Pictures has a new director--again. Deadline reports that Travis Knight, the director of Bumblebee and Kubo and the Two Strings, will now helm the film. This follows news that the movie's most recent director, Dan Trachtenberg, would be leaving the project, again calling into question whether it will ever actually be made.Trachtenberg departed the movie last month, citing creative differences. He followed a long line of director changes, including Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum), Seth Gordon (King of Kong), Neil Burger (Limitless), and David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook). A number of screenwriter and script changes have occurred as well.The movie will star Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Far From Home) as a younger Nathan Drake. This is the second piece of major news surrounding Holland to break in quick succession, as earlier today Sony and Disney announced that the third Spider-Man movie will be co-produced after all. Holland will also appear in an additional MCU film outside of this upcoming third standalone entry, which is slated for 2021.The long and sometimes tumultuous development hasn't prevented Sony Pictures from putting a date on the project. Uncharted is slated for December 18, 2020. Of course, that could always be delayed depending on a variety of factors, including the possibility that Knight has a new vision for the movie.Info from Gamespot.com

Fortnite: Battle Royale introduces a variety of new weapons and vehicles to the game every season, but Season 10's big addition, the BRUTE mechs, have been the subject of much controversy. The mechs have long been criticized by players as being too powerful, forcing Epic to nerf them. Now, with Season 11 on the horizon and a double XP weekend underway, it appears the maligned vehicles may be on their way out of Fortnite.Recently, players have noticed something curious happening when the BRUTE mechs appear on the map: they explode instantly. The in-game explanation for this seems to be tied to the Visitor; you can see the mechs displayed on the computer screens in his lab at Dusty Depot, suggesting he's responsible for their malfunction. However, given how unfavorably fans have viewed the BRUTE mechs since they first debuted, this seems to be Epic's way of unceremoniously scrapping them.Mechs are gone baby! pic.twitter.com/MuepKVEWmq — ITF (@ITalkFortnite) September 25, 2019The timing of these incidents makes sense, as Season 11 is just around the corner, and Epic typically ushers in each new season of Fortnite with some kind of world-changing event. It remains to be seen just what else will happen in the lead up to Season 11, but it's possible it will involve an entirely new map, as dataminers seem to have discovered a list of new locations within the game's code. Fortnite News Fortnite Patch Notes For Today's Update 10.40: Starry Suburbs, Double XP Weekend, And More Fortnite Telescopes: Where To Dance At Different Telescopes Fortnite Bat Signal Locations: Where To Light Different Signals Outside Of Gotham City Fortnite Joker Gas Canister Location Guide: Where Are Gas Canisters To Defuse? Fortnite Season 10 Challenge Guides Season 10 of Fortnite is scheduled to end on October 6, according to Epic's website. The developer hasn't yet announced when Season 11 will officially kick off, but new seasons typically begin shortly after the previous one ends. In the meantime, you can still complete any remaining Season 10 challenges. If you need help, we've gathered up all of our maps and guides for this season's trickier missions in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges roundup. A double XP weekend is also now underway until September 30.We do already know one thing Season 11 will bring to the game: bots. As part of Epic's recent matchmaking adjustments, the developer will introduce AI-controlled opponents to help players improve their skills.Info from Gamespot.com

In an age where video games have lengthy marketing cycles that encompass numerous trailers, detailed breakdowns, extended live streams, and many other pre-release showcases, it can be hard to avoid spoilers. These days, as the media we love is dissected in videos, articles, and podcasts, it's even harder to stay fresh. Which begs the question, where do you draw the line? How do you even go about avoiding spoilers? What happens when you do get spoiled?That's exactly what Jake, Lucy, and Kallie discuss on this week's GameSpot After Dark podcast. And they're joined by a couple of illustrious guests: Kinda Funny's Greg Miller and Blessing Adeoye Jr., who offer up their own experiences with dealing with spoilers.Ironically, if you're planning on catching up with Game of Thrones, we recommend being careful as there is a fairly big spoiler in both the podcast and the transcript of the conversation below. Guess we're part of the problem this time.Where You Can ListenRSS FeedSpotifySoundcloudiTunesGoogle Play SPOIIIIIILLLLLLLEEEEERRRRRSSSSLucy: This is from Phil in San Diego. "Hi, Spotters. I've been struggling with trying to find a good balance of following stories, discussion, and trailers for an upcoming game and not knowing so much that it affects my enjoyment when I finally get my hands on it. Some games show too much, like Metal Gear Solid 5, and I end up spoiling myself while others, I try to stay entirely blind to, then end up disappointed with them because they don't click with me, most recently Greedfall. I feel the same is happening [when] listening to every game podcast with Control. I now know a lot of cool moments from these discussions, and I'm worried this will detract from my enjoyment when I finally play it. How do I strike a good balance to still be surprised by games? Additional question. What's the worst you've been spoiled on a game before?"Jake: That's going to be hard to answer without spoiling the game. Lucy's got a good one that I think you already mentioned on the podcast.Lucy: I already told the story on the podcast, but Troy Baker spoiled a death in The Last of Us for me. Yeah, I think that's maybe the worst I've been spoiled on a game, I want to say... It's the one that's most memorable at least. I think everything else, if I've been spoiled, I've been like, "It's fine."But, in terms of finding a good balance, that's a tricky one. So, you can either go... so Tamoor, for example, is not reading or watching anything to do with the new Joker movie, because he's such a big DC fan. He wants to go in completely fresh.Greg: That's such a... Movies are always such a different thing. Less investment. Right. Okay. It's two hours of your time. That's fine. Yeah. Whereas this is like so much 60 bucks and it's, "Do you like the story and do you like the game playing? Do you like all these different parts of it?"Jake: Yeah, I mean, just off the top of my head, I would say if it's a developer you like... Maybe look at developers, like if it's a developer you like and you know you're probably going to like that because you liked the previous games they made you liked the games like it. Then maybe that's a good case where you just do a media blackout right and tried to avoid everything you can.Greg: I feel like debut trailers are usually good tone pieces for like, "Okay, well I like this story." And then usually like in E3 stage demo is a good thing to show the gameplay. And be like, you seen that? And then that should be enough if you want to bounce and not have it ruined.Lucy: I don't recall. What did Metal Gear Solid 5 ruin?Greg: I think by the time that came out, we had all pretty much pieced together before we picked it up ... what was happening. 