With Arrow coming to an end after its upcoming season, many fans are wondering just how devastating the series finale will be. After all, it's been made clear that Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) likely won't make it out of the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover alive.Be that as it may, Amell doesn't think fans will be sad when the final episode concludes. "It' a super happy ending," he told GameSpot at San Diego Comic-Con. "I think it's going to be a happy ending."Meanwhile, executive producer Marc Guggenheim hopes fans will appreciate the work they'd put into crafting a proper ending for the series. "We always go into these things with the best of intentions... We're trying so had to just entertain everybody and honor all of the things the fans want," he said. "We hope that everyone appreciates it on its own terms, the way we like to do things."As for how those involved in the show feel about wrapping it up, Amell admits that the fact that Arrow has launched an entire superhero universe on TV is a difficult feeling to parse. "It's very, very difficult for me to have perspective on something I'm so deeply involved in. But it's starting to crystallize just a little bit with all of the lovely things people have been saying this weekend about not just our show but the universe we've built," he explained. "If you're a fan of comic books and you pop on Netflix and you find Arrow, then you watch the first season and all of a sudden in Season 2 you see The Flash introduced, you can spend your entire summer vacation watching the content we've created. That's really cool."So while it'll be months before we find out exactly how Arrow will end, those involved in the show seem confident that they've come up with a conclusion worthy of the Green Arrow. That said, if the finale ends with Oliver's death, which appears to be a foregone conclusion at this point, there's going to be some sadness mixed in with that "super happy ending" Amell promised.The final season of Arrow premieres October 15 on The CW.Info from Gamespot.com

There's some good news for Xbox Live Gold, Game Pass, and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. The Gears 5 Versus Multiplayer Tech Test opens its servers for free all this weekend.The multiplayer tech test runs from 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST / 7 PM CST on Friday, July 26 to the same time on Monday, July 29. You can get the Wreath Bloodspray reward by completing a full match on July 26 between 5:30-6:30 PM PT / 8:30-9:30 PM ET / 1:30-2:30 AM BST / 2:30-3:30 AM CST. Downloads for the multiplayer tech test can be done through the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 PC and Xbox One, sitting at approximately 10GB.All four modes available during the game's last tech test--Arcade, Bootcamp, Escalation, and King of the Hill--will be available during this second tech test. A new mode, Tour of Duty--where you complete challenges to unlock exclusive Tester banners and weapon skins that carry over to the full game--will also be playableA FAQ on the game's official website says the goal is "to test [the] servers handling an influx of players ahead of launch day." Developers The Coalition states that you "may encounter some queuing," as Gears 5 has an access queue system to preserve server stability.Players reported several issues during last weekend's tech test, including difficulties spawning into games, random pop-up notifications, and more. The Coalition assured players on Twitter that the issues are being worked on, saying, "While we resolve some of the issues as soon as possible, you may see an increase to estimated wait time to get in. The actual wait time will decrease dramatically as we stabilize the services and let in more players."Info from Gamespot.com

Isometric role-playing game Pillars of Eternity is finally making its way to the Nintendo Switch. Developer Obsidian Entertainment announced that the game will launch on Thursday, August 8.Obsidian posted a news update with the announcement. Pillars of Eternity: Completed Edition, which contains all the DLC and major updates like a raised level cap, will retail for $50 USD / $72 AUD / £40 GBP when it launches. There’s no confirmation whether it will receive a physical release. The sequel, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, is said to arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One sometime this year as well.Acquired by Microsoft under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella in November 2018, Obsidian is most known for Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords. The studio’s upcoming first-person RPG, The Outer Worlds, is expected to release on PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 25.Info from Gamespot.com

Fire Emblem: Three Houses asks a lot of you. Every piece, from battle to friendships to training your units, must be managed both individually and as part of a whole. It can be intimidating, but when it all clicks together, it really clicks. Mastering the art of thoughtful lesson planning as a professor improves your performance on the battlefield, where success relies on calculated teamwork and deft execution. Cultivating relationships during battle in turn draws you closer to each of the characters, who you then want to invest even more time into in the classroom. Every piece feeds into the next in a rewarding, engrossing loop where you get lost in the whole experience, not just in the minutiae.Three Houses casts you as a mercenary who, while out on a mission with their father, runs into a group of teens under attack. After a brief introduction and battle tutorial--which you shouldn't need, since you're apparently already an established mercenary, but we'll go with it--you learn that they are students at Garreg Mach monastery. Each of them leads one of the school's three houses: Black Eagles, Blue Lions, or Golden Deer. At the behest of the church's archbishop, who definitely gives off nefarious vibes but is also a gentle mom figure, you end up becoming a professor and must choose which of the houses to lead. There is a lot of mystery to the setup, with consistent hints that something is not quite right, and it's easy to get absorbed in trying to figure out what the archbishop and various other shady figures are up to.Your main role as professor is to instruct your students in matters of combat and prepare them for story battles at the end of each month. Battles in Three Houses feature the same turn-based, tactical combat at the heart of the series, albeit with some changes. The classic weapon triangle is downplayed quite a bit in favor of Combat Arts, which have been altered somewhat from their introduction in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Combat Arts are attacks tied to a weapon type and can boost a unit's attack power at the expense of weapon durability; some are effective against specific enemy types, like armored units. You can also unlock skills outside of Combat Arts that grant you better stats with certain weapons, like a heftier boost for using an axe against a lance user, similar to the old weapon triangle. It's the same complexity the series is known for but less abstracted, making it a bit easier to strategize without sacrificing depth.One of the big combat additions is battalions, mini armies you can equip that provide various benefits to a unit during battle. They also give you a new type of attack called a Gambit, which varies based on the type of battalion--magic-focused, brute force, and so on--and stuns the enemies it hits. Gambits are limited-use and can be incredibly powerful against the right enemies. You can increase a Gambit's effectiveness even further if one or more of your other units are within attack range of the target, a tried-and-true Fire Emblem concept that applies to all kinds of attacks. There's also an anime-style splash screen as you attack that shows each character involved in the Gambit looking fierce, which adds a nice bit of drama.How much you use Combat Arts and Gambits depends on what difficulty you're on. On Normal difficulty, well-trained units will likely be able to dispatch most enemies in one or two hits without the help of Combat Arts or Gambits. On Hard, however, enemies hit harder and withstand your attacks better. You have to think much more carefully about unit placement, the best time to use a Gambit and take advantage of its stun effect, and how many Combat Arts you can fire off before your weapon breaks. This is where things get exciting; after a few turns of cautious setup, you (hopefully) get to knock out tons of enemies as your plans fall into place.Some of the early-game and optional battle maps are open spaces that don't require you to think too hard, especially on Normal. But the story battles throughout feature a variety of map layouts--from pirate ships to what appears to be a lava-filled cavern--that challenge you to consider where your units need to be, both in the next turn and several turns down the line. Many of them have different routes, enemies coming at you from multiple angles, optional treasure to chase, and other quirks that require you to split your party up or change their equipped classes to suit the situation. Thieves, for instance, can open chests and doors without a key, while flying units don't take damage from ground that's on fire.The depth of strategy in these elements really shines on Hard difficulty, but especially so when coupled with Divine Pulse, another limited-use ability. Divine Pulse allows you to rewind time in order to redo all or part of the battle, usually if one of your units dies. Rewinding with Divine Pulse shows just how important unit placement and attack choice can be, as even a slight change can make or break the encounter. It's also just a nice quality-of-life feature if you play on Classic