Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, the full Shovel Knight package including all of its planned expansions, is almost completed. But Yacht Club has now announced the character's next game: Shovel Knight Dig, a vertical scrolling action game being made in partnership with UK studio Nitrome.The brief trailer showed a more 16-bit inspired art style, as compared to the original game's 8-bit incarnation. The action also appears to be largely vertical as Shovel Knight digs his way down into the earth, similar to the SteamWorld Dig games. The official site also states that the stages will be procedurally generated.The presentation said the game has been in development for more than a year, but still has much longer to go. The first demo will be available at PAX West.The announcement came as part of a Yacht Club Games Presents presentation, similar to a Nintendo Direct. In it, the indie studio announced more details on the upcoming King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown, a release window of December 2019 for those final updates, and it promoted a Shovel Knight board game on Kickstarter.Info from Gamespot.com

Just before PAX West kicks off this Friday, lucky attendees of the GameStop managers conference got a glimpse of some new The Last of Us Part II footage on PS4.The footage, supposedly releasing sometime soon, was "very short but [a] great vertical slice of gameplay," according to Twitter user Gaming Forte. The same user tweeted a picture of the event and later said the bit of footage they saw was centered around stealth and how you can "use Clickers to your advantage."OMG!!! Last of Us Part II 👀 pic.twitter.com/GlC8D0U7XC — Gaming Forte @ GameStop #GMEConference2019 (@Gaming_Forte) August 27, 2019It's unclear how "soon" this new gameplay video will be made public. An event on September 26 called Outbreak Day could be when the video is released, as it serves as an anniversary for the Last of Us universe, but developer Naughty Dog and Sony have yet to confirm anything official. No The Last of Us Part II news came out of E3 2019 since Sony skipped the event. The last time we saw the game was during E3 2018, when Sony debuted a beautiful--and brutal--slice of gameplay. Things have been relatively quiet for Ellie and her NPC companion ever since.While director Neil Druckmann left fans with some jokes, no definitive release date or window for The Last of Us Part II has been announced.Info from Gamespot.com

(Content warning: sexual assault.)Following serious allegations leveled against Night in the Woods co-developer Alec Holowka, the indie studio Infinite Fall has cut ties and changed its release plans for a physical edition of the game. In a series of tweets, developers Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry say they take the allegations very seriously and that they share their fans' hurt and anger.On August 27, developer Zoe Quinn detailed sexual abuse and assault allegations against Holowka on Twitter. Though the response from Benson and Hockenberry does not mention Quinn, it does reference "allegations of past abuse" that have come to light this week. Quinn's statement came alongside a broad range of abuse accusations within the games industry."We take such allegations seriously as a team. As a result and after some agonizing consideration, we are cutting ties with Alec," the studio stated. "We are cancelling a current project and postponing the Limited Run physical release. The iOS port is being handled by an outside company and supervised by Finji and will remain in development."The studio goes on to address how people may feel about the game itself, and that this shift in studio roles may impact their plans in other ways. The situation is in flux."Thousands of people have connected with Night In The Woods in a very personal way," it stated. "We can't tell you how to feel about any of this. Whatever you're feeling is valid. Your experience with art is yours. What it means to you is yours, regardless of anything else. Going forward, Night In The Woods will be handled by Bethany and I [Scott]. We're not sure what that all means yet. This stuff takes time."Thanks for your support over the years. We're sorry to even have to say any of this. That's all I can say at the moment. Thank you for your patience."Info from Gamespot.com

If you're having trouble making it through Wolfenstein: Youngblood, a new patch aims to alleviate some frustration. Available right now on PC and sometime next week on consoles, the latest Youngblood update makes the game easier with the addition of checkpoints, improved companion AI, and more.Patch 1.0.5 adds a variety of "player-requested features," including checkpoints in Towers and end bosses, a toggle to remove enemy health bars, and improvements to the companion AI. This last one is important, as update 1.0.5 will now see your AI partner retreat more often when taking damage from large enemies, as well as being able to heal you when you're downed.Elsewhere in the patch, Youngblood will see the difficulty of all boss fights adjusted, the "bullet sponginess" of enemies supposedly reduced, an increase in special weapon ammo in the more challenging levels, and more. While the PC version of Youngblood saw 1.0.5 today, and the PS4 and Xbox One versions will see 1.0.5 next week, the Nintendo Switch version will get 1.0.5 sometime "in the following weeks." You can check out the full update notes below.1.0.5 follows patch 1.0.4, which dropped earlier this month. That update introduced a host of changes and fixes, including issues surrounding players loading into online matches despite