Death Stranding has no shortage of Hideo Kojima's oddball sense of humor, but on the whole it appears to deal with fairly serious subject matter. A video from GameXplain takes the edge off of some of that dire seriousness by mixing and matching it with the bright and colorful world of Super Mario 64.More precisely, it mixes in the music and sound effects of Mario 64, but that's enough to drastically change the tone of the game. Instead of the quiet serenity of nature, we get the Whomp's Fortress song. Sam "wah" and "wahoos" his way up the hillside to make a delivery. There's even a magic mushroom. Of sorts.An extended gameplay demo debuted at Gamescom Opening Night Live. The event shed a lot more light on how Death Stranding controls and plays, including a surprise cameo from the event's host, Geoff Keighley. Kojima hinted at more cameos in the game, and we may be able to guess some of them based on who has been visiting Kojima Productions.Death Stranding is releasing on April 16, 2020. The Collector's Edition for $200 includes a ton of extras like a life-sized BB Pod statue and Ludens keychain. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.Info from Gamespot.com

WWE's Braun Strowman is a complex character, believe it or not. Sure, on his surface, he's a monster who flips things over and destroys everything in his path. But there's another side to Strowman, a man who is constantly involved in comedic segments and hilarious storylines--and he doesn't get enough credit for it.This more comedic version of Strowman surfaced in April 2017, when the Monster Among Men flipped over an ambulance on Raw. It was a shocking segment meant to show off the power of the character, but in reality, it was goofy in an entertaining way, and fans wanted more of that. In the two years since that over-the-top moment, Strowman has flipped other vehicles, been crushed inside both an ambulance he didn't flip and a garbage truck, come to the ring as his smarter twin brother "Brains Strowman," won the Raw Tag Team Championship with a 10-year-old boy at Wrestlemania, and played a stand-up bass like a guitar, breaking all the strings during a performance. Strowman's career, so far, is littered with exceptionally entertaining and memorable moments.But how does Strowman feel about this? There's always the question lingering in the back of fans' minds as to whether or not these WWE superstars take themselves too seriously to be involved with comedy bits. In the case of Strowman, is that a reflection of who he truly is, outside of WWE? "Oh absolutely," Strowman told GameSpot while promoting WWE 2K20's Bump in the Night DLC. "When you guys see the ha-ha stuff that Braun does, that's my real life persona coming out. I'm a giant kid-man. I live life like there's no tomorrow, and I look forward to everyday with the opportunities to travel around the world. And it's really cool when I get to mix in a little bit of that comedic relief and show the world the range and personality that I actually have as a human being, and that I'm not just this monster that rips people in half and eats their souls or whatever people think."It's fun to throw the comedic stuff in there because it helps with people being able to connect with my character. Because before, when I was just this cold, calculated killer, it was hard to relate to me, being the size that I am. Let's face it. I'm larger than nature intended, and there's not a lot of people walking around on this earth that know what it's like to walk a mile in my shoes. So I think with the adding the little bit of comedy in there shows a little more of a human side, and it allows my fans to engage with me even more and know that I have traits that everyone else does. That I'm yeah, not just this giant that does whatever he wants to do, that I have personality."Strowman's finishing move during his WWE battles is the Running Powerslam; however, if you ask most fans, he's just as well known for flipping over things. From tables to cars to even a semi, Strowman has been seen on WWE television performing superhuman feats of strength. And this begs the question, what could Strowman flip over next? "I've pitched a couple of times in battle royales where I come out of nowhere and lift up the ring and dump everybody out of the ring before, so that I think would be a fun one," explained Strowman. "I don't think there's much left to flip unless I ripped a whole roof off the stadium or something like that. I think I've destroyed about everything they've put in front of me. And Lord knows I'm glad I don't have to pay for all the stuff that I break."One of his most talked about moments came from Wrestlemania 34, where he picked a kid from the audience to be his partner for the Raw Tag Team Championship match. Strowman and his partner, Nicholas, ended up being victorious. But will the two ever reunite to battle for the titles they were forced to vacate? "Right now, Nicholas is doing Nicholas. He's been taking karate classes, staying in school, and doing his schoolwork, which I told him is the most important. He's got his whole adult career to come back and wrestle if he wants to wrestle. Right now, he needs to worry about being a kid and having fun and continuing to ride that high of winning those tag titles a couple of years ago with me in New Orleans and enjoying life. But you never know man, at WWE we like to keep you on your toes, and you never know what's going to happen."You can see Strowman turned into the horrific monster FrankenStrowman in the first WWE Originals DLC pack titled "Bump in the Night" this October in WWE 2K20, which will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. This year's game should have an incredibly large roster, and here is who is confirmed so far. Info from Gamespot.com

