The hotly-anticipated, long-in-development action-adventure game Shenmue III is slated to come out in two months, and ahead of the game's November release, video game distributor Limited Run Games announced a cool PlayStation 4 Collector's Edition that includes a Dreamcast case and a slew of other goodies.Alongside the commemorative Dreamcast case--which has a reversible cover--the PlayStation 4 Shenmue III Collector's Edition comes with a physical copy of the game, some patches and stickers, a doubled-sided mirror, and a desk lamp. Pre-orders are expected to open on September 9, but no price has been revealed as of yet.Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast with a Shenmue III Collector's Edition for PS4, featuring a commemorative Dreamcast case! This CE will be available to pre-order on Monday, September 9 beginning at 12pm ET, only on https://t.co/5Lksol4sqo. pic.twitter.com/TdLiuvMapa — Limited Run ✨ RIVER CITY GIRLS (@LimitedRunGames) September 5, 2019Epic announced it will refund Shenmue III Kickstarter backers following the Epic Games Store exclusivity deal on PC. Developer Ys Net responded to criticism regarding the decision, asking fans to have patience while the team gets back to their offices to "assess the situation and find a way forward to justify the trust you placed in us." Not long after, Ys Net explained how Shenmue III will roll out on PC, and it's pretty messy.Shenmue III will launch on November 19 for PC and PlayStation 4.Info from Gamespot.com

One of the more surprising announcements in the September 2019 Nintendo Direct was the immediate release of Deadly Premonition, the cult hit horror game, on Nintendo Switch--rebranded as Deadly Premonition Origins. Though it's an easy way to catch up with the 2010 classic, a persistent bug may put off some players.Based on our playtime, the audio in the open world is inconsistent and will sometimes cut out altogether. The protagonist's lines while driving will sporadically not be delivered, or some ambient sounds will work while others don't. For example, you may hear footsteps but not gunfire. Cutscenes also suffer audio issues, ranging from the audio stopping partway through to delivering music without dialogue. We streamed the game today, and as you can see in the video replay above, we encountered the issue again.A horror game with inconsistent sound can be especially distracting, which makes the Deadly Premonition port hard to recommend in its current state. It also appeared to have a water texture missing in an opening cutscene. GameSpot has contacted Toybox Inc regarding the bugs.The Nintendo Direct also brought word of Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise. The sequel will bring back director Hidetaka Suehiro, aka Swery65, and is slated for release in 2020. It will be a prequel set in 2005, and it takes place in a small Louisiana town called Le Carré.Info from Gamespot.com

Last week, LGC Entertainment announced that it had purchased the Telltale Games trademarks, assets, and technology with the intent to re-release some of the beloved developer's games and create new ones. And with this pseudo-revival of Telltale Games comes a sale for some of its best series.New publishing partner Athlon Games is discounting several Telltale titles by 50% from September 5-9. These include Batman and Batman: The Enemy Within for PS4, Xbox One, PC, iOS, and Android. GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain found the first Batman series to be a bit uneven in quality from episode to episode, while praising the second season throughout in his The Enemy Within reviews.My favourite Telltale story, The Wolf Among Us, is also half-off and available for PS4, Xbox One, PC, iOS, and Android. GameSpot's Justin Clark praised its strong writing, characterization, and beautiful noir setting in our The Wolf Among Us review. It's a fantastic little tale that, even though it never got a sequel, stands on its own as something truly great.The sale also discounts some of Telltale's more classic-style adventure games as well. I adore the Puzzle Agent and Puzzle Agent 2, which combine bite-sized puzzles with adventure game trappings. They're both available on PC and iOS. And lastly, Hector: Badge of Carnage is discounted on Steam. It's a humourous tale about a British (and hungover) cop trying to solve crimes.You can check out the available deals below. All prices are in USD.PS4The Telltale Batman Bundle - $15Batman Episode 1 - $2.50Batman Season Pass (Episodes 2-5) - $7.50Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 1 - $2.50Batman: The Enemy Within Season Pass (Episodes 2-5) - $7.50The Wolf Among Us - $7.50Xbox OneThe Telltale Batman Bundle - $15Batman Episode 1 - $2.50Batman Season Pass (Episodes 2-5) - $7.50Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 1 - $2.50Batman: The Enemy Within Season Pass (Episodes 2-5) - $7.50The Wolf Among Us - $7.50PCBatman - $7.50Batman: The Enemy Within - $7.50The Wolf Among Us - $7.50Puzzle Agent - $2.50Puzzle Agent 2 - $5Hector: Badge of Carnage - $7.50Info 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