selecting the offline option, padlocked doors being opened from the wrong side, and more. Most significantly, patch 1.0.4 added the ability to pause Youngblood while offline. Since the Nintendo Switch still has yet to get 1.0.4, both updates will be combined in 1.0.5.In our Wolfenstein: Youngblood review, we said, "Wolfenstein: Youngblood has the series' signature first-person shooting thrills that'll have you gladly busting shots and blasting lasers in the face of Nazi trash--and the opportunity to do so alongside a friend. Jess and Soph--and Abby too--learned from the best, and embrace their newfound duty of ridding their world of tyranny while being cool as hell doing it. Youngblood is short, but oh-so sweet."Full Patch 1.0.5 NotesPatch HighlightsAdjusted difficulty of all boss fights.Enemies can now have their health bars toggled on or off in the Options menu. (This does not turn off armor types.)Took a variety of actions to reduce the feeling of enemy "bullet sponginess."An amount of ammo for basic weapons is now replenished after a player respawns.Added more special weapon ammo throughout more difficult areas.Added duplicate tutorial laptops to the game to make 100% completion more attainable.Fixed an issue that could cause some enemies in certain areas to spawn prematurely.Increased the speed of switching between certain weapons to make it easier to adapt to enemy armor types.Bug FixesClient players can now explode Host player DKW charges by shooting them.A data tape required to complete the Silent Outpost mission could go missing, preventing completion of the mission. This tape will now appear correctly for all players.Equalized damage modifiers for all weapon classes and upgrades for Host and Client players. Previously a bug could cause one player to do a lot more damage with certain weapon types and upgrades.The "available unlocks" and message could play despite there being active enemies. This will no longer occur.Fixed a variety of timing bugs with completion events that could cause progression not to be saved in certain circumstances.Co-op levers will now work much more reliably when playing solo.Improved sister AI so that she gets out of the way of large enemies more often and improved ability to successfully heal the player when they are downed.Balance ChangesTutorials not collected by players in Paris Streets sections 1 or 2 will now be present in Paris Streets section 3. This will allow players to backtrack from later sections of the game in order to get tutorials that count towards game completion percentage.Added checkpoints to all Tower mission and Tower Guardian fights. Note that returning to the towers after completing the main missions will not have checkpoints.Players who expend all lives and reset to the latest checkpoint will now find their base weapons refilled to at least 50% of ammo capacity. This will function with all ammo modifier skills and upgrades but does not affect special or heavy weapons.Additional special weapon ammo has been added to all boss and guardian fights.We have doubled the amount of damage done to armored enemies by the incorrect weapon type. This will result in enemies feeling much less absorptive of damage when the player has the wrong weapon equipped. We still highly encourage players to spend their silver to upgrade a variety of weapon types so as to maximize damage to tough enemies.General Winkler has had his health lowered to be more in line with the difficulty of the Zeppelin level.The Bombdog damage has been slightly lowered.The base Shotgun, Autopistol, and SMG damage output has been increased to bring them in line with other basic weapons.Tower Gate Guardians have had their level lowered in all Districts to better reflect the level of enemies inside the Towers. The Towers are still intended to be played by players level 20 or higher.Added the ability to toggle "iron sights" on/off. This option can be found in the Controls menu.Lowered controller rumble on Xbox One.Added the option to turn off enemy health bars to the Gameplay options. Note that this will not turn off armor barriers or enemy level, so we recommend players have a high degree of familiarity with enemies before turning health bars off.Added more than 20 additional duplicate tutorials to the Districts to allow for easier game completion as well as better coverage for new players.Added a unique icon for Tutorial Computers when player has the correct Secrets Collector upgrade.Lowered Lothar's healthpoints during the "Penthouse" stage of the boss.Made a variety of changes to Lothar's accuracy and damage during his final stage.Added an alarm and audio cue for the 4th Reich jet planes during the Lothar fight to give players more of a chance to dodge or shoot down the planes.Reduced the number of missiles during the Lothar flight stage.Info from Gamespot.com