As Gamescom kicked off earlier this week, a handful of indie games got official release dates. This includes Creature in the Well, Skellboy, and the action-platformer Blasphemous, which launches on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on September 10.Publisher Team17, responsible for games like The Escapists and Yoku's Island Express, announced the game's release date in a blog post. According to the post, you play as The Penitent One who must free the gothic underworld of Cvstodia from "a twisted fate and reach the origin of your torment." Blasphemous will retail for $25 USD / $37 AUD / £21 GBP when it launches in September.A press release describes Blasphemous as "an action-platformer that combines the fast-paced, skilled combat of a hack-n-slash game with a deep and evocative narrative core." The press release also bills the game as a Metroidvania with a plethora of genre staples, like character progression, non-linear level design, and backtracking with newer abilities.Developer The Game Kitchen has created one game prior to Blasphemous--2013's psychological point-and-click horror game The Last Door. In our The Last Door review, we said, "[It] is all the more engrossing for the ways in which its visuals encourage your own imagination to play a part in creating its horrors."Info from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Go's Ultra Bonus rewards have been revealed, and there are a lot of exciting things coming to the game over the next few weeks. Not only will players soon have their first opportunity to capture Gen 5 Pokemon, the Mythical Jirachi is also making its official debut in Go through the new Special Research questline called "A Thousand-Year Slumber."To catch the Mythical Pokemon, you'll first need to complete a variety of Research tasks. There are seven sets of tasks in total, and many of them revolve around Pokemon that hail from the Hoenn region. A few of the quests, however, will require you to do some battling, so you'll need to put in a lot of work to complete the entire line. Once you've cleared all of the Special Research tasks, you'll earn the chance to capture Jirachi.You can check out the full list of Thousand-Year Slumber quests below. This questline was previously available at this year's Pokemon Go Fests; if you completed it while at one of those events, then you'll earn extra Jirachi Candies instead. All players who complete the questline will also receive a special Jirachi shirt for their avatar. Thousand-Year Slumber QuestsStep 1Catch 25 Pokemon -- 1,000 XPSpin 10 PokeStops or Gyms -- Jigglypuff encounterMake 3 new friends -- Feebas encounterRewards: Glacial Lure, Mossy Lure, and Magnetic LureStep 2Catch 3 Whismur -- 10 Whismur CandiesEvolve a Feebas -- 1,500 XPCatch 90 Pokemon in the Hoenn Pokedex -- 1,500 XPRewards: 2,000 Stardust, 10 Poke Balls, 3 IncenseStep 3Take a snapshot of Loudred -- Snorlax encounterMake 3 Great throws in a row -- 2,000 XPEarn 3 Candies walking with your buddy -- 2,000 XPRewards: 20 Silver Pinap Berries, 3 Star Pieces, 2,000 StardustStep 4Catch 50 Psychic- or Steel-type Pokemon -- 2,500 XPPower up Pokemon 10 times -- 2,500 XPSend 10 gifts to friends -- 2,500 XPRewards: Fast TM, Charge TM, Premium Raid PassStep 5Battle a team leader 3 times -- Kricketune encounterWin against another trainer 7 times -- 3,000 XPWin 5 Raids -- 3,000 XPRewards: 3 Rare Candies, 20 Ultra Balls, 3,000 StardustStep 6Take 5 photos of Steel or Psychic Pokemon -- Chimecho encounterMake 3 Excellent curveball throws -- Bronzong encounterSpin a PokeStop 7 days in a row -- 4,000 XPRewards: 10 Silver Pinap Berries, 10 Star Pieces, 5,000 StardustStep 7Reward: Jirachi encounterPokemon Go Ultra BonusesThe Thousand-Year Slumber questline isn't the only Ultra Bonus reward that Niantic is offering. Beginning September 2, the developer will be making a variety of other bonuses and special Pokemon available in the game for a limited time. There will be a new set of bonuses each week between September 2 and 23, and they include the appearance of new Shiny Pokemon as well as the first Gen 5 monsters. You can see all of the bonuses below.September 2-9Entei, Raikou, Suicune, and other Johto Pokemon will appear in Raid BattlesUnown U, L, T, R, and A may hatch from 10 km Pokemon eggsShiny Sentret and Shiny Gligar will appear in the wildSeptember 9-16Farfetch'd, Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime, and Tauros may hatch from 7 km eggs. You may also hatch their Shiny formsAll four forms of Deoxys will appear in five-star Raid BattlesPokemon effective against Deoxys will appear in other tier RaidsSeptember 16-23Klink and Shiny Klink will appear in Raid BattlesShiny Patrat and Shiny Lillipup will appear in the wildMewtwo that know Psystrike will appear in five-star Raids, as will Shiny MewtwoInfo from Gamespot.com

