Three years after release, the universe of No Man's Sky continues to evolve. With each expansion, I spend weeks as a blissful wanderer, seeing an already vast universe become more populous, more beautiful, more capable of sustaining a home for anyone who dared to voyage within it. Beyond, however, is no mere evolution and refinement. It feels like No Man's Sky approaching its final form, having shed a great deal of what was previously limiting and restrictive. But there’s one new factor specifically that makes the update live up to its name: No Man’s Sky is now a VR title. And it is utterly breathtaking.It is breathtaking right away, waking up for the first time completely immersed in an alien world literally no one else has ever seen. Everything has a new fascination: the way the flora moves and shifts under harsh weather, the way the ground is pockmarked and windswept, the vast, unknowable vistas stretching across toxic interstellar perdition. It’s all beautiful before you even make the first flight into space.An incredible amount of additional work has gone into making inhabiting that Exo-Suit even more of an experience. On PS4, you can play in 2D or VR with the DualShock, something that also gives you a Smooth turning option, but two PlayStation Moves are the real way to go. With the Move, your Multi-Tool is strapped to your back, ready to be whipped out more like in Blood & Truth than an ever-present floating gun like in most VR titles. The Analysis visor has you pressing the wand to the side of your head, like you’re Cyclops preparing to fire an Optic Blast. Getting in and out of your ship involves physically pulling the handles, and escaping from a hairy situation with sentinels or the local wildlife with that lightning quick motion adds an even greater layer of tension. Best of all, the menus are mapped to a little hologram in your hands that activates when you point at it. It’s a simple and intuitive implementation of such an elaborate and persistent mechanic.Still, even with the new perspective and tools at your disposal, it should be said upfront that at its core, No Man’s Sky: Beyond is still, well, No Man’s Sky. Whether you’re in VR or not, many of the early mundanities of the game remain. You have to repair your broken ship, gather a specific resource, create fuel, drop a refiner, and so on. Beyond, however, brings varying kindnesses that welcome you to a new universe instead of prodding you into space with a stick. The UI holds your hand, telling you exactly why you’re collecting these things, what it is you’re trying to do, and exactly how to find what you need. Once you’ve found everything, having an expanded inventory and an absurd amount of space to hold items--each block can hold thousands now--means mining constantly in your travels is worthwhile. There’s always something you can use later, and you have the space to contain it. The game is much more patient and generous with the breadcrumbs that teach you how to play, guiding you into the stratosphere not only painlessly but purposefully.That extends into the rest of the game once the tutorials stop and the training wheels are all the way off. All of the larger narrative pieces from the previous updates feel organically woven into Beyond. Dialogue and instructions from one mission from the Atlas Path may be rewritten or tweaked to reference Artemis or some new action you can take in Beyond. Direct links have been made where the next logical step in your current mission involves learning more alien language instead of just trying to get your next cell to warp to the next galaxy. The missions and their objectives have a synergy now, where lines of dialogue and specific mission objectives weave narrative strands together. It’s a bit of minor housekeeping No Man's Sky has needed for a while now. The overarching subtle tale of both exploration and acceptance in the great unknown remains, but it also has quite a bit more meaning now that it’s not your sole purpose in the universe.When your only task was just to keep hopping from galaxy to galaxy towards the center, there was plenty to see and take in, but you couldn’t really live in the universe because you were so busy trying to survive. The Atlas Path asked some big, existential questions, sure. Artemis helped with that a great deal, giving you an Other to truly work towards understanding and fathoming at least one small mystery of the universe with. But there’s a huge difference between looking at a vast wilderness from a hypothetical distance and trying to figure out the very real challenge of laying down roots there. The latter is a much more fundamental part of Beyond’s gameplay loop. It’s the difference between Next telling you that yes, now you can build bases and here’s how, versus those bases being more of a necessity to sustainably start traversing the universe. The way menus and options are streamlined for you in Beyond make it easier to create, leave, and return to a place of solace and safety, and to depend on a planet, your base, and the resources within. It’s a much stronger experience, and the undercurrent of humanism running throughout the Atlas Path lands much harder as a result. Beyond’s biggest improvements are all in favor of fostering that relationship between players and the universe around them, and that includes its people, playable and non-playable.No Man’s Sky has long had one of the more positive and welcoming online communities in the gaming landscape, and there was always the worry that removing the barriers between players would invite the worst elements of online play into what’s typically a place of zen. This is far from the case.The new Anomaly, summonable to any galaxy at any time, is no longer a sparse, glorified save space, but a bustling 16-player hub of activity, full of greetings, proud ship captains, aliens who look upon you with curious eyes, and players more than happy to bring you to the worlds they call home. Just like the first spoken line of the game, so much of the Anomaly’s layout, from its menus to the way it presents the current state of the area, is about reminding you that you’re never fully alone out there. Beyond has made it so much easier to find allies to either assist in their mission or share what you have from your own inventory. Everything you pick up and mine may have a price, but the game quite often reminds you via the descriptions that those items can also be given to others. Clicking an item while on the Anomaly gives you a list of everyone in range that you might possibly hand it off to. Checking mission boards reminds you there are people who may be looking for the same thing you are, and when it’s the other way around, the request shows up in the lower left. During my time with the update, there were good Samaritans everywhere in the Anomaly, giving out extra rare items to whoever wandered into range.That’s a rather huge and heartening factor, not just because you can now jump in and help strangers shoot things down and collect loot, but because it creates a strong sense of community in what was previously a fairly lonely adventure. The Anomaly feels like the petri dish for No Man’s Sky to develop an actual culture, a place of