If you're having trouble logging into Xbox Live, you're not alone. Microsoft's online service is currently experiencing issues, which means you may not be able to sign in and access certain games and apps on Xbox One. [Update: It appears the issues have been resolved, although another problem--this one involving issues with party chat--have since emerged. Microsoft says it's working to address that, but you should at least be able to get online and begin playing games as normal in the meantime.]The Xbox Live status page, which was last updated at 3:46 PM ET, confirms some core services--such as signing in and managing your Xbox Live account--are "limited." The latest update reads, "Our engineers and developers are actively continuing to work to resolve the issue causing some members to have problems signing in to Xbox Live. Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience."The official Xbox Support Twitter account also tweeted about the login issues, noting that teams are "working on it now." No timetable was provided for when we can expect the issues to be resolved, but we'll update this story with any further developments.We've seen reports that users are having trouble signing in. We have teams working on it now! We'll update you with additional details as soon as we can. — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) August 28, 2019Because players are not able to sign into their Xbox Live accounts, they can't currently play online games like Fortnite or use apps like Spotify and Amazon Video, both of which require you to be logged into the online service.This story is developing...Info from Gamespot.com

Sometimes, alternate endings to movies can actually be better than the one that released theatrically, like with this year's Pet Sematary. Other times, you know exactly why the movie cut it out, and this is 100 percent the case with the horror/thriller Ma.Just a heads up, this post contains spoilers for the end of Ma.The film follows a Erica (Juliette Lewis) and her daughter Maggie (Diana Silvers), who who move back to Erica's hometown to start over. Maggie befriends some other teens, and they all find Sue Ann AKA Ma (Octavia Spencer) who buys them alcohol and allows them to use her basement to throw parties. Things get a bit weird when they all realize Ma is unhinged and trying to relive her high school days while taking revenge on those who wronged her in the past. It gets pretty screwed up at the end.In the original ending, the teens--and Ma's daughter Genie--escape the basement with the help of Erica, and a bloodied Ma heads upstairs to cuddle the corpse of a man she killed while the house burns around her. It is an extremely abrupt ending that lets the viewer know, "The good guys lived and the bad guy died," and nothing more.On the home release for Ma, there is an alternate ending--which feels a whole lot more like the original ending of the movie--and it is an extremely typical one for any horror movie. Some time has passed after Ma's house burned down, and the teens--along with Genie--are all hanging outside of the school, and they're still best buds. We learn that Ma's body was never found through some dialogue, and the teens plan to party in the middle of nowhere.Ma (Blu-ray)$23 $25See at AmazonThis cuts to them drinking at night on a pile of rocks, which then cuts to the vet Ma used to work at. We see a burned hand grab some tranquilizers--which she used on the kids in the film--and then we see Ma in a hat that says, "Sexy" walking towards the camera. This was a shot used in the trailers for the movie. It was essentially the end to any slasher movie made from the '80s to the '00s where the studio felt they could spin out some sequels. Everyone is safe, or are they? (They're not.)Luckily for Ma the movie, changing the ending up was a good thing. The movie itself is actually a lot of fun, and Spencer's Sue Ann character is very unsettling. The home release of Ma is available now digitally and on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, September 3. There are a few other extras, aside from the alternate ending, including 12 deleted scenes and a couple of featurettes, one of which is Spencer talking about the Sue Ann character.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

There's an intrinsically curiosity that draws us to look into the private lives of others--a burgeoning, guilty draw that pulls humans to tell stories, to gossip, to spy on one another. The psychology of that feeling is central to Telling Lies, a game that really isn't about much more than watching the close, private conversations--sometimes very intimate ones--of other people. The game leverages a human desire to pry into others' lives, and that feeling that we're doing something wrong helps to make the draw even more powerful.That feeling is how Telling Lies gets away with being a video game that doesn't really contain much of a "game," per se. As with its predecessor, Her Story, director and writer Sam Barlow lets the idea of uncovering the sordid details of someone else's life lead you through the experience. Where Her Story was something of an experiment with the idea--you skim through a database of unordered full-motion video clips that slowly expose a mystery concerning a woman who was questioned by police--Telling Lies is the larger-scale execution. There are more characters, more videos, and more details to uncover. The question of how much you'll enjoy Telling Lies is very much linked to how far your curiosity will carry you.To that end, there's no good way to explain what Telling Lies is about without ruining it. The game starts with a clip of a woman returning to her apartment and plugging a hard drive into a computer, which gives her access to a secret National Security Agency database of videos snaked from the Internet; essentially, a series of Skype or FaceTime calls made or received by a man named David. As with Her Story, the reason those videos are worth perusing, and why the privacy of these people is worth invading, is something you have to glean for yourself. As the title suggests, not everybody is fully honest with each other, and much of the game is a meditation on the deceptions humans employ every day in all their interactions. The face we show one person is different from the one we wear for another--and even what we tell ourselves is potentially suspect.Uncovering the lies and the reasoning behind them