The much-anticipated ability to move your Destiny 2 progress between multiple platforms has finally arrived. Destiny 2 cross-save launched a couple of hours later than originally scheduled, but it is here--and it really does work as promised, provided you can get through the setup process in the first place.Cross-save's launch coincided with maintenance to Bungie.net. Bungie was forced to delay the launch several hours due to maintenance, which is still ongoing at the time of this writing. Despite that, it is possible to get things working now.As detailed in Bungie's cross-save guide, you'll have to connect each of your accounts and then authenticate them as truly being yours. This appears to be the stage at which most people are being tripped up. Several of us here at GameSpot found that authenticating one platform caused another to become undone. Repeatedly authenticating ultimately worked for me and allowed me to proceed--all platforms have to be authenticated before continuing--but others are still stuck on this step and are sometimes presented with "500" errors when authenticating.Today’s maintenance has been extended as we investigate an issue with account authentication on https://t.co/4ucwiEYycJ, resulting in “500” errors for some players. Stand by for updates.If you encounter any other issues, please report to the Help forum: https://t.co/cOAIctERNC — Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) August 21, 2019Bungie has said it's aware of these errors and is thus continuing the maintenance period. There's no word on how soon this might be resolved, but more players continue to get in and presumably this is a temporary hitch that will soon be forgotten.And that's good news, because cross-save seems genuinely great. While it would have been nice to get cross-play (meaning you could play with those on other platforms regardless of you being on PS4, Xbox One, or PC), this is the next best thing. And this is arguably a superior option, setting aside the issue of needing to own content on each platform. As a longtime console player, moving to the PC version almost feels like playing a completely new game. As great as the game looks on an Xbox One X, the 60+ FPS framerate on PC is a sight to behold, and the speed with which Pursuits and other menu screens load is a massive quality-of-life improvement. And luckily, from what I've been able to experience so far, progress does seem to transfer seamlessly. I earned some gear and completed a bounty on PC and was then able to boot up my Xbox One and cash in that bounty and dismantle the gear with no apparent delay.To its credit, Bungie tries to make it clear what you own on each platformThe one key downside to cross-save is that it requires you to own the game on every platform you want to be able to play on--and it makes things rather complicated. Things will change a bit later this year, as Bungie will be releasing Destiny 2: New Light, a free-to-play version that includes the base game and its early DLC expansion. Additionally, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will launch as a standalone expansion, so you could in theory just buy that on your secondary platforms and play that new content. But going with New Light or Shadowkeep would preclude you from accessing, say, Forsaken's Raid or Black Armory's Forges--though gear you earned from those activities on your main platform(s) is still usable. Further complicating matters is that the PC version of Destiny is moving from Blizzard's Battle.net to Steam later this year. If you want to dive into Destiny 2 cross-save without any restrictions right now, your only option is to buy a bundle of all currently available content on Battle.net, and then transition to Steam later. Furthermore, you can only spend Silver--the game's premium currency--on the system you purchased it on.Confusion over what you can access aside, there are sure to be some quirks that pop up. For instance, a friend of mine found that he was able to claim certain bounties on Xbox One before jumping over to PC, where he doesn't own Forsaken, and also claim replacement bounties. That's hardly going to upend the balance of the game, though it remains to be seen if players discover any more impactful loopholes.Info from Gamespot.com

It's 2019, and the question "What is the Matrix?" was answered long ago. Nevertheless, as we recently learned, The Matrix 4 is officially happening--whether or not it's needed.I love the Matrix as much as anybody--more than most people, in fact. When I first watched the cyberpunk thriller at the impressionable age of 11, it pretty much blew my mind--I had to watch it at least a half dozen times before I was able to understand the concept that our reality is a computer simulation. But my friends and I, to this day, maintain a running joke that the sequels don't exist. If someone brings up The Matrix Reloaded or The Matrix Revolutions, we look quizzically at one another as if we've never heard of them. "What sequels?" "It's too bad that movie never got any sequels." Etc.It maybe isn't a great joke, but it serves as more than that. It's a defense mechanism. I'd rather live in a world in which The Matrix 2 and 3 don't exist. Like the original movie's duplicitous but kinda-has-a-point betrayer Cypher, I believe that in this case, "ignorance is bliss." Cue the harp.The Matrix sequels are bad. You may have enjoyed them at the time, and you may even still enjoy them. They had their moments--the million-Smiths fight was conceptually cool, despite being marred by bad CGI, and Reloaded's freeway chase is an action highlight. But as far as the cultural zeitgeist is concerned, The Matrix 2 and 3 failed to live up to the original on almost every level. Regardless of your personal feelings about them, they've gone down in history as massive disappointments, despite the fact that they made a ton of money (which is why, decades later, we're in this current pickle).The Matrix doesn't need another sequel, because The Matrix didn't benefit from the sequels we already got. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions added little of value to the series, and in fact, they arguably made the original worse by association--the fact that a story with that much setup and promise wound up concluding with a hackneyed Christ metaphor and mediocre CGI might temper your enjoyment of the original, even if, like me, you like to pretend it's a standalone film. Whenever I watch the first Matrix--which is frequently--I have to continuously shush the grating voice in the back of my head whispering "Remember how bad these sequels were?"Lana Wachowski's involvement isn't reassuring. Normally, when a new sequel to a beloved movie is announced, it's taken as a good sign if the original creators are still at the helm. The Matrix is an exception to that rule. The Matrix wasn't quite a fluke; The Wachowskis have been responsible for a couple of other bangers, including the 2005 V For Vendetta adaptation (they wrote and produced, but didn't direct), and 2008's Speed Racer (Wachowskis-written, produced, and directed), which some people liked. But the duo was also responsible for colossal turds like Jupiter Ascending, Cloud Atlas, and, of course, the Matrix sequels.I think it's fair to compare the Wachowskis' work to M. Night Shyamalan's: They've made some classics, and they might have more in them, but they're not exactly a safe bet, especially considering that most of their successes occurred early in their careers. George Lucas is another fair comparison: Yes, they created something amazing, a franchise with a life of its own that's far bigger than a single movie. But they also failed considerably when trying to expand on the world they had created. The fact that Lana Wachowski is set to return to writing and directing duties for The Matrix 4 makes me less hopeful, not more, for this movie. As a diehard fan of the original Matrix and an equally diehard hater of the sequels, I wish the movie that started it all could simply stand on its own. Contrary to popular belief, the most interesting thing about the original Matrix wasn't the "bullet time" action or the leather trenchcoats, but the restrained worldbuilding and the subtext-filled writing--writing for which the Wachowskis deserve full credit, but which they failed to live up to in subsequent attempts. If the franchise, such as it is, needs to have a future, the best way to do it would be to drop the known characters and world, and go in a totally different direction--but it doesn't seem like that's what's in store.And that's not even getting into the fact that the original film's red pill/blue pill binary has become a twisted touchstone for various nasty subsets of extremist internet culture. Is this really the right time to return to "Wonderland" and travel back down this particular rabbit hole?I'll remain open to whatever The Matrix 4 turns out to be--partially because it's my job, and partially because I love the original so much. Even I have to admit that it's a little bit exciting that Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are also coming back, and I'm not really too concerned about how these two very dead characters might get written back in--it's science fiction, they'll figure something out. But right now, it's hard to get past the feeling that whatever happens with this movie, we simply don't need another Matrix sequel.It's been 20 years since the original Matrix changed action movies and sci-fi forever. I'm not saying we should never get to revisit its fictional world. But it should be done in a spin-off or reboot--a brand new story with new characters--not with yet another sequel featuring Neo, Trinity, and all the baggage of a movie trilogy that's 20 years old and two thirds terrible. It's hard to imagine this turning out good. Info from Gamespot.com

Mindhunter Season 2 has finally arrived after a nearly two year hiatus and true crime fans everywhere are rejoicing--and for good reason. This season is just as strong as the first, with a powerful blend of fiction and reality as FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench, as well as their academic consultant Dr. Wendy Carr (all of whom were invented for the show), continue their efforts to psychologically profile the very real serial killers of the '70s and '80s.However, one of the prominently featured killers in both Seasons 1 and 2 never gets the interview-and-profile treatment. Dennis Rader, aka The BTK Killer, was first introduced to the show's mythology back in Season 1 through a series of disconnected vignettes that would cut through the beginning and end of episodes. Rader was never formally named, and in the first season, he didn't actually commit any crimes. The implication was there, to be sure--every moment of his screen time is dedicated to a sort of simmering tension and building discomfort that communicates just how bad things are likely going to get.That threat pays off in the first episode of Season 2, which reveals that BTK has been actively killing, communicating with the press through disturbing poems, and avoiding capture entirely. For viewers who know BTK's real history, putting two and two together isn't much of a challenge, and it's clear that the man in those vignettes has been Rader all along--though the show never explicitly names him.Tench does what he can to help at first, but there are no real leads and the Behavioral Science Unit's resources are being otherwise utilized. Throughout the season, the vignettes continue, but the case never progresses in any official capacity for the FBI--something that may feel a bit frustrating for