It's still a mystery what, exactly, is happening with Spider-Man after Sony and Marvel studios seemingly ended their working relationship. And while your friendly neighborhood web-slinger may not be popping up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe anymore, Sony Pictures continues building a franchise of films based on notable Spider-Man characters--save for Spidey, himself.Already, a Venom film has been released, with a sequel in the works, and an adaptation of Morbius the Living Vampire is on the way, starring Jared Leto. Now, it's being reported that Sony is developing its next Spider-Man universe film. Madame Web is in the works, according to Collider. The film will be written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, who are responsible for the Morbius script.That's the extent of what we know at this point. No release date, director, cast, or even an official announcement has been released. Still, this new begs the question, "Who is Madame Web?"Madame Web is a code name used by of several characters in the Marvel Universe, most commonly referring to Cassandra Webb, an elderly mutant with precognitive and clairvoyant powers. Webb had a degenerative muscular-skeletal disease that kept her confined to a high tech life support system that looked like a spider web, hence her codename. Because of her condition and her powers, she never physically fought villains alongside Peter Parker or any of the various spider-powered allies, but instead helped as a sort of oracle figure to help solve crimes involving things like kidnapping. Webb's powers were also unique in that she could pass them on to people--unfortunately with the health side effects as well--which allowed her to literally pass the Madame Webb mantle on to people like Julia Carpenter, originally the second Spider-Woman in Marvel continuity.While there's still no release date for Madame Web, the next installment of Sony's Spider-Man universe--Morbius--will be in theaters on July 31, 2020.Info from Gamespot.com

Grand Theft Auto V Online is celebrating another anniversary, and that means extra rewards if you play during the celebration period. Simply logging in by October 2 will net you $1 million in-game currency, to be deposited in your Maze Bank account by October 9. Another freebie is the Declasse Logo White Tee, yours for the taking by playing online.If that isn't enough, you can get double rewards on all Survival Series events through that period. This comes along with the release of seven new Survival challenges, like fighting off a Ballas attack on Grove Street or fighting Juggernauts in the Nuclear Bunker.You can also score 2X GTA$ and RP on Mobile Operations missions. Meanwhile, Mobile Operation Centers will be 40% off so you can get it for a song. A variety of Declasse vehicles, Benny's upgrades, and weapons are 40% off too.This comes alongside some other regular rotational events. The Diamond Casino and Resort still offers a free daily spin, and the top prize this week is the roadster Declasse Mamba. The Casino Store is also offering a new refreshed selection of clothing and accessories.And while you're celebrating the anniversary, you can always get really drunk (in the game) and go on a secret mission to increase your inventory by retracing the steps of your drunken stupor (again, in the game).Info from Gamespot.com

It's Outbreak Day, the unofficial celebration of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us series, and the studio celebrated with a behind-the-scenes look at The Last of Us 2. In the video, the team sheds more light on the story and some new gameplay mechanics for the upcoming sequel.It starts with what appears to be early in the game, with Ellie and her friend Dina living in Jackson. The video mentions that Joel is living there too, though we've only just seen him for the first time in the latest story trailer. The first part of the story takes place with Ellie and Dina exploring an area through the snow, and apparently this is where Ellie and Dina express their feelings for each other.Though that's a tender sentiment, the mission itself is dangerous. Naughty Dog noted that it wanted to make enemies more threatening this time around, so even runners are more threatening. Ellie has new capabilities to her advantage, like increased agility and the ability to squeeze through small spaces. A new workbench also serves as the up-close look at your arsenal as you upgrade weapons. Later in the gameplay portion, we see enemy dogs who can track your scent, as opposed to most enemies who can only see or hear you.The Last of Us 2 is coming February 21, 2020, and we got extended hands-on time with it. You can now download a new free dynamic theme. We also received word, however, that the game won't include multiplayer. The Last of Us 2 News The Last Of Us Part 2 Is "Meant To Be Unsettling" How The Last Of Us 2 Will Make You Feel Bad About Killing Enemies You'll Kill A Lot Of Dogs In The Last of Us Part 2 The Last Of Us 2 Includes Two Ridiculous NSFW Easter Eggs Info from Gamespot.com