'Cause it was one of those games of like... If you looked at you like, "How is this happening?" And then it was like, "Well what about ... okay that's probably what's happening." And then we got it and was like, "Yeah, that's what was happening." All right cool. And that was supposed to be like a big reveal at the end and it was like, "No, good."Similarly I think like, and it's not even the, it's another Troy Baker story, not on purpose, but it was a Arkham Knight. The first time we heard Troy's voice ruined what the kicker of Arkham Knight was, where I was like, "Oh, I know this, what the hell?"Lucy: I noticed who was playing this.Blessing: For me it's Death Stranding. I've had such a weird, kind of like deal knowing that I'm going to play that game and I'm going to be ... I don't know if I'm going to be into it, but I am looking forward to that game because I am such a Metal Gear Solid fan. And knowing the work of Hideo Kojima, that seems like a game totally aimed at me. But then like you know at Gamescom or Tokyo Game Show, he did like the 80 minute demo. So like he laid out like a... I think it was a 50-minute gameplay demo and then another 30 minute one and then there was like the eight-minute trailer with the mission briefing and all this stuff. And as all that stuff was coming out, like I knew deep down like, "I'm going to play this game. I would like to go into it fresh."But then there was another side of me that I was like, "I really want to know what goes on in this game." So I kind of had that struggle and I ... might've scrubbed through the gameplay like very quickly just to see like, "Hey, what are you doing this game?"I watched the mission briefing video too. But yeah, it's a difficult thing because I think part of it too is restraint. Especially if you do want to go into a game totally blind and you're scared that knowing things is going to ruin it for you. And that definitely also varies game to game because a lot of games ... knowing what the gameplay experience is isn't going to ruin a lot of games. Especially if it's a game like Shadow of Mordor, which is all about interacting with the systems and kind of manipulating what's going on in the game, right? Like a game like that... it doesn't matter if you know that there's an Nemesis system or it doesn't matter if you know the details of how the system works.But something like Death Stranding, I'm sure part of that reveal is like, "Oh, this is what I'm doing in the game. Oh, there's monster energy drink." Or whatever the reveals might be of the gameplay system and all the things involved with it. And so yeah, it is a balancing act and it's difficult sometimes.Lucy: I do wonder as well, I mean talk about The Last of Us Part II, if they even needed to reveal Joel and Tommy. I know we talked about it we all had like this big emotional reaction even just to seeing Joel, but him to be a part of the marketing. Would it maybe have made the final game even more impactful if you-Greg: Well, that was interesting, right? 'Cause it didn't work for you. I was afternoon demo for Last of Us, and so that morning I got an email from PlayStation that was like, "Hey, we're aware that the State of Play's happening before your thing. Don't watch it." They want the game to play out a certain way for you. And like if you watch it ... and I read that and went, "No way." I watched it and it's like it their whole thing. I talked to him afterwards like, "Well yeah, you know, we think ... it's cool that Joel's revealed the way he was in gameplay." And it's like, "Well yeah, but everybody who's going to play that game knows that now." You know what I mean?Kallie: Like I was writing the news story and, we're in this group of people sitting around the like on these couches. And I was like, "Should I put Joel as the thumbnail? Is that spoilery?" And Tamoor was like, "Well he was just shown the trailer." And I was like, "I know, but it just doesn't feel right."Blessing: Yeah, I saw a comment on the Kind of Funny's one, where, because Joel wasn't a thumbnail ... there was one comment that was like, "Some people might not want to know if there's Joel." But it's like, "Well they showed it in the trailer, so where's the line of like-"Jake: Also, he didn't die at the end of one, so it's like he's got to be in here somewhere right?Kallie: Well that's what I wrote my story, it was like the question of whether he's alive is not a big one. It's not like, "Oh, Joel may or may not be alive." So it's not like you know-Blessing: 'Cause like the thing about Joel being alive, right? Like it was the first trailer that was the thing that made us think that he wasn't alive. So for another trailer to come out and be like, "no, he is alive." Like what's the line there?Kallie: Stop playing with my emotions.Blessing: Yeah. And it was ... almost like a, "Stop playing with my emotions," thing. But like if you're going trailer blackout then you shouldn't really care anyway. As far as like what's the worst, he'd been spoiled on a game before. I had a friend that I was playing ... Me and him played Persona 4 Golden at the same time cause we both played it.I'm not going to say the spoiler, but like he essentially ... it's my friend Ian, right? And Ian's awesome because he is very good at like theorizing and very good at putting things together and getting into the lore of a game. So he was putting out theories on who a certain character might be in Persona 4. And he nailed it. And so by the time I finished Persona 4, I was like, "Dang it."Kallie: My mom does that with movies. She'll be like, "He's the killer." And I'm like, "Yeah, I know you're going to be right. Why would you say anything?"Blessing: But then the same exact thing happened in 2017 because we both played Persona 5 at the same time. And then he was like, "Oh yeah, I think they're doing this, this and this, and I think it's going to end up being this." And I was like, "Never talk to me about video games." And then yeah, it ended up happening. It's weird because they weren't spoilers cause he didn't know. But he's just really good at figuring that stuff out.Kallie: I think the worst I've been spoiled for a video game and I wasn't upset, but I think if somebody could have been really upset with this, I told Mike Mahardy, that I was in the process of playing Heavy Rain with a group of people just for fun.Lucy: Oh no.Kallie: And then he was... I said I was currently playing it and then he just spoiled the ending for me. Like not to be a dick, but he was just like-, "Oh, and then this person's the killer." Yeah. And I was like, well, "I don't know that yet since I'm still playing it." But also I still haven't finished it because it was just like a ... we all got drunk and played Heavy Rain.Yeah. But I think a funny one that ... you know when like you haven't played a game yet and so you don't know the vocabulary of what might be a spoiler and so it misses you. I think that's how I've avoided Bioshock for so long. It's like I wouldn't know if it was a Bioshock spoiler unless someone said "This is a Bioshock spoiler." So if you email me with that subject line, I'm coming after you.But Jake spoiled the end of Red Dead One for me. But I didn't-Jake: I did?Kallie: Yes you did. But I didn't know until I reached the end of the game and then I was like, "Jake told me about this once." But it didn't affect for me because I didn't realize that it could happen until I had gotten to the end, like right before the ending actually happens. And I was like, "Oh, he did say this to me once." So that could have been really bad, but luckily I didn't put it in my long-term memory because I was just like, "I don't know anything about these characters yet." And then I played it. So, I am really, really happy that I have a shit memory.Lucy: I still feel bad about this one.Jake: Oh no.Lucy: This isn't a video game. We were talking about like disappointing endings and I just said, "Oh yeah, the Dark Tower! [said the ending] of the Dark Tower." And Tamoor went, "I've spent the last five years reading the Dark Tower books, I'm on the last one. Are you serious? Did you just spoil the ending for me?" I still think about that at like, four AM.Kallie: And you're like, "Wow. I shouldn't be on this earth anymore." Yeah.Lucy: And he was like, "Okay, fair, that ending does sound kind of shitty." But at the same time-Kallie: Aw yeah ... my mom's spoiled Game of Thrones for me because she was reading the books and I was watching the show, and she didn't realize that the seasons weren't one-to-one. Those books that she was like "Blah, blah, blah is dead, right?" And I was like, "Excuse me?" That's when I still cared about Game of Thrones. And now I don't care.Oh, you spoiled Game of Thrones!Lucy: Oh, I fully spoiled Game of Thrones for you.Kallie: But I don't really care anymore. So I was like, "Well, I guess that's what happens."Greg: When I was still at IGN ... And are we trying to not spoil anything we talk about? 