Xbox ANZ has announced a new product line around Gears 5, and it might not be what you expect. The company is working with Australian designer Jason Moss on a line of Gears 5-inspired unisex jewellery.There are two products in the collection, the first of which is a Locust-themed necklace featuring gear and skull pendants attached to a silver chain. The other piece is a ring that features the gear and the skull uniquely interwoven into one item to in essence form the crimson omen that the Gears franchise is known for. Both were forged in fire and cast in cold silver.You might not know Moss by name, but you may be familiar with his work. Most recently, he created some of the pieces that Harry Styles wore in his Rolling Stone cover shoot.The Gears of War jewellery is extremely limited, as only 100 of each are being made. Microsoft is giving them away through the Xbox ANZ Facebook; go there to learn how you can win one."We know that fans of Gears are loud and proud when it comes to their passion for the franchise, and we wanted to create something that would allow them to showcase their pride every day. With so many complex themes weaving throughout the Gears universe, Jason Moss with his experimental, raw style was the perfect artist to bring this collection to life," Xbox ANZ boss Tania Chee said in a statement. The Gears of War jewellery is just the latest unique product from Xbox ANZ. Before this, they released the Xbox body wash (which is currently on sale) and the Xbox Onesie.Gears 5 launches today, September 6, through the Ultimate Edition and for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. Everyone else can start playing on September 10. Gears 5 is available for Xbox One and PC.GameSpot awarded Gears 5 a 7/10 in our review in progress. We're currently in the process of testing the multiplayer servers more extensively before handing down a final verdict.Info from Gamespot.com

The Epic Games Store has continued to offer free weekly games for its users, and another solid batch of games are now available: The End Is Nigh and Abzu. It's hard to top last week's offering of freebies--Celeste and Inside--but it's worth claiming these latest free games while they're available for the next week. To take advantage of these weekly free games, all you need is a free Epic Games account. Once you add them to your account, the games are yours to keep--no subscription of any sort needed.Abzu is an underwater adventure game where you play as a diver exploring lush ocean environments, from kelp forests to coral reefs and black trenches, encountering all kinds of sea life along the way. Its development team included several people who worked on Journey, and Abzu is similar to that game in that there's no dialogue or overt story. It did, however, earn a 9/10 in GameSpot's Abzu review."When I die, I hope whatever happens next is even half as beautiful as Abzu," wrote critic Scott Butterworth. "Its mesmerizing soundtrack and Wind Waker-esque visuals are among the most enrapturing in recent memory, yet the game's true beauty stems not from its bittersweet score and inviting undersea environments but from its unfailing ability to imbue every moment with childlike wonder. Abzu is serene and meditative, calming and cathartic, moving and timeless, its simple components assembled so elegantly as to become something altogether richer."Then you've got The End Is Nigh, an apocalyptic platformer from the developer of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac. In The End Is Nigh, you'll control a small black blob called Ash, one of the sole survivors of "the end of the world." As you make your way through over 600 single-screen levels, you'll gather collectibles that consist of tumors and video game cartridges (yes, you read that right). There are also multiple endings and bonus levels to be discovered. While GameSpot hasn't reviewed The End Is Nigh, the game has generally positive reviews on Metacritic and Steam.Abzu and The End Is Nigh will be available for free via the Epic Games Store until next Thursday, September 12, when they'll be replaced by Conarium as the next free game.Get Abzu and The End Is Nigh free at EpicInfo from Gamespot.com

The John Wick series has delivered some phenomenal action sequences through its three movies. One of these moments featured Wick riding a horse through New York City while assassins on motorcycles were chasing after him, trying to kill him. And one of the special features from the upcoming home release for John Wick 3: Parabellum details how the scene came together and features a very excited Keanu Reeves.While this special feature titled "Saddle Up Wick" goes into great detail about the ins and outs of this sequence and its training, the real star of the piece is the breathtaking visage and interviews with Keanu Reeves.This scene came together simply because the idea of John Wick on a horse is an awesome sight. "When we were finishing [John Wick] Chapter 2, I was like, 'Ok. We're in the park. John is running for his life. Let's get John on a horse,'" Reeves said with the level of excitement of a child getting a pony for Christmas. "[Director Chad Stahelski] was like, 'Yes!'" You can see a