It's been a big week for The Last of Us news: The Last of Us Part 2 got a release date and a new trailer, and we also learned Joel is returning in the sequel (although Ellie is the focus this time around). To top it all off, developer Naughty Dog has announced some free stuff, new merchandise, and a PlayStation Store sale to get fans even more excited about Part 2.Notably, there's a new limited-edition, polyresin Ellie statue that you can pre-order directly from Dark Horse Comics. The Ellie statue is 12 inches tall and was designed by Naughty Dog character artists. It features Ellie poised with her bow and arrow and comes with a round terrain base and certificate of authenticity. Listed at $180, the statue is currently sold out at Dark Horse but will hopefully come back into stock for anyone hoping to snag it for themselves. It's expected to start shipping between May and August of next year.Dark Horse is also publishing a new art book, The Art of The Last of Us Part 2, which, similar to the compendium they made for the first game, includes hundreds of pieces of original concept art, character designs, and more from the game. It'll be available to pre-order starting Monday, September 30, and will release March 3, 2020. If you never picked up the official art book for the first game, it's currently on sale for $19.95 at Amazon, although it's temporarily out of stock, which means you can still place your order but shipping will be delayed.There are also deals and freebies to be had, including a new dynamic PS4 theme for The Last of Us Part 2 that you can download for free right now. The "Grunge" theme features Ellie in different situations and has a grainy, black-and-white filter to it. All other The Last of Us Part 2 avatars and themes are half off on PSN right now.Finally, the PlayStation Gear Store has new merch for The Last of Us Part 2 available now to purchase, including Joel and Ellie graphic T-shirts and a logo hat. Use promo code OUTBREAK to get 20% off all The Last of Us items in the store. And if you're a PS Plus member, don't forget you can snag The Last of Us Remastered (and MLB The Show 19) for free starting October 1.The Last of Us Part 2 is available to pre-order now--be sure to check out our pre-order guide for all the details on its pre-order bonuses, special editions, and more.Info from Gamespot.com

We're now in Week 9 of Fortnite Season 10, which means we're quickly nearing the end of the season. This week's set of challenges is called Bullseye, and as the name suggests, most of the tasks revolve around hitting targets. One takes that theme quite literally and asks you to hit an easy firing range target. If you're not sure where those can be found, we've put together this map and guide showing you were to go.Where Are The Firing Range Locations?There are four firing ranges scattered around the island, most of which are located on the western portion of the map. There's a sign in front of each firing range, so you can easily tell when you've found one. If you need a little nudging in the right direction, however, we've marked down all of the firing ranges we've found on the map below.Southwest of Haunted HillsDirectly south of Snobby ShoresSouthern portion of Polar PeakJust north of Lucky LandingHow To Complete The ChallengeOnce you know where the firing ranges are located, head to one and step on the button next to the sign. That'll cause targets to appear. For the standard version of this challenge, all you need to do is shoot one of the easy (closer) targets. The more challenging Prestige version--which you'll unlock after completing all seven regular challenges--requires you to hit a hard target, but this too should be easy enough.The rest of Week 9's challenges are all fairly straightforward, but the other one that may give you some trouble if you don't know where to look is to land on different bullseyes. These are painted on the ground in different corners of the island, so if you need help finding them, be sure to check out our bullseye locations guide.Season 10 of Fortnite is set to end on October 6, so you have until then to complete any remaining challenges from this season. If you need help finishing any, we've rounded up all of our maps and guides for this season's trickier tasks in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges guide.Info from Gamespot.com

Ahhh, FIFA. Like the setting of the sun, the drawing in of the nights, the putting on of an old winter coat, there's both an inevitability and a level of comfort that comes with the release of a new FIFA game. The football season is properly back. The squads are correct again. A couple of new features to keep us occupied through the long, dark nights. All is right with the world.FIFA 20 might not be the series at absolute peak form--Volta isn't the revolution it perhaps could have been and Career Mode still feels underdeveloped--but modern FIFA is such a broad, deep, and complete offering that it remains a must-buy for football fans.On the pitch, FIFA 20 is remarkably similar to last year. Sports games do change year-on-year--I just feel that rate of change is slowing as we reach the end of this console generation. So while there are some welcome improvements--more natural first touches and more satisfying ball physics--things feel very similar to FIFA 19 once you walk out of the tunnel.Set pieces, have, however, received a bit of a makeover--specifically direct free kicks and penalties. In a throwback to the halcyon days of FIFA 2003, both now have you aim a reticle at the precise location you want to place the ball. Then, incorporating last year's genius timed finishing mechanic, you'll need to press shoot again at the right time, while also adding curve in the case of free kicks. Both take a little time to get used to, but they offer greater depth and satisfaction when you smack one into the top corner.In another nostalgic move--and in an attempt to offer greater improvements off the pitch--FIFA 20 introduces a new mode, the FIFA Street-like Volta Football, bringing street soccer to the main series for the first time. You control a squad of street superstars aiming to become the world's best in a journey that takes you across various unique, exotic locales. These three-, four-, or five-a-side matches are shorter and more chaotic than a standard 11-a-side game, and they feel sufficiently different and entertaining to become a worthwhile staple in FIFA's roster of modes. Fancier tricks and flicks and simplified tactics make it a mode that feels a little more, well, fun, than the more traditional game types--but don't expect the depth FIFA Street gave us all those years ago. There are no Gamebreaker shots here, and it's not as easy to utterly humiliate your opponent with outrageous nutmegs and rainbow flicks. Instead, Volta