'Cause this is Game of Thrones related and it's an old Game of Thrones. It was the Monday morning after the episode where Joffrey died, it happened, right? Purple wedding. And it was that thing where so many of us, for some reason, hadn't watched it and I was planning to go home and watch it with my ex-girlfriend and it was that thing where we were sitting there Monday morning, everyone in IGN had the rules. We're not going to talk about Game of Thrones. Don't spoil. No problem. Everybody's fine. Blah, blah, blah. And it was like 2:30 in the afternoon and boom, an email came in and it was monster.com going, "Joffrey's dead And so everybody's looking for a new job! Who will be the new ... who is looking for new job as the King of Westeros, or whatever?"And like seven ... it went to like the IGN, whatever, editorial thing. And it was just like a, "What the-" from everybody. Like five different people jump up like, "Are you kidding me?" I ... emailed them so irate, like every other people did. They eventually sent a care package of like, "We're sorry, we didn't mean to ruin this at your workspace."Lucy: I told my mom that I'd never seen Twin Peaks and that I was going to watch it and she told me who killed Laura Palmer in response.Greg: "So you'll never see it coming when X, Y, Z."Kallie: This was not some, "This was an accident." This was a Twitter fluke. I was in the middle of watching Twin Peaks for the first time, I was two episodes away from finding out what happens, and Mike Drucker tweeted a joke tweet that involved who killed Laura Palmer. And I was like, "What? I was so upset. I was like, "I'm so close to finding out who killed Laura Palmer. This show came up before I was born. This is not my fault."Jake: So mine's an interesting one I guess, because we talked about it before. I started Final Fantasy 7. I feel like I know all the twists in that game, just 'cause they're so infamous and I'm about to play, well whenever the new one comes out, right? The remake, I'll play it and I'll know like, "Which characters are going to die, what's going to happen here?" Like just because those scenes are so famous. I don't know if it's a big spoiler, 'cause at the time I never really cared, but going into Seven now I'm kind of disappointed 'cause it's like, "Oh, I kind of know what's happening."Blessing: Oh same. I feel that too, 'cause I know the same things, I imagine. Like I don't know when they happened in the story but you know they're going to happen, right? And so this is part one, right? I'm like, "Okay, well maybe it might not happen in this game." Which might help the experience, but you know, if they remade Ocarina of Time, there's a certain character reveal and that game, too, where it's like, "Oh, this person is actually this person."Info from Gamespot.com

As we gear up for the fall video game season, developer Game Freak has published a new trailer for its original RPG, Little Town Hero, which is headed to Nintendo Switch on October 16.The new trailer, below, introduces its cute world and chibi-like characters while going over a few of the RPG's features. These include snippets of original music by longtime Pokemon composter Hitomi Sato and Undertale developer Toby Fox, a glimpse at the game's turn-based mechanics, some of the monsters you will face while exploring the town, and more.Game Freak, the team behind the mainline Pokemon games, announced Little Town Hero during a Nintendo Direct last year. Not much much was shared about the title at the time, with Game Freak simply saying Little Town Hero takes place in "a village with a secret to hide." Nintendo revealed Little Town Hero's release date during a Direct earlier this month. We also learned that some characters, like protagonist Axe who uses a shield in battle, can attack with their thoughts.While Game Freak is putting the finishing touches on Little Town Hero, the studio is still hard at work on Pokemon Sword / Shield. The Pokemon Company announced it will broadcast 24 hours of "live" footage on October 4. The stream is part of Sonia's research, where viewers are said to observe Pokemon in their natural habitat.Info from Gamespot.com

Only days remain before Shadowkeep finally releases, which makes this the last weekend before Destiny 2's next expansion and a host of changes hit the game. And this makes this the last pre-Shadowkeep visit by Xur, Agent of the Nine and seller of Exotic weapons and armor. Unfortunately, despite being a big weekend for Destiny 2 players anticipating Shadowkeep, it's not a very big one for Xur--the Exotics he's selling this weekend are all a bit lackluster.There's good news, though, if you're lacking Exotics from Year Two: starting next week, everything from Forsaken and the Annual Pass will be in the pool for Xur's Fated Engrams, so you'll be able to pick up anything you're missing. In the meantime, here's where to find Xur and what he's offering this week.Where Is Xur?Head to Io to find Xur's hiding place. He's hanging out in Giant's Scar, and you'll want to ride your Sparrow north from the transmat zone and look for a cave along the western wall of the area to find him.What Is Xur Selling?There's nothing major of note in Xur's bag this weekend, with everything coming from older collections. The gun, Vigilance Wing, is one Xur has sold many times and one most players have probably had for quite a while. However, whereas there is no difference between each version of an individual Exotic weapon, armor is a different story. Because armor features randomized rolls, you might find that what Xur is selling offers better perks than the version you might already own. At the very least, these perks might better align with your playstyle. Or, if you don't already own these pieces, it's an easy opportunity to fill out your collection. Beyond the items, Xur also has the Five of Swords challenge card (to modify Nightfall difficulty) and an Invitation of the Nine (which provides you with some objectives and leads to a bit of new story content). And if you're a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of Cross-Save, you can jump on PS4 and potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram.Xur Item Lineup (September 27-October 1)Vigilance Wing (Exotic Pulse Rifle) -- 29 Legendary ShardsHelm of Saint-14 (Exotic Titan Helmet) -- 23 Legendary ShardsLucky Pants (Exotic Hunter Leg Armor) -- 23 Legendary ShardsNezarec's Sin (Exotic Warlock Helmet) -- 23 Legendary ShardsVigilance WingIf you don't have this deadly pulse rifle, it's worth snagging, especially for Crucible situations. It fires a five-round burst, which is more than most pulse rifles, making it pretty solid in most mid-range combat situations. It also boosts you when your allies are killed, giving you increased movement speed and health regeneration. The bonuses increase even more when you're the last person alive on your fireteam.Helm of Saint-14For Titans, Xur offers the Helm of Saint-14, which boosts your Ward of Dawn Super in ways that make it great for PvE play. When activated, Ward of Dawn blinds enemies who walk into it, while granting overshields to allies who move through it. Your Sentinel Shield also blinds nearby enemies when you use it.RollsSlot 1: Heavy Lifting; Hands-On; Kinetic Weapon TargetingSlot 2: Rocket Launcher Reserves; Shotgun ReservesLucky PantsIf you're a Hunter and a hand cannon fan, Lucky Pants can be pretty useful. The leg armor reloads a round into your stowed hand cannons every time you land a precision hit with a different gun. Then, when you swap back to your hand cannons, they ready faster and are more accurate.RollsSlot 1: Perpetuation; Traction; Oversize Weapon DexteritySlot 2: Hand Cannon Scavenger; Submachine Gun ScavengerNezarec's SinIf you're a Nova Bomb-favoring Warlock, Nezarec's Sin is a good get. It bumps your ability recharge rate every time you get a Void damage kill, which can create a strong feedback loop when coupled with Void weapons.RollsSlot 1: Submachine Gun Targeting; Energy Weapon Targeting; Precision Weapon TargetingSlot 2: Rocket Launcher Reserves; Sniper Rifle ReservesInfo from Gamespot.com