mode, in which units who die in battle are lost forever and can't fight or train anymore. You might still soft reset from time to time, but it's great to be able to rectify a mistake right away and get a shot of instant gratification for a job well re-done.Battling, of course, is only one part of life at the monastery. The backbone of Three Houses is the monthly school calendar, and if you like organizing things, planning ahead, or school in general, this can be the most engrossing part. On Sundays, you have free time you can spend in one of four ways: exploring the monastery, participating in side battles, holding a seminar to improve your students' skills, or simply taking the day off. Mondays are for instruction, which consists of selecting students from a list and choosing a few of their skills to boost. The rest of the week goes by automatically, with a sprite of the professor running along the calendar and stopping occasionally for random events or story cutscenes. It sounds a bit hands-off, but there's a lot to think about as it is, and the week-by-week rather than day-by-day structure keeps things moving and ensures you never have to wait too long to progress in any area.The predictable structure of each month--and the fact that you can see the full month's schedule with events listed ahead of time--gives you the foundation to make effective plans. All that time management can definitely be overwhelming, at least at first. You have to keep tabs on your students' skills and study goals, your own skills, everyone's inventory, and various other meters and menus while planning for the lessons and battles to come. But you're treated to a near-constant stream of positive reinforcement as those meters fill up week by week and your students improve their skills. You're always moving toward the next thing: the next level up, the next skill you need to develop, the next month and what may unfold.To complement this, your activities when exploring the monastery (as well as how many battles you can participate in, if you choose to battle on your day off) are limited by activity points. You get more as your "professor level" increases, which means you have to balance activities that boost your professor level with ones that help your students grow. Activity points also ensure that the month continues at a healthy pace, preventing you from lingering on any one Sunday for too long. Seminars and rest days just eat up the whole day without consideration for activity points, which can break up the more involved weeks and provide their own benefits.How you choose to spend your time also comes down to how motivated your students are to learn. Each of your students has a motivation gauge that's drained when you instruct them, and they can't be instructed again until you interact with them and get their motivation back up. You can do this most effectively when exploring the monastery--where you get to talk to different characters, give them gifts, and share bonding time with them--whereas battle only rarely increases motivation levels. While you can skip a lot of the school life bits and even automate instruction, you won't get the best results. You're directly at a disadvantage in combat if you don't make time for your students, which is by design.Like all recent Fire Emblem games, keeping you invested in your units and their relationships is the glue that binds the whole experience together. It's incredibly effective in Three Houses, where your direct involvement in nearly all aspects of a unit's growth trajectory gives you a special stake in their success. After spending time and effort to help a character achieve their full potential, you're not just satisfied when they win a fight--you're proud. And the more you invest in someone--both emotionally and through months of lesson plans and instruction--the more cautious you'll be about putting them in harm's way, and the more you'll work to come up with a solid battle strategy.Considering you're a teacher, it's good rather than disappointing that there's almost no romance to speak of. Some students are flirty, but mainly, you're fostering camaraderie rather than playing matchmaker or romancing them yourself. As you unlock new support levels with different characters--both by interacting with them at the monastery and by using teamwork in battles--you get cutscenes that flesh them out more. Some are charming, lighthearted conversations between two friends, while many of them give you insight into more serious matters--a father forcing his daughter into marriage, discrimination within the monastery, the dark reason behind someone's lofty ambitions. For the most part, each support conversation is just a piece of who a character is, and as you slowly build support levels over time, you begin to uncover the full picture of each person. As a result, learning more about each of the characters and their place in the monastery is as much a reward for progress as the level bars that tick forever upward as you go.Every NPC is fully voiced in both English and Japanese, which brings a lot of life to the brief support conversations. Disappointingly, though, the professor is silent. They do have a voice--they'll occasionally say a line when leveling up or improving a skill--but in cutscenes and when talking to students and faculty, they just nod or shake their head flatly. There are brief dialogue options during conversations, but where they could give way to a full, subtitled sentence or two from the professor, you're just left with the other character's reaction. Characters do, however, refer to the professor's personality and how they come across throughout the game, which is odd considering they mostly nod at things. This puts distance between you and the characters you're bonding with, and it's a missed opportunity in a game where the protagonist has an otherwise set look, personality, and backstory.It's not hard to like a lot of the characters, though. They draw you in with anime archetypes--the ladies' man, the bratty prince, the clumsy but well-meaning girl--and surprise you with much more nuance under the surface. Some of the funniest scenes early on involve Bernadetta, a shut-in with extreme reactions to normal social situations, but her inner life is a lot darker and more complicated than those early conversations let on. You might discover a character you thought was a jerk is actually one of your favorites or slowly stop using a less-than-favorite character in battle. You also have the option of having tea with someone, during which you have to choose conversation topics according to what you know about them, dating sim-style. Knowing what topics they'll like is actually a lot harder than it sounds, and successfully talking to a favorite character--even if the tea setup can be a little awkward in practice--is a small victory.Each house's campaign feels distinct but not so different that one seems way better than the other. Every house has a mix of personalities and skills, and they all have their own advantages and disadvantages. Students from different houses can form friendships with each other, too, and you can eventually recruit students from other houses to join yours. Rather than being repetitive, on a second playthrough, recruiting gives you access to different relationship combinations; you can see a different side to a character through a different set of support conversations. And while the overall setup of the game is largely the same across the three houses, each has its own web of B plots, and the second half of the game will look very different depending on who you're with and the choices you've made.The first half concerns the church, its secrets, and the fact that the professor knows very little about their own identity. As the basic loop of each month pulls you forward, so too does the promise of learning the truth about something, whether it's why the archbishop wanted you to be a teacher in the first place or who a suspicious masked individual is. These threads remain pretty open, though, at least after one and a quarter playthroughs. You get different details in each route, and so far it's been a long process to piece everything together.Learning more about each of the characters and their place in the monastery is as much a reward for progress as the level bars that tick forever upward as you go.After a five-year time skip, you enter the "war phase" of the game. While the structure of the game is the same--you even instruct your units, since you still need to train for battle--the focus shifts to the house-specific stories. They involve a lot of hard decisions, with old friends becoming enemies, people you wish you didn't have to kill, and students who've changed either in spite or because of your guidance. Late-game battles are especially challenging, with higher stakes and multi-lane layouts that require a lot of forethought. Success in these battles is incredibly rewarding, as you're seeing dozens of hours of investment in your students reach a crescendo, but they're bittersweet in context.When all was said and done, all I could think about was starting another playthrough. I was curious about the mysteries left unsolved, of course, but I also hoped to undo my mistakes. There were characters I didn't talk to enough, students I didn't recruit, and far more effective ways to train my units. A second playthrough treads familiar ground in the beginning, but after learning and growing so much in the first, it feels fresh, too. That speaks to Three Houses' mechanical complexity and depth as well as the connections it fosters with its characters--and whether you're managing inventories or battlefields, it's the kind of game that's hard to put down, even when it's over.Info from Gamespot.com