portion of Saddle Up Wick below.Special features for home releases can be a bit dry and dull, but Keanu Reeves makes this featurette well-worth your time because there is nothing better than watching him riding a horse, with a gigantic smile on his face.Reeves explained he was excited to begin training, and the film's horse wrangler said the actor had a lot of respect for the animals. The featurette goes into extreme detail about laying down rubber mats on the streets of New York to protect the horse's hooves, how the FX team digitally removed the wire harnesses holding Reeves up, and the specially built truck to film the sequence and hold the actor upright on the horse at the same time. However interesting that may all be, nothing is as great as seeing Reeves trying to contain his excitement as soon as the cameras stop rolling.John Wick 3: Parabellum on Blu-ray$20See it on AmazonParabellum scored a 7/10 on GameSpot where Mike Rougeau said in his review of the movie, "Keanu Reeves' John Wick is still the instant classic action anti-hero he's always been, and John Wick 3 absolutely delivers loads more of what the series' fans love. It's just that, for the first time, it's possible to envision a future in which we love it less and less."John Wick 3 comes to DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD on Tuesday, September 10. The special features contain nine featurettes about the world of John Wick and the action sequences filmed for the movie. Additionally, there is a game trailer for John Wick Hex, which should arrive in 2020.The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.Info from Gamespot.com

Week 6 of Fortnite Season 10 has arrived, which means there's a new batch of challenges for Battle Pass holders to complete in Epic's popular battle royale game. This week's set is called Boogie Down, and as the name implies, most of the challenges revolve around music or dancing, like one that asks you to visit an oversized piano. This challenge may be tricky if you're not sure where the piano is located, which is why we've put together this map and guide to help you out.Where Is The Oversized Piano Located?The oversized piano has been a fixture of the island for some time, so if you're a Fortnite veteran, you'll likely already know where to go. If you're not as familiar with the island, the piano can be found on the easternmost edge, just east of Lonely Lodge--head there and you'll see a giant keyboard on the ground. If you need more help finding it, we've marked its location on the map below.How To Complete The ChallengeOnce you know where the piano is, completing this challenge is simply a matter of going to it--no note playing necessary. However, once you've completed all seven of the standard Boogie Down challenges, you'll unlock harder Prestige versions of them, and the Prestige equivalent of this tasks has you playing the sheet music located nearby.There are still a few weeks to go before Season 10 of Fortnite ends, so you have plenty of time to complete any remaining challenges from this season. If you need help with those, you can find maps and tips for all of the trickier missions in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges guide.Ahead of the Week 6 challenges, Epic rolled out Fortnite's 10.20 content update, which added a new throwable item to the game: the Zapper Trap. The update also brought the Floating Island from Season 6 back, and you'll need to visit it if you're trying to complete the dance in front of a bat statue, way-aboveground pool, and a seat for giants challenge.Info from Gamespot.com

While movies such as Halloween and Friday the 13th are widely credited with kickstarting the slasher movie craze of the 1980s, they were predated by the low budget 1974 Canadian movie Black Christmas. Bob Clark's brilliantly tense chiller has been remade once before already, back in 2006, and now another version hits theaters in December. The first trailer has been released.Unlike the earlier Black Christmas remake, this latest movie does seem to take the storyline in a different direction. The initial setup is the same--a group of partying college students are menaced by a killer on the last day before the Christmas vacation. But the trailer suggests that there is some wider conspiracy going on, with the sorority sisters teaming up to fight back. Check the trailer out below--just be warned that it does seem to give quite a lot away.The official Black Christmas synopsis reads: "Hawthorne College is quieting down for the holidays. But as Riley Stone and her Mu Kappa Epsilon sisters prepare to deck the halls with a series of seasonal parties, a black-masked stalker begins killing sorority women one by one. As the body count rises, Riley and her squad start to question whether they can trust any man. Whoever the killer is, he's about to discover that this generation's young women aren't about to be anybody's victims."Black Christmas stars Imogen Poots (Green Room), Cary Elwes (Stranger Things), Brittany O'Grady (Star), and Aleyse Shannon (Charmed). It's directed by Sophia Takal, who previously made the acclaimed indie horror Always Shine, and produced by horror specialists Blumhouse (Us, The Purge). It releases on December 13.For more check out GameSpot's guide to the best upcoming horror movies of 2019, plus our look at the scariest Holiday horror movies of all time. Info from Gamespot.com