The first image of Brandon Routh suiting up as the Man of Steel in The CW's upcoming Arrow-verse crossover has arrived. In the five-part Crisis on Infinite Earths event, the Legends of Tomorrow star will appear as a version of Superman inspired by the Kingdom Come storyline.Routh first teased his playing this role at San Diego Comic-Con, but this is the first time we've actually seen him in the costume. That said, it's not his first time playing Superman. He previously played the character on the big screen in 2006's Superman Returns.Photo credit: Jordon NuttallRouth won't be the only Superman appearing in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Tyler Hoechlin, who appears in the role on Supergirl, will also suit up for the crossover. Additionally, it was recently announced that Smallville star Tom Welling will be reprising his role from that series, playing yet another take on Superman.The Crisis crossover is loaded with special appearances. Beyond the many Supermans (Supermen?), the event will also see Elizabeth Tullock (Supergirl) and Erica Durance (Smallville) appearing as two versions of Lois Lane, Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Bruce Wayne, and Burt Ward (Robin in the 1960s Batman series) in an undisclosed role. It's also been revealed by TV Line that Ashley Scott will pop up playing Huntress, the role she first played in 2002's short-lived Birds of Prey series.The Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover will play out over five episodes of TV in December and January. Here's when you'll be able to watch the events unfold on The CW:Supergirl, December 8 at 8 PM PTBatwoman, December 9 at 8 PM PTThe Flash, December 10 at 8 PM PTArrow, January 14 at 8 PM PTDC's Legends of Tomorrow, January 14 at 9 PM PT Info from Gamespot.com

PSN is having another Flash Sale with quite a few great games, including one of our favourites from this year. The sale is only available to those in North America and lasts until September 30 at 8 AM Pacific.Control is discounted until that time, in addition to its season pass and deluxe edition, the latter of which includes the game, season pass, and Urban Response Gear. The PS4 version of Control also gets a bunch of bonus digital content, including a Rare Service Weapon Mod, a Rare Player Mod, the Astral Dive Suit, the Explorer Theme, and the Black Rock Quarry Theme.Other games on sale include F1 2019, Wolfenstein: Youngblood's deluxe edition, and the Yakuza Origins Digital Bundle. Wolfenstein's deluxe edition includes bonus content in the form of a Cyborg player skin, Titanium alloy skins for all weapons, and an armor-boosting pep signal--it's currently discounted to the same price as the game's standard edition.The Yakuza Origins Digital Bundle, on the other hand, comes with three games: Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. They tell the beginning of Yakuza series protagonist Kazuya Kiryu's story, with another bundle coming to North America next year--that will include remastered versions of Yakuza 3 through 5. Yakuza 6 is already available on the North American PlayStation Store.There are a lot more games on sale, so head over to the PlayStation Store to see them all. We've gathered a selection of our favourites in the list below. Once you're done, be sure to also check out our guide on the best PS4 deals for September 2019.GamePrice (USD)Price (CAD)Control$48$64Control - Deluxe Edition$64$85.20Control - Season Pass$20$26.80Yakuza Origins Digital Bundle$37.50$50.25F1 2019$36$48Wolfenstein: Youngblood - Deluxe Edition$30$41.25Team Sonic Racing$20$27.50World War Z$24$32.10Dirt Rally 2.0$24$32Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered$9$12Info from Gamespot.com

Publisher Bandai Namco has you covered if you're looking for more My Hero Academia content, as the team announced a new MHA game is headed to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. My Hero One's Justice 2 is on the way, but no release date has been announced as of yet.Gematsu reported the news, sharing a screenshot with additional information from the latest issue of Weekly Jump tweeted out by user Spytrue. My Hero One's Justice 2 is said to be a follow-up to My Hero One's Justice, which launched on PC and consoles late last year. Not much is known about My Hero One's Justice 2; however, Gematsu claims it will add new characters--like Kai "Overhaul" Chisaki--and "significantly upgrade" various Quirk abilities. The Xbox One version will be "a digital-only release in Japan."In our My Hero One's Justice review, we said, "It's a shame My Hero One's Justice's Story mode doesn't do a good job introducing the world of My Hero Academia, with several important narrative beats either missing or revealed through subtitles while you're busy trying to fight. The offline modes against AI don't do much for the game either. However, One's Justice's combat is both accessible and enjoyable. When two players face off--either online or off--the game captures the adrenaline-pumping feeling of My Hero Academia's most notable fights. Pulling off moves from the manga/anime and outsmarting an opponent with devastating combos feels rewarding, and that's enough to keep the player coming back to the game for more."In other MHA news, the anime is set to return this October for a fourth season. Funimation announced that My Hero Academia Season 4 will will air on its website and Hulu, with FunimationNow streaming a SimulDub. A second MHA film, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, is scheduled to release on December 20 in Japan.Info from Gamespot.com

The original System Shock is one of the early progenitors of what we know now as the immersive sim--games like Dishonored, Prey, and Deus Ex all share similar DNA, and even a few key developers. The original 1994 game and the 1999 sequel, System Shock 2, gave players a terrifying first-person sci-fi adventure that combined RPG elements with the freedom to solve problems and overcome enemies however you saw fit with the tools and abilities given. Development on System Shock 3 is now well underway, and when the first gameplay trailer was revealed recently, it came with a wave of nostalgia and excitement. To see the series live on is one thing, but anticipating a sequel to a beloved game that's 20 years old at this point is another.One of the original creators of the series (and genre) is at the helm, too: Warren Spector. Best known for leading the charge on the early immersive sims, particularly Deus Ex (2000), he and his team are looking to meet expectations while pushing a fairly niche genre forward. GameSpot producer Mike Mahardy had a chance to catch up with him and talk about the history of the games he's touched, the modern gaming landscape, and how all of that is feeding into his team's work on System Shock 3.System Shock 3 is still early in development; the recent trailer being pre-alpha footage. OtherSide Entertainment is currently only 14 members deep, including Spector, but the team is looking to expand as development ramps up. OtherSide Entertainment's's first game, Underworld Ascendant, may not have gone the way they'd hoped, but it seems that Spector and company are aware of what needs to be done to make a worthy successor for System Shock.The following interview has been edited for clarity and readability.GameSpot: You were there with the early immersive sims and wrote a few Ultima games, then with Epic Mickey you were trying to go in that vein with a Disney property. But what's that pressure like now? Do you feel any pressure to hold up this legacy of these early iconic PC role-playing games?Warren Spector: I feel more pressure on this project than I think I have on any other. Even working with Mickey Mouse, I knew we could do the job, and I knew we had the budget and theteam to live up to people's expectations. Here, we really are in this sort of "AA" space, not the AAA space. Paul Neurath, my partner, and I made a conscious decision that we'd already been down that road of AAA, many times and