Aside from a manga adaptation, Kill la Kill The Game: IF is the first expansion to the story of 2013's Kill la Kill, the hit anime series that put Studio Trigger on the map. Kill la Kill IF captures the unique fighting styles of the main cast of characters from the anime in arena battles, while also delivering some enjoyable missions to tackle in the single-player campaign. It doesn't manage to deliver a balanced competitive landscape, but there is a delightful collection of rewards to work towards in Kill la Kill IF--supplying a satisfying incentive for replaying the single-player content.Kill la Kill follows Ryuko Matoi, who transfers to Japan's prestigious Honnouji Academy in hopes of finding answers to her father's murder. Her only clue is half of the giant scissor used to kill him. Honnouji Academy is run by fascist student council president Satsuki Kiryuin and her closest allies: the Elite Four. Students at the school wear Goku Uniforms, each providing enhanced strength and superhuman abilities. Realizing Satsuki recognizes the scissor blade she carries, Ryuko attacks and demands answers, only to be ultimately trounced by the president's underlings. After escaping, Ryuko stumbles upon a sentient sailor uniform who gifts her with god-like magical girl powers when it feeds on her blood. Now much more powerful, Ryuko swears to defeat the entire student body of Honnouji Academy and gain the answers she seeks.Kill la Kill IF is a "what if" scenario, asking, "What if Satsuki was the protagonist of Kill la Kill?" The hypothetical is explored in the game's campaign extraordinarily well, putting forth the theory that Satsuki may have been the brilliant mastermind behind the anime's entire narrative from the very beginning, tragically refusing the spotlight she wants because she believes her plans for a better world will work out for the better if Ryuko is the main hero. It's a fascinating addition to Kill la Kill's lore, and it provides plenty of incentive to see the game's two-part campaign all the way through.Combat in Kill la Kill IF is pretty easy to pick up, with your staple combination of close-range, long-range, aerial, guard-break, and special attacks. There's also a rock-paper-scissors-style clash system that allows you to buff yourself if you're lucky enough to win. Though every character controls the same, each has a completely different specialty and unique playstyle. Masochistic Ira Gamagoori becomes more powerful by whipping and damaging himself, for instance, while petite Nonon Jakuzure excels at shooting her opponent from a distance and manipulative Nui Harime relies on decoys to overwhelm her opponents from multiple angles. Though the roster does offer a diversity of playstyles, there are only eight options to choose from at launch. That's a pretty small pool for a fighting game--disappointing given how massive Kill la Kill's cast is. This is slightly offset by the alternate costumes that change how certain characters attack, but the adjustments aren't enough to make the variants feel like brand-new fighters.Exciting though the colorful combat may be, it also feels lopsided with no reliable means of defending yourself. Every fighter can block and dodge, but both moves are pretty slow so it's fairly easy to just overwhelm opponents with aggressive close-range characters. Once caught in a combo, there's only one way to recover, and that's using a counter burst--a move that uses up half of your special attack meter. You have to deal out or endure quite a few hits to fill up the meter, so you can't regularly rely on having a counter burst at the ready. And if you are caught in a combo and you don't have that 50% of meter to burn, you just have to wait until your opponent stops attacking you. As a result, juggling can be a pretty big issue against difficult AI opponents or advanced players that know how to pull off the game's longer, more devastating combos--which can lead to unfair and unfun matches.Despite the issues with combat, battles in the game are wholeheartedly Kill la Kill, and they're typically glorious fun as a result. Characters yell out the name of their special attacks--some with barely contained rage and others with malicious glee--in epic battle cries, each one animated in a cel-shaded rendition of Kill la Kill's over-the-top style. The most powerful blows land with an impact, slowing down the action just long enough for you to understand the recipient is about to be very hurt. The addition of the luck-based clash system feels right at home too, giving you a last-ditch effort to maybe make a comeback--randomly screaming during a battle and luckily finding a deeper well of strength is extremely Kill la Kill. Sure, the lack of a reliable counter system means winning in these battles is less about skill and more about who can press the attack buttons more quickly, but that doesn't change that most matches are still explosively epic, full of silly puns, and just enjoyable to play. This is especially true for most of the battles in Kill la Kill IF's campaign.There are a variety of obstacles to overcome in the campaign as the game offers more than what's usually expected from arena fighters. Though there are still traditional one-on-one fights, Kill la Kill IF's story mode is a mixture of various mission types. The most interesting ones take advantage of the constantly shifting alliances in the narrative. One battle has Satsuki, Ryuko, and Nui all fight in a three-way free-for-all, for instance, and another sees Satsuki go up against the brain-washed Elite Four in a one-on-four fight. Wave-based battles against a horde of enemies are thrown into the mix, too. The variety keeps the campaign from getting stale.Though these types of missions offer a welcome change of pace for an arena fighter, they're also held back by Kill la Kill IF's traditional mechanics and features. Most arena fighters don't need a mechanic to specifically focus on one combatant or a feature to alert you when an off-screen target is about to attack, as fights are pretty much exclusively one-on-one. In Kill la Kill IF's campaign, where you occasionally fight multiple enemies at once and the only way to remain focused on a character is to stay near them, the absence of any such mechanic or feature is far more noticeable. It's tricky to stay focused on the fighter you want when you and your opponents are being smacked around the arena, and it's frustrating when you're in the midst of a combo and you don't know whether you need to suddenly dodge or block because you're about to be attacked from outside your field of view.Outside the campaign, Kill la Kill IF offers Practice and Versus modes, as well as a horde challenge and figure posing gallery. Given the risque nature of Kill la Kill, it's a nice surprise that the figures' available poses aren't all that leery, though the offering of shots you can produce is a little sparse. The gallery feels tacked on as a poor replacement for a photo mode, which is a shame given how gorgeous many of the characters look while in motion. Offline Versus works without issue; however, as this review in progress is going live the day of Kill la Kill IF's official international release, we haven't had adequate time to put the online version through its paces. We'll update this review once we do.Both the Japanese and English dub anime voice actors reprise their roles in Kill la Kill IF, so you can enjoy whichever cast you prefer (it's something a lot more anime games should do, frankly). Unfortunately, the English dub doesn't perfectly match up in certain animations, so there are quite a few moments where characters are technically done speaking but their mouths keep moving. It's no deal-breaker, as both sets of voice actors do a great job once again bringing their respective characters to life. The voices aren't the only sound from the anime to make it into the game either. Songs from Kill la Kill are regularly intermixed into the originally composed soundtrack, including fan-favorites "Before My Body Is Dry" and "Sirius," augmenting every battle and emotional moment with the same epic sensations as the anime.The voice actors and soundtrack provide the biggest motivation to keep playing Kill la Kill IF. As you complete the story and win matches, you'll unlock in-game currency that you can use to buy songs and special recorded messages. The messages that seem to be from the characters' perspectives are an absolute delight, like Satsuki providing words of encouragement to those living in "this cruel world," but most are from the voice actors themselves--Todd Haberkorn (Shirou Iori) teasingly relaying congratulations for beating the game, for instance, or Carrie Keranen (Satsuki Kiryuin) revealing just how much it meant to get a chance to do voice work for Kill la Kill again after nearly five years. It's all phenomenal content--ranging from hilarious to heartfelt--which provides plenty of incentive to keep playing and earn more in-game currency.Kill la Kill IF is clearly designed for fans of Kill la Kill who are looking for more ways to enjoy the characters, music, and battles of the anime series. Each fighter behaves as they do in the anime, and the excellent voice actor rewards provide a nice incentive to keep playing even after you've mastered every character. However, as a fighting game, Kill la Kill IF doesn't deliver the expected harmony of offense and defense. And though campaign battles that are beyond the one-on-one formula are an awesome addition, the traditional arena fighting game mechanics aren't designed to adequately handle multiple opponents. The campaign's startling revelation is a fascinating turn of events for Kill la Kill's story, though, creating a new and intriguing interpretation of one of 2013's best anime series.Info from Gamespot.com

In Wolfenstein's alternate 1980s, Nazis remain a tyrannical force of evil and oppression across Europe, even after Hitler was killed by series protagonist BJ Blazkowicz. Thus, the Nazi killing continues as the Blazkowicz twins, Jess and Soph, pick up where their parents left off for a spin-off in Wolfenstein: Youngblood--a relentless co-op shooter driven by an unapologetic, youthful attitude. It may not reach the same narrative heights of its predecessors or land every idea borne out in its new approach, but Youngblood hits where it counts.Our introduction to Jess and Soph shows how their parents, Anya and BJ, taught them the means for survival on their rural Texas homestead. There's a tense tone of protective parents who've been through the worst and are preparing their daughters to be able to handle the same, which is quickly juxtaposed with the twins' carefree exuberance when alone together. Bring in the wizkid best friend Abby, daughter of Wolfenstein 2's Grace Walker, and you have a trio that brings their own unique swagger to the Wolfenstein name.Their personalities immediately come to life. Jess and Soph are boisterous and sometimes dorky, the same way many teenagers and young adults are, and it gives them genuine personalities that mostly just come off cool as hell, especially with stellar voice acting. They'll go back and forth about their favorite superspy novel series Arthur & Kenneth, even imagining themselves as their beloved in-fiction duo. They'll refer to things their parents have done, hype each other up in combat, and just straight up act silly in the elevator loading screens to the tune of '80s synthpop background music, breathing new life into the Blazkowicz family.The game is less about a bold, fleshed-out narrative and more about instilling an infectious charisma in its star characters to match the over-the-top action and sow the seeds for what's next in Wolfenstein.It's not long before they take a turn for the absurd; with BJ gone missing, they uncover clues to his disappearance and take matters into their own hands. But they're not exactly sneaking out of the house or secretly taking their parents' car out for a drive. They're taking a military-grade helicopter to Nazi-occupied France to find their dad, and well, kill Nazis. As either Jess or Soph (with your co-op or AI partner as the other sister) and equipped with high-tech Da'at Yichud battle suits, you join a French resistance movement in Neu-Paris, which quickly boils down to you raiding Nazi outposts and strongholds.With Jess and Soph inseparable, co-op is at the heart of the experience, and thankfully partnering up online is a breeze. As a host you can have friends (or randoms) jump into your session seamlessly without interruption; the AI will assume control until a player connects and again right as a player leaves. If players have identical missions in the quest log, completing it will record progress for both players. And if you'd rather go it alone alongside a decent AI companion, it's just as viable an option for the entire game.Youngblood captures that familiar Wolfenstein feeling of taking an automatic shotgun to a Nazi soldier, melting an armor-clad supersoldier with a laser rifle, or zapping a horde with a lighting coil, and what a powerful feeling it is. But what's new is that tougher enemies have one of two armor elements that are weak to corresponding weapons, encouraging you to actively juggle your varied arsenal. Furthermore, a slightly more diverse weapon upgrade system helps flesh out some familiar firearms to get them to function the way you prefer and tear through enemies more efficiently.Light RPG elements also make their way into the character progression system; you rack up XP then dump upgrade points into new skills and perks, like raising health/armor caps, increasing cloak times, stocking heavy weapons, and much more. Enemies scale to your level, and only a few sections are defended by near-impossible enemies early on. It's a simple system that helps facilitate steady unlocks, making you feel like you're getting ever more devastating, but never overpowered.Solid gunplay and some neat mechanics wouldn't mean much without the proper combat encounters to complement them, and Youngblood delivers. You'll often find yourself pulling out all the stops to either finish combat scenarios or realize you have to retreat and rethink your approach. A completely stealthy approach isn't as viable as it was in previous Wolfenstein games, even with the new cloaking ability, but it's a good way to thin out the opposition before going all-out guns blazing. It can get overwhelming when supersoldiers, massive mechs, and a bomb-strapped panzerhund bear down on you, but that's when Youngblood is at its best. Intense firefights can break out anywhere with little warning, and the main missions manage to keep a consistent action-packed momentum throughout.Youngblood captures that familiar Wolfenstein feeling of taking an automatic shotgun to a Nazi soldier, melting an armor-clad supersoldier with a laser rifle, or zapping a horde with a lighting coil, and what a powerful feeling it is.Admittedly, co-op centric features are a bit sparse. Each sister has a roster of emotes and motivational quips called pep signals that provide stat buffs or much-needed armor/health. However, that's pretty much what you get in terms of tandem abilities, and the absence of some sort of joint attack or tag-team abilities feels like a missed opportunity. In the fray, partners will be frantically trying to revive each other or falling back on shared lives which work like instant continues, taking the place of a traditional checkpoint system. It can be frustrating to make it to the final fight of a main mission, run out of shared lives, and be sent back to the very beginning of the mission. But if anything, it's a crude way to emphasize cooperation and tactical gameplay.Overall, Youngblood leans more into an open structure by making Neu-Paris a group of separate districts (open hub areas) where you find your missions. After a brief introduction, you're tasked with assaulting three "Brother" towers--your main quests--attached to each hub area. Out on the streets, though, side missions and random events fill in the spaces and are conducive for racking up early XP, getting familiar with district layouts, and soaking up the vibe of a downtrodden 1980s Paris, but these missions quickly feel like filler that bulk out your to-do list.The design of the districts are striking, however, and you'll see hints of Arkane Studios' influence; when I'm double jumping and mantling to the rooftops and top floors of buildings, I'm reminded of Dishonored, especially as I search for collectibles and chests full of currency. This approach also spices up combat with some verticality and the opportunity to flex the agile capabilities of those slick Da'at Yichud suits. The Brother towers even have alternative entry points that you'll have to discover yourself or find through side missions. It's a successful incorporation of that studio's strengths, and the game is better for it.The Paris catacombs acts your safe hub in Youngblood, and it's where you accept side missions from resistance members, stock up on supplies, or hit up the old knock-off Wolfenstein 3D cabinet. It's not as extensive as The New Colossus' U-boat home, and you won't get much from its inhabitants--they're nowhere near as involved as Wolfenstein 2's supporting cast since they're just quest givers. However, Jess, Soph, and Abby are there to pick up the slack.They might be polar opposites of their parents, but it gives Youngblood its own flair. BJ's inner monologue and struggle internalizing life-long trauma is at the heart of modern Wolfenstein games, and Anya has seen the pure evil of the Nazi regime first hand through the years. Naturally, Jess and Soph have vastly different characterizations, only knowing a post-war world and presumably growing up in a stable household. They capture the spirit of a carefree youth, yet they share the same unfettered motivation for killing Nazis; it would seem that Anya and BJ taught them well.The story doesn't reach the same highs as mainline Wolfenstein games, namely The New Colossus. It’s an incredibly tough act to follow, really. But aside from a cheap plot twist and underwhelming villains, most of Youngblood's lean story is quality stuff. To that end, the game is less about a bold, fleshed-out narrative and more about instilling an infectious charisma in its star characters to match the over-the-top action and sow the seeds for what's next in Wolfenstein. Despite Youngblood taking place after events we've yet to see unfold in the mainline games, it leaves the door open for some exciting, wild possibilities for where the series could go.Jess and Soph are boisterous and sometimes dorky, the same way many teenagers and young adults are, and it gives them genuine personalities that mostly just come off cool as hell...Throughout Youngblood, traces of an ongoing game structure become more pronounced once you finish the main story. You can take on daily and weekly challenges as they cycle into the game, which offer some additional XP and currency to unlock any remaining abilities and weapon mods. What's a bit more substantial is the option to replay story missions on harder difficulties (hard, very hard, and challenging) for increasing amounts of XP and currency. While it's a bog-standard way to keep the co-op experience going, they at least offer an outlet to try new tactics, as these harder modes can become quite unforgiving. The endgame may not be extensive, but the ride was exciting enough that the content feels like a little value added.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. It incorporates some new ideas which are serviceable for the most part, but hits more of the right notes in RPG elements and level design. It also knows the resistance doesn't end when one person cuts the head off a monstrous regime; the fight continues, sometimes into the next generation. And the way this brief spin-off broadens the saga with the Blazkowicz twins makes you wish there was more to see from this new cast of lovable knuckleheads. 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. Info from Gamespot.com

The MCU likes to play fast and loose with its villains. From total reinventions to visual overhauls, the last ten years have been a testing ground for Marvel Studios to really push their source material to its absolute limits--and sometimes far beyond--in service of making a compelling film that stands alone for fans who haven't buried themselves in the last six decades of published comics history. Most of the time, that works perfectly fine--Marvels' reinventions have given us some truly fascinating bad guy takes, from Hela, recreated to be Thor's long lost sister, to Vulture, pivoted from hand-wringing evildoer to complicated, down on his luck father.Other times, the major changes can leave something to be desired. This was, unfortunately, the case with Captain America: Civil War's Helmut Zemo--expertly played by Daniel Brühl, but almost entirely unrecognizable when stood next to his comic book counterpart. Live-action Zemo was a vengeful Sokovian soldier whose vendetta was less specific to any one Avenger personally, and more just a scattershot across the entire superhero community. He worked in the story, sure, but in terms of memorable onscreen villains, he didn't really register, especially not in the shadow of the movie's real conflict, the knock-down-drag-out brawl between Captain America and Iron Man.But luckily, as we learned through the news out of San Diego Comic-Con and the new Disney+ streaming service are giving us a second pass at Zemo complete with a new look, care of the Falcon & The Winter Soldier miniseries, which means we might actually get to see a live-action translation of one of the greatest hero-villain rivalries in comics history.The Real Zemo StoryLike oh so many parts of the Captain America pantheon, Zemo's story actually begins back in World War II--sort of, at least. The Zemo family was an invention of the 1960s, swooping into the mix after Steve Rogers had been revived for the modern Marvel era, but the introduction included a little fancy footwork to retroactively place them throughout history. Heinrich Zemo, Helmut's father, was eventually revealed to be one of Cap's greatest foes throughout the war, and the villain responsible for the exploding plane trap that killed Bucky Barnes and sent Steve Rogers into the Atlantic ocean where he was frozen for years.Once he was revived, Steve didn't take too kindly to the fact that Heinrich had killed his sidekick, and he set out for revenge. During a confrontation, Heinrich fired a laser gun which Steve deflected with his shield, hitting the terrain behind Heinrich and triggering an avalanche which killed him. This was the late '60s and the whole "no killing" rule for superheroes hadn't really set in yet, so Steve was mostly just excited about this development, believing justice to have finally been served.Fast forward several years for the surprise reveal that Heinrich had a son, Helmut, who popped up to blame Captain America for the death of his father, and you've got a recipe for a serious grudge match.For years, that was essentially the most important thing to know about Helmut. He blamed Captain America for his father's death and he'd do basically anything to try and get his revenge--even if it ultimately meant driving himself more and more insane. Through the years, Zemo ping-ponged around from raving lunatic to begrudging anti-hero and leader of "reformed" villain teams like the Thunderbolts--but, regardless of where he fell on the morality spectrum, he never really rose past b- or c-list side character.At least, until Bucky Barnes came back.The rivalry to end all rivalriesBucky Barnes' surprise resurrection as The Winter Soldier was not something fans saw coming. In fact, there used to be a cliche shared among readers that the only permanent superhero deaths were Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, and Uncle Ben.Obviously, only one of those things is still true today--but the sentiment was very much still alive when Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting launched into their early 2000s story arc revolving around the surprise reveal that not only had Bucky Barnes survived the plane explosion trap set by Heinrich Zemo back in the '40s, he'd been brainwashed and used by the Soviet spy cell known as The Red Room for the past six-odd decades as an assassin.Naturally, this revelation had a pretty major effect on Steve, but it also wound up getting back to poor Helmut, who, as a traditionally less-than-stable chaotic element in the Marvel Universe, did not handle the news very well. Unlike the MCU's version of events, Steve was killed shortly after the Winter Soldier revelation, leaving a magically recovered Bucky (all his memories were returned thanks to Steve wishing on the Tesseract--don't worry too much about it) to take over as Captain America in the meantime.At first, this was a relatively secret development--no one really know Bucky Barnes had come back from the dead, and even fewer knew that he had picked up the shield--but the villains were the first to key into the fact that something was definitely strange. You know, like when they suddenly found themselves fighting a Captain America who had no qualms about stabbing them with trench knives.When word got to Zemo, things took a sharp turn for his mental state. All those feelings about his father's legacy and death at the hands of Steve Rogers all those years ago came roaring back with newly honed focus. Bucky Barnes was alive. Heinrich's death trap had been a failure. The Zemo legacy had been tarnished. But what's more, there was the fact that Bucky Barnes had been forgiven by his teammates and friends, despite his actions as the brainwashed Winter Soldier. He was embraced by the superhero community and the public, something that Helmut himself had never accomplished despite his years of on-again-off-again anti-heroism and team leadership.This combination of major revelations was enough to drive Zemo right off the edge with his crosshairs firmly trained on Bucky; the spark in the powder keg of one of Marvel's greatest and most under-appreciated grudge matches.Blood feudsZemo took a new approach when he set out to ruin Bucky Barnes. There were no big villain monologues or threats of world destruction. Instead, he opted for the personal route--he didn't need Bucky dead, at least not yet; he needed him thoroughly destroyed in every way that could matter. This process involved a months-long conspiracy where Zemo strategically gaslit, mind-controlled, or otherwise manipulated Bucky into dangerous public situations while strategically leaking sealed documents that linked Bucky back to the Winter Soldier's crimes.Public opinion of the new Captain America took an almost immediate turn for the worst. While Zemo himself continued to physically and mentally torture Bucky--even forcing him to re-live his own death in real-time--the US government began moving to try the Winter Soldier for war crimes and treason, of which he was found guilty and sent to Russia to be imprisoned in a gulag--at least, for a little while. There was a whole Fight Club situation involving genetically modified bears and a murderer's row of vintage villains. It was awesome. But naturally, it was also temporary.Zemo and Bucky's burning resentment, however, was anything but.In recent years, their hatred for one another has manifested in a few unusual ways. For a time, Bucky took over as leader of the Thunderbolts, a team that Zemo himself used to command (unsurprisingly, Zemo wasn't too enthusiastic about this sudden change in management). Around the same time, Steve Rogers' history was cosmically re-written (after he was resurrected, of course) to the point where he believed that he and Helmut, rather than he and Bucky, had been friends and partners through the 1940s. This gave Helmut yet another opportunity to really stick it to Bucky and force him to go through the whole plane-death-trap scenario yet again--you know, just for good measure. The whole plan really revolved around hitting Bucky as close to home as possible, because world domination and evil plans are completely secondary to Zemo's burning need to just completely screw this guy over as hard as possible.That's really biggest and most important takeaway from Bucky and Helmut's constant conflicts: They're always deeply, deeply personal. These are two characters who hate each other not because of their ideals or their respective moral codes--there's no real "I'm right and you're wrong" hero/villain back-and-forth, and they don't have a Batman-and-the-Joker "we're two sides of the same coin" thing going on. They just hate each other.And with any luck, we'll finally start to see that hatred start to come to the surface in the Disney+ TV show. After all, not only is Zemo getting a more comics-inspired look, he has plenty of reason following Civil War to resent everything Bucky stands for. After all, Zemo's grand plan to dismantle the Avengers not only failed, it brought his ace-in-the-hole, the brainwashed assassin, even further into the fold. Info from Gamespot.com

Nintendo has increased the number of levels Super Mario Maker 2 players can share online. Since its launch last month, players have only been able to upload a maximum of 32 courses to the game's online Course World hub, but that limit has now been doubled, and it appears it'll go up again with a future update.According to an in-game notification, Nintendo plans to increase the course-upload limit one more time in the future. The company hasn't announced when the limit will be bumped up again or what the new limit will be, but in the meantime, players can now upload a maximum of 64 courses. As before, however, you'll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription in order to upload your levels and play those created by other players.In addition to the course-limit increase, Nintendo has shared the Course ID for a new level created by the Mario Maker 2 development team. This course revolves around the Superball Flower, an obscure power-up from Super Mario Land that can be unlocked as a course part in Mario Maker 2 when you clear the game's Story mode. You can see the Course ID as well as a clip of the level in the tweet below.The maximum number of courses that you can upload in #SuperMarioMaker2 has been increased from 32 to 64 courses! We plan to raise this limit again in the future, so stay tuned. The development team has also created a special course, featuring Super Ball Mario!24Y-BMK-5JG pic.twitter.com/bJ8pl5qbDq — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 24, 2019We know of at least one more update still on the way for Super Mario Maker 2. During E3 2019, Nintendo confirmed it is working on an update that will allow players to play online Versus and Co-Op matches with friends. Presently, the game only allows players to play those modes online with strangers. Nintendo hasn't announced when this update is expected to go live.Super Mario Maker 2 is available exclusively for Nintendo Switch. The game received a lot of praise from critics, including GameSpot. In our Super Mario Maker 2 review, GameSpot's Peter Brown wrote, "Whether exploring the full potential of a single element or throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, I've got the itch to join the creator's club. Mario Maker 2 makes the learning process intuitive and enjoyable. Most importantly, it's enabled designers amateur and professional alike to share their creativity with the world."Info from Gamespot.com

If you're a fan of id Software games like Doom, Quake, or Rage, you're probably aware that QuakeCon 2019 kicks off this weekend. The four-day convention, which takes place July 25-28 in Dallas, is one of the longest-running bring-your-own-computer gaming events in the world, drawing thousands of gamers every year to attend panels, compete in tournaments, and demo upcoming releases.Naturally, the star of the show this year is Doom Eternal, which releases November 22, and attendees will get a first-hand look at the upcoming FPS and highly anticipated sequel to Doom (2016). But while the event's 2019 tagline is "The Year of Doom," there are plenty more games involved with QuakeCon than some people may realize. And for the vast majority of gamers who aren't at the convention in Dallas this week, there are great deals to be had as retailers celebrate QuakeCon with huge sales on PS4, Xbox One, and PC games.The QuakeCon sales this week expand to multiple Bethesda franchises, like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, and Dishonored, with deals at various retailers like GameStop, Steam, and Fanatical as well as the PlayStation and Xbox stores. Notably, Rage 2 is down to $40 on Xbox One and PS4 ($27 on PC), and Doom Eternal is only $51.59 to pre-order on PC at Fanatical. Plus, Fallout 76 is only $15 at Amazon for both PS4 and Xbox One, and Prime members receive $15 back in reward credit afterward, essentially making the purchase free. The Amazon Prime deal ends after this Friday, July 26.See more of the best QuakeCon game deals to take advantage of below!PS4Dishonored 2 and Prey bundle -- $20 ($30)Dishonored: The Complete Collection (digital) -- $48 ($40 with PS Plus) ($80)Doom (2016) (digital) -- $17 ($15 with PS Plus) ($20)Doom Eternal (pre-order) -- $49.94 ($60)The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition -- $20 ($40)The Evil Within (digital) -- $12 ($10 with PS Plus) ($20)The Evil Within 2 -- $20 ($40)Fallout 4 (digital) -- $18 ($15 with PS Plus) ($30)Fallout 4 - Game of the Year Edition -- $25 ($60)Fallout 76 -- $15 (with $15 reward credit for Prime members) ($60)Fallout 76 - Tricentennial Edition -- $40 ($80)Prey -- $18 ($15 with PS Plus) ($30)Rage 2 -- $40 ($60)Rage 2 - Deluxe Edition (digital) -- $60 ($52 with PS Plus) ($80)Rage 2 - Wingstick Edition (Only at GameStop) -- $40 ($60)Wolfenstein: The New Order (digital) -- $12 ($10 with PS Plus) ($20)Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus -- $20 ($40)Wolfenstein: The Two-Pack (digital) -- $18 ($15 with PS Plus) ($30)Wolfenstein: Youngblood - Deluxe Edition -- $32.84 ($40)Xbox OneDishonored 2 and Prey bundle -- $20 ($30)Doom (2016) (digital) -- $15 ($20)Doom Eternal (pre-order) -- $49.94 ($60)Doom + Wolfenstein II bundle (digital) -- $40 ($80)The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition -- $20 ($40)The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr (digital) -- $39 ($60)The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr Collector's Edition (digital) -- $52 ($80)The Evil Within 2 -- $20 ($40)Fallout 4 - Game of the Year Edition -- $25 ($60)Fallout 76 -- $15 (with $15 reward credit for Prime members) ($60)Fallout 76 - Tricentennial Edition -- $40 ($80)Rage 2 -- $40 ($60)Rage 2 - Wingstick Edition (Only at GameStop) -- $40 ($60)Wolfenstein: The New Order (digital) -- $10 ($20)Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus -- $20 ($40)Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - Digital Deluxe Edition -- $40 ($80)Wolfenstein: The Two-Pack (digital) -- $15 ($30)Wolfenstein: Youngblood - Deluxe Edition -- $32.84 ($40)PCDishonored 2 -- $7.59 ($40)Dishonored - Complete Collection -- $24 ($80)Doom (2016) -- $6.59 ($20)Doom Classic Complete -- $4.94 ($15)Doom Eternal (pre-order) -- $49.94 ($60)The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition -- $12.39 ($40)The Elder Scrolls - Essentials Pack -- $21 ($74.97)The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr - Digital Collector's Edition -- $48 ($80)The Evil Within 2 -- $13.79 ($60)Fallout bundle -- $15.49 ($59.97)Fallout 4 - Game of the Year Edition -- $13.79 ($60) - limited-time Star DealPrey -- $5.69 ($30)Quake Collection -- $7.49 ($51.92)Rage 2 -- $27 ($60)*Rage 2 - Deluxe Edition -- $36 ($80)Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - Digital Deluxe Edition -- $24.79 ($80)Wolfenstein: Youngblood - Deluxe Edition -- $33.19 ($40)**PC key is redeemable at Bethesda, not SteamInfo from Gamespot.com

Fortnite isn't the only battle royale game on the cusp of a new season. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Season 4 update is now live on PC, introducing some big changes to the shooter, including a revamp of its original map, a new Survivor Pass with an assortment of new missions to complete and rewards to unlock, and more.The biggest changes come to the aforementioned map, Erangel, which has received a major visual overhaul. PUBG Corp. says it has "improved the graphical quality of Erangel's various areas and terrains across the board," ranging from improved textures to updated terrain. According to the developer:"We've updated existing terrain, signage, and buildings and have added a small number of buildings to some areas as well. To better illustrate Erangel's history, terrain elements have been added or revised. Trenches, blast marks, camo nets, and abandoned tanks have been added across different areas of the map."Additionally, PUBG's Season 4 Survivor Pass, dubbed Aftermath, is now available. The pass can be purchased on Steam for $10 USD and grants holders access to a variety of seasonal, premium, and weekly missions to complete, which will level the pass up and unlock an assortment of new cosmetics and other rewards, such as emotes, clothing items, and weapon skins.The Season 4 Survivor Pass also introduces a new cooperative mission system. Much like Fortnite's Party Assist feature, this allows players to team up with friends and contribute to a mission's progress. New weekly missions will go live every Wednesday throughout the season. The Season 4 Survivor Pass will be active until October 15.In addition to those changes, the Season 4 update also makes balance adjustments to many weapons and vehicles. You can find the full patch notes for the update on the PUBG website. PUBG Corp. says Season 4 will also be coming to the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game this summer, although no exact date has been announced just yet.Info from Gamespot.com

Fresh off the back of revealing the Switch Lite and another new version of the console with improved battery life, Nintendo has unveiled a new special edition Switch that looks gorgeous.The Disney Tsum Tsum console is themed around--you guessed it--Disney's line of Tsum Tsum plushes. It will be released on October 10 to coincide with Bandai Namco's Disney Tsum Tsum Festival game based around the same soft toy line.However, while the game is coming to the West, it appears the console--which is the new, longer-lasting model--is exclusive to Japan for now. It is available for pre-order now though, if you fancy importing it. GameSpot has contacted Nintendo to clarify if the special edition device will ever come to Europe or the Americas.While the Tsum Tsum console is yet to be confirmed for the West, we do know of some new Joy-Con colors coming soon: blue with neon yellow, and purple with neon orange.A much bigger change to the Switch hardware is represented by the Switch Lite, a smaller and budget-priced version of the console that removes the docking functionality to be a portable-only system. That version has its controllers permanently affixed to the body of the console, unlike the standard Switch. However, you could still use separate Joy-Cons for local multiplayer games.Info from Gamespot.com

The relationship between Fortnite developer and publisher Epic Games and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp. was believed to be somewhat fractious, given the two games' competition--not to mention PUBG Corp.'s attempted suing of Epic less than two years ago.However, PUBG Corp.'s studio director, Brian Corrigan, has now claimed that couldn't be further from the truth. He told PCGamesN: "People have this idea that there's some animosity or something with Epic, but they're one of our best partners, we talk to them all the time!"The relationship between the two companies is complicated. PUBG Corp. filed a lawsuit against Epic back in 2017, shortly after proclaiming its "growing concerns regarding the similarities between the battle royale mode in Epic Games' newly revealed Fortnite and PUBG." The legal case was later dropped.PUBG Corp.'s parent company, Bluehole, has an ongoing licensing agreement with Epic for the latter's Unreal Engine development tool, which PUBG uses. In addition, both companies are part-owned by the same corporation, Tencent.While Epic openly cited PUBG as a key inspiration behind its Battle Royale mode, the latter has since borrowed ideas from Fortnite, which has gone on to be incredibly successful. Fortnite popularized the Seasons and Battle Pass format of updates, for example, and PUBG has just begun its fourth season.Info from Gamespot.com

The classic PlayStation game Monster Rancher is coming back this year, according to publisher Koei Tecmo. The Japanese company tweeted an announcement of the rerelease (via Gematsu). It also opened a teaser site under its Japanese name, Monster Farm.The phrasing implies that this will be a digital-only release, and no release plans have been announced outside Japan.Monster Rancher first released in 1997, and shares some similarities with Pokemon in that you collect monsters to battle each other. However, Monster Rancher puts much more emphasis on monster husbandry your creatures, as you selectively breed and then raise your creatures to make stronger and stronger iterations of them. One twist was that you could load data to generate a monster from any CD you might have laying around, but that aspect probably won't be present in this digital version. In GameSpot's original review, Jeff Gerstmann said the game is one of those few per year that "defy classification" and could be a sleeper hit."Monster Rancher isn't for everyone," Gerstmann wrote. "If you've got a large collection of CDs, and the patience to sift through them, trying to find a worthy beast, then run out and buy MR right this second. If you like a little more action in your gaming, then you might want to skip Monster Rancher."Info from Gamespot.com

"I don't know." I'm on the phone with Toshiyuki Kusakihara, one of the directors of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Shadows of Valentia, and an art director on many others. And that's what he tells me through a translator when I ask what he thinks is the reason the series has suddenly skyrocketed in Western success over the last decade. It's a pretty amusing answer. "I actually don't know why it's been so accepted by so many people all over the world."Nintendo's turn-based strategy RPG franchise has been popular with Japanese audiences ever since its inception in 1990, but outside of Japan, few had ever heard about it until two anime swordsmen named Marth and Roy made an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Following Melee's release in 2001, a number of Fire Emblem games made their way to the West on GameCube, DS, and Wii. But it wasn't until 2013, when Awakening released on the 3DS, that Fire Emblem actually exploded in international popularity, an occurrence that reportedly saved the series from imminent cancellation.Lucina and Chrom, Fire Emblem Awakening (2013) for Nintendo 3DSMaybe it was just the rapidly growing install base of the 3DS; the handheld was beginning to really hit its stride after a poor launch, and the new 3DS XL had recently gone on sale. Maybe it was a renewed interest in tactical strategy games; Firaxis' excellent reboot of XCOM, Enemy Unknown, had also been a recent and popular release. But Kusakihara genuinely couldn't point to anything remotely definitive. "We don't have the confidence to say: 'Oh! As long as we keep doing this thing, then the game will be popular!' There's nothing like that."Since Awakening, the development team at Intelligent Systems has pulled Fire Emblem in a couple of interesting new directions. First was the ambitious Fates for 3DS, a title that was divided into three separate products. Then came Shadows of Valentia, a remake of the second-ever Fire Emblem game from 1992, which stood out for its notable tweaks to the strategy combat mechanics and featured third-person dungeon exploration, of all things. There was Fire Emblem Heroes, which refashioned the tactical battles to suit a surprisingly good bite-sized mobile game with an all-star cast. Now, Three Houses has been released for the Switch, and its narrative flow revolves around a yearly calendar schedule, coupled with a military academy where your protagonist is a professor and your class of students are your troops."We don't have the confidence to say: 'Oh! As long as we keep doing this thing, then the game will be popular!' There's nothing like that."When Three Houses was officially revealed, I (and I assume many others) saw the academy component and instantly made the connection to another Japanese RPG which saw an enormous spike in popularity--the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off, Persona. Persona games always revolve around students in high school across the course of a year, so naturally, I assumed that the Fire Emblem development team looked at Persona's incredible success and attempted to tap into that formula. Of course, like the foolish Westerner I am, I was wrong."'Genealogy Of The Holy War' was what we directly drew inspiration from," Kusakihara stated. "This was a game for the Super Famicom that released in 1996, and it's the fourth in the Fire Emblem series." It was never released in English, though a fan translation exists. "In this game, you have an Officer's Academy where there are best friends who really develop their relationships there, and the story was centered around them. So [Three Houses] was kind of an attempt to create that kind of setting in more detail."Fire Emblem: Geneology of the Holy War (1996) for Super FamicomBuilding beautifully aspirational lifelong relationships through an extravagantly romanticized depiction of high school life is a huge component of Three Houses. Across the course of a campaign, you'll spend a couple of dozen hours with any number of students at the academy, sharing meals, training and fighting alongside them, getting to know each other through laughter, loss, and love. Later on, as Fire Emblem games typically unfold, you'll go to war, and how the game's bloody conflicts unfold and affect everyone might just change how once close friends see one another. Across the course of development, a number of different methods to help articulate this experience were explored, but the team's natural conclusion just so happened to resemble the popular Shin Megami Tensei spin-off. "We had a lot of talks about how we could distinguish the passage of time at the monastery. If you have one year, we really want the player to feel each of those days passing and make them valuable to the player," Kusakihara explained."We didn't have a calendar at the very beginning of development. We did a lot of builds where we were trying to make systems that worked but it just wasn't fun. So we added that and the element of activity points." In Three Houses, a set amount of activity points, tied to your Professor Level, restricts how much one-on-one tutelage you can give students, as well as how many extracurricular activities you can perform on your days off. "[Activity points] would really focus the player on what they should do every day, whether that's exploring or going on missions, etc."When Sunday rolls around in Three Houses and you don't need to spend your day teaching your students, there are a number of valuable things you can choose to do, but you won't have enough time to do them all. You can get your own one-on-one training sessions from fellow professors to improve your own skills, you can set off to the battlefield and fight sorties to complete side missions, you can fish, you can garden, you can sleep in and do nothing, but most importantly: You can hang out with your students and cultivate those personal relationships. Having a close-knit camaraderie in your class will provide a significant advantage on the battlefield, of course, but off the battlefield, these social links can blossom into deep friendships and sometimes the suggestion of romance, providing a wealth of insight to the backstories of the characters. Between the three different classes of students, the professors, and other academy staff, Three Houses has 35 characters with storylines that tie the majority of them together.Professor Manuela teaches a class in Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)Kusakihara breaks down the production of the social simulation: "There were three scenario writers from Koei Tecmo that helped out with a lot of the writing, and as you know the game is fully voiced. So we definitely had a lot of content to work on. The work took over three months and there was at least five times as much content as there was in Echoes [Shadows of Valentia] for the Japanese version."The involvement of Koei Tecmo (responsible for another enduring tactical strategy series, Romance Of The Three Kingdoms) in the development of Three Houses was already a known factor, but what was surprising to me is just how much of the legwork the studio was responsible for, especially because Fire Emblem is so closely associated with Intelligent Systems. Kusakihara: "With the composition of the team, I stood in as a director representing Intelligent Systems, and then we had Mr. Takeru Kanazaki working as a sound director. We had a few members helping with programming and also sound, but many members of the development team were from Koei Tecmo, so they really did a lot of the work.""...there was at least five times as much content as there was in Echoes.""I provided the world settings and the character settings and some of the systems and scenarios from the game, and we would hand this over to Koei Tecmo and then discuss further detail and develop from there." It's a curious revelation, if only because it invites speculation about what kind of projects the rest of Intelligent Systems might working on. It's also interesting that Koei Tecmo, responsible for the Dynasty Warriors action series (as well as the spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors), was also heavily responsible in another Nintendo title that released a week prior to Three Houses--Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3.Among the fresh new faces to contribute significant work to Three Houses was illustrator Chinatsu Kurahana, who served as the game's new lead character designer. Kurahana's previous work most notably includes designing characters for the popular Japanese romantic visual novel series, Uta no Prince-sama, a game revolving around a teenage girl's budding relationships with a group of aspiring male pop idols.Dating idols isn't really that much of a far cry from the social aspect of Fire Emblem, and with the new direction of the series, Kurahana was an easy choice. "A lot of this game takes place at the Officer's Academy and there are a lot of nobles there. So we want to kind of depict a glamorous, aristocratic society," Kusakihara told me. "Kurahana, who we had already been in talks with, seemed like she would be a good fit, and she definitely had a big impact of the hairstyles of the characters.""We also wanted a bit of a refresh because we were putting this game out on the Nintendo Switch, which is a new platform and, well, we wanted a new image for the game." Hairstyles aren't the only huge makeover for the series, naturally. One of the biggest mechanical restylings in Three Houses is the removal of Fire Emblem's Weapon Triangle, the rock-scissors-paper system that has been the core foundation of combat in every entry since, well, Genealogy of the Holy War.That's a pretty funny, serendipitous coincidence--the new Fire Emblem game, which returns to a relatively minor idea found in Genealogy of the Holy War, also completely discards that entry's most influential and longest-lasting legacy. The reasons Kusakihara gives me are pretty understandable: "We think that the weapon triangle is somewhat of a stylized system, it isn't really realistic," he said. "If you have a situation where a novice axe user takes down an advanced lance user, well, that makes sense? Probably not. So, we wanted to make something that comes across as more realistic to warfare and have players develop their weapons skills individually."Caspar punches a monk in Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)It also came down to the series' continuing focus on its personalities, especially given Three Houses' setting of an academy where teenage students are only just coming into their own. "We wanted to center on developing the skills for these characters, and also give them a lot more freedom in terms of how they develop. So we're really creating a weapon system that is less restrictive than our previous games."That's not to say that picking the right unit or weapon for a battle isn't an important matter in Three Houses. There are still situations where one approach might give you a massive advantage, like using arrows against flying units. And, if one of your units becomes increasingly proficient in a certain type of weapon type or discipline, you might unlock an option to equip them with passive or active combat abilities that help give them the upper hand against other certain weapons types or disciplines--an advanced swordsman might have an "Axebreaker" ability, for example, which will increase both their avoidance and chance to hit against that weapon."...the weapon triangle is somewhat of a stylized system, it isn't really realistic."But the new system of having the freedom to mold your combat units into whatever you like also creates some interesting social-level predicaments that might in turn ask you to rethink the long-term strategy for your troupe. During my first campaign, for example, I had Dorothea in my class. She excels in black magic and swordplay, her lifelong ambitions are to be a badass warlock, and she hates the idea of learning faith-based healing magic--it's for weenies, after all, and she even harbors an innate learning disadvantage towards it.Toshiyuki KusakiharaBut, if you're dedicated enough, by spending a large amount of your class time to some serious one-on-one tutelage on Faith, Dorothea has the capacity to eventually uncover hidden potential. She'll get early access to an ability that even advanced Bishops would covet, and eventually turn that learning disadvantage into a buff. There's some contentious subtext in this example, but regardless, the system allows you to foster unique narratives for your class--it was a tough decision to give one of my favorite students (and my most effective magic user) a hard time in class for a couple of months instead of honing her strengths even further. But it was worth it.Kusakihara doesn't play favorites, though. Toward the end of the conversation, I tried to get the developers on the call to dish dirt on the team's most hated students (mine's Lorentz, he sucks). Everyone laughs: "As the director of the game, It's almost like, you know, I am the teacher because I helped to create them. So I have to say that I love all the students." Genki Yokota, the other director for Three Houses, representing Nintendo, was the only one who threw me a bone: "You're supposed to be helping out the students, so it's hard to say that I hate any of them. But outside of the students, I can say that I really like the character Shamir." I like Shamir too, so this was a good answer.It's pretty common to hear stories about developers responding to audience feedback and using that data to shape future projects. Kusakihara left me with the impression that his team is on the other side of that coin. They don't know why their game has attracted the fanbase it has in the west, so they're just going to just keep doing what they've done since Awakening. Changing the structure. Reinventing foundational mechanics. Welcoming the talents of new teams and artists. "When we develop the game, we just strive to make it something beyond what people can imagine," he said. "That might help in making it popular." Info from Gamespot.com

FIFA 20's big new feature is, of course, Volta, the five-a-side mode that is very reminiscent of FIFA Street. However, the series' existing modes are also getting updates, and now developer EA has revealed everything it's changing in the popular Pro Clubs mode.First up, the company is adding greater customization options within the mode, replacing the old player creation system with a new universal avatar system across all of FIFA 20. This, the company says, will "bring new ways to design your Virtual Pro's visual characteristics."Beyond aesthetics, EA says it's restoring the LF/RF, LM/RM, and LWB/RWB positions for Pro Clubs players and increasing the impact player weight and height has on "how your virtual pro moves and feels, with these choices affecting all of your pro's physical attributes."The developer continues: "Stamina has also been reviewed, and we've tuned the values to create a risk vs. reward system--if you invest in stamina and pace, you will sacrifice other attributes for your pro. All players will start their Pro Clubs experience at an 80 overall rating. From here, progression is earned through drop in, league, and cup matches, with the remainder coming through player traits, which have also been revamped. We've introduced over 30 additional traits for FIFA 20 that, if paired together with specialty traits, will allow you to take customization to the next level. They offer increased benefits to your pro, but at an increased cost and a potential effect on other attributes."The match experience has also been improved, EA says, particularly from a visual standpoint. Replay transitions, on-screen watermarks, AR overlays, unique broadcast colors depending on match type, a new Pro Clubs logo, and club banners are all in FIFA 20, with the latter being dictated by your team's colors and name.Match types themselves have been updated, meanwhile, with the old cups format being replaced by house rules cups, which takes the house rules variants--survival, headers and volleys, and so on--from last year's Kick Off revamp and introduces them to Pro Clubs. The active match type will rotate daily, with a schedule displayed in-game.Practice matches are the final big new feature coming to FIFA 20's version of Pro Clubs. These allow "clubs to practice individually or as a team against varied AI difficulties, from beginner to legendary," with more settings, such as opposition tactics and overall ratings, also customizable.The final few additions and tweaks amount to more kits and crests--with the added ability for team captains to choose kits in order to prevent clashes--and bug fixes, which you can see below via EA.'Any' stamina bug: Stamina drained faster for the player controlling the 'Any' positionCB in wall: The game now places taller forwards and midfielders in the wall to defend against Free KicksGK set piece: Having a GK as captain will no longer affect game stability when your team has a set piece to takeClub trophy celebration: Clubs can now watch the full Cup Celebration when you winFIFA 20 launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 27. Legacy editions will come to Switch and older consoles, with updated kits and squads but lacking any substantial changes.Info from Gamespot.com