cooks, pilots, space frontiersmen, and traders looking for the next big score. It feels alive and connected in all the ways the game used to feel isolated and cold. And it does so without overshadowing the fundamental element of peaceful solo exploration if you so desire. That new emphasis on connection is never so obtrusive that it prevents you from performing one simple task or speaking to one specific NPC and leaving, but it also doesn’t feel arduous to connect with another human being the way it did before this update.There's still some legwork involved, though. While joining games and having others join yours is a quick and simple matter (and much less finicky than it was in Next) players can occasionally spawn on drastically different locations on the same planet. That said, searching for stranded partners wound up being a weirdly fun adventure all its own.A much bigger caveat is that for a new player to party up with friends, they still have to get out into space on their own, which makes sense. There's a lot of ways for someone who doesn't know what they're doing to irrevocably screw up a galaxy by accident, or waste a resource, or piss off a planet's Sentinels, or ruin your relationship with a species of animals. The tutorials do important work of not just showing you how to play the game, but respect the game. If you want to give a partner some of your resources, you can. But if an objective given by the game tells you to build something, giving them the exact item the game wants won’t clear that objective. That’s a limitation the game is all the better for keeping in place. Choosing to assist someone can’t be the same as beating the game with or for them. If you’re with someone, you’re there for the experience. That’s not all necessarily new for a multiplayer experience, but it does feel rare when the game is pushing you to connect with other people for what tend to be for more mercenary reasons.For my part, I remained a solitary player, only choosing to put down sparing roots on the most beautiful worlds and never building more than I needed. I’m very much a city boy in real life. In No Man’s Sky, I’m a happy recluse with 40 acres and a species of chubby elephantine space mules I named Horace. I’ve been harvesting eggs and milk from the animals on the strawberry-pink and white world I’ve been calling home for the past year or so. Even as the universe got bigger, I would go to the Anomaly to trade, buy new ships, and hang out with aliens, but home remains solitary. So few of the self-sufficient agrarian aspects of my little home were even possible in previous updates. Beyond has made me feel more empowered to sustain that life, have a place to return to and maintain, and make improving it for the laid-back alien assistants who reside with me much easier to accomplish.The larger technical problems with Beyond come down to problems with VR platforms in general. Despite the visual beauty, my time with the Oculus version was plagued with flaws and odd bugs and glitches. By comparison, the PSVR version caters to performance. Frame rate and gameplay are pristine there, but at the cost of clarity, especially when it comes to the various screen displays in-game. In addition, the PSVR’s old nemesis, the camera drift, rears its ugly head here, and the Recenter VR Camera option in the Pause menu does less to solve it than it should. As of this writing, however, there have been additional patches every few days, and more and more of these bugs vanish with each one.These tiny frustrations utterly dissolve away in flight, however. No Man’s Sky’s most consistently powerful experience of seamless space travel nearly reduced me to tears as the upper atmosphere melted away into the silence and deep wonder of the galaxy. It’s the kind of thing I dreamt of as a kid. As part of an expanding experience and seemingly impossibly ever-larger universe, No Man’s Sky continues to deliver on the promise of being a space traveler--and VR assists in making it a more immersive experience.The drastic improvements made to No Man’s Sky in its Beyond expansion are the new gold standard for how to gracefully cope with a game’s flaws post-release. The game laid the foundation with its release, but it took Beyond to elevate it into something magnificent. Successfully transitioning to VR is a creative victory on its own, but realizing just how full and vibrant and rewarding an experience this game has now become is almost poignant. Beyond represents the courage of convictions, a concept that has not only met the lofty expectations it set forth, but transcended them.Info from Gamespot.com

After Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, a disappointing spin-off released in 2014, Borderlands 3 is a welcome return to form for the franchise. The game reunites fans with the core group of memorable main characters from the first two games and delivers the mayhem-heavy loot-shooter experience that the series is known for. Borderlands 3 carries forward many of the things that made the first two games special, but in doing so it also brings with it a few of the same stumbling blocks. There are noticeable improvements to the series formula, though, as Borderlands 3 provides additional freedom in how you want to play.Set seven years after the events of Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 wraps up most of the narratives established in the earlier games, while also teasing additional threads that could be explored in the future. Despite these hints, there's a definite finality to Borderlands 3's campaign, which satisfyingly wraps up the arcs of characters that fans have been following for 10 years.As one of four fledgling Vault Hunters--Zane the operative, Amara the Siren, Moze the gunner, or FL4K the beastmaster--you are recruited into the Crimson Raiders, the militia that defends the only civilized pocket of society found on the bandit-filled wasteland planet of Pandora. Led by Lilith, a former Vault Hunter, the Crimson Raiders have gone to war with Tyreen Calypso and her twin brother Troy, who are using their influence as popular video streamers to convince their cult following to help them acquire the immense power found in secret vaults scattered throughout the universe. The story is a bit of a slow start, but it quickly picks up near the end of the first act and rarely slows down on its way to its grand finale. Looting and shooting are still the focus of Borderlands 3, but its campaign also delivers a fairly well-written story of sacrifice, the importance of family, and the responsibilities of heroes.Borderlands 3 provides more flexibility than ever before to create the type of character you want. For the first time in the series, the Vault Hunters all have an active skill tied to each of their three respective skill trees. Amara, for example, can equip Phaseslam to deal immense close range damage, Phasecast to tear through enemies from afar, or Phasegrasp to crowd control or focus her elemental abilities on one target. Using perks from all three skill trees, you can evolve each of these skills in meaningful ways. For instance, if you want to make Amara's area-of-effect Phaseslam ability into something more precise, you