wanted to do something smaller. But I think the AAA expectations are still there.And so I think if you ask my team, I think you'd hear that I'm pushing them pretty hard for AAA quality at the AA price tag. There are expectations with the scope of the game and the legacy of the original games. So yeah, there's some pressure. You bet.The original System Shock (1994).Before we dig more into System Shock, what's your take on the current state of immersive sims, which I know is now a nebulous term. Working on the sequel to one of the more iconic immersive sims ever, what's your take on other studios that are making similar games in the modern space?Certainly, you have to talk about Arkane [Studios]. Prey was a little System Shock-y, you could say. But all the games that team does are in the immersive-sim vein. With guys like Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare and some other folks who've been there, Steve Powers and Mani Martinez and others, they're steeped in the history and have contributed to the genre. So no surprise there. The Hitman games; they're doing some of that, [letting you] solve problems the way you want and really be immersed in the world with all the other aspects of immersive sims people have come to expect.A lot of people talk to me about the Bethesda games, which I kind of think of as kissing cousins! Not really in the same vein, but they're trying to simulate so much in worlds that are so big. I think what other immersive sims try to do is immerse you in a smaller world that's more deeply simulated. So they're similar but a little different. The coolest thing though recently was seeing Zelda: Breath Of The Wild actually incorporate some elements that I would say are immersive sim-like. I would never ever say there was any influence there, but it's cool to see people coming around to that sort of thing. Those are the ones that come to mind most for me right now.Yeah, I think just two weeks ago in Zelda, someone figured out a new way you could mess with the physics in order to make that motorbike you can get like electric powered. It's fascinating.Yeah, it's all about players picking a playstyle. I don't know if we've ever talked about it, but years ago, probably 15 years ago, I wrote up a manifesto and the first draft was 12 pages and no one would read it cause developers don't like to read I guess! And I did an eight-page version, and a four-page version. Anyway, to make a long story short, I eventually got it down to two words: "Playstyle matters." That is the most succinct version of what I like my games to be about and what I like other people's games to be about too. Just letting players decide how to interact with the world, not forcing them to interact with the world the way I want them to. And certainly the Zelda: Breath Of The Wild team accomplished that as well as anybody ever has.I think we were at Arkane a month before Prey released, and on the wall, they have a sort of list of rules for making the game. I think it's 11 things and one of them was "ladders suck in games." It was funny seeing those, they use those rules in their games for the most part. Obviously, in Dishonored you don't need them because you can just teleport. But I'm reminded of that.I did this on Deus Ex for the first time. I put together a list of commandments and I had--hey go figure--10 commandments and Harvey Smith added the adenda. I still use those basically unchanged...well that's not true! I changed them up a little bit based on the content, setting, and the specific genre. I put up little posters all over the office that probably drive people crazy. They're kind of like the motivational posters that everybody hates, but one of them says "Playstyle Matters." One of them says "Never judge your player." We never say "this is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do."Early screenshot for System Shock 3.Have you ever broken any of them?Oh, constantly. Reality catches up with any kind of documentation very quickly in this business. You have to draw a line through some of them, when you can't live up to them, but sure, you never live up to all of them. They're aspirational more than anything else. If you aim for the moon, you might fall short, but at least you tried, right? Every game should do things that no one's ever done before.If you know how to do it in advance, it's probably not worth doing or you're not trying hard enough. So you're always going to fall short. I hate everything I've ever done! I mean, if you're ever satisfied, you might as well hang it up. All I see is the flaws or what could have been!When you say that every game should do something that other games haven't done before, can you talk about anything System Shock 3 is doing that you might consider that?Sure, in about nine months! It's a little too early, but I will tell you that we have two things that I think are really going to set the game apart. I really hate to be coy, but I'm not ready to talk about them because they may not work in the way you want. You fall short a lot of the time, but we're trying two things. They're both kind of similar to what other people have done, but we're taking them much further and in some interesting directions. Next time we talk, we'll have lots of interesting things to talk about.I feel more pressure on this project than I think I have on any other. - Warren SpectorIt seems like a unique situation to me that you're making the sequel to one of the games that established the genre. Where do you see System Shock 3 fitting into the modern immersive sim landscape?Well, the simple answer is that it has to. I know that doesn't answer your question, but in terms of level design, depth of simulation, and storytelling technique, there's been so much advancement that we need to at least keep up. Early on we put together a list of things we were going to do to match the state of the art. And then we have a couple ways in which we want to push things further. Given the whole "playstyle matters" approach, I'll give you a couple of hints.It's not like we're going to take first-person combat places that it's never been before. But there are some ways in which we need to push further; level design. In particular, the interconnectedness and the three-dimensionality of levels nowadays has changed. Games like Bioshock, which is again not exactly an immersive sim in my mind, but clearly a cousin, took environmental storytelling to a whole new level. You walked into a room and you know the room's purpose. You see writing on the wall and it advances the narrative.There've been so many advances that we need to keep up with and we're going to do that, and then innovate in a couple of other areas where creativity and design coincide, and actually count for as much or more than budget and team size.You mentioned level design. Can you expand more on what you mean by the interconnectedness of level design nowadays? Is that a result of having better technology than before or is it just how people think about level design differently?I think it's more about how people think. In the first System Shock, if you look at the levels, they were huge, which encouraged exploration, but they were full of dead ends. There was virtually no verticality to it, which was ironic because it was one of the first games where you could look up and down. And yet we never really took advantage of that in any great way. One of the hallmarks of immersive sims has been that they're paced a little different. We don't force you to play the way we want, and you can go running and gunning through the typical immersive sim. But we don't force you to do that.I think the way most people play is by seeing or hearing a challenge, noticing there's something around the corner and lean around the corner and see what it is without exposing themselves. Or by hearing a distinctive sound of a 'cortex reaver' and then stop or slow down. Then make a plan to deal with that challenge using my capabilities, both as a player and as a character with a build-out, the things I'm carrying with me, my tools. And then it's go, go, go, see the consequence of the execution of that plan and then see another challenge, make a