will likely keep you pretty well enraptured through the game's eight or so hours of video, especially in the early and middle portions when there are plenty of revelations waiting for you to unearth them. Nuanced performances help in that regard as well, even though the actors are mostly just staring into cameras and emoting. You'll probably recognize the members of the strong cast, led by Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus, Upload), Alexandra Shipp (Dark Phoenix, Love, Simon), Kerry Bishé (Halt and Catch Fire, Narcos), and Angela Sarafyan (Westworld, American Horror Story). It's not hard to imagine Telling Lies as a Netflix show if it were presented a little differently. The game part of watching all those videos--and there are a lot of them, upwards of 160--usually is found in figuring out what you're not seeing or hearing in each one.All of Telling Lies takes place on a computer screen, where you can dig around on the stolen hard drive for additional context (or even play Solitaire), and poking around a bit gives some handy facts about what you're viewing. In order to make sure this particular NSA Big Brother program passes Constitutional muster, the videos can't be watched chronologically. You can only search for a clip using keywords, and when you uncover a conversation, you can only see one side of it at a time. Watching each clip is a chance to learn more about the people in it--but you'll also need to pay close enough attention to figure out what words to try next that will help you uncover more of the story, or what words the other person might be using so you can track down their side of the interaction.That system is nearly identical to the one in Her Story, with a few improvements. In Telling Lies, you can scrub through videos at various speeds by dragging your mouse to the sides of the screen. You'll start each video at the keyword with which you found it, so discovering context requires you to dig further into every video. Each selection also includes subtitles, and you can click any subtitled word while watching to use it as a keyword, making searching around a little easier--or allowing you to chase down a thread as soon as you see it.As noted, Telling Lies is an expansion of the ideas inherent to Her Story, and so it includes a lot of the same high points--and drawbacks. It's very much a title in which you need to make your own fun. Uncovering interesting tidbits about the characters or finally drawing a connection between one event and another is satisfying, but that also means that the "game" part of Telling Lies largely exists in your own mind. There's little to push you forward other than your own desire to know more, and you'll largely create your own objectives and climaxes in the form of "Aha!" moments along the way.The disjointed nature of the story also means that it's up to you to impose your own structure on it. Telling Lies doesn't have easy-to-follow traditional storytelling elements like a rising action or climax. It's possible (although really unlikely) to spot the final video in the sequence immediately after watching the first. Filling in the gaps is part of solving the mystery, but at the same time, Telling Lies pretty much ends when you get bored of searching or hit a wall and can't come up with any fresh keywords. A timer running on the screen lets you know how much of the in-game night you've wiled away with your inquiries. The game implies you've only got until dawn to find everything you can before you're inevitably snapped up by the authorities for stealing the database. But come 5:45 a.m., the timer stalls (or at least, it did after I hit the button ending the story once and then loaded an earlier save to dig around some more). That allows you infinite opportunities to keep searching, but it also seems the ticking clock is more a contrivance than an actual system, so again, you're not actually working toward anything other than your own satisfaction.That's never more true than when you trigger Telling Lies' ending, essentially by clicking an "I'm done" button as dawn approaches. Though you've dug through what is (seemingly) an illegal NSA database and your arrest is likely imminent, you get only a vague sense of what the information is for and what you're doing with it now that you have it. A final report that gives you a sense of how much of the game you completed and what most often drew your interest gives some suggestion of your character's final actions, but you're not compiling the raw data into a clear story, nor are you really leveraging it against the powers that be that are hunting you. Depending on which of the characters' videos you saw the most of, you'll get one of three endings that explains the aftermath of the two years of events you've just witnessed--but that's it, and it's unsatisfying to just see one conclusion of several intertwining narratives. And in the end, you're just watching videos, making connections, and then turning the game off.It's in the ending that Telling Lies feels a bit undercooked. The mechanics, writing, and performances create a real feeling of peering into someone else's private world all the way through, but the game doesn't give you much in the way of agency, especially if you endeavor to uncover every single video. Telling Lies never really answers a fundamental question raised by its very nature and structure: So what? The game's final report seems to suggest that you're taking part in crafting a narrative as a viewer, as if the act of uncovering and watching these videos creates a complete, subjective narrative for whoever sees them next--but you're only