could change it with perks found in both the Brawl and Fist of the Elements skill trees so that the ability transforms Amara into a levitating spider-like creature that shoots a massive fire-based death ray before she careens to earth in a smaller slam. Phaseslam can evolve in other ways too, as can Phasecast and Phasegrasp--providing numerous options for how you want Amara to fight. The same can be said for Zane, Moze, and FL4K.As a result, it's pretty easy for both you and a friend to be playing as the same character but have completely different builds and roles on the battlefield. This added freedom also makes it far more feasible, and thus enjoyable, to play Borderlands 3's campaign entirely solo in comparison to previous games in the franchise, as you're not limited to established class restrictions based on your Vault Hunter choice. You obviously don't have to go it alone--and Borderlands 3 actually makes co-op more rewarding thanks to an option that removes the need to compete for loot--but it's nice knowing that if you want to, your experience will not be completely defined by the Vault Hunter you choose.The freedom to build your ideal loadout extends beyond your Vault Hunter's skill trees. Borderlands 3 makes clear-cut distinctions when it comes to the manufacturer of each gun. Before you even loot a new firearm, looking at which company made it will tell you most of what you need to know about what it can do. Maliwan guns are fairly weak but each one shoots elemental bullets, for instance, allowing you to more easily electrocute shields, melt armor, or burn through flesh, while a Hyperion firearm raises a forcefield in front of you while aiming down sights and becomes more accurate as you pull the trigger. They're minor changes to further differentiate each type of gun, but these new manufacturer effects make it a lot easier to build specialized loadouts that can augment the perks you choose.But, more than anything, the guns are just fun to shoot. It may come as little surprise given that distinctive firearms has been the bread and butter of the franchise since the beginning, but Borderlands 3 has quite a few unique guns that offer a wide variety of enjoyable effects. Some have actual gameplay-changing ramifications, like a sniper rifle that can transform into a shotgun. But Borderlands 3 also has guns that are just playfully quirky and weird--ones that insult and tease you for your performance or just shoot more guns, for example. And you acquire new firepower at a gratifying pace, with new loot regularly dropping from the tougher enemies in the groups you encounter and explosively erupting from bosses you defeat. Borderlands 3 never lets up on giving you new weapons to experiment with, progressively increasing the explosive potential and wacky effects of the weapons you find, which in turn serves as a satisfying visual representation of how much stronger you're getting beyond the higher damage numbers.Even without the loot, defeating enemies in combat is fulfilling. Shooting an unshielded enemy in the head rewards you with their cranium erupting in a satisfying blossom of blood and gore. When you don't land that final headshot, enemies mostly go out with a final battle cry--ranging from pitiful cries for salvation to humorous insults--and the game doesn't repeat lines often enough for them to grow stale. Combat is never dull as a result, with your chosen Vault Hunter shouting out funny or cool-sounding one-liners in the brief moments you're reloading and making your way to your next victim.As entertaining as Borderlands 3's combat is, the fun that is found in the freedom to fight however you want is occasionally interrupted by the structure of boss battles, a traditional problem for the franchise. Many of the bosses look cool and have incredible theme music, but they all amount to the same strategy: shoot the weak spots, run from or jump over attacks, and repeat. You can cheat some by hiding in an unreachable corner and slowly chipping away at the boss' weak spot, but that's not much fun either as pretty much every boss in the game has a large healthpool and many of the later ones are bullet-sponges.Borderlands 3's late-game bosses pack a wallop with every attack too, downing you in a few hits if you're not careful and thus demanding that you near-perfectly dodge for an extended period of time--which can drag on and feel boringly repetitive in the longest of these fights. So when you do encounter a boss in Borderlands 3, it typically grinds the mayhem-filled action to an abrupt halt as you're forced to respond to the boss' patterns by playing more slowly and carefully.The new climbing and sliding moves do allow you to better navigate environments and thus get out of the way of certain attacks, but both mechanics are better suited for weaving among the scattered firefights with normal enemies, not the concentrated bombardment of the bosses. Several boss battles are frustratingly difficult to tackle on your own as a result, to the point that they all seem like repeated suggestions that you should be playing Borderlands 3 with at least one other person. Two or more players allows you to take turns reviving each other, making it easier to last longer. But simply trying to outlast one strong enemy doesn't impart the same enjoyable impact of the mayhem-filled firefights from the rest of the game. You feel more like a badass running around and gunning down a vast assortment of different enemies than you do hiding behind cover and waiting for the boss to stop attacking you just so you can safely get a few shots off.Thankfully, boss battles only make up a small part of Borderlands 3's overall campaign. Most of the story sees you go up against the Calypsos' seemingly never-ending cult of bandits or the armies of the twins' corporate sponsors as you race to find the pieces of the keys to open up vaults across the universe. Your journey takes you far beyond the planet of Pandora, and it provides opportunities for new types of combat encounters in a series that has largely revolved around wide-open deserts full of bandits or factories full of robots. For example, the jungles of Eden-6 contain an assortment of dangerous wildlife that have different hunting grounds and patterns, and the low gravity of a Maliwan space station orbiting the planet of Promethea allows the elemental gunslinging corporate soldiers you're going up against to jump higher and more easily attack you from above. Certain weapons have greater utility in certain environments as well, such as an explosive mushroom-like grenade that becomes more powerful when thrown into water. That's easier to do more often in Eden-6's swamps than Pandora's sand dunes. Borderlands 3's campaign sees you bouncing back and forth between planets every few hours, which keeps each setting from growing stale while also encouraging you to keep adopting new playstyles, strategies, and weapons.Borderlands' heroes are nothing if not personable, and that trend continues in this latest installment--transforming the motley crew of outlaws into a family you feel a kinship with.Even if Borderlands 3 takes you far beyond the scope of Pandora and sees you meet brand-new allies