focuses on the culture of street soccer, where the language and atmosphere are more relaxed, more expressive--and more sartorially customizable.The Volta store and challenges that unlock new gear--combined with the ability to play against online human opponents in Volta League--mean the mode certainly contains more longevity than the mode it replaces, The Journey. And Volta Story, the single-player campaign in which you face off against AI teams, is a closer analogue to The Journey with its cutscenes and cast of characters. Its world tour structure is compelling and its real-world locations well-realized, with unique personalities and play styles of their own. However the characters you share your travels with are so irritating, and the writing so aggressively How Do You Do, Fellow Kids, that it becomes something of a chore to play. Other oddities such as inexplicably needing to play the same opposing team over and over, every squad having the exact same goalkeeper, and some consistent basic positioning errors mean Volta comes across as a mode that feels simultaneously long-lasting and half-baked. In a final, strange note, Volta requires an internet connection, even when playing the single-player mode, for reasons that remain unclear.Career Mode is FIFA's other main single-player offering, and it comes with a raft of new features. Proper conversations between manager and players are finally possible, for example; players will come to you to complain to or thank you about their game-time, as they have for many years, but you now have the opportunity to reply, with the aim to keep their morale--and hence performance levels--high. The system is shallow, with the morale bar seemingly the only variable you can affect, and messages still repeat far too often with the same old typos intact, but it at least feels a little more interactive than the stagnant old email system.Similarly, pre- and post-match press conferences have been overhauled, and they now appear more like those seen in The Journey in previous seasons. Again, the objective here is to maintain your team's morale, and again there isn't much more to it, but it is more visually and intellectually stimulating than a simple menu screen, as it was before. The final big new feature, dynamic player potential, means players' potential rating now changes based on your treatment of them. The move will please Career Mode ultras but in practice makes little difference to anybody but the most committed of players.Disappointingly, despite all the changes, Career Mode still feels a little barebones, and it still contains a number of inaccuracies. The transfer window ends erroneously late for English clubs, for instance, while VAR and short goal kicks are yet to be introduced into FIFA at all. Transfer negotiations are unchanged, save for two new background locations in which to hammer out a deal, and scouting and youth teams are the same for yet another year in a row. Career Mode has taken some steps forward this year, but a revolution is needed.Ultimate Team, meanwhile, continues its expansion and is now bigger and better than ever. The adoption of a Fortnite-esque battle pass model in FUT Seasons--not to be confused with FUT Seasons, the sub-mode--is somewhat confusing, but a masterstroke. It essentially manifests itself as an expansion of the existing daily and weekly challenges, with new tasks you can work towards over multiple weeks or the entire year. Rewards include packs, players, new cosmetic options including tifos and balls, and more. It all adds another way to be rewarded and another objective to work toward--especially useful for those who struggle to compete in the weekend league (which, by the way, is unchanged and hence remains as moreish, and as grindy, as ever).FUT's other new addition is Friendlies, which are a new way of playing casually within Ultimate Team. There are no great rewards for playing FUT Friendlies, but you do still earn coins, and, crucially, player injuries, contracts, fitness, and your playing record remain unaffected. The community has been crying out for a place to go when they can't face the pressure of Rivals or Squad Battles, and finally they have it. It also contains the same in-depth stat tracking and bizarre mode variants as was introduced in FIFA 19's Kick Off mode, along with new House Rules options. They're a weird, entertaining place to go to have fun with friends and they mean that, if it wasn't already, Ultimate Team really feels like its own game now. You might understandably disagree with its pay-to-win tendencies--yes, spending more money on packs means you're still more likely to get Lionel Messi than someone simply grinding for in-game currency--but FUT is as compelling and complete as game modes come, and I am horribly obsessed once again.Completeness appears to be the ethos FIFA lives by, and despite the omission of Juventus (forza Piemonte Calcio), this year's game feels more complete than ever. The same goes for its aesthetics and licensing, which continue to offer the closest virtual approximation of real-world football--or, more accurately, Sky Sports' version of football--available.Flawed and iterative, but comforting, complete, and compelling, FIFA 20 is as frustrating and as essential as ever. The Journey and FIFA Street will continue to be missed, but Volta offers a genuinely different option for those who want to dip in and out across FIFA's smorgasboard of game types, while Ultimate Team continues its route to world domination. It's just a shame Career Mode continues to stagnate--even if EA has finally remembered it exists.Info from Gamespot.com