a passive part of that process, and you don't know you're taking part in it until it's over. The game might be telling you that you've had an effect on what someone else might see, but you don't get a chance to actually make any decisions in that process, or to separate truths from deceptions; you only get to watch.The mechanics, writing, and performances create a real feeling of peering into someone else's private world all the way through, but the game doesn't give you much in the way of agency.Telling Lies offers you the opportunity to delve into the intimate connections between people, to uncover who they are possibly to a deeper extent than even they realize. The production values and performances in particular make Telling Lies feel true and immediate, elevating the game's conceit that you're taking part in something forbidden and possibly sinister, even as you work as a digital detective. In that way, it's contemporary and meaningful as a game that uses interactivity in a unique way to explore how we relate to one another. But Telling Lies struggles to find meaning in that exploration. Its interactivity is only skin deep, like the lies its characters tell one another. As a further expansion of Barlow's ideas about what games can be, Telling Lies is a success. It's unfortunate that, in the end, it doesn't further embrace its interactive possibilities.Info from Gamespot.com

Once envisioned as a vital part of the DC Extended Universe, Cyborg was introduced on the big screen during a brief cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before actor Ray Fisher reprised the role in Zack Snyder's Justice League, where the character stole the show during his scenes with Ezra Miller's Flash. But after the poor reception the movie got, Cyborg's solo movie--once slated for 2020--seems all but certainly canceled. Fans of Victor Stone didn't need to worry, however, since the best portrayals of the character came to our TV screens in 2019, from Cyborg's introduction in DC Universe's Doom Patrol to the character's long-anticipated return to the team where he was first created in Young Justice.Created in the '80s by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, Victor Stone is the son of two prominent scientists at STAR Labs who treated him as a mere experiment. Victor got his superhero name when one day, while visiting his parents, an experiment on dimensional travel went horribly wrong and allowed a monster to crawl into our world, killing Victor's mother and then mutilating Victor's body. Though his father, Silas Stone, managed to save Victor, he did so by equipping his body with experimental cybernetic prostheses that forever changed his appearance and self-image. After that, Cyborg was added as a member of The New Teen Titans, where he could be amongst other outsiders like Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy.The trauma and darkness of Doom PatrolWhen we meet Victor (Joivan Wade) in Doom Patrol, he's already been working as Cyborg for a while. The first time we see him, he's stopping a robbery with Silas Stone acting as a sort of Alfred to Victor's Batman, except way more manipulative and controlling. Silas is constantly scolding Victor for spending time stopping small crimes instead of focusing on their goal: joining the Justice League.What makes Doom Patrol special is the way it deals with trauma and self-acceptance. Though the show skips the early days of Cyborg and his brooding over his new condition, we do see a flashback to the fateful accident that resulted in his cybernetic implants and the death of his mother. The feeling of guilt haunts Victor, as he relives the images of her mangled body in his sleep every night. The belief that he caused his mother's death informs Cyborg's character, as every criminal he busts or innocent person he saves is an attempt to make his mother proud by becoming a hero. As with the other members of the Doom Patrol, Cyborg's journey is not only one of healing or overcoming the past, but simply of being able to live with his demons and move on. Even as part of an ensemble, Cyborg has enough time to shine in Doom Patrol.If you wanted to see more of Cyborg in Justice League and left disappointed at the lack of resolution to his character, look no further than Doom Patrol. Since the show skips the initial surprise of his origin story, it allows the audience to see an aspect of the character's development we hadn't seen before.Young Justice lets Cyborg play New GodYoung Justice, on the other hand, takes us back in time to those first few months after Victor's accident. Even if we have seen that duality and self-hatred before (even as recently as the Justice League movie), the writers change things up by focusing on the larger context. This version of Cyborg doesn't seek out the Teen Titans after months of being rejected, but instead is left in the care of "The Team" so he can receive treatment for his spreading cybernetic virus.Because the plot of this season is the public discussion that's happening around the emergence of metahuman kids all over the world, Cyborg is no longer as big of an outsider as he was when he debuted in the '80s. Sure, we do see him dwelling on his newfound condition, but the show is more interested in exploring Victor's experience with his powers, instead of his physical appearance.On the GridWhere previous adaptations of the Cyborg mythos rely on the basic idea of Cyborg’s powers coming with a physical change in Victor’s body, it wasn't until recently that even the comics started exploring the idea of Cyborg’s powers being themselves a threat to his body and mind. In 