and encounter never-before-seen threats, the original cast of characters that have defined the adventures from the beginning are still at the forefront, and the story is better for it. Whether you're a long-time fan or not, it's the connection to the Crimson Raiders that acts as your motivation for fighting through the campaign. Borderlands' heroes are nothing if not personable, and that trend continues in this latest installment--transforming the motley crew of outlaws into a family you feel a kinship with. Your connection to the Crimson Raiders continues to grow with every mission as well, as--thanks to the spaceship Sanctuary III--the entire group is with you throughout the course of your journey.Newcomer Tyreen is clearly a bad person, but the campaign's story never gives you a compelling reason as to why you would want to kill her so as to stop her for good. Lilith is fond of reminding you that Tyreen's plans would ultimately destroy Pandora, but Borderlands 3 introduces a bunch of planets that would make for more preferable homes. Tyreen, and thus Troy, never amounts to a credible threat that you feel like you need to stop as a result, so the Calypso twins instead feel like the primary source of much of Borderlands 3's comic relief, not villains that must be stopped.With most of the franchise's juvenile humor and ludicrous jokes coming from your planetside interactions with the Calypsos, it's on Sanctuary III with your crew that Borderlands 3's well-written story delves into its more heartfelt and emotional moments. The game wastes little time reintroducing you to mainstays Lilith and Patricia Tannis, a brilliant yet socially anxious scientist, and building the drama of its narrative around them as the two women grow into their new roles within the Crimson Raiders. Tannis' evolution is especially compelling as you see her make courageous strides to move beyond the self-imposed limitations she's set for herself on account of her autism and social anxiety. For two characters that were popular but little more than caricatures in the first game, it's rewarding to see the growth the two underwent in Borderlands 2 now culminate into two leaders that you're willing to follow to the end.That isn't to say the other fan-favorite characters have been left out. Pretty much everyone from the previous games returns to complete their respective arcs. Borderlands 3 weaves in plenty of memorable new characters as well--such as the coffee-obsessed Lorelei, artificial intelligence BALEX, and scoundrel turned rebel general Clay--but the game's story is very much the fulfilling conclusion that long-time fans have been looking forward to for the franchise's mainstays.And what a conclusion it is. Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game's rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor. The game's character-driven narrative acts as a satisfying finale for the loot-shooter franchise, and the new mechanics and features--especially the reworked skill trees and weapon manufacturer effects--give you plenty of agency in how you want to play through it. If you've never been a fan of the franchise, it's unlikely Borderlands 3 does enough things differently to change your mind, as the game best excels at continuing what the series has always done: deliver a humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism.Info from Gamespot.com

Actor Pierce Brosnan, who portrayed the legendary super-spy James Bond in four 007 movies, has spoken up to say it is time for a woman to play the title role.Asked by The Hollywood Reporter for his thoughts on a woman playing 007, Brosnan replied, "Yes!""I think we've watched the guys do it for the last 40 years. Get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there. I think it would be exhilarating; it would be exciting," he said.It is rumored that one of the plot points in the upcoming No Time To Die movie will feature Lashana Lynch's character taking over the 007 title from Daniel Craig. This has yet to be confirmed. However, we do know that Craig is reportedly planning to retire from playing James Bond after No Time To Die.Brosnan went on to say that the current producers of the 007 movie franchise, the Broccoli family, might not allow this change. "I don't think that's going to happen with the Broccolis. I don't think that is going to happen under their watch," he said.In 2017, model, singer, actress, and video game performer Cara Delevingne spoke about how she would like to play James Bond someday. "Everyone's saying I'm meant to be a Bond girl but I'm like, 'no - I'm working on the James Bond aspect first.' I wouldn't mind being a Bond girl but I'm going for James," she said.Brosnan played 007 in four James Bond films from 1994 through 2004, including GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day.The new movie, No Time To Die, picks up with Craig's James Bond out of active service and living a peaceful life in Jamaica. Obviously, it doesn't stay this way. "His old friend Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology," reads a line from the movie's description.No Time To Die is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, who is best known for the first season of True Detective and the acclaimed drama Beasts of No Nation. Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Léa Seydoux all return to the roles of M, Q, Miss MoneyPenny, and Madeleine Swan respectively. The new cast members include Rami Malek in a villainous role, plus Billy Magnussen and Ana de Armas. Check out some on-set footage here.Fleabag creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge was hired to add humour to the No Time To Die script, reportedly. No Time To Die hits theatres on April 3, 2020.Info from Gamespot.com

New Releases highlights some of the biggest games launching each week, but this bonus-length episode packs in a few extras. We've even got a dedicated sports section for eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 and NHL 20. This week is also home to AAA shooters like Gears 5 and Borderlands 3, plus some games you won't wanna let fly under your radar like GreedFall and Daemon x Machina. The gothic indie adventure Blasphemous arrives this week too.Gears 5 -- September 10Available on: Xbox One, PCGears 5 focuses on Kait Diaz, who will learn more about her own family's history as she uncovers the Locust's origins. Gears 5 offers the standard campaign and multiplayer options, but there are some big changes to other modes this time around. For one, Horde mode gives every character unique abilities and ultimate attacks--there's even a pair of characters from Halo: Reach in the mix. Characters also get special perks in the new Escape mode, a three-player co-op experience where you have to destroy Locust hives.More Coverage:Gears 5 Review In Progress - Mutating For The Better Gears 5 Having Rocky Launch But Dev Says Issues Are Being Worked OnBlasphemous -- September 10Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, SwitchBlasphemous is a combat-platformer set in the land of Cvstodia. You play as The Pertinent One, who wields a deadly blade known as the Mea Culpa. You can customize that blade with different adornments as you