Expect Destiny 2 to become a very different experience come October 1 and the release of the new Shadowkeep expansion. As Bungie and director Luke Smith have detailed (at length), a huge number of systems, activities, and loot are being altered with the new content, and a lot of what we're used to in terms of how the game plays is getting upended. In the final days before Shadowkeep, Bungie detailed one set of changes to how you increase your character's power--which will probably have the biggest impact on your game experience.In its final "This Week at Bungie" blog post before the launch of Shadowkeep, the developer dropped a heap of bullet points detailing myriad changes to the game. The post broke down changes to things like how damage is dealt to over-leveled enemies and how "pinnacle" weapons are set to change, and it gave some very concrete details about how the Power grind will work in Shadowkeep. For the most part, the changes sound like they should make working toward the new Destiny 2 endgame less of a pain, at least until you start to hit the caps.First up, earning experience points is no longer a part of leveling up your character. Previously, you first had to level your character to the cap (currently 50), and then start increasing a second number, your Power level, by gathering better and better gear. With the release of Shadowkeep, every player will automatically be level 50, regardless of whether your character is new or old. Experience points will instead advance your way through the new seasonal rewards. As in games like Fortnite and Apex Legends, there's a slower free path and a quicker premium path through those rewards, depending on if you buy Destiny 2's Season Pass.So instead, going forward, you'll only focus on your Power level, which is the average of all the Power level numbers on all your equipped gear. On October 1, every character starts at the current 750 Power level cap, regardless of whether you hit the cap before Shadowkeep, or you're a brand new Guardian. From there, you'll advance toward the "soft cap" of 900. All gear drops in the game, from all activities, will be of a higher Power level than the highest item you own, either equipped to your character or in your vault. Essentially, just playing the game in any capacity will strengthen your character. Once you hit 900, things get more complicated.Grinding For The EndgameFrom the soft cap, you'll need to earn Powerful drops or Pinnacle weapons, like the ones that exist in Destiny 2 right now. You can get Powerful drops from a number of activities, like completing Strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit matches, although Bungie notes that the Powerfuls currently offered from Forsaken activities--the ones in the Dreaming City, for instance, or from completing Black Armory Forge bounties--will be converted to weaker Legendary drops instead. You can also earn Prime Engrams as you play, which count as Powerful drops. Prime Engrams will drop three levels higher than your best piece of gear (as opposed to the 4-7 levels higher in Forsaken). That will carry you up to Power level 950.At 950, things change again. Powerful drops will no longer advance you at that point--they'll drop at the level of your highest equipable piece of gear instead. That should make getting your entire gear set up to 950 a little easier than it is now; you can sometimes get held up waiting for one piece of armor to drop in order to raise your character's total Power.Reaching The Pinnacle CapTo advance to the final "hard cap" of 960 Power, you'll need "Pinnacle" rewards. These aren't the pinnacle weapons we saw in Destiny 2 before--a series of unique weapons earned by completing lengthy quests in a particular activity. Instead, it seems that Pinnacle drops will require you to best Shadowkeep's toughest activities, like the new version of Nightfall Strikes called The Ordeal, or to take on the Garden of Salvation raid.But while 960 is the top of Power grind for your gear, it isn't the end of the grind altogether. You can still increase your character's Power using the new Seasonal Artifact. This item comes with its own set of perks an adds additional Power to your character as you rank it up (although we haven't seen how that's done yet). The Seasonal Artifact doesn't affect the Power levels your gear drops at, but it does raise your character's overall strength and defense stats, so making sure to take care of it will be essential for completing top-tier Shadowkeep activities.That's all a lot to keep in mind, but for the most part, it sounds like it'll make the Power grind in Shadowkeep a little clearer in terms of which activities you need to do and when. We'll have to see whether that's actually the case, and just how attainable Destiny 2's Pinnacle is, when Shadowkeep launches next week. Info from Gamespot.com

For some time now in Destiny 2, "pinnacle weapons" have numbered among the game's ultimate prizes. These weapons were obtained through lengthy, often frustrating quests that involved copious amounts of grinding, required plenty of skill, and even needed a little luck in most cases. The rewards were generally worth it--from Luna's Howl to Mountaintop to Recluse and beyond, Destiny 2's pinnacle weapons have almost all been top-tier guns for any activity in the game. But with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, the looming expansion that will kick off Destiny 2's Season of the Undying, pinnacle weapons are going away.Of course, if you've already earned an existing pinnacle weapon, you'll be able to continue using it. But Bungie confirmed in today's "This Week at Bungie" post--the last before Shadowkeep's launch on October 1--that Destiny 2 won't feature any new pinnacle weapons going forward. This is a big change, as previously, each new season (roughly every three months) brought with it new pinnacle weapon quests for Strikes, the Crucible, and/or Gambit.Instead, beginning on October 1 with the Season of the Undying, players will be able to earn new "ritual weapons." These guns won't have the unique perks associated with pinnacles, and the quests to obtain them will be less involved, according to Bungie. The studio provided screenshots and names for all three: Edgewise, a Vanguard heavy machine gun; Exit Strategy, a Gambit submachine gun; and the hilariously named Randy's Throwing Knife, a Crucible scout rifle.Bungie said that although these guns won't have unique pinnacle-style perks, they will instead be "curated rolls." Typically, a "curated" version of a gun might drop from certain activities--raids, for example--and come fully masterworked (leveled up to have one chosen stat increased) and with a pre-selected set of perks "curated" by Bungie's designers. As such, these ritual weapons may turn out to be valuable still--although it's not clear whether, like other weapons with "curated" versions currently in the game, non-curated versions with randomized perks will also be earnable in these weapons' respective activities (for example, can you get an Edgewise with random perks in Vanguard strikes? We don't currently know).Power ReducedBungie said they made this "difficult decision" due to the simple fact that pinnacle weapons had become too powerful. Pinnacles from Crucible (Redrix's Claymore/Broadsword, Luna's Howl, Not Forgotten, Mountaintop, Recluse, and Revoker), Gambit (Breakneck, 21% Delirium, and Hush), and Vanguard (Loaded Question, Oxygen SR3, and Wendigo) tended to dominate every game mode, no matter where they came from (with a few exceptions, cough, Oxygen).The developers said these weapons have generally far exceeded how powerful they should have been, which forced players to obtain them if they wanted to succeed across the board, even if that meant playing game modes where they weren't comfortable. Anyone who grinded through the Recluse and/or Mountaintop quests despite not being particularly fond of PVP game modes understands that struggle well."Even the title of 'pinnacle' set a variety of unrealistic expectations," Bungie's blog post says. "Rather than being the absolute height of Legendary power, they were supposed to be interesting novelties to chase. These problems became more pronounced the more of them we produced."In the end, we decided to move away from pinnacle weapons. If you managed to collect them all, we hope you enjoy them!"That last line had us slightly concerned--the past-tense phrasing there seemed to suggest that existing pinnacle weapons would no longer be obtainable after Shadowkeep launches, which would be a massive disappointment for anyone who hasn't earned them yet. However, we confirmed with Bungie that existing pinnacle weapons will still be obtainable in Season of the Undying and beyond, provided you complete the requisite quest steps.In related news, Shadowkeep will also alter Destiny's gameplay in major ways--including reductions to the efficacy of various damage-increasing weapon perks. These include the perks Rampage, Kill Clip, Swashbuckler, Multikill Clip, Desperado, Surrounded, Master of Arms, and Onslaught--some of which are present on existing pinnacle weapons, most notably Recluse's Master of Arms perk. Most players agree that Recluse is currently overpowered (as much as those who've obtained it love to use it), so it will be interesting to see just how these and the many other changes coming with Shadowkeep affect how we play the game--and how players will feel about them once the dust settles. Info from Gamespot.com

If you're contemplating jumping into Destiny 2, now is a great time to do so. Bungie has announced everything that comes free in New Light--a free-to-play version of the game. There's a lot there; it's pretty much everything minus the post-Year 1 raids, Exotic quests, and Forsaken campaign.In a tweet, Bungie reveals New Light will put you at a starting Power level of 750 and open up all free roam destinations right from the get-go. In terms of weapons and armor, you'll have all exotics from Year 1. New Light also includes The Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind campaigns, as well as the Black Armory Forges, Gambit Prime, and The Menagerie. All the Nightfall Strikes from Year 1 are packaged into New Light too. You can also get all the ranks and rewards tied to seasonal events.Whether you're continuing your journey or just beginning.Starting October 1, play Destiny 2 your way.🌑 https://t.co/BOVQjrfi8a pic.twitter.com/RKr1pG3pqR — Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) September 26, 2019On Twitter, Bungie has clarified several of the possible discrepancies that New Light seemingly creates. Specifically, even though it's not listed, New Light does actually come with The Reckoning as well, allowing you to farm for the Gambit Prime armor. Also, though completing activities like the Black Armory Forges and The Menagerie will still net you their respective rewards, the Exotics tied to them are not available for New Light players.💠 The Reckoning is included.💠 Thunderlord, Arbalest, Outbreak Perfected, and Bad Juju are the Y2 Exotics available with New Light.💠 Rewards from activities above are included with New Light EXCEPT associated Exotics.💠 Forsaken subclasses are not available in New Light. — Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) September 26, 2019All players, whether veteran or newcomer, should do a few things before Destiny 2: Year 2 comes to an end. You don't want to go into Year 3 with excessive baggage nor do you want to end your time in Year 2 without acquiring certain items. There are a few quests you should finish mopping up, for instance, and stockpiling on Bright Dust is a pretty good idea. When Year 3 begins, it will introduce the standalone Shadowkeep expansion as well as a reworked version of the moon location from the first Destiny. Expect tougher Nightfalls, but much better rewards. Be sure you're ready.Destiny 2 is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.Info from Gamespot.com