plan, execute.Spector talks about giving players a chance to plan. This early screenshot from System Shock 3 may be showing one of those moments.It's almost this kind of staccato rhythm, but that requires a specific kind of level design, right? To put it simply, you have to give them those corners and hiding spots where they can detect that next challenge and make a plan. Then you have to give them the tools, which is really level design-related. And we have to use lighting effectively, and use sound effectively in ways that we never did before. In System Shock, you could say [those elements] were there, but it was so primitive. Now people expect much more.Some people today playing games may not have heard about or even played early System Shock games. Are you leaning more into bringing in a bigger audience? Especially now that the lines between console players and PC players are more blurred than they used to be. Are you trying to cater to both crowds?Absolutely. We've been pitching the game for a while now to a variety of potential partners and the first slide in my deck is honoring VIP. SHODAN is so well loved by a surprisingly large fan base. We have a fairly large mailing list I've heard from fans over the years. Another company, Night Dive, released the original games a few years ago and they sold incredibly well. We know there's a fan base out there and we don't want to let those folks down. But we also know we need to grow the audience.I don't remember the exact budget for the first System Shock game, but I guarantee you it was in the six figures. And now you've just got to sell to a larger audience. What qualified as a hit back then qualifies as a dismal failure now. So we have to grow the audience and it's a delicate balancing act. I feel like a gymnast on a balance beam, but we're confident we can do it and time will tell.I'm pushing them pretty hard for AAA quality at the AA price tag. - Warren SpectorWe're certainly building in little elements from the earlier games while not insisting that new players have any understanding of them because, as you say, the vast majority of gamers have not played those earlier games. And in a way I'm kind of glad. I replayed System Shock 1 not too long ago and was reminded, what were we thinking? I mean, we thought it was a good idea to use every key on the keyboard, it's insane! If you look at like the first screen that comes up, you can't even see the scene because all of the commands are up there in little boxes and it just covers the screen.We're trying to cater to both crowds and I think even the existing fans will appreciate a better UI and user experience. I think everybody will appreciate that. And as you say, the console and PC audience, they're kind of the same audience now. So we've got to have controls that will work on controllers, all that stuff that's required in a modern game.Another thing that has definitely changed in the last few decades is progression mechanics, which are in every single genre. And I feel like the vast majority of AAA games that come out today, even indie games have some sort of skill tree or progression mechanics. What's your take on that? How are you thinking about that in the actual progression mechanics in System Shock 3?I don't want to say I'm not a fan. There are a lot of games where that kind of progression you're talking about make sense, skill trees and there are still people who think character classes are a great idea. Again, one of the hallmarks of the immersive sim is it's about you in the world. You the player, not your little 64-pixel-tall avatar or whatever. It's about you making the decisions that you feel are appropriate to the situation. So the most important thing to me is each player's individual playstyle driving the experience. Having said that, we do have, just like we had an in Deus Ex and in other games, body augmentation and fighting modifications.That was part of the first System Shock. We're going to give you a bunch of body mods and you can only install a handful of them. So there will be some augmentation and character modification. But what we want is for that to be in the service of your playstyle. Hypothetically, if you're a character that likes to sneak around and avoid combat, a cloaking device might be a useful tool for you. So everything is about supporting your playstyle.In this game, and in other games like it, you develop a character is through your inventory. You're going to be acquiring things throughout the game. The tools you create will allow you to interact with our world simulation and our enemies in unique ways that, again, serve your playstyle.A horrifying atmosphere is a strong part of the series, and it looks like System Shock 3 follows.So, I take it you don't think character classes fit into that?I don't understand why video game developers use character classes. I guess it's simple for people to understand "I'm a fighter, I'm a healer, I'm a mage." It's probably sensible and there's a reason why I'm kind of the "King of the Cult Classics," and haven't sold 100 million copies of a game ever. But character classes and all those secret di roles were the best simulation tools that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson had at their disposal when they created this whole role-playing thing. And we have better tools now. I don't get it. As a player, sure, I'll play a game that has character classes, but I'm not a huge fan.Not to seem reductive, it seems like there are two sides to this for you. One side where you're making a modern game trying to live up to the standards of this legacy. But on the other side it seems like it might be a nostalgia trip, especially with the 25 year anniversary of System Shock.Yeah, it is definitely both. There is a feeling of nostalgia for sure. And that's part of where the pressure comes from. But it actually blows my mind that anybody cares about the 25-year-old game. For years, I wanted to replay it. We did so many crazy things back in the early PC days, I couldn't even get it running. And I asked some of the programmers who worked on it, "Hey, can you get this running so I can play it again?" And they were going, "No way man, I'm not even going to try." So bless Night Dive for getting it running.Like with Deus Ex, I think I got more requests for interviews and more fan mail for Dues Ex on its 15th anniversary than I did when the game came out. It's kind of the same thing with System Shock. How many 25 year old games do people still care about? You could probably count on the fingers of one hand. So yeah, there's definitely a feeling of nostalgia about it.It's crazy going back to that world; there are things about it and the narratives in both System Shock 1 and 2 that were either unanswered or, in retrospect, didn't make a lot of sense. It's nice being able to go back and fill in some of those gaps and answer some of the unanswered questions, and occasionally retcon some of the gaping holes and silliness of those earlier games.On a more personal note, is this the closest you've been to actual development since Epic Mickey 2? You were at the University of Texas, Austin and still worked with games, but is this the first one you're hands-on with again?Yeah, this is it. Epic Mickey: The Power of Two came out in 2013 and just to be frank, Disney shutting down Junction Point [Studios] as part of their larger "we don't want to do development anymore" effort, it was pretty devastating. I sat on a couch with a remote control staring at a television for about nine months. So there was that period of mourning.Then I always thought I would end up teaching at some point. I was working on my doctorate and dropped out of the Ph.D program to make games. And it was a great experience helping to build a video game development program at the University of Texas but about halfway through I realized that there were still games I wanted to make. I'm going to date myself here but there was no box, real or digital, at the end of it. No product. And I missed that. Molding young minds was great, but there were still things to make. So, Paul Neurath asked if I wanted to join him in doing this startup and I just said, yeah. I did