explore the world and take down massive bosses. Blasphemous developer The Game Kitchen promises "fast-paced, skilled combat [and] a deep and evocative narrative core."GreedFall -- September 10Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PCThe world of GreedFall is under the shadow of a deadly plague, and your hero will journey to a mysterious island in hopes of finding a cure. GreedFall is an RPG, but there are no set classes. Instead, you can choose from tons of skills to customize your playstyle to your liking, from combat to stealth to diplomacy. Your choices can change the direction of the story too.eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 -- September 10Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PCWhy the name change for PES 2020? This year's football game focuses on online multiplayer, with pro tournaments and the PES League. There's also a new mode called Matchday, where two pre-selected teams face off each day. You can log in and win the match for your team of choice--almost like a Splatoon 2 Splatfest, but with a real sport.More Coverage:How Do PES 2020's New Changes Impact This Year's Game?PES 2020: PS4 Pro Gameplay - Man United Vs. PES LegendsNHL 20 -- September 13Available on: PS4, Xbox OneNHL 20 has its own range of new features too. First, Franchise Mode is mixing things up by letting you hire coaches, which come with new dialog and scouting options. Hockey Ultimate Team is back with new Squad Battles, which gives you a fresh lineup of opponents to take on each day.More Coverage:NHL 20 Now Available With EA Access 10-Hour TrialNHL 20: All The Details On Franchise ModeBorderlands 3 -- September 13Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PCThere are new characters to check out in Borderlands 3 as well. Amara the Siren, Moze the Gunner, Zane the Operative, and FL4K the Beastmaster are your Vault Hunters for his adventure. You won't just be seeking Vaults on Pandora, though; for the first time, you can travel to other planets aboard the Sanctuary III. As usual, expect to find a ridiculous amount of guns as you battle the evil Calypso Twins.More Coverage:Borderlands 3 Pre-Order Guide: Diamond Loot Chest, Super Deluxe Edition, BonusesBorderlands 3 Launch Roundup - Release Date, Preload Details, Region Unlock Times, PC Specs, And MoreDaemon x Machina -- September 13Available on: SwitchNintendo Switch gets an exclusive this week thanks to Daemon x Machina, which is all about mech combat. You can customize your mech, known as an Arsenal, with different handheld and shoulder-mounted weapons--and you'll need all the firepower you can get to save the world after the moon is destroyed. Daemon x Machina offers local and online multiplayer too.More Coverage:Switch Exclusive Daemon X Machina Gets New Trailer Showing Off ImprovementsDaemon X Machina - Airborne Combat GameplayWe're only a few weeks into September, and there are plenty more games to come. Next week, New Releases will take a look at AAA releases like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and anticipated indies like Untitled Goose Game.Info from Gamespot.com

Square Enix is celebrating the 22nd anniversary of Final Fantasy VII's North American release by recreating one of the most iconic pieces of artwork for the game. The modern look is in line with the detailed visual style of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake, and fans are sure to get a kick out of the treatment Square Enix has given the art.Regardless of whether you're a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy VII specifically, or RPGs as a genre, you're probably familiar with the piece of art in question. It depicts the protagonist Cloud with his back to the viewer as he reaches for his sword. He stands facing the Shinra building, which can be seen towering above him in the distance. A cloud of thick black smog chokes the air above, while brilliant blue lights shoot out of the ground. All of this nicely captures the game's story of a small group of eco-terrorists fighting against a megacorporation to try and save the world they live in.On September 7, 1997, we released the original FINAL FANTASY VII in North America.To celebrate the anniversary we've remade one of the most iconic pieces of artwork from the original game, and now there are just under 6 months until the launch of #FinalFantasy VII Remake! #FF7R pic.twitter.com/OLjw4g6kOQ — FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) September 7, 2019The remade artwork comes just six months ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Remake March 3, 2020 release date. Square Enix previously revealed the game will span two Blu-ray discs when it launches on PS4, and there will be a $330 Final Fantasy 7 Remake collector's edition available. At E3 2019, we got an extended gameplay and combat demonstration, and we recently got to more hands-on time with it too. You can see what we thought in the video above.Info from Gamespot.com

Xbox Live services are currently suffering an outage. According to the Xbox Live Status page, those trying to connect will find they have limited to no access. The site states that core services such as signing in, as well as creating, managing, or recovering accounts are impacted. [Update: Xbox Live services are coming back online. Let's all celebrate by listening to Chumbawamba.]The outage is happening across Xbox One, Xbox on Windows 10, Xbox 360, and Xbox on other devices--so, pretty much anything that can sign into services. Xbox Support on Twitter has acknowledged the issue.Our teams are aware & currently investigating errors when attempting to sign in. We'll update here & on our status page: https://t.co/PzAdjUFMJj when we have more info to share. — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) September 7, 2019The latest update on the status page states Microsoft's "engineers and developers are actively continuing to resolve the issue causing some members to have problems signing in to Xbox Live. Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience."The outage will no doubt be frustrating to those who have early access to Gears 5, a core component of which is multiple multiplayer mode. Alongside the core campaign, which can be played co-operatively, there's the competitive multiplayer, Horde mode, and the new Escape mode. Naturally, there are many other games that rely on the Xbox Live network to function properly, most notably Fortnite.Although Gears 5 is available to a select group of people now, it becomes widely available on September 10. In our Gears 5 review in progress, Phil Hornshaw said it "is very much a return of those best elements of Gears of War" but with "a focus on making the game feel somewhat more adaptive to your particular ways of playing."He continued: "Whether you want campaign or co-op, Competitive or Quickplay, there's an option for you in Gears 5, and plenty of stuff to reward you for time spent and skill gained. Gears 5 might suffer from some of the same storytelling missteps as its predecessors, and it might not venture far out."Info from Gamespot.com