Up a short flight of stairs and down an alleyway from the initial hub of the first major area in The Surge 2 is a door that can only be opened from the other side. Roughly a dozen hours later you will find yourself standing on the other side of this door before opening it and returning to the very place in which you began, keenly aware of how far you've progressed while not really traveling anywhere at all.Yes, The Surge 2 is that kind of game: an action RPG with a looping, labyrinthine structure and a heavy debt owed to Dark Souls. It's a hard game in the sense that it demands patience and attention to detail, but it's not especially punishing. Sure, when you die or rest at a medbay (read: bonfire) all the enemies respawn and many of them can kill you in a couple of hits. And sure, you have to make it back to where you died to recover your tech scrap (read: souls). But as with the Souls series and its ilk, this isn't really a game about clearing an area and leveling up; it's about learning through repetition and deepening your understanding of the game. On a purely mechanical level, the robust combat engine, intricate level design and substantive gear, and crafting systems all leave The Surge 2 far from embarrassed by the From Software comparison. Yet where The Surge 2's blushes are not spared is in giving you a reason to care about anything you're doing. Lackluster world-building, forgettable characters and cringeworthy dialogue all conspire against persuading you this is a world worth saving.It begins with a plane crash. On board was some sort of nanotechnology that triggers an environmental disaster requiring a city-wide quarantine and leaving those infected to wander the streets with a permanently hostile demeanor. You were also on the plane, yet somehow survived the crash and, at the start of the game, wake up in the medical wing of the Jericho City Police Department. Soon you're having sporadic visions of a young girl, the granddaughter of the CEO of nanotech firm CREO Industries, who you're sure was also on the plane and now appears to have been kidnapped by a mysterious security force.There's not a great deal to the story and what little there is quickly reduces to stale sci-fi musings about the relationship between humans and machines and all sorts of hackneyed military-industrial complex pot-boiling. Your pursuit of the elusive young girl is essentially the pretext for exploring the multi-faceted and interconnected districts of Jericho City and whacking nearly all of its inhabitants in the face. Fighting in The Surge 2 feels strategic and skillful. There's the element of stamina management you'd expect--you've got to understand when you can commit and when you need to pull back and recover. There's the ability to manage multiple enemies when any one of them alone is dangerous enough to be life-threatening if you're not careful. And there's the necessity of learning to read enemy attack patterns--one may be quick and aggressive, while another is slower and turtles behind a shield, and a third may hang back and takes pot shots.Combat is almost exclusively focused on melee attacks. There are dozens of weapons to be wielded in one hand or two and each can be deployed in heavy and light attacks as well as combos that alternate between the two. Movesets are shared across a weapon class but various stats--such as base damage, stamina consumption or additional damage types--serve to differentiate unique weapons within the same class. All spears, for example, have the same long reach and forward thrusting attacks, but this one hits slightly quicker for less damage while that one consumes more stamina per attack but delivers bonus electrical damage every hit.Smartly, no weapons are simply outright better than the others, meaning your choice of armament comes down to a combination of what you've managed to find, which particular mix of moveset and stats suit your preferred playstyle, and to a lesser extent the nature of the obstacle you're trying to overcome. Some weapons are better suited to certain situations, but ultimately it comes down to how you want to approach combat. Weapons taken from the one-handed (think futuristic longswords) and twin-rigged (think futuristic knuckle-dusters) classes hit with speed and will let you get the drop on an enemy then deliver a swift combo. Hammers and anything from the heavy-duty class will instead take longer to wind up but when they hit they hit hard and can easily stagger an opponent. I enjoyed the flexibility of the double-duty class, a weapon type that can transform between slow, heavy hits and a quick flurry of blows. And for situations that warranted a different tactic I switched to a staff for the longer reach of its whirlwind attack and some added nano damage. There's a huge amount of variety here and, after briefly testing out each new weapon I found during my initial playthrough, I'm looking forward to exploring different weapon loadouts in future playthroughs.That's mostly because fighting in The Surge 2 feels really good. Aided by the meaty impact of the sound effects and the responsiveness of the character animations, you can feel the weight of each attack in a manner that never fails to satisfy. Successfully deflecting an attack rewards you with wonderfully gratifying "whomp!" sound, a brief freeze-frame and slow-motion interlude as the enemy is staggered and you're given the opening to launch a critical strike. Better, perhaps, are the cinematic slow-mos seen when you are able to sever the limb of your opponent, with your character drawing from an impressively wide range of stylish deathblow animations that are solely interested in making you look like the most effortless badass in the post-apocalypse. Be warned, however: they are not for the squeamish (and, fortunately, there's an option to disable these scenes to reduce the gore factor.)But it gets even more complex. When locked on to an enemy you are able to target individual limbs, switching between the head, body, arms, and legs with a flick of the right analogue stick. You want to do this for two reasons. One, some limbs may be unarmoured, thus