three years of teaching and got back into game development.Disney's Epic Mickey: The Power Of Two was the last game Spector was all-in on. Much different from System Shock.You're working with Paul Neurath again, and you two go very far back. What's that like?It's funny, we're both control freaks. So, we had some pretty good knockdown-drag-outs, but we're really good friends and so we always end up in a good place and the right place for whatever game we're working on. Paul has a wealth of knowledge about immersive sims. He was the founder of Blue Sky, which became Looking Glass and knows this kind of game as well as anybody. He plays all of our builds and writes up pages of notes. I mean, I do that for my team too, But if Paul's sending [notes in], they're always right on the money. He's a smart guy. So it's been a good experience. It's always good to work with friends.We've kind of been talking about it on and off, but why do you think System Shock resonates so much? Why is it one of those games you can count on one hand?I think partly it was ahead of its time. We had a saying at Origin, which kind of leaked over to Looking Glass, where we didn't want to make the best game that ran on the current hardware. We used to say the best game that ran on a 386--talk about dating somebody--we wanted to make the best game and eventually the hardware would catch up with us. And so System Shock, it stressed out the hardware pretty good.From a design standpoint it really did point in a new direction. The earlier days at Origin, and the Ultima games were kind of hinting at what became immersive sims, and the original Underworld hinted at what these games could be. But System Shock was the first one where you could really say, "Yeah, I'm in that world. I believe it. There's nothing that drags me out of the experience and I really can explore this world that feels not real, but believable."Then there's SHODAN. I mean SHODAN was such an amazing character and Terri Brosius did such an amazing job of voice acting, and Greg LoPiccolo and Eric Burgess did such an amazing job of making her sound strange and scary. I think that was a large part of it. And then you have to give credit, not just to the team as a whole, which bought into the vision, but Doug Church, one of the unsung heroes of video games. His vision was so clear that everybody was kind of swept along, including me. I think one of the things that's required to make a memorable game is to have a clear vision. Doug did and I supported it, and I helped him wherever I could and the end result was something that was pretty memorable and ahead of its time.Info from Gamespot.com

Apex Legends Season 3 is almost here, and Respawn is further advertising its launch with a brand-new cinematic launch trailer. The trailer sees newcomer Crypto join the current roster of Apex Legends and foster a new rivalry with Apex Games veteran Mirage as they fight on the battle royale game's new map.The Apex Legends Season 3 launch trailer begins with a shot of the Legends' new jumpship, which has been outfitted with individual hangout spaces catered to each character's taste as well as a common room where everyone can converse before a match. For a cool Easter egg, you can see Octane playing Titanfall 2 at 0:09.Both Lifeline and Gibraltar urge Mirage to talk to newcomer Crypto, only for the hacker to immediately become annoyed by Mirage's presence and cocky attitude. Before the argument can go any further, however, Crypto and Mirage are put on the same team with Lifeline, so the two decide to continue their competition by racing to see who can get more kills. All the Legends drop onto a new map that's very different from Kings Canyon; it hosts extreme environmental obstacles, industrialized city-like environments, and a moving train.By the end of the trailer, Crypto and Mirage are much more amiable with one another, their relationship evolving into more of a friendly rivalry. The brand-new map, World's Edge, was initially teased with Crypto's first in-game appearance. It will be the temporary home of the Apex Games as the Syndicate fixes the damage to Kings Canyon.As a cinematic, the trailer doesn't reveal any concrete details about what's coming in Season 3 other than that we're getting a new map. However, we do see further evidence that Crypto's abilities are tied to his drone and that the new Charge Rifle weapon will behave similarly to its Titanfall counterpart.Apex Legends is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.Info from Gamespot.com

After Microsoft announced a delay during E3 2019, developer Techland has opened up about Dying Light 2. It seems the open-world action-RPG will reportedly feature over 100 hours of content, but the main storyline can be completed in 15-20 hours.Prankster 101 asked lead designer Tymon Smektala how long it would take to finish Dying Light 2. Though Smektala said the story quests could be completed in 15-20 hours, he confirmed that "it is very hard to measure in an open-world game because of the things that happen between points A and points B of a quest." Despite the relatively short length of the game's story, Smektala clarified that "the whole [game] is more than 100 hours [long]."Earlier this month, Techland's chief technology officer Pawel Rohleder revealed that Dying Light 2's setting is "four times bigger" than the previous game's. This includes all of Dying Light and its DLC, The Following.Dying Light 2 was announced during E3 2018, with claims that it would be a "narrative sandbox" shaped by your actions. We were able to go hands-on with the game at this year's E3, reporting that "Dying Light 2 is a massive upgrade from the original."Dying Light 2 is expected to launch Spring 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Pre-orders are available now at multiple retailers, though no bonuses have been announced as of yet.Info from Gamespot.com

Mario Kart Tour is out, and it's already setting records. This shouldn't be surprising. Mario Kart has always been more accessible than the more technical sibling spin-off Smash Bros., and mascot racers are already popular on mobile devices. But while it is deeply odd in some ways--from its fake-out multiplayer to its aggressive monetization--it has certain redeeming qualities. The game itself is merely a passable facsimile of its console counterparts, but buried inside are a handful of ideas that Nintendo should migrate to the next full-fledged Mario Kart installment.In most ways, Tour follows the blueprint established through years of Mario Karts. You pick one of Nintendo’s gumball-sweet mascots and race around a course while dropping hazards picked up from item boxes. It has made a few compromises in service of the touchscreen interface, including auto-acceleration and a generous auto-steer, and two equally awkward steering options: regular and drift. Regular strangely doesn’t manipulate the camera so you’ll find yourself making blind turns, while the more advanced drift control feels confusingly inverted. It also automates the use of some items. But it’s in the ways that it breaks out of its blueprint that set it apart.Most significant is the use of a scoring system to determine course completion. Your placement in a race is usually the single biggest contributor to your point total, but you can add to your score through a number of other criteria--from selecting certain equipment for the race to completing stunts and boosts.In part this is a concession to the game’s free-to-play model. It uses gacha-style mechanics to unlock various racers and kart parts, and it incentivizes you to grow a large collection by tying those bonus points to racers you may not have yet obtained. At the same time, it makes races more active and varied, presenting you with choices aside from the ones that will give you the best race position. Do you sacrifice a half-second to steer towards a jump for the bonus, or stay more confidently in the lead? Better yet, this system lets you have hybrid wins, allowing your trick points to help make up for the gap if you're passed at the last second due to a wild Blue Shell. In standard Mario Kart, your only recourse is to start over again. In