2013, writer Geoff Johns introduced the idea of "Grid," the name given to the sentient computer system that appeared in the backend of Cyborg’s programming, and quickly became obsessed with hunting down metahumans.Grid makes an appearance in Doom Patrol as a more aggressive side of Victor that wants to take over his body, but Young Justice takes that idea a step further by making the very technology that turned Victor into Cyborg evil. This season of Young Justice introduces the New Gods, highly powerful beings that live on the idyllic planet of New Genesis and the hellish Apokolips. Like in both the New 52 DC comics reboot and the live-action Justice League movie, Cyborg’s origin was changed to include a piece of New Genesis technology fused with his body. Young Justice, on the other hand, turns Cyborg into the result of an Apokoliptan living computer fusing with his human body. Due to the evil origins of the computer, Cyborg's transformation this time around is a horrific scene of body horror a la The Fly. Though his screen time this season is short, this version of Cyborg truly accentuates Victor Stone's struggles to control his powers and accept them, turning his powers into an actual threat for Victor and others, and making his arc of self-acceptance into one where he learns to balance the evil and anger within him with a higher call and purpose.We may not get a solo movie or series for Cyborg, and that's ok. TV alone is giving us new sides of the famed superhero that we haven't really seen in his nearly 40-years-long history. Though many '90s kids remember him as the pizza-loving member of the Teen Titans, this year has shown us that there are many layers to Cyborg, and we're just scratching the surface. Info from Gamespot.com

Control has a few perplexing puzzles, but one of its trickiest has to be the one found in the Luck & Probability Department. Heck, you might not even know it exists seeing as it doesn't make itself abundantly clear upon first inspection. Locked behind a Level 5 security door, this optional puzzle demands keen observation skills to crack.If you're reading this, chances are your patience has run thin and you need answers. Below you can find a quick outline of how to solve this challenging puzzle. You can also watch the video version of this guide in the player above for further clarification. And if you haven't already, be sure to read our Control review.The SolutionUpon investigating the Luck & Probability department, you'll notice a roulette table in the yellow experiment room adjacent to the office area. When you interact with it, the sprinklers will go off, and a few fire hydrants might explode, but ultimately, nothing happens. You might think nothing of it, but the roulette is a crucial component to solving this puzzle.Your goal is to get the roulette table to land on seven. However, accomplishing this is determined not by randomly spinning the roulette hoping it'll eventually fall on seven. Instead, it's done by manipulating specific lucky objects found in the department.The identity of each lucky object is displayed on the whiteboard near the roulette. Each object must be manipulated in specific ways. Here's what you need to do to each one:Elephant: The Elephant is already in position, so leave it alone.Cat (Maneki-Neko Statue): Find the Maneki-Neko statue on the table around the desk loop and activate it so that its paw moves up and down.Four-Leaf Clover: There's a white planter with four-leaf clovers on a desk in the office area. Grab one and re-plant it into the white planter by the CRT-monitor in the experiment room.Lightbulbs: Flip all four light switches in the experiment room.Horse Shoe: The Horse Shoe must be facing downward, displaying like an upside-down "U." There's technically another Horse Shoe in the room, but don't pay it any mind as you cannot even interact with it.Bronze Koi Fish: Near the entrance of the department is a bronze Koi Fish statue. Grab it with your launch ability and bring it to the experiment room. Based on the whiteboard, the Koi Fish needs to be two feet from the roulette wheel, but as long as you drop it on the red carpet, you should be good.Once everything is in order, spin the roulette but make sure to step off the red carpet after doing so. If you've followed each step correctly, you'll be rewarded with an Astral Blip crafting material, two Ability Points, and the Golden Suit. Info from Gamespot.com

Capcom is about to kick off the Iceborne expansion beta for Monster Hunter World, and if you're looking to pre-order the game before its launch, then we've gathered all of the information you need to know before making your decision.PlayStation 4 players get to jump into the Iceborne beta first, from August 30 to September 1, while Xbox One users will gain access shortly after on September 2 through September 4. The beta includes four monsters of different difficulty: the Great Jagras (beginner), Banbaro (intermediate), Tigrex (expert), and the new Elder Dragon. Iceborne's new Clutch Claw tool will be available, as well as all 14 weapon types.Now, in this pre-order guide, there are some things to pay attention to. If you already own the original game, you can purchase the Iceborne expansion on its own from your platform's respective store. There are also a couple different physical versions that include the entire base game, the Iceborne expansion, and some extras.Monster Hunter World: Iceborne launches for PS4 and Xbox One on September 6. It doesn't have a set release date for PC, but it is slated to launch in January next year.Monster Hunter World: Iceborne pre-order bonusesAll pre-orders come