Man of Medan is set almost entirely at sea on an enormous, abandoned boat. Loosely based on the real-life mystery of the OSS Ourang Medan, which became a shipwreck in the late 1940s after its entire crew were lost under mysterious circumstances, Man of Medan is also the first part of Supermassive Games' proposed Dark Pictures Anthology--a series of short, branching horror narrative experiences in the vein of its tremendous 2015 surprise hit, Until Dawn. If you've played Until Dawn, you'll know what to expect. But despite a smart online co-op mode, Man of Medan's weak narrative ultimately makes it a disappointing first installment.The game's plot jumps between five different playable characters who are all experiencing the same event. You'll determine their ultimate fates by making decisions for them, as well as responding to quick-time events. There are reportedly 69 different potential deaths you can experience (including those of non-playable characters), but it's also entirely possible that your whole crew will survive. Alternatively, they might all die. Man of Medan's main selling point is that your decisions will affect how things play out, how the relationships between your characters will develop, and what you'll uncover and experience along the way.In conversations, and at pivotal points in the plot, you'll often be given three options, one of which is always to say or do nothing. So focused is Man of Medan on its story, there are no puzzles to solve or combat systems to master outside of these choices, just lots of exploring and quick-time events. However, the game is plagued by a big central problem: a fundamentally weak plot.The story isn't engaging, as the player is given little reason to care about the characters and the horror tropes being explored mostly feel hackneyed and uncreative. After a brief prologue scene set in the '40s, you spend Man of Medan's four-hour (give or take) runtime in the present day. The story opens with the crew planning a dive to a previously untouched sunken fighter plane from World War II, which ultimately leads to a series of events that sees them trapped on the Medan, a seemingly haunted abandoned ship, held captive by a pirate gang who are convinced that the ship--which is riddled with dead bodies--contains treasure. Naturally, things start going bump in the night, and the gang finds themselves dealing with various ghouls and terrors too.There are plot holes and character inconsistencies throughout, some minor, some more blatant. It’s perhaps easy to forgive the questionable presence of rats all over the boat, still gnawing on hunks of meat that have been on the ship since the 40s, but it’s less easy to excuse how blasé the characters act about the horrifying situations they find themselves in. They're mostly unlikeable, too--There's the cool but insecure Alex, his dorky younger brother Brad, Alex's outgoing, wealthy partner Julia, Julia's obnoxious but well-meaning brother Conrad, and Fliss, the captain of the small boat the four have chartered at the story's opening. The dialogue is generally not very good; at times it successfully recreates the feeling of watching a fun-but-silly teen slasher, occasionally hitting that good-bad sweet-spot as a character awkwardly refers to something as ‘lit’ or flirts awkwardly, but it can also be annoying when the five central characters' interactions sound stilted and unrealistic. Without spoiling anything, the story also explains a little too much about what's happening on the Medan in a way that makes repeated playthroughs much less satisfying.There's also an over-reliance on jump scares, which cheapens the horror experience. One standout sequence midway through the game that does a great job of getting under your skin, as Brad finds himself stuck in a looping hallway that grows just a bit weirder every time he travels down it, but otherwise Man of Medan is reliant on spring-loaded cats and lots of suddenly-morphing faces. On the plus side, it looks tremendous--the character models can be a bit waxy, but the ship is extremely detailed and creepy, and the game effectively communicates how unpleasant the act of exploring a creaky rustbucket full of dark corners and rotting corpses must be. The trade-off, at least on a base PS4, is that animations frequently stutter, breaking the mood as frames slip away.There are pacing issues, too, especially with the extremely slow opening section that weighs down repeat playthroughs. While you can see different scenes or experience unique outcomes with each playthrough, some scenes will be essentially unchanged each time, which can quickly grate. You'll also occasionally have to check in on 'The Curator', an omnipresent suited man who is clearly meant to be the mascot for and host of the Dark Pictures Anthology. He's a pompous version of the Crypt Keeper (from Tales From The Crypt), but without any of the "good evening, boys and