Mario Kart Tour, you may come in 2nd place and still get the maximum score cap.Selecting the correct racer for an occasion can also grant you more items or other advantages. This is again a concession to Mario Kart Tour’s F2P hooks, but at its core it's a mechanic that challenges you to try racers you might not otherwise. Every experienced Mario Karter has a handful of favorites, but that also means that the average player leaves 95% of the roster untouched. Why not give incentive to try out a wider array of characters, or even challenge players to finish races with characters or karts that make the course more challenging? It could add a more dynamic type of challenge to a series that otherwise relies strictly on higher speeds and increasingly cheap rubber-banding.These tweaks wouldn't make sense outside the context of one of Mario Kart Tour's other new addition, seasons. The game takes all of the available maps and mixes them into set order for a two-week period. Mario Kart as a live game is a fantastic idea if it were well-implemented. It's too early to say if Mario Kart Tour's seasons are differentiated enough to keep players coming back, but there's no reason a proper console game couldn't implement a similar structure. Rotating maps with a mix of challenges would help give the game legs beyond scoring gold across each cup.All of this is made possible by a constant reward structure, giving out badges, coins, and other items upon completing challenges. Finishing a certain number of seasonal cups entitles you to a reward package with some items and a new kart or racer, and you always know exactly which reward is coming next. This is vastly preferable to the opaque unlocking system of Mario Kart 8, and as the game progresses, the challenges and unlock order could shift with the seasons.Mario Kart Tour is managing to maintain my interest, for the time being, thanks to these features. If it loses me, it will be because of the subpar steering controls more than any issue of presentation or monetization. But by that same token, it draws a roadmap that other Mario Karts could and should follow to make them more varied, challenging, and fun.Info from Gamespot.com

A lot of big changes are coming to Destiny 2 with the release of the Shadowkeep expansion. Bungie is reworking systems related to weapons and armor, as well as its premium currency Eververse Store. That means if you're an avid Destiny player, a lot of your gear is about to become obsolete. Other items are going to matter quite a lot, at least for the first few weeks of Shadowkeep. And some things are better off deleted to convert them into currency you can use on other things.If your vault is full of gear you've been collecting over the course of Destiny 2 up to this point, it can be confusing deciding what you need to hang onto through the launch of Shadowkeep, and what you can toss to make room. Here's a quick rundown of what's safe to delete, what you absolutely should shard, and what you want to hang onto through the start of Shadowkeep on October 1.Destiny 2 Shadowkeep Is Almost Here: How To Get ReadyDelete Old Eververse ItemsShadowkeep is bringing a big change to the Eververse Store, and it means you'll want to shard a lot of your Eververse gear before the launch of the expansion. In short: deleting Eververse items won't give you Bright Dust after October 1. Bungie is changing the system so that there's no incentive for players to buy items with Silver, Destiny 2's premium currency, to delete them for Bright Dust. In Shadowkeep and beyond, you'll earn Bright Dust for playing the game, and Eververse items won't require Bright Dust to pull them from Collections. That means if you delete your Eververse items now, you'll get Bright Dust you can spend in Shadowkeep.In general, any Eververse item you don't absolutely want to keep or wouldn't want to re-roll, you should delete. You'll get Bright Dust you can use in Shadowkeep, and you'll be able to reclaim any Eververse thing you want from your Collections. This is a big one, though: You want to delete all that stuff before Shadowkeep's pre-launch maintenance begins on September 30, or you'll miss your chance.Save Your Bright DustThis is your last chance to buy items from the current stock in the Eververse Store after it refreshes on October 1, but if you're not dying for new weapon ornaments or Eververse armor, stockpile your Bright Dust. As mentioned above, the Eververse economy is about to change and nobody knows just the costs of items will be, either from the store itself or when pulling things from Collections. While it'll be possible to earn Bright Dust from bounties in the new Eververse economy and it's tempting to spend it now while you're inundated from clearing out your Eververse stuff, being flush with cash for cosmetics will allow you to grab the things you want from Destiny's new system without having to grind for it at the start of the expansion.Keep Your Armor With The Best RollsThe new Armor 2.0 system is going to change how players approach their character builds and armor, but none of the armor you currently own will be converted into Armor 2.0. You'll have to earn new pieces of armor by playing in order to get into the new system, and it'll allow you to customize your character builds much, much more than was possible in Destiny 2 and Forsaken.However, getting good stuff in the Armor 2.0 system is going to take time, and you'll need to Masterwork your Armor 2.0 gear to get the most out of it. That means you probably won't be using good Armor 2.0 gear for at least the first few days of Shadowkeep, and possibly for the first few weeks, depending on how much you play. Similarly, any armor you have with Enhanced perks is worth holding onto, because those perks will be tough to come by in Armor 2.0 gear. In short: keep your best Year Two armor, especially if it has Enhanced perks that you really like. Chances are good you're going to be using your best Forsaken-era gear for at least a while after the launch of Shadowkeep. You'll also want to hold onto your old armor mods if you intend to use them on your Forsaken armor--after Shadowkeep, you'll only earn new mods for Armor 2.0. But any armor and mods you don't use regularly or don't think you'll need are safe for deletion. And don't worry about infusing any armor with good rolls to get it up to the current level cap ahead of Shadowkeep; when the expansion launches, all of your gear will automatically be elevated to 750 Power.Keep One Of Each Weapon ModThe weapon system isn't undergoing the same massive overhaul that armor is in Shadowkeep, but weapon mods are changing slightly. Instead of being single-use consumables that you'll lose once you equip them, having a weapon mod will unlock it for use on any gun you have. That'll allow you to use mods more freely in experimental capacities, without worrying about wasting them. When Shadowkeep launches, any weapon mods you currently have will automatically be added to your inventory to use on all your weapons.You only need one weapon mod of each type for it to unlock for all your guns, so feel free to delete any duplicates you have in the meantime. Just keep in mind that mods that are already equipped on guns won't count--they need to be in your inventory. You might want to visit the Gunsmith and Ada-1 to acquire new mods if you're missing some.Save Your Best GunsWhile the Destiny 2 armor system is getting an overhaul with Shadowkeep, the same is not true of weapons. Yes, weapon mods will stop being consumable, but that's the only change that's coming to your guns (other than a series of damage changes and perk nerfs). Your good guns are likely to still be good in the post-Shadowkeep ecosystem, and until we know exactly what the new meta for weapons will be, it's a good idea not to go too crazy sharding weapons. That doesn't mean you should keep every gun you've got just in case it winds up being good, and especially when it comes to Year One stuff, you're probably free to clear some space. But it's a good idea to hang onto a smattering of different guns you can use in a variety of situations to see what works best under Destiny 2's new changes. Info from Gamespot.com