targeting an exposed left arm will let you do more damage and hasten the kill. Two, if you do enough damage to a particular limb you'll get the opportunity to chop it off and, in a curious application of game logic, claim it as a material for crafting. Once you've beheaded an enemy enough times you'll have the materials necessary to craft a new piece of headgear or upgrade your existing one. The tantalizing risk/reward here is obvious: do you go for the weak point or prolong the fight in order to get that vital crafting component? Boss fights double down on this element, with some of them forcing you to hack off multiple limbs to bring it down while others drop special boss weapons if you target the relevant limb during the fight. Furthering the complexity, you can also block attacks (assuming you have sufficient stamina) by holding down L1/LB, but to deflect an attack you've got to block and flick the right stick in the direction of the incoming blow at the precise moment; mis-time your attempt and you're going to take the hit. It's not just another great risk/reward setup, it also reveals one of the clever ways The Surge 2 handles its difficulty. While there aren't selectable difficulty levels per se, you can equip various implants that boost your character in certain ways, one of which provides a UI indicator letting you know from which direction the next attack is incoming. So if you want to adopt a playstyle around deflecting attacks and you're not yet familiar with reading enemy attack animations, you can equip this implant and receive a very useful visual aid.It's a really smart system that extends into other areas, too. Implants consume core power, a character stat that increases as you level up, and typically the more useful an implant the more power it consumes. Armour also draws power from the same source, and--yep, you guessed it--the better the defensive stats, the more power it draws. You never have enough core power to simply equip your best armour set and all your favorite implants, so this is where you have to make tough choices about what type of character you're going to be. There were plenty of periods, especially in the early to mid-game, where I had to leave some armour and implant slots empty because I simply didn't have the power available to fill them. It's in these situations, when you're having to sacrifice useful tools and really commit to a playstyle, that The Surge 2 shines as an RPG.It also shines in its level design--at least it does so in a somewhat cold, theoretical fashion. Like Dark Souls, The Surge 2 trades heavily on a Metroidvania structure that sees you traversing its levels in a kind of circular fashion, pressing forward until you find yourself back where you started only now you've unlocked a shortcut that lets you press further forward. Later, you will return to many of the previously visited locations and explore them anew, having acquired certain key items that allow you to access areas previously inaccessible. There's nothing especially novel about that structure. The Surge 2 is simply an extremely accomplished version of it. The areas you explore are just so tightly designed, so compact and yet simultaneously sprawling and dense. There's almost a honeycomb quality to the level design, this vast network of winding tunnels existing almost on top of each other, branching and converging in surprising ways. No space is wasted.It's just a shame few of the locations are memorable for reasons other than how they connect to other locations. There's a midgame detour to a rather scenic wooded parkland, the odd impressive future city skyline vista, and the constant looming presence of the giant metal wall that was hastily erected after the nano-disaster struck. But in between everything is basically the same handful of debris-strewn streets, toxic tunnels and partially collapsed buildings--and it's all so boringly brown and grey. More than a mere aesthetic complaint, it actually makes it difficult to find your bearings at times. I found myself getting lost and turned around on quite a few occasions thanks to the unremarkable nature of much of the scenery. Worse, the characters you meet along the way are equally soulless, if not more so. Conversations with major NPCs are written as if they're throwaway sidequests, eschewing any sense of character development in favor of laboured exposition. The actual sidequests, of course, fare no better--to their advantage at least they're quick and to the point, even if they barely resolve and rarely offer a reward worth the effort.Story and sidequests aside, however, The Surge 2 is absolutely worth the effort when the combat is taken in isolation. Not only does it pack a punch, but it also channels plenty of depth in its limb targeting and deflection systems, and is ably supported by a genuinely varied collection of weapons and potential character builds. 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

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

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One this fall, and ahead of its October 4 release, developer and publisher Ubisoft has announced that the open beta is available to pre-load right now. Here's everything you need to know about the beta before it starts on Thursday, September 26.While the Ghost Recon: Breakpoint open beta doesn't start until Thursday, September 26, Ubisoft is allowing you to get a headstart by downloading the open beta before it goes live. You can pre-load the open beta on PC, PS4, or Xbox One, and it's scheduled to run from September 26-29 and is just shy of 15GB to download.Download the beta on PS4Download the beta on Xbox OneDownload the beta on PC -- Uplay clientThe #GhostRecon Open Beta starts in 2 days. Pre-load the beta now! — Ghost Recon (@GhostRecon) September 24, 2019Breakpoint Open Beta Start Time (September 26)3 AM PT6 AM ET11 AM BST8 PM AETServers Close: September 29, 7 AM PT / 9 AM CST / 10 ET / 3 PM BSTGhost Recon: Breakpoint's open beta will let you experience five main missions across Auroa's massive open-world, as well as a variety of side missions and daily Faction Missions. Further, you'll be able to dive into the game's Ghost War mode, with 4v4 Elimination and three maps available to test out. Ubisoft notes that your progress from the beta won't transfer to the full game when it launches next month.The Inside Xbox livestream is now underway, and includes an interview with Ghost Recon: Breakpoint start Jon Bernthal. We expect a few different announcements to come out of the presentation, including a look at The Outer Worlds and trailer reveals for Afterparty, Children of Morta, Felix the Reaper, and more.Info from Gamespot.com