with the Yukumo Layered Armor set. It's important to note that it only changes your character's appearance and doesn't come with any unique weapons.Additionally, Amazon and Walmart are currently offering Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition pre-orders for $10 off.Monster Hunter World: IceborneMonster Hunter World: Iceborne is just the expansion, so if you don't already have the base game, you'll need to purchase it. The expansion on its own costs $40 USD and is only available digitally.What's Included:The Iceborne expansionAny pre-order bonusesPS4Best BuyPlayStation StoreXbox OneGameStopBest BuyMicrosoft StoreMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Digital DeluxeMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Digital Deluxe is also just the expansion with some extra content, including a layered armor set, new customization items, and more. It costs $50 USD.What's Included:Iceborne expansionMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Kit'Silver Knight' layered armor setThree gesturesTwo sticker setsOne face paintOne hairstyleOne decor set (for room customization)Any pre-order bonsuesPS4GameStopPlayStation StoreXbox OneGameStopMicrosoft StoreMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Master EditionThe Master Edition is the physical version of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, which includes both the base game and expansion. It costs $60 but is currently discounted by $10 on Amazon and Walmart.What's Included:The base gameIceborne expansionAny pre-order bonusesPS4Amazon - $10 OffWalmart - $10 OffGameStopBest BuyXbox OneAmazon - $10 OffWalmart - $10 OffGameStopBest BuyMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition DeluxeThe Master Edition Deluxe includes the base game, Iceborne expansion, and all of the extras from the Digital Deluxe edition. It costs $80.What's Included:The base gameIceborne expansionMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe Kit'Silver Knight' layered armor setThree gesturesTwo sticker setsOne face paintOne hairstyleOne decor set (for room customization)Any pre-order bonsuesPS4AmazonGameStopBest Buy Xbox OneAmazonGameStopBest BuyMonster Hunter World: Iceborne Deluxe (GameStop Only)GameStop's Deluxe edition is only available for PS4 and includes digital codes for the Iceborne expansion and bonuses, in addition to the Master Edition's steelbook case. It costs $60 and does not include the base game.What's Included:Iceborne expansion digital codeDeluxe Kit digital codeAny pre-order bonusesPS4GameStopInfo from Gamespot.com

NBA 2K20, which is a basketball game, will allow you to play many games that are not basketball. 2K Sports today released a new trailer for NBA 2K20 that highlights what's new in The Neighborhood, the franchise's social space where players can group up and hang out--think of it like The Tower from Destiny.2K is promising more than a dozen new events and activities to partake in, including disc-golf and pedal-powered go-kart racing, which appear to be new for this year's game. There is also a new Big Head mode which is exactly what it sounds like, while 2K is also planning "dynamic seasonal changes." The video shows Fall andWwinter-themed makeovers, specifically, for The Neighborhood.In other news, NBA 2K20 is finally adding the WNBA this year, too, with 12 teams available to use in the Play Now and Season modes. Some of the league's standout players have been scanned into the game, including Breanna Stewart, while animations and play styles fans will expect to see from the women's league have also been brought in.NBA 2K20 launches on September 6 for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. Check out our NBA 2K20 pre-order guide for all the info on pre-order bonuses and what's included in the Digital Deluxe and Legend editions. You can also download a free demo for NBA 2K20 right now.Info from Gamespot.com

Gears 5 is launching soon, and now developer The Coalition has shared a lot of important details pertaining to the release around pre-loading, server start times, launch maps, and more.Pre-LoadPre-loading for Gears 5 is available right now on Xbox One and PC. Those who pre-ordered a digital copy of the shooter can pre-load the game now so they can start playing exactly when the servers go live.Server Start TimesGears 5's servers go live at 9 PM on September 5 in whatever time zone you live in. If you live in a region with multiple time zones, the game unlocks at the earliest one.This applies to both digital copies and physical copies bought at retail. However, this is only the "Early Access" period for Gears 5, so you need to buy the Ultimate edition ($80 USD) to start playing early. Alternatively, Gears 5 unlocks on September 5 for Xbox Game Pass subscribers because the Ultimate edition is included with Game Pass.Launch MapsGears 5 is launching with 7 multiplayer maps for the standard Arena mode and four of the "Hive-style" maps for the Escape mode. The 11 maps at launch include:Arena: AsylumBunkerDistrictExhibitIceboundTraining GroundsVasgarEscape:The HiveThe DescentThe MinesThe GauntletExtra Maps For Private Play OnlyThere will be five additional maps from Gears of War 4 brought forward to Gears 5--however, they are limited to "Private Play." The maps will not show up in any public matchmaking playlists. The maps feature the same art as in Gears 4.DamForge Blitz (now just known as Forge)FoundationHarborReclaimedPost-Launch Maps And MoreThe Coalition is promising that Gears 5 will have the "biggest and most extensive" post-release support ever for Gears franchise. Over time, the studio plans to deliver more arena-style maps, in addition to new features like Map Builder support for Versus and Horde modes. As announced previously, all of Gears 5's post-release maps will be free; the game has no Season Pass.For more on Gears 5, check out GameSpot's Gears 5 pre-order guide. Info from Gamespot.com