viewers who are unfamiliar with the reality of the BTK Killer, who managed to successfully avoid capture until the early 2000s. Mindhunter may take some liberties with the true stories it intersects with, but changing the ultimate outcome of the cases it deals in tends not to be one of them.So what was the real BTK Killer's story and where does it fit into the Mindhunter umbrella? Hold on tight, because this one gets bleak.The real Dennis Rader began killing in 1974 with the Otero family, three years after marrying his wife Paula, while working for a home security company installing burglar alarms--a detail included in his Season 1 storyline. Paula is a character in the show as well, but his children--a son born in 1971 and a daughter born in 1975--are not. The scenes included in the second season premiere that focus on his wife discovering him dressed in a mask and women's clothing are likely fabricated for the show. The fetish for women's clothing and the mask are genuine--but the implication that his wife had caught on to Rader's "deviant" sexual proclivities and, apparently, had chosen to ignore them for whatever reason, or tried to "fix" them by providing self-help books, can't be confirmed.Rader began writing letters to the press about his murders shortly after the Otero killings, which sparked a mass panic through his native Wichita, Kansas. In addition to written communication, Rader also called in tips to police hotlines. One such call, made from a phone booth in 1977, actually led to the discovery of the body of one of his victims, Nancy Fox.After an apparent lull in media coverage, Rader became frustrated with his lack of notoriety and began communicating again. In 1978, he wrote a letter in which he claimed responsibility for the murders of Kathyrn Bright, Shirley Vian, and Nancy Fox (who he had guided police to a year prior)--all of whom are mentioned in the show as cases that were confounding the police. It was in a 1978 letter where he coined his own nickname: BTK, for "bind, torture, kill."In 1983, a task force of federal detectives were given the BTK cases and tasked with reinvestigation--the loose inspiration for Tench's brief involvement in the case during the show. The real-life team was nicknamed the "Ghostbusters task force" and focused on the collection of DNA evidence and the implementation of new technology, including a psychological profile, worked up by behavioral scientists, that assumed BTK was someone local to the area where his crimes were committed.The work, unfortunately, provided to be ultimately fruitless, and the cases were marked as cold through 1997, when Robert Ressler--the actual FBI profiler who served as inspiration for Tench--stepped in to build a more expansive view of BTK. But Ressler believed BTK had either left the area or died because the killings had apparently stopped back in the 70s.The case remained totally unsolved until 2004, when Rader began communicating with police again, claiming responsibility for more deaths through the 1980s, confirmed by the inclusion of mementos from the scene of the various crimes. It was these early 2000s communications--one of which was saved on a floppy disc--and advancements in DNA testing technology--that eventually lead to Rader's arrest and subsequent confessions in February of 2005. Rader reached out directly to the police to ask them, point-blank, if communication via floppy disc could be traced, emploring them to "be honest." After telling Rader that no, the disc could not be traced, they promptly used the metadata contained within the floppy disc Rader had sent to trace him.Unless there's a significant time jump in future Mindhunter seasons, we can expect the BTK thread to remain unresolved for Ford and Tench--but perhaps that's actually for the best, even with all consideration for historical accuracy thrown aside. The reality of Dennis Rader is that FBI profiling and behavioral science were unable to successfully aid in his capture, often leading to more dead ends and conjecture. Had Rader not overextended his "game of cat and mouse with the police" (in his own words) he probably never would have been caught. In Mindhunter, it seems like he's being set up as the show's "big bad guy," but whether this will actually culminate in anything during future seasons is anyone's guess. Info from Gamespot.com

EA has published some fantastic games over the past two generations... and some that were a bit disappointing. Thankfully, in the latest Xbox One games sale, there are a bunch of discounts on awesome EA games. These include some of the absolute best Xbox 360 games, which are all playable on Xbox One.For Xbox One games, we have discounts on the Apex Legends Founder's Pack ($20), Titanfall 2: Ultimate Edition ($4.50), and Burnout Paradise Remastered ($5), in addition to The Sims 4 ($8) and a bunch of its bundles and expansion packs. You can also pick up the super cute Unravel and Unravel Two for $6.60 each or together in a bundle for $10. Dragon Age: Inquisition - Game of the Year Edition ($10) and Battlefield 5 ($18) are also both discounted. And if you've been wanting to pick up Star Wars Battlefront 2 ($7.50), Mass Effect: Andromeda ($9), or Anthem ($20) at a reduced price, now's a good chance.See all of the deals at Xbox.comNow for what I get most excited about: backward-compatible Xbox 360 games. We have discounts on two games each from three of the publisher's most beloved series: Dragon Age: Origins ($3.75) and Dragon Age 2 ($5); Mass Effect 2 ($6) and Mass Effect 3 ($6); and Skate ($7.50) and Skate 3 ($5). Three of my personal favourites are also on sale: Syndicate ($8), Fight Night Champion ($5), and NBA Jam: On Fire Edition ($5). Remember, all of these are playable on Xbox One, so you can buy them on sale, download them, and start playing immediately.You can see the full sale on Xbox.com. In related news, there's currently an offer that gives players 2 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $2. Ultimate bundles Xbox Live Gold with Xbox Game Pass on both Xbox One and PC.Info from Gamespot.com

There's an intrinsically guilty draw about looking into the private lives of others--a burgeoning curiosity that pulls humans to tell stories, to gossip, to spy on one another. The psychology of that feeling is at the heart of Telling Lies, a game that really isn't about much more than watching the intimate communications 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

With Gamescom underway, Bungie is revealing a bit more about what we can expect from the upcoming Destiny 2: Shadowkeep expansion. This includes the release of a new trailer that shows a Vex army amassing, so prepare to shoot a bunch of them in the face when Season of the Undying begins. You can watch the trailer above.Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will launch on October 1, bringing major changes to the Destiny 2 experience. On the same day, Destiny 2: New Light will make much of the game's previous content free-to-play, though Destiny fans will need to purchase the new expansion to access its new content. A few days after the expansion drops, on October 5, Season of the Undying will kick off. All purchases of Shadowkeep will come with a season pass, so this will be accessible to anyone diving into the expansion.Shadowkeep will take you back to the Moon, which we haven't been back to since Destiny 1, but this trailer shows off the raid that will take place in the Black Garden. This looks like it's going to follow through on some of the narrative threads dropped at the end of the original game's campaign, which is good--players have waited years to learn more about the Vex.Destiny 2 is also getting cross save on August 21, which will make it easy to import your characters and progress as you see fit. However, you will need to own the game and DLC on each platform that you want to access it on.Info from Gamespot.com

Bloober Team's upcoming Blair Witch draws strong parallels to Outlast, another first-person horror experience that's primarily viewed through the lens of a video camera. Blair Witch has one glaringly obvious difference in its design though--and it's something that differentiates the game from developer Bloober Team's previous horror games as well: a dog."Traditionally, a Blair Witch movie involves a group of students or a group of teenagers just going into the woods and then...dying one after the other," Bloober Team writer Basia Kciuk said in an interview with GameSpot. "But in Blair Witch, we wanted to give the player someone to connect with over the course of the game, someone to care about." It's rare for a horror game to give you companions. A friendly presence can provide a support system and act as a crutch that eases the dread a setting is trying to create, or prove to be an annoyance that needs to be cared for. In Blair Witch, your dog--Bullet--is neither of those.Blair Witch is an unsettling game that takes place in the franchise's chilling Burkittsville, Maryland woods, and Bullet does provide a nice security blanket with his presence and playful barks. But he's also a guide that ensures you're moving forward instead of remaining stuck in one place or aimlessly wandering around in search of clues about how to proceed. You can command Bullet to seek things out, but he'll also bring back items that both further flesh out the history of the woods you're exploring and remind you of just how creepy the setting is. Though it at first appears random, his misadventures almost always seem to take place in the general direction you're supposed to go--ensuring you're never stuck for too long in any one place.Bullet feels like an essential component to solving the game's puzzles and surviving the monstrous entities you encounter. For example, during one of Blair Witch's video camera puzzles--fascinating riddles in which you need to rewind, fast-forward, and pause tapes in order to influence your reality and change the environment--Bullet pointed us in the direction of the tape we needed to proceed. And given how dark the woods are in Blair Witch, Bullet's keen senses are essential for figuring out what's real and what's an illusion. "[The witch] is more like this overpowering, otherworldly force that reshapes reality," Kciuk said. "The creatures that attack you in the game are just one of her aspects. They aren't her. That's not her taking physical shape. In the game, the witch just uses everything she has against you and this includes reshaping your reality, your environment, and your mind. Sometimes that means creating monsters that hunt you."One of the more prominent issues for horror games like Outlast II and Bloober Team's Observer is that their open settings occasionally create moments where you have no idea what you're supposed to do or where you're supposed to go next. Eventually, the monotony of aimlessly wandering around the same area begins to strip away the tension that was built through the creepiness of the setting. In our time with Blair Witch, we moved forward at a steady pace through five parts of the five to six-hour game, and a sense of dread was maintained throughout each one. Four of those five chapters were fairly open, with points where you could freely explore a space, but Bullet was there to encourage us to keep going in the right direction.Bullet, as an animal, also opens Blair Witch up to mechanics that aren't normally included in first-person survival horror games. Bullet can sniff out and growl in the direction of supernatural threats that you can't see, for example. You don't quite realize how useful he is until the game takes him away from you, and during those brief instances where he's gone, threats you were once comfortable handling become horrifying in new ways."Originally, we were thinking about adding another human being, but in the end, adding another human would be just giving you another set of hands," Kciuk said. "Because, obviously, humans can do what humans do. But dogs have totally different skill sets. So, in the end, it gives you a lot more mechanics. Also, if you have another human, it would be an equal relationship, while here, you have a relationship where sometimes one of you is more useful than the other. Bullet can find things for you but he can't solve puzzles, for example. So you really need to cooperate and communicate with each other to fully utilize your partnership's potential."This need to rely on Bullet helps build a level of trust between you and your canine companion, one that you get to shape throughout the game. After Bullet does anything, you can choose to praise or scold him. "It's not as easy as just petting him all the time and ensuring everything works out," Kciuk warned. "It's much more subtle, it's a much more complicated system. Just petting him won't do the trick." If you praise Bullet every time he goes off on his own, for instance, he'll do it more often and that might lead him into getting into trouble.Bloober Team didn't want Bullet's inclusion to transform Blair Witch into a difficult escort mission though--and from what we've seen, the studio seems to have succeeded in steering clear of that outcome. How you treat Bullet merely shapes your relationship throughout the game, so you don't have to worry about making the wrong choice and getting your dog killed. "An annoying partnership is exactly what we wanted to avoid," Kciuk said. "You don't need to always take care of Bullet. For the most part, he's safe, and he won't always be following you. He's more like Elizabeth in BioShock Infinite. She was very helpful, she was there for you, she had her own personality and was a great character. You cared about her but she didn't require your protection all the time. She was there to help you."Blair Witch is scheduled to release for Xbox One and PC on August 30. The game was first announced at E3 2019 during the Xbox press conference, where it was revealed to be a part of the same canon as the Blair Witch movies. Blair Witch will be available via Xbox Game Pass on day one.Info from Gamespot.com

Respawn CEO Vince Zampella has issued a statement apologizing for an incident in which members of the Apex Legends team were critical of the community. While he said he firmly stands behind the team when it comes to defending itself from "toxic and nasty comments" like death threats or comments directed at developers' loved ones, he also said the team shouldn't add to the fray.It started with another admission of guilt, when project lead Drew McCoy announced changes to the Iron Crown event. That ongoing event has unique cosmetics that could only be earned through randomized Apex Packs, driving the cost up to more than $150 for everything together. McCoy said that making skins so expensive broke the studio's promise to make its monetization fair, so the shop began selling the cosmetics individually.A thread on the Apex Legends subreddit had developers engaging with the community and offering their thoughts. But things took a turn for the worse when developers criticized the community with insulting language and saying most players are "freeloaders." After hours of tensions, Zampella issued a statement on Twitter."Some of our folks crossed a line with their comments, and that's not how we want Respawn to be represented," he said. "I apologize to any of our fans that were offended. I will always stand behind the team here at Respawn and support them on speaking out against some of the toxic and nasty comments being directed at them, including everything from death threats to comments aimed at their family and loved ones. But we shouldn't contribute to it when we do comment, and add to the very thing we want to prevent. We need to lead by example."pic.twitter.com/j8woV7g9Tx — Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) August 19, 2019Zampella's statement was also posted on the subreddit itself, where the top-upvoted comments seem fairly receptive to it. Some are faulting both the devs and community for being overly hostile, while others are trying to turn attention back towards more constructive criticism.The Iron Crown event is centered around a new limited-time Solos mode, which is structured like the regular battle royale but (as you might expect) you're going it alone.Info from Gamespot.com

Dwayne Johnson might not be appearing in the upcoming Fast & Furious 9, but the movie continues to add some impressive names. Following the news that Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, and John Cena will all co-star, it's been reported that Guardians of the Galaxy actor Michael Rooker has also joined the cast of the action sequel.According to Deadline, Rooker will play a character named Buddy, and his casting is a "last minute addition" to the production, which is now underway. Rooker played Yondu in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and is also known for his role of Merle Dixon in The Walking Dead. He also appeared in the most recent season of True Detective and in movies such as Days of Thunder, JFK, Sea of Love, and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.The currently-untitled Fast 9 hits theaters on May 22, 2020. It's directed by Justin Lin, who has made four of the previous movies, and stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris. Although Johnson has appeared in every movie since 2012's Fast Five, as well as this year's spin-off Hobbs and Shaw, he isn't part of the Fast 9 cast. Johnson and Diesel had a reported falling out during the shooting of The Fate of the Furious and did not share any scenes together.In related news, Rodriguez recently took to Twitter to blast regular series screenwriter Chris Morgan. Her tweet was in response to comments that Morgan has made about the character of Shaw, played by Jason Statham, who killed the character of Han in the Morgan-written Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift. Rodriguez declared that Morgan has "absolutely nothing to do with where [the Han] narrative is."Hobbs & Shaw released earlier this month--read GameSpot's review here. For more, check out our ranking of the most ridiculous stunts in the Fast & Furious series.Info from Gamespot.com

This year's Gamescom is officially underway. Following Nintendo's indie-focused presentation on Monday, Pokemon Sword and Shield developer Game Freak has shared a new gameplay clip of the upcoming Pokemon Switch titles, giving fans a closer look at one of the first areas they'll explore in the games.The video, which you can watch below, gives viewers a brief tour of one of the quaint, English-inspired towns that players will visit on their journey across the Galar region. While brief, we get to see a few notable landmarks in the clip, including a Galarian Pokemon Center, the Pokemon Research Lab where Professor Magnolia conducts her studies, and a few other facilities, such as a boutique shop (where players will be able to purchase you clothing items for their avatar) and a rail station.🇩🇪 #gamescom2019 has begun! To kick things off, director of #PokemonSwordShield Shigeru Ohmori takes us on a tour through a previously unseen town in the Galar region. #NintendoGC pic.twitter.com/0xZawdEtpi — Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) August 20, 2019Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have been gradually revealing more details about Pokemon Sword and Shield in the lead up to their launch. Ahead of the Pokemon World Championships last week, we got to see a new trailer that showcased some new Pokemon Abilities and held items, such as Galarian Weezing's Neutralizing Gas, which negates the Abilities of every other Pokemon on the field.The Pokemon Company also shared more details about how online battling will work in Sword and Shield. The games will feature both Ranked and Casual battle modes; the former has players earning points after every battle, which will increase their standing in the different ranked tiers. The titles will also occasionally host special online competitions, like those that are run through the Pokemon Global Link website for Sun/Moon and their Ultra counterparts.Pokemon Sword and Shield launch for Nintendo Switch on November 15. Players will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription in order to take advantage of the games' online features. You can see all of the new Gen 8 Pokemon revealed so far in our gallery. For more information about the titles, including where you can secure a copy, be sure to check out our Pokemon Sword and Shield pre-order guide.Info from Gamespot.com

Marvel's Avengers had its big debut at E3 2019, but Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix have kept the public showings of it strictly cinematic. That has changed now with a full 18-minute capture of the "A-Day" prologue mission released at Gamescom. You can watch it in full above.As noted in previous behind-closed-door presentations, the Avengers game has you taking control of the five main team members: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Black Widow. The introductory stage both sets the story in motion and introduces the mechanics of each character. Cap is a brawler with his boomerang-like shield, Black Widow is a combination of melee and gun-play, Thor uses lightning attacks, Iron Man flies, and Hulk, of course, smashes. The trailer gives a good look at all of them, including an extended boss battle against Taskmaster as Black Widow.The presentation at E3 received a mixed reaction, perhaps in part because the public didn't get to see actual gameplay. Even behind closed doors we were left with some lingering questions, especially around the online component and microtransactions. The game's follow-up at SDCC shed more light on co-op play.Marvel's Avengers is coming to PC, PS4, and Xbox One relatively soon, on May 15, 2020. Crystal Dynamics is getting an assist from Eidos Montreal, which is also working on the game.In fellow Marvel game news, Sony recently acquired Insomniac, the studio behind the hit Spider-Man game. While Marvel's Avengers is multiplatform, Spider-Man was a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Sony has hinted it may still allow its studios to develop multiplatform games, as the situation demands.Info from Gamespot.com