Epic has rolled out another set of Season 10 challenges in Fortnite: Battle Royale. This week's batch is called Boogie Down, and fittingly, most of the tasks involve dancing in front of certain objects or in specific locations. However, there are some areas of the island where dancing isn't allowed, and you'll need to go there and destroy the "no dancing" signs to complete one of this week's challenges. If you're not sure where those are located, here's what you need to do.Where Are The No Dancing Sign Locations?There are at least seven "no dancing" signs scattered across the island, and most are spread far apart, so you'll need to do quite a bit of walking around to find them. Thankfully, you only need to destroy three of the signs in order to complete the challenge, so it shouldn't take too long. You can see all of the locations we've found below. Northwest of Junk JunctionOn the mountain between The Block and Pleasant ParkNorthwest of Salty Springs, near the monster skeletonTop platform in Pressure PlantOn the mountain southeast of Paradise PalmsOn a mountain southeast of Frosty FlightsSouthwestern tip of the snow biomeHow To Complete The ChallengeAs previously mentioned, you only need to destroy three signs to complete this challenge, and they don't need to be within the same match, so you can land at one, destroy it either with your harvesting tool or a weapon you picked up, get eliminated, then hop into another match and land at a different sign until you've broken all three. Once the required number of signs have been smashed, the challenge will be complete.We still have a few weeks to go before Season 10 of Fortnite ends, which means there's still plenty of time to complete any remaining challenges from earlier in the season. If you need help with those, we've rounded up maps and tips for all of the trickier tasks in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges guide.Week 6's challenges arrive on the heels of Fortnite's 10.20 content update, which added a new throwable item called the Zapper Trap. It also brought the Floating Island from Season 6 back, and you'll need to visit it if you're trying to complete another challenge from this week: dance in front of a bat statue, way-aboveground pool, and a seat for giants.Info from Gamespot.com

It's been a tumultuous month for Peter Parker. After the deal brokered between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios allowing the character to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe collapsed, speculation has been swirling from all sides about what Spider-Man's live-action future may look like. Many fans have been holding out hope that the two studios will reach some sort of agreement that will allow him to continue appearing in the MCU--but, unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.As reported by Variety, Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra did not mince words when questioned about the ability for a compromise to be reached. "For the moment," Vinciquerra said, "the door is closed."However final these statements may seem, Vinciquerra also insisted that there is no "ill will" between Sony and Marvel over the deal and, cryptically, mentioned that it's "a long life," implying that while things are decidedly off the table right now, the future is still full of potential.Vinciquerra went on to nod to Sony's upcoming Spider-Man centric shared universe outside of the MCU, which kicked off with Venom last year. "Spider-Man was fine before the event movies, did better with the event movies, and now that we have our own universe, he will play off the other characters as well," Vinciquerra said. "I think we're pretty capable of doing what we have to do here."So, if there's a bright side to all of this, it looks like the possibility of Tom Holland's Peter Parker encountering Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock on the big screen might actually be on the table. What this means for the Spider-Man plot lines left dangling in the MCU in the wake of Spider-Man: Far From Home and Avengers: Endgame, however, is really anybody's guess.As for the (somewhat playful, somewhat serious) speculation about Disney's potential acquisition of Sony to resolve the issue, Vinciquerra stated plainly that "Sony Pictures is not for sale."Marvel boss Kevin Feige also recently discussed the potential end of Spider-Man in the MCU, saying, "It was never meant to last forever." Info from Gamespot.com

The story of Stephen King's It may not be new--the book is over thirty years old after all--but given how different the most recent movie adaptations are from the source material, it's a given that the ending would have some pretty major departures as well. How do the Losers manage to face down the nightmare that is Pennywise once and for all this time around? Where do they end up after the fact? How does the new movie stack up to the '90s miniseries and the original novel in terms of concluding each Loser's individual story?Get ready for some major It Chapter 2 spoilers as we break down exactly what it took to destroy the monster that devoured the children of Derry, Maine every 27 years. It Chapter 2 Coverage It Chapter 2 Review: A Messy Finale Does It Chapter 2 Have A Post Credits Scene? We Explain The Ending It Chapter 2: 25 Easter Eggs And References Hidden In The Horror It Chapter 2: 14 Major Differences Between The Movies, Book, And Miniseries Defeating PennywiseThe adult Losers--minus Stan, who, in keeping with his story in the book, killed himself before the reunion--eventually find their way back to Neibolt House, where they retrace their steps from 27 years ago. They wind up back in the sewers, but things are different in Pennywise's cistern-based nest this time. There's no longer a giant stack of debris surrounded by floating bodies. Instead, there's a wooden hatch that the Losers are able to open and climb down into the place where Pennywise actually arrived from space millions of years ago.Think the Lighthouse cave from the movie Annihilation and you'll be in the right ballpark for what this strange new cave actually looks like--lots of oil-slick colored rock protrusions and surreal lighting effects, coupled with some warping, maw-like caverns in the ceiling.It's in this sub-sewer area that the Losers are able to attempt the Ritual of Chüd, which involves them all burning "tokens" from their past and then chanting "turn light into darkness" as they hold hands around a ceremonial leather jug which Mike says will be able to trap the deadlights--Pennywise's true form. Bill's token is Georgie's boat, Bev's is the poem Ben wrote her, Richie's is a literal token from the arcade he played Street Fighter in, Mike's is the rock that hit Bowers from the rock fight in 1989, Eddie's is his inhaler, and Ben's is the page of his yearbook that Bev signed. They use a shower cap for Stan, given context by a flashback earlier in the movie where it's revealed that Stan was afraid of getting spiders in his hair in their underground clubhouse as a kid.Unfortunately, things don't actually work according to Mike's plan, and rather than trapping the deadlights, the Losers only succeed in summoning Pennywise himself into the nest area. He attacks, sending each Loser off into a new individual nightmare which nearly kills them before they each manage to fight their way back to the nest. During the final confrontation, Mike is nearly killed, but Richie manages to distract Pennywise long enough to save him--a move that gets him caught in the hypnotic deadlights, just like Bev had been 27 years ago. It's Eddie who finds the courage to rush to Richie's aid, throwing a piece of wrought iron fence like a javelin into Pennywise's maw.Eddie rushes to Richie's side, believing he's killed It, but as he's leaning over Richie's body, Pennywise skewers him with a claw and flings him across the cave. The Losers frantically try to save him, while Eddie chooses that moment to tell them that, earlier, during another Pennywise nightmare where he saw the leper from his childhood, he was certain he could kill it. He confesses that he almost choked it to death. This inspires the Losers to attempt a new plan--they'll "make Pennywise small," first literally, by forcing him into tight quarters, and then metaphorically when that fails, because they realized, with Eddie's help, that Pennywise functions primarily on belief.It's not completely clear why or how this revelation is different from the similar revelation they had as children when they began to beat Pennywise to death almost three decades ago. Apparently getting pummeled by children was less effective than being yelled at by adults.They (minus Richie, who at first refuses to leave Eddie's side) begin hurling insults at Pennywise, proclaiming that he's not scary or dangerous at all, which miraculously begins to shrink Pennywise down into a pathetic blob. When Pennywise is weakened enough, Mike reaches in and tears its heart out, holding it for all the Losers to crush in their hands.With Pennywise defeated, the nest begins to collapse. The Losers are forced to leave Eddie--who died as Pennywise was killed--behind as they escape, dragging Richie away as he yells "we can still help him!" Neibolt House collapses into a sinkhole as they stumble outside.The AftermathWith their ordeal over, the Losers immediately head to the quarry, where they re-live their childhood by jumping off the cliffside into the water to wash the mud and blood off themselves. Richie, still grieving Eddie's loss, sits in the water and sobs as the other Losers gather around him. Eventually, Bev and Ben finally share a kiss after Bev was able to remember that it was Ben, not Bill, who wrote her secret admirer poem all those years ago.When the Losers leave the quarry, they realize the scars on their palms are gone. Their oath is finally fulfilled.Each surviving Loser is then given a brief epilogue. Mike, finally satisfied that the job is done, leaves Derry. Bill returns home--presumably to his wife--and begins a new book. Ben and Bev move in together onto a yacht with a dog. Richie returns to Derry's Kissing Bridge, where he secretly carved his "R + E" love confession for Eddie when he was a child and re-carves the E. Each Loser gets a letter from Stan, which is read as the final narration. He admits that he killed himself because he was too scared to return to Derry and he knew they wouldn't be able to defeat Pennywise if they were all alive and not there--so he "took himself off the board."Why Stan decided that the fear of being killed was somehow worse than actually killing himself isn't exactly clear, but the tone of the scene is deeply sincere and meant to feel nostalgic and sweet rather than tragic. (It is extremely tragic.)Unsurprisingly, there are no post-credits stingers or special moments after the credits roll. The story has reached the end of the source material, for one, and everyone (except Stan, Eddie, and Richie--so, uh, 4 out of 7) managed to get their happy ending. This time around--unlike the novel--the Losers don't intend to forget their friends or their experiences when they all go back to their lives, as Mike explains, "because they have more they want to remember." Info from Gamespot.com

NHL 20 is slated for release on September 13 across Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but EA Access members can start playing right now. A 10-hour Play First trial for the hockey simulation game is out now on both platforms. It's the full version of the game, but limited to 10 hours of total playtime. EA typically releases its new games on EA Access about five days before release, so this is something of a change of form given that NHL 20's release is still a full seven days away. It's not immediately clear why EA chose to release NHL 20 on EA Access so early, but hockey fans aren't complaining.The NHL 20 file size on Xbox One is about 30 GB; it's likely similar on PlayStation 4. The game brings back the pond hockey mode from NHL 19, while it also has its own unique spin on battle royale. In addition, NHL 20 makes a major change for the commentary and broadcast package. EA has also released a list of the top 50 players, and Connor McDavid is No. 1.Keep checking back with GameSpot for lots more on NHL 20.Info from Gamespot.com

We're quickly nearing the migration of Destiny 2's PC version from its current home on Battle.net to its new home on Steam. That move gets completed on October 1 with the launch of Shadowkeep, and Bungie has already suggested players link their accounts to Steam now to facilitate the transfer. There's another caveat, though: If you're already a PC player, you should log in before October 1 for a bit of housekeeping.In its most recent This Week at Bungie blog, the developer noted that it has stopped selling Silver, Destiny 2's premium currency, on Battle.net ahead of the move to Steam. If you don't already own any Silver on PC, you don't have to worry--when the Steam transfer goes through, you'll be able to buy Silver as normal. But if you already own some Silver on PC that you purchased from for the Battle.net version, you're in danger of losing it in the migration."Players should be aware, however, that all in order for recent Silver purchases to successfully transfer to Steam, players MUST log in to Destiny 2 on Battle.net before October 1 to claim their purchased Silver," Bungie wrote on the blog.Easy enough, but the October 1 deadline means it's worth popping into Destiny 2 sooner rather than later to make sure your premium currency transfers successfully. While we're in a bit of a dead period awaiting the launch of Shadowkeep, there's a community event taking place on Mars this week that encourages players to take part in Nightfall Strikes and Escalation Protocol events. There's also another Iron Banner event coming before the end of the Season of Opulence and the start of Destiny 2 Year 3.Info from Gamespot.com

