Season 10 of Fortnite is just around the corner, but in the meantime, the game's second birthday event is now underway. Alongside the event comes a handful of challenges, each of which will unlock a new birthday-themed reward when completed, with a special birthday cake pickaxe awaiting those who finish all of the tasks.There are four birthday challenges to complete in total, most of which are self-explanatory and can be cleared fairly easily simply by playing the game as normal. The one that may give you a bit of trouble, however, is to dance in front of different birthday cakes. A similar challenge was featured as part of last year's birthday event, but these cakes are hidden in different locations, which may pose a problem if you don't know where to look. Fortunately, we've put together a handy map and guide to help you find the birthday cake locations.Where Are The Birthday Cake Locations?You need to dance in front of 10 birthday cakes in total in order to complete this challenge, and they're scattered all across Fortnite's island. Fortunately, once you know where to look, the cakes should be easy enough to spot, as they'll be surrounded by balloons. We've put together a map of the birthday cake locations below: How To Complete The ChallengeOnce you know where to look for the birthday cakes, completing this challenge is simply a matter of going to the right location and then busting a move in front of the confection. If you're low on health, you can also grab a slice of cake to recover; not only will it help replenish your health and shield, it'll count toward your progress in a separate birthday challenge, allowing you to kill two birds with one stone.Unlike some other challenges of this nature, which allow you to revisit the same locations in different matches and still make progress toward completing the task, you'll need to visit 10 different cakes in order to clear this challenge. If you need a visual walkthrough, you can watch us complete the challenge in the video at the top of this guide.Fortnite Birthday Celebration ChallengesPlay matches (10) -- WrapDance in front of different Birthday Cakes (10) -- B-day Beats music trackOutlast Opponents (500) -- SprayGain health or shield from Birthday Cake (50) -- BannerReward: Birthday Cake harvesting tool (after completing all four challenges)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

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

Madden NFL 20's official release date is August 2, but with the way EA games work, you can start playing much earlier--albeit for a limited period of time, and only if you're willing to pay for the privilege. Here's how to jump into the game on PS4, Xbox One, or PC early. [Update: Early access has officially begun for EA/Origin Access members on all three platforms. You can now download the full game and play up to 10 hours as long as you have an active subscription.]EA Access subscribers can start playing a trial of the game beginning on July 25. EA Access has been available on Xbox One since 2014, but the service launