During Disney's D23 show the company announced that a spin-off Monsters Inc series is coming to Disney+. It'll star Ben Feldman and Aisha Tyler, who appeared on stage so explain that the series is a workplace comedy.Developing...Info from Gamespot.com

Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige appeared on stage during D23 to discuss the upcoming animated show, What If? As announced previously, this series will explore alternative realities, where key moments in the MCU unfolded in a different way and created divergent stories.A brief teaser was shown during the Disney+ panel and it showed Captain America going into the super solider chamber, but it explodes, creating a zombified version of the beloved hero. Peggy Carter was shown in a costume, indicating she becomes a super soldier. The series will be guided by Uatu, who Marvel fans may know as The Watcher.The final shot of the teaser showed Steve Rogers in a mech armor, a little like the Hulkbuster suit, with Peggy riding on its back. Hayley Atwell, who played Peggy Carter for close to 10 years, showed up and referred to her character as "Captain Carter," which Feige also mentioned a little later.Developing...Info from Gamespot.com

One of the many shows that Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige discussed at D23--albeit very briefly--was Loki. The show takes the mischievous norse god on some adventures through time and, according to Feige, will explore the questions we all have.Questions like, where Loki goes after picking up the Tesseract in Endgame, could he make a friend, and of course, will the sun shine on him again? Although actor Tom Hiddleston wasn't at the show, in a video message he said, "This journey you and I have been on isn't over yet. In fact, it's only just begun."Showrunner Michael Waldron and director Kate Herron teased that the show will take Loki to a "corner of the MCU we've never seen before," likely a nod to the fact that, with the Tesseract--aka the Space Stone--at his disposal, Loki can literally teleport anywhere in space and time. Details about just what and how he intends to use this power will be dealt with in the show, but as Tom Hiddleston pointed out back during San Diego Comic-Con, the Loki who will star here is the Loki who only remembers things up to The Avengers, and who's most recent experience was being pummeled by The Hulk. So it's safe to say he's not in the healthiest position.Info from Gamespot.com

At D23, both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan took the stage during the Disney+ panel. Respectively, the actors play Sam "Falcon" Wilson and Bucky "Winter Soldier" Barnes in the MCU and are reprising their roles in the upcoming exclusive Disney+ TV series Falcon & Winter Soldier. The panel confirmed another MCU actor, Emily Van Camp, would be reprising her role during the series as well.Daniel Brühl has already been confirmed to return as the villainous Helmut Zemo, the main antagonist of Captain America: Civil War. Prior to today, rumors circulated that Emily Van Camp would be reprising her role as Sharon Carter in the TV series--another character we haven't seen in the MCU since the third Captain America movie. Van Camp joining Mackie and Stan onstage during the Disney+ panel seems to be a confirmation that the rumors are true.Falcon & Winter Soldier is currently scheduled to be the first live-action MCU TV series to premiere on Disney+, coming to the streaming service in Fall 2020. That would put the show's release in-between the theatrical debuts of the upcoming Black Widow and The Eternals movies. Falcon & Winter Soldier won't be the last MCU series to show up on Disney+. It will be followed by WandaVision in Spring 2021.Taking place just after the events of Avengers Endgame, Falcon & Winter Soldier sees the two titular characters team up to continue the good fight that Steve "Captain America" Rogers left behind. Though Sam now possesses Steve's vibranium shield, the title of the upcoming MCU show suggests he's not quite ready to forgo his Falcon identity for the responsibilities that the Captain America role implies.Also during the D23 Disney+ panel, Marvel announced a Ms. Marvel series that will premiere during Phase 4 in-between Hawkeye and Moon Knight--the latter of which was also announced during the panel. Moon Knight will be followed by She-Hulk, a series that focuses on Bruce Banner's lawyer cousin, Jennifer Walters, after she receives a blood transfusion from Bruce and gains the same abilities that he does.Info from Gamespot.com

During Marvel's section of the Disney+ panel at D23, the company announced three brand-new TV shows that will be coming to the subscription service. One of these was Moon Knight, a niche but much-loved hero from Marvel's comics.Just announced at #D23Expo, MOON KNIGHT, an original series from Marvel Studios, only on Disney+ pic.twitter.com/iMHyl7BuAQ — Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) August 23, 2019In the comics, Moon Knight has a somewhat troubling story. Originally introduced back in 1975 in the horror series Werewolf By Night, by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, Rabbi's son turned professional boxer turned Marine Marc Spector's life was eventful, even before he decided to give it up and become an adventurer. It was during one such adventure where he found himself in trouble during an archeological dig in Egypt. After losing a brutal fight, Marc was left for dead but rescued by locals who brought him to the temple of Khonshu, the moon god, offering him a second chance a life if he would agree to become Khonshu's earthly avatar. Marc accepted this bargain and was transformed into Moon Knight, a mystically empowered hero to enact Khonshu's will. Or, so he thought. Over the years, it was revealed that Marc's origin may not have been as clear cut as originally thought and the character struggled with mental health and identity issues, causing him to question which parts of his own story were real--if any of them. Since then, a hazy, surreal grasp on the truth has become a staple of Marc's stories, often bringing him into conflict with his own fractured self as frequently as his "powers" (if they really are powers) pit him against actual supervillains. Details about Marc's role in the MCU are unsurprisingly vague, so as it stands right now we can't tell which incarnation of the character will come to life in the shared universe. However, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige did make a passing reference to Marc's mental instability during the presentation at D23, so we that is something we can definitely expect.Info from Gamespot.com

Marvel's panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July was an insane hurricane of completely bonkers reveals and announcements, but somehow, Disney still had some surprises up its sleeves for the company's big Friday presentation at the D23 expo in Anaheim, California. Among those surprises: a new She-Hulk show heading to Disney Plus.The show will be part of the MCU's phase four--alongside previously announced series including The Falcon and Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If...?, and Hawkeye, not to mention the also-newly-announced Disney Plus Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight shows. The full slate can be seen in the graphic below, shown onstage during the D23 presentation.Created by Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, She-Hulk--AKA high-powered lawyer Jennifer Walters--was first introduced in comics in 1980. Bruce Banner's cousin, Walters gained Hulk-like powers after receiving an emergency blood transfusion from him.During the D23 presentation, MCU head Kevin Feige confirmed that the MCU phase four She-Hulk show will hew at least somewhat closely to the source material--the She-Hulk in the Disney+ show will be Walters, and she's still a lawyer. Other than that, we don't know much about the She-Hulk show.In the comics, Walters has a more controlled form of Hulkism, and she retains more of her personality and intelligence when she transforms, which could make for an interesting dynamic with her cousin Bruce, should Mark Ruffalo actually appear in the show.Just announced at #D23Expo: SHE-HULK, an original series from Marvel Studios, only on Disney+. pic.twitter.com/QjrxuWC4Ad — Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) August 23, 2019Then again, the last time we saw Hulk in the MCU, he had fully solved that problem. So who knows?The D23 announcements so far have also included more returning MCU characters in WandaVision's cast, the reveal of Disney Plus's Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight shows, more details about the Loki and Falcon and Winter Soldier shows, and more.This story is developing--check back soon for more.Info from Gamespot.com

WandaVision, the enigmatic Disney+ MCU streaming TV show, got even more bizarre today at Disney's D23 Expo with the announcement of new and returning cast members. Kat Dennings will return to the MCU as Darcy Lewis from the Thor films and Randall Park will reprise his role as Agent Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man & The Wasp. Kathryn Hahn will join the shared universe as the "nosy neighbor" of Wanda and Vision's happy home life.Details of the show are still sparse, and the sizzle reel shown at the expo featured clips of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Endgame intercut with clips from the classic sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show to give fans a sense for the tone. Writer Jac Schaefer teased that they have been "very inspired by Disney Legend Dick Van Dyke," while star Elizabeth Olsen said the show will be "very wacky and fun."Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige repeatedly called the show a "sitcom" set within the MCU, but the team has yet to officially begin shooting so actual footage was not ready to be shown at the panel.Lewis, Park, and Hahn are joining the cast that was confirmed for the show back at Marvel Studio's San Diego Comic-Con presentation: Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, and Teyonah Parris who will play the grown-up Monica Rambeau from Captain Marvel.WandaVision hits Disney+ in Spring 2021. Info from Gamespot.com

During the D23 Disney+ panel, Kathleen Kennedy took the stage to talk about the upcoming Star Wars projects for Disney's streaming service. Among the announcements was a release date for the seventh season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars--scheduled to come to Disney+ in February 2020. Sounds like it might be a perfect binge-watch for Valentine's Day.Picking up where Season 6 left off after The Clone Wars was canceled, Season 7 fills in the gaps between the Star Wars animated series and Revenge of the Sith. After The Clone Wars' cancellation, several of the stories in that gap went on to be adapted into novels, such as Star Wars Ahsoka and Star Wars Dark Disciple. However, many were not, which is why so many fans of The Clone Wars were happy to see the show resurrected from the grave with a surprise renewal announcement during SDCC 2018.Just announced at #D23Expo, the next season of The Clone Wars will premiere in February on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/S1zswiLcCs — Disney+ (@disneyplus) August 24, 2019Season 7 got a new trailer during SDCC this year, revealing the different plotlines that this final season of the show will cover. The main focus of Season 7 seems to be the Siege of Mandalore, one of the last major events in the Clone Wars before its end (according to its brief mention in the Ahsoka novel). Season 7 also covers the reaction to Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order--both from her own, Anakin's, and Obi-Wan's perspectives--which addresses one of the biggest cliffhangers in The Clone Wars.We'll also see Experimental Unit Clone Force 99--a group of Clone Commandos nicknamed the "Bad Batch" for their mutated DNA that grant them the enhanced abilities that allow them to fight with unorthodox tactics and tech--as well as the return of Separatist Admiral Trench. Given the focus on the Siege of Mandalore and the end of the Clone Wars conflict, it's likely this seventh season will also see Rex following up on Fives' sacrifice and working with Clone Commando Gregor and Clone Commander Wolf to deactivate their brain control chips, the electronics in all clones' brains that compel them to betray and kill their Jedi generals when activated.Info from Gamespot.com

The first full trailer for The Mandalorian is here. The first-ever live-action Star Wars TV show will premiere on Disney+ in November, and the trailer was revealed during the studio's annual D23 convention.The trailer contains a lot. It begins with Stormtrooper helmets thrown in the dirt and held up on spikes before transitioning to the titular Mandalorian's ship flying over both a green landscape and a desert. We see black-armored stormtroopers being led by a character played by Breaking Bad actor Giancarlo Esposito. The Mandalorian ends up killing his targeted mark in a cantina and we see an alien getting frozen in a familiar-looking carbonite prison. You can watch the trailer below. Bounty hunting is a complicated profession. @TheMandalorian, an original Star Wars series, starts streaming November 12, only on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/CTpflCJSJe — Disney+ (@disneyplus) August 24, 2019The release of the trailer follows that of the stylish poster for the show, which was also revealed today. The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal in the title role, plus Gina Carano (Deadpool), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), and Nick Nolte (Affliction).The showrunner is Lion King director Jon Favreau, and the line-up of directors for individual episodes includes Taika Waititi (Thor Ragnarok), Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars), and Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard. It premieres on Disney+ on November 12, which is also the launch day for the service.In related news, it was reported last week that Ewan McGregor is in talks to reprise his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi for another potential Disney+ Star Wars show. There's also a show centered around the Rogue One character of Cassian Andor in the works for the service. For more on Disney+, check out GameSpot's guide to everything that will be available on day one.Info from Gamespot.com

Disney+ will be home to a new spy series based on Star Wars: Rogue One, featuring two characters from the movie. Diego Luna, who plays Cassian Andor, will be joined once again by Alan Tudyk, who voiced the droid K2SO. It was officially confirmed during the Star Wars section of the Disney+ D23 panel.The show wasn't given an official name, but it was confirmed that it's a prequel, indicating it will take place before Rogue One. It is filming in London in 2020.Developing...Info from Gamespot.com

The rumors were true, Ewan McGregor will reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi on a new Star Wars project. The announcement was made during D23 where McGregor was brought on stage by LucasFilm's Kathleen Kennedy.He walked out to the sounds of Duel of the Fates, arguably the most iconic song on the Star Wars prequel soundtracks. There he invited Kennedy to ask him if he'd be playing Kenobi again, and, of course, replied with an emphatic yes.There were no details on what the Obi-Wan Kenobi project will be, whether its a movie or a TV series; if it will get a theatrical release or be exclusive to Disney+. All we do know is that LucasFilm is "really close" to getting going. The scripts have been written and it will begin shooting next year.Disney+ launches in November with The Mandalorian, another Star Wars show. It stars Pedro Pascal and has Iron Man director Jon Favreau as its showrunner. A trailer for The Mandalorian has been released online. In other Star Wars news, there's also a show focused on Rogue One characters Cassian Andor and K2S0 in the works. For more on Disney+, check out GameSpot's guide to everything that will be available on day one.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

It's not difficult to pick out Remnant: From the Ashes' many influences. It mimics the format and grueling difficulty popularised by From Software's Souls series, pitting you against increasingly complex bosses and teaching you through failure. It mixes up its combat encounters with AI direction similar to Valve's cooperative shooter Left 4 Dead to make skirmishes exciting and unpredictable. Third-person shooting ties these two ideas together in a surprisingly cohesive way, which makes Remnant: From the Ashes a joyous action-adventure through a far less compelling world.The world as you know it has been overrun by The Root--a force of sentient fauna with glowing red roots commanded by a single hivemind--driving humanity to the brink of extinction as they search for a miracle to end the nightmare. Washed up on a dark and gloomy island and torn down to the brink of death, you are the hero that one of humanity's final settlements, Ward 13, has been searching for. You're let loose on the world overrun by monsters to search for the Ward's former leader in the hopes that the knowledge lost with him might help expose the core of The Root's power and give you a fighting chance against the insurmountable foe.Although its opening moments hold promise initially, Remnant's world isn't interesting beyond the surface. Its characters stick too closely to familiar tropes and feature little to no development as you fight their war for them. The distrustful mechanic will happily craft new items for you but never shrugs off her off-putting demeanor, while her partner has nothing deeper to share beyond his initial backstory, for example. Inhabitants in the Ward congratulate you on your actions outside of its walls, but it never feels like you're progressing your relationships with any of them. This lack of personality makes Remnant's big revelations fall flat, too, and by the time it starts collecting all of its stray stories into an understandable thread you'll probably not care enough to take much notice.The sheer visual variety of its world is more exciting. You visit four main areas outside of Ward 13, with each new one being strikingly different from the last. You start out in the desolate streets of an abandoned cityscape, exploring its dimly lit sewers and engaging in tense firefights on street corners. From there, things get far weirder. You travel to a blistering hot desert with oppressive metal labyrinths underneath just before you cut away the brush of a thick, dark forest illuminated by bright neon fauna. Remnant's visual themes are all over the place, which doesn't help its already confusing story. But while disjointed, the visuals are extremely well presented and beautiful to behold.Remnant's gameplay is recognizable thanks to its blend of familiar genres and tropes. On paper, the combination of Dark Souls-style high-skill combat with the ranged-focused gameplay of a third-person shooter sounds incompatible, but Remnant brings its own flair to its influences that ties them together in an interesting way. Procedural combat encounters are at the core of this. Enemies don't have fixed placements in areas, with Remnant instead using a system to dynamically adjust both their positioning and density every time you enter an area to consistently provide a challenging skirmish. The unpredictability adds an enticing layer of tension to each combat encounter, where even small mistakes are punished by quick deaths at the hands of hordes of smaller, weaker enemies.It's initially frustrating to not be able to learn enemy placements and patterns, but Remnant's forgiving approach to death balances this out. Although enemies hit hard and death is just a handful of mistakes away, you don't lose tangible progress when you die. You don't drop items or lose experience; instead, you simply respawn at your last checkpoint (large glowing red shrines similar to Dark Souls' bonfires), with the route ahead re-rolled and changed to present you with a new challenge.The emphasis on ranged combat changes the pace you might be familiar with from games of this ilk. You're given the choice to get as up close and personal as you choose with short-range shotguns and submachine guns or remain as far as possible with slow-firing but powerful sniper rifles. Each weapon type makes you consider the encounter they're best used for, but for the most part Remnant's combat favors aggression. The number of enemies it throws at you and the cramped design of its dungeons make longer ranges difficult to work with, while highlighting the devastating stopping power of medium- to short-range weapons. This undercuts a lot of the weapons you're able to purchase and craft, especially when taking into account the grind required for some resources you need to upgrade them. It was easy for me to stick to one loadout for the majority of my playthrough, incrementally improving damage instead of experimenting with new weaponry. Despite the dynamic combat, the stagnant nature of Remnant's loot works against it.Weapon mods alleviate this to an extent. Mods give your weapons an alternate firing mode, ranging from simple healing effects to devastating AOE attacks that can inflict a number of status ailments on enemies. Most weapons let you exchange mods freely, allowing you to experiment with a combination across your two equipped weapons to find a synergy that works best for your playstyle. The number of mods you can both find and craft is plentiful, but their variety is what makes them impressive, making experimentation fun. Their effects are even more important when playing Remnant with friends (up to two other players can join your game), where the collective group build is important to counteract the increased difficulty associated with group play.In both the case of weapons and mods you can craft, boss encounters play the biggest part in providing you with the most exciting options. Each boss drops a unique item that can be used in a recipe for either, bestowing you with either the unique abilities of the foe you just overpowered or a weapon to mark your momentous achievement. Both of these require rarer resources to craft, and even more to upgrade, which makes investing in them a difficult decision to make. But it's impossible to not curiously venture back to your Ward after each boss encounter to see what new toy awaits, and even more satisfying to take it out into the world and fall in love with the power that was recently used against you.Bosses also provide the best moments of Remnant's combat, pushing you into new strategies that can force you to reconsider your current loadout. Some bosses make good use of ranged attacks, sticking as far away as possible and using small tells to telegraph dangerous attacks that can quickly kill you. Others are overwhelmingly aggressive, chasing you down and closing gaps that make it difficult to get shots off in between a flurry of dodging rolls. Although some bosses share some behavioral traits, each of them features unique attack patterns and abilities that make each encounter dangerous to tackle and equally satisfying to overcome. The order in which these bosses populate the world is also randomized, making new playthroughs different to an extent. It's a confusing choice in practice, though, preventing you from predicting what boss-specific gear you can depend on at certain points during repeat playthroughs.Confusing accurately describes Remnant: From the Ashes a lot of the time, especially when its combination of established ideas doesn't mesh. But for the most part, the experiment is a success, resulting in deeply satisfying combat against creative and challenging enemies. Remnant struggles to effectively transfer that success over to an engaging loot system and an interesting story to wrap it all up, but when you're blasting away foes with weapons crafted from the remains of your latest boss kill, it's hard not to do so with a wide smile on your face.Info from Gamespot.com

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

Pokemon Go developer Niantic has finally revealed the game's Ultra Bonuses, and there are a lot of exciting rewards in store for players over the next few weeks. Not only will you soon have your first opportunity to catch 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