Double Fine has developed a veritable bucketload of games since Tim Schafer founded the studio back in 2000. From Brutal Legend to Iron Brigade, Broken Age, and the upcoming Psychonauts 2, just to name a few. In 2014, the studio branched out and started a publishing arm as a way to help indie developers and provide their games with more exposure, with Double Fine taking a cut of the revenue in return.This might not happen for too much longer, however. Microsoft acquired the studio earlier this year, potentially rendering the Double Fine Presents label redundant. "How Double Fine Presents will evolve is kind of an unknown," Schafer said in a recent interview with Destructoid. "It doesn't make sense to do exactly the kind of publishing stuff if we can't do it--like if the platforms are limited. From a business sense, I don't know if it structurally makes sense to have a publisher within [another publisher]. It's a complicated issue."Despite this, Schafer expressed a desire to continue helping indie devs in any way they can. "If you go back to why Double Fine Presents existed, a lot of it came about because there's so many games and it's really hard for any individual game now to get a lot of attention for itself," Schafer explained. "We've been through a lot of deals, seen how they happen, how platform-holders operate, how the press works--all these different things that maybe a first-time indie dev doesn't know about. We thought we could help them with that and also kind of pick our favorite games and give them more exposure. Whether or not we're still hands-on publishing those games ourselves, we can still be fulfilling that mission of just helping indie devs even though we're a part of Microsoft."To Microsoft's credit, Xbox Studios boss Matt Booty said the company would consider allowing some of its studios to release games on competing consoles on a case-by-case basis. When asked directly if Microsoft would allow Double Fine to release future titles on platforms that compete with Xbox, Booty replied, "Yeah, I think we would."Even if this doesn't come to fruition, Schafer expressed a desire to continue helping indie devs in other ways. "We can also still do things like Day of the Devs which is another part of Double Fine Presents that helps elevate 70 or 80 games," he continued. "We let people come meet those developers and play those games, and it's free to the public. It's a great way to approach that same mission, and we can still do that without officially putting our name on it and taking a share of the revenue. We don't have to do that anymore."Knights & Bikes is the most recent game to be published by Double Fine Presents. The charming cooperative adventure from Foam Sword Games was a hit with David Wildgoose, who said, "Knights & Bikes is a wonderfully warm, effortlessly inviting experience that'll make you feel young again," in GameSpot's review. Whether this is the last indie game Double Fine publishes remains to be seen, but whatever the case, it sounds like the studio will continue to support indie creators and give their games the platform and exposure they need to succeed.Info from Gamespot.com

Celeste's much anticipated free DLC update, Chapter 9: Farewell, finally has a release date. The add-on for the tough as nails platformer launches on September 9 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC (though the Xbox One release might slip to a slightly later date).Creator Matt Thorson initially unveiled the free DLC update back in December, saying the team planned to release a set of "very hard" farewell levels for Celeste in early 2019. Clearly, the update is arriving much later than anticipated, but we'll finally have our hands on it next week.Chapter 9: Farewell is a new story chapter that takes place after the events of the original game. It contains over 100 new levels, bringing Celeste's total up to over 800, and incorporates several new mechanics and items to discover and play with as you reconnect with beloved characters for a final goodbye. There are no B- or C-Sides this time around, but it does feature over 40 minutes of new music from Lena Raine. Now that Chapter 9 is finished, the long-awaited physical release of Celeste will shortly enter production, too.In a blog post announcing Chapter 9's imminent release, Thorson also explained that Matt Makes Games Inc. is no more. "I started Matt Makes Games when I was working solo in my parents' basement, and I never thought I'd be working with such an amazing team on games of this scale," Thorson said. "On TowerFall, my collaborators took a larger role than I anticipated, and on Celeste, it was obvious that calling ourselves Matt Makes Games had become silly." Now, the Celeste team has been renamed Extremely OK Games, complete with an office in Vancouver where all of the team will work together. The newly titled developer is already working on its next game, code-named EXOK1.GameSpot awarded Celeste a 9/10 in our review. "It's a testament to convincing writing and ingenious design that after playing Celeste I felt like I'd been on the same journey as Madeline," Oscar Dayus said. "Her struggle is one made easy to empathize with, her low points painful to watch, and her high notes exhilarating to experience. Her tale is delicately told and beautifully illustrated, confidently coalescing with the satisfying, empowering game it lies within. Not bad for a game about climbing a mountain."Info from Gamespot.com

The 100th season of the NFL kicked off last night (condolences Bears fans), and EA is celebrating with a free trial for Madden NFL 20 that runs throughout this weekend. You can download the free trial right now and play until September 8 to get a taste of the new features and game modes on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.The free trial also coincides with the release of a brand new game mode in Madden 20 called Superstar KO. This wacky new mode streamlines the Madden experience with five-minute games that feature truncated playbooks, cooperative 3-on-3 action, and celebrity coaches like DJ Khaled."Madden NFL 20 is an improved version of the annualized professional football series that excels in some areas and leaves something to be desired in others," Eddie Makuch said in GameSpot's Madden 20 review. "The new QB1 career mode--which includes a barebones NCAA football experience--overall feels like a half-baked idea that doesn't deliver anything meaningful or interesting. When it comes to the on-the-field action, however, the new X-Factor and Superstar abilities shake up the familiar gameplay formula to give seasoned players and newcomers alike a fresh way to scheme plays and orchestrate strategy on both sides of the ball."Info from Gamespot.com

The Legend of Bum-Bo, the long-awaited prequel to indie success The Binding of Isaac, is finally launching on November 12. Edmund McMillen and the team behind Super Meat Boy and The End is Nigh are going in a very different direction with the much-anticipated prequel.While The Binding of Isaac was a top-down roguelike with twin-stick shooting and pixel art, The Legend of Bum-Bo adopts turn-based combat with a match-four-style puzzle system that's set in a grubby papercraft world. You play as the titular Bum-Bo--who was previously a passive item in The Binding of Isaac--and must traverse through procedurally generated dungeons, lining up glyphs from a bag of trash to attack, defend, and cast various spells. You can check out the trailer for yourself below.McMillan first announced the "turn-based puzzle RPG type thingy" back in 2016. It was originally scheduled to arrive in 2017 but has suffered through multiple delays since. Now it looks set to arrive on November 12 for PC and Mac, with iOS and Nintendo Switch versions due some time later.Info from Gamespot.com