Actor Matthew McConaughey is now a professor, and he will teach classes at an American university beginning this fall. The University of Texas appointed the Oscar-winner to the role of a professor in the school's Moody College of Communication. He will teach classes in the Department of Radio-Television-Film.The school said in a press release that it appointed McConaughey to professor "in recognition of his outstanding work as a teach and mentor" to the school's students. The Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective actor has been a "visiting instructor" at UT since 2015. He started at the time co-teaching a film production class alongside faculty member Scott Rice. In that role, McConaughey created some of the course's curriculum."It's the class I wish I would have had when I was in film school. Working in the classroom with these students gives me a chance to prepare them," McConaughey said in a statement. "Making movies, turning words on paper into film, is both a science and art--no matter the time or generation. The elements of truth and genuine joy for the process are timeless. That will always be our classroom focus."McConaughey himself graduated from UT back in 1993, so it's a homecoming of sorts for the actor.Looking ahead to the Fall 2019 semester, McConaughey's class will see students studying his 2012 movie, Mud, along with the upcoming Guy Ritchie film The Gentlemen. Director Jeff Nichols, who directed McConaughey in Mud, is scheduled to appear in McConaughey's class this year.You can see a rundown of the highlights of McConaughey's Script-to-Screen class below.Fall 2015Studied “Free State of Jones”Writer-director Gary Ross visited class along with producer Diana AlvarezFall 2016Studied “Free State of Jones”Spring 2017Studied “White Boy Rick”Director Yann Demange visited classSpring 2018Studied “White Boy Rick” and “The Beach Bum”Writer-director Harmony Korine visited classFall 2018Studied “White Boy Rick” and “The Beach Bum”Yann Demange called into classSpring 2019Studied “The Beach Bum” and “The Gentleman”Fall 2019Studying “The Gentlemen” and “Mud”Jeff Nichols scheduled to visitInfo from Gamespot.com

With the end of the limited-time Iron Crown event, the second season of Apex Legends has officially begun to wind down. Respawn has already confirmed every new season will bring with it a new Legend, weapon, and map change. Thanks to a leak, we may now know the first two. And new items have already started appearing in King's Canyon that hint at the battle royale's upcoming map change.Reddit user Teves3D posted leaked images of Apex Legends Season 3's new Legend and weapon--both supposedly revealed by EA at a GameStop managers meeting. As theorized based off hints from Apex Legends Season 2 reveal trailer, the new Legend is supposedly the hacker, Crypto. The new weapon is revealed to be the Charge Rifle.According to Apex Legends dataminer That1MiningGuy and reported by Dexerto, Crypto's rumored tactical skill summons a controllable drone that can remotely open doors, loot bins, and pick up teammates' respawn banners. His passive skill supposedly allows him and his teammates to see and mark targets via the drone, and his ultimate sends out an EMP pulse from the drone that does shield damage and slows enemies--similar to Wattson's Perimeter Security tactical.The Charge Rifle is from both Titanfall and Titanfall 2. The powerful laser cannon is actually used for damaging Titans, making this the first anti-Titan weapon to be added to Apex Legends. In the Titanfall games, the Charge Rifle is slow to fire but it has the longest range of any anti-Titan weapon and it deals a tremendous amount of damage. Respawn hasn't made drastic changes to any of the other Titanfall firearms that are also in Apex Legends, so it's probable that the Charge Rifle will be the same--operating as a powerful sniper rifle-like gun.Whether the Charge Rifle is added as a standard energy weapon, like the Havoc, or a Legendary supply crate weapon, like the L-Star, remains to be revealed. I'd assume the former, simply because a Legendary supply crate sniper, the Kraber, already exists and the Charge Rifle is distinct enough to have a different use from the energy ammo-using sniper Triple Take.In terms of map changes, Reddit user FrozenFroh has noticed construction flags at the base camp in Shattered Forest, behind Hydro Dam. FrozenFroh believes these flags hint at Wraith's Town Takeover--a datamined map change that will supposedly go live at the end of September and transform the designated area into an underground compound that fleshes out the interdimensional skirmisher's lore and backstory. It's supposedly a small change, like the Octane-themed adjustment to the settlement outside Thunderdome at the start of the Iron Crown event.It's worth bearing in mind that Respawn has not confirmed any of this. Perhaps Crypto and the Charge Rifle are coming to Apex Legends but at a later date instead of the start of Season 3. Wraith's Town Takeover might not be the scheduled map change for Season 3 either, and simply be the last piece of new content before the end of Season 2. Regardless, we'll find out soon enough as Season 3 is scheduled to begin at the start of October.Apex Legends is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.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