The Xbox One launched in 2013, and it's coming up on a new phase of its life with Microsoft's next-generation console, Project Scarlett, scheduled for release in Holiday 2020. Looking back on the Xbox One generation, we know now what the console's best-selling games are, including exclusives.NPD analyst Mat Piscatella shared the Top 10 lists for All Games and Exclusives today in celebration of the Inside Xbox stream. The lists contain few, if any, surprises.Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V is the overall best-selling game for Xbox One through August 2019, with Call of Duty titles and another Rockstar game, Red Dead Redemption II, rounding out the Top 5. In fact, Call of Duty games account for five of the top 10 best sellers. Also of note is that every title in the top 10 is a sequel of some kind and that no Microsoft-published exclusive is on the chart.In terms of Xbox One exclusives, which includes PC, Halo topped the charts. Halo 5: Guardians is No. 1, with Halo: The Master Chief Collection sitting at No. 2. Sea of Thieves (No. 7) is the only new IP on the chart. Sunset Overdrive, which was released in 2014, did not make the chart.You can have a peek at the charts below. Note, again, that these charts are US only and represent sales of physical and digital (in some cases) based on dollar sales instead of unit sales. PC sales are included in the exclusives list due to the Xbox Play Anywhere program. "It is impossible to separate sales of these games between PC and the Console. It's one platform," Piscatella said.Microsoft's latest exclusive, Gears 5, launched in September. It launched like a rocket, quickly becoming Microsoft's biggest launch week for a first-party game in the Xbox One generation. To celebrate the latest #InsideXbox here are the Xbox One's top 10 best-selling games, both all games and exclusives (including PC) only. Source: The NPD Group pic.twitter.com/w8FXu3vkeR — Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) September 24, 2019Looking to 2020, Project Scarlett's release is scheduled for Holiday 2020 with Halo: Infinite as a launch title. The new system doesn't replace Xbox One entirely, as Microsoft will continue to support that system. Additionally, Xbox One games (as well as Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games) will work on Project Scarlett through an ambitious backwards compatibility program.Info from Gamespot.com

One of the exciting things FX's Mayans MC does is continue to reveal new information about the history of the universe it's set in, which began with Sons of Anarchy. While so much has been revealed about this world of outlaw motorcycle clubs between the two shows, there are always exciting new things to learn. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Mayans MC.In the fourth episode of the currently airing Mayans season, titled "Lahun Chan," a rather massive hole in the Sons of Anarchy timeline was filled in, giving much more depth to the character of Happy (David LaBrava). When first introduced in the Sons of Anarchy series premiere, Happy is a member of the Tacoma chapter of the titular motorcycle club. He then leaves Tacoma to join the Nomad charter, which isn't attached to any one town and essentially a member that acts independently within the organization.That all changes in Season 3, when Happy is officially patched into SAMCRO, becoming a regular character on Sons of Anarchy. What we don't learn, however, is what made Happy leave the Nomad charter to make a home in Charming with his fellow Sons. That much is revealed in this episode of Mayans MC, though.It's revealed that the death of EZ (JD Pardo) and Angel's (Clayton Cardenas) mother is what led to him leaving the Nomad life and joining SAMCRO. He was hired to kill both Felipe (Edward James Olmos) and his wife, but failed in killing the family patriarch. "I f***ed up," he admitted. "I was supposed to kill both of them."While Happy was never sure who called for the hit, he assumed it was one of the cartels in Mexico--most likely Galindo, given the family's connection to that organization. After failing to kill Felipe, Happy thought the cartel would come after him for not finishing the job. It all came to a head the night EZ chased him--leading to EZ's arrest--as he believed the cartel had finally come for him."That night that you chased me, I thought that's who you were, a cleanup guy for the cartel," he admitted. "I got spooked, didn't feel safe riding Nomad anymore. That's when I went to Charming, patched into SAMCRO."From there, we know Happy's story. He went on to help guide SAMCRO and currently serves as the club's Sergeant at Arms. What happens from here is where things might get interesting. EZ and Angel threatened to kill him, meaning Happy and his cub would be well within their rights to end their lives. Instead, he's working with the brothers to help them learn more about the death of their mother. "If someone killed my mom, I'd put a bullet between his eyes," Happy reasoned.With this new alliance between Happy and the Reyes brothers, we can't wait to see where the story turns next. Mayans MC airs Tuesdays on FX.Info from Gamespot.com