ghouls" merriment you want from a horror anthology host, and as a result, he doesn't quite fit.Multiplayer is Man of Medan's big addition to the formula laid out by Until Dawn. There are two forms of co-op: Shared Story, in which two players tackle the game together online, and Movie Night, where up to five players can play together offline, playing through the chapters of whichever characters they are assigned at the start. Playing together on the couch is perhaps meant to evoke that "don't go in there" feeling of watching a fun horror movie with friends, but Man of Medan's relatively straightforward level designs, which never make it seem dangerous to wander off-path and explore the open doors and alternate pathways you encounter, don't particularly facilitate this. Death is more often down to a failed QTE rather than a dialogue choice you made or because you decided to investigate something spooky. In fact, right near the end, a mistimed button press can be the difference between everyone surviving and everyone dying--being responsible for that in front of your friends is more embarrassing than it is funny.However, so many of the game's issues feel like much less of a problem when you jump into the smart and innovative online mode. It is, without a doubt, the definitive way to experience Man of Medan, especially if you're playing with another person who is familiar with the material. Shared Story sees you both playing at the same time, taking control of different characters as their scenes play out simultaneously. You'll both, eventually, get a turn with every character (if they live long enough), and often your paths will diverge. Once the five main characters meet after the initial prologue, Shared Story immediately offers a more engaging experience than the single-player campaign can.Early on, for instance, I played through a sequence where two characters dived down to inspect something underwater, while my co-op buddy stayed on the boat and experienced a different part of the story. In single-player, you'll still see both scenes, but one will be greatly truncated. In online co-op, some scenes are expanded, or you might occasionally see parts of the story, or make choices, that cannot be accessed in single-player.This led to the two of us conspiring to make certain things happen, to bend the game's story to our will. We were more successful with some outcomes than others (a failed quick-time event led to an unexpected death early on), but working together to achieve dramatic satisfaction, and choosing when to reveal what just happened and when to let the other player try to figure out what we'd done in our scenes, was a delight. Each player won't see every scene when playing this way, and it's entirely possible to play without ever communicating, which makes the plot more unpredictable.No matter how much or little you choose to share, though, Shared Story is absolutely the right way to play the game. It's very well designed; my co-op partner and I never found ourselves waiting for the other player to hurry up and trigger the next cutscene, and being able to see how your friend is trying to direct a scene, and deciding whether to help or hinder them in that, is excellent. It feels like you're working together to wring as many interesting outcomes as you can out of the game, and effectively doubling the number of potential choices leads to a much stronger sense of variety.Man of Medan is still telling a weak story, though, as much as Shared Story plasters over this with its excellent take on co-op, which lets you plan things out and work together to craft the narrative you want to tell (and kill the characters you find the most annoying). If you can organize a session with someone else who owns the game and play through the whole thing together, it's an excellent experience; but if you're after another single-player horror narrative experience like the one offered in Until Dawn, it's very disappointing. As a show of the potential for the Dark Pictures Anthology, Man of Medan is largely a success, but as a first episode, it leaves plenty to be desired. 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 before--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." 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.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

You wouldn't be blamed for thinking that the latest game in the Gears of War franchise is another entry from the middle of the original trilogy's Locust War. Shooting gooey reptilian monsters, exploring ruined labs, and chainsawing other players are the things Gears does best, and Gears 5 squarely focuses on strengthening those core elements. The underpinnings of the series haven't been tweaked much in its sixth entry, but The Coalition adds a lot of new stuff in its second game since taking the reins on the Gears of War franchise. While Gears 5's story is largely obsessed with the past, and to some degree, Gears 5 stays there too, the new additions help revitalize the series' best old ideas.And there are a lot of new additions. On the cooperative multiplayer side, characters get new abilities so that they each play a little differently. Expansive progression systems in competitive and co-op multiplayer draw from games like Fortnite and Call of Duty to give you a constant feeling of advancement. Even the story campaign has something of an RPG-like progression system, as well as a few wide-open areas that change up the series' traditionally linear approach. The Coalition hasn't moved far from the fundamentals of Gears gameplay--you still move deliberately, diving between cover positions behind chest-high walls and other debris to pop out and shoot at enemies with a variety of guns. Carefully timing your active reloads gets you the most out of your firepower, and you're always searching the battlefield for new weapons better suited to the enemies you're taking down. Gory executions and melee kills are still essential at close quarters. But the game has grown significantly, with a free Battle Pass-like system, hero shooter-inspired characters, and other improvements that are all welcome evolutions for a 13-year-old franchise.While the new elements don't stop Gears 5 from feeling true to the earlier games in the franchise, at least in its 12-hour story campaign, there's also a lot of ground that's being revisited. The Locust are back, but they're called the Swarm now. You'll spend some time trying to convince straggly bands of surviving humans to join forces with the fascist COG army to fight the Swarm, but these folks aren't called the Stranded anymore; they're Outsiders. Most of the game concerns bringing a franchise superweapon, the Hammer of Dawn, back online to use against your enemies. Gears is undoubtedly back in the same territory it covered with the trilogy that wrapped up back in 2011, and while some of the tools in this war are different, the war has mostly gone unchanged. Gears 5 is weakened somewhat by being mired in the past; there are some strong moments in its campaign, but it struggles to move forward in a way that's a satisfying continuation of the narrative.The story picks up not long after the events of Gears of War 4, in which JD Fenix--son of series poster boy Marcus Fenix--and his pals Del and Kait discovered the Swarm threat and set out to stop it. You'll mostly just run around shooting various groups of Swarm monsters from behind cover in much the same way you always have in previous games--but Gears 5 breaks things up with a few variations on the gameplay that improve on its predecessors.Instead of focusing on JD and his relationship with Marcus as in Gears 4, the sequel recenters on Kait, who lost her mother to the Swarm at the end of the last game. Gears 4's ending suggested that Kait has a connection to the Locust horde that Marcus helped to genocide 25 years ago, and a good portion of Gears 5 is about exploring that connection and uncovering secrets long buried by the COG government.The first and last Acts are more traditional Gears fare, in that you're guided through a series of missions that are mostly about taking objectives, backing up other squads, and killing giant monsters. But in the middle of the game, Gears 5 changes the pace with two open segments. You hop aboard a skiff, which is essentially a dogsled with a sail on it, and zip over the terrain of a snowy valley and across a vast desert. These areas feel fundamentally different from past Gears games, allowing you to explore and look for side objectives where you can pick up small subplots of story and grab hidden collectibles and upgrades, advancing the main plot (or not) at your own pace.The open areas don't take you too far out of the Gears norm--you won't be accosted by roaming forces or stuck in a shootout in the middle of the wilderness. Arriving at any point of interest usually sends you on a short mission where you'll explore a building or wander into an arena filled with enemies. They're like mini Gears levels that you can take or leave, usually with an ambush to tangle you up and some weapons, upgrades, or a bit of lore waiting at the end.Story On A Small ScaleWhat's really enticing about these areas, though, are the many small moments they allow between characters. Act 2 finds Kait and Del on their own as they explore Kabar, a frozen alpine region full of old COG labs and fortifications that you'll search for Kait's answers. But the entire segment is fleshed out through a series of character-building conversations between Kait and Del as they hang around together, basically on a shooty road trip. Gears 5's writing is at its best in these character conversations, and the intimate time spent with characters in Acts 2 and 3 help you feel closer to them. Listening to Kait tell Del what she's worried she might uncover, or Kait making fun of Del for dropping tons of esoteric knowledge about things like the commercial lumber industry, bring you closer to the characters than any number of battles with AI teammates do.Kait provides an interesting alternative viewpoint to the proceedings as Gears 5's protagonist as well. She's fundamentally an outsider--in the sense of her anti-COG upbringing, her somewhat arms-length relationship with the city-boy soldiers with whom she fights, and her apparent ties to humanity's greatest enemies. The game doesn't necessarily spend a ton of time exploring that idea, but in the conversations between Delta squad members, we get a much better sense of the distance Kait feels from her friends.Unfortunately, the rest of Gears 5's story is uneven. Though Kait's desire to find out more about her connection to the Locust is a strong drive to push the narrative forward, Gears 5 pretty much wraps up what feels like her central drive by the middle of the game. The rest is just about Delta cruising around completing various tasks to fight off the growing Swarm threat, while the more personal stuff is left to linger. Exploring the destroyed desert facilities of the COG's old human enemies, the UIR, is a fun diversion full of a lot of pitched battles, but as far as the characters are concerned, nothing impactful happens outside of a bunch of big action set pieces. Gears 5 plays out its best story moments early, and it ends without doing much with the reveals and turning points it does create.The story ultimately feels somewhat truncated and meandering, but the campaign is still fun to play. Some key changes in the structure do a lot to provide new opportunities in the old framework. Since you're exploring areas at your own pace, you'll often come across unaware Swarm soldiers searching for ammo or prepping for combat, which gives you a chance to stealthily take some out. You also have a new set of abilities for your squad to use on the battlefield thanks to Jack, the R2-D2-like robot that follows you around on missions. Jack can zap enemies to injure them, flash enemies to stun them and make them break cover, ping their locations, turn you invisible, and even take over an enemy's mind for a brief period.Jack effectively provides Gears 5's campaign with a progression system, and coupled with the more varied gameplay and some slight squad control in the form of marking targets, he helps take Gears out of its cover-shooter comfort zone somewhat. Quickly swapping through and using Jack's abilities gives you a chance to make new decisions in combat or take advantage of different ways to play that you couldn't before, like by activating invisibility to slip through the front lines for a flanking position or using the Stim ability to strengthen yourself so you can melee to death a hulking Swarm Scion.Jack has a skill tree that lets you improve his abilities along a few different paths, allowing you to tweak his capabilities to better fit your playstyle. He's also the major reason to complete side missions and search all those nooks, crannies, dead ends, and side areas that litter Gears 5. While those side activities sometimes give a bit of a better understanding of the story or the world, the big reward is almost always an item that helps you improve Jack's abilities.Multiplayer, But MoreAs with the campaign, The Coalition doesn't reinvent the series' standard multiplayer in Gears 5--but much of it sees improvements aimed at adding customization and support for varied playstyles. The franchise's usual competitive multiplayer is back, where two teams of five players face off, with options segmented into more casual Quickplay and more hardcore Ranked playlists.Gears 5 multiplayer doesn't fix what isn't broken--it's striking how much Gears 5's competitive modes feel like, say, Gears of War 3, and are fun in the same ways. Since it isn't changing the core feel of the gameplay, The Coalition has expanded on it by offering more options for multiplayer, so you can find the modes you like, and metagame progression systems, to make your time feel more meaningful.Quickplay includes a bunch of different game types that fit the Gears framework, while pushing you to play a little differently in every match. Its modes include classics like King of the Hill, as well as Gears of War 4's weapon-based Arms Race (a literal race to get kills with a host of different guns) and Dodgeball, in which you can't respawn unless a teammate kills a member of the opposing squad. The Ranked mode, on the other hand, plays things straighter with simpler modes like Team Deathmatch.It's very easy to see the influence live service games have on Gears 5, with an overall level-up system for your multiplayer persona, the ability to unlock more guns for your starting loadouts, and lots of customization options. They're all of a type similar to what you'd see in something like Fortnite--nothing that would draw you into multiplayer on its own, but plenty to give you new unlocks to chase and to help multiplayer feel like it has more depth than just a series of matches to play. Exactly how big an influence those progression systems have on how multiplayer actually plays is tough to get a sense pre-release, so we'll be putting in more multiplayer after Gears 5's launch and will update this review accordingly. It should be noted also that, like live service games, Gears 5 also includes customization items you can grab by spending money on premium currency.Specializing In Co-OpThe bigger refinements come in Gears 5's co-op modes. Here, Gears 5 furthers an emphasis on teamwork and specialization, and again, the live service influence is apparent.Horde mode returns, in which five players team up to take on 50 waves of enemies while building fortifications and buying new weapons in between each round. It sees some tweaks to the rules, with elements like shared resources, the ability to spend those resources on character perks to make yourself stronger, and greater character specialization that gives you more of a particular job as you work together to survive. New to the cooperative scene is Escape, in which you race through a Swarm Hive as a squad of three, trying to outrun deadly gas as you find your way out and kill enemies along the way. Escape differs from the other modes in that you have limited weapons and ammo, forcing you to search for more resources as you go and to work together to stay alive, especially on higher difficulties.Both modes add more ways to engage with Gears 5 on their own, and they share their own live service-style progression systems that let you level up characters, customize their capabilities and loadouts, and generally make them more your own. The characters you choose in both Horde and Escape each have different roles and special abilities, including an Ultimate ability that charges up over time. You can even play as Jack the robot in an almost purely support role, providing something for players who prefer backing up teammates over scoring headshots. On the surface, Horde and Escape play pretty similarly to Gears' other modes, and it'll take some advancement through the progression systems to find out just how specific you can get with your character builds and how differently they really play from one another. But the possibilities are there to provide you with fun new ways to think about Gears' pop-and-shoot gameplay and teamwork.Gears 5's additions make the whole package feel denser and more involved--even if it still plays very similarly to Gears games in the past. To some degree, there's almost too much progression to deal with; it's a lot to learn and keep in mind, and the character additions don't always seem to have a big impact on how you play at lower levels. It's an area that's tough to gauge without spending more time with Gears 5 multiplayer post-release, and we'll be digging into that portion of the game more in the coming days before finalizing the review.But what makes Gears 5 work well is that those additions feel like a useful evolution of the core Gears concept, even if a lot of these ideas--like an involved character progression system or a Battle Pass-like rewards path--are also becoming commonplace among shooters. 13 years after the franchise's first release, The Coalition's additions to Gears 5 are all things that seem right at home with the elements that give the series its identity. The upshot is there are lots of options, and while you might not play them all, there's probably something that fits the kind of player you are.Gears 5 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. 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 of the past, but the new ideas it brings to the series are all good reasons for fans to return.Info from Gamespot.com

So Nintendo has something rather odd-looking in the works. Without any prior warning--and in spite of having a Direct presentation literally the day before--Nintendo announced a new experience coming to Switch with a new video, which can be watched below.It's not exactly clear what Nintendo is advertising, though the company does say that more information will be revealed on September 12. All the video reveals is this circular peripheral for Switch that seems to have a tremendous amount of give, as people in the video can't seem to crush it or stretch it apart no matter how hard they try.Based on what people are doing in the video, Nintendo may be announcing something for Switch that's akin to Wii Fit--an exercise experience for the Wii console that utilized the Wii remotes' motion sensors and an additional pressure-sensitive peripheral to walk you through various physical activities. Until September 12, however, there's no way to know for sure.During the latest Direct, Nintendo made several large announcements. It honestly felt like one of the company's E3 presentations. Most of the reveals were for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Banjo & Kazooie are now a playable fighter in the game, and Nintendo announced that more DLC characters are on the way--including Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard. Several new Mii Fighter skins are coming to Ultimate as well, with the notable standout being one of Sans from Undertale.Speaking of Undertale, developer Toby Fox was announced as the composer for GameFreak's upcoming RPG, Little Town Hero, which is coming to Switch on October 16. Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise--a sequel we never thought we'd ever get--was announced for Switch too, scheduled for 2020. Switch is also getting another Assassin's Creed port as well: the Rebel Collection, which combines Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed Rogue in one package. Finally, on October 15, an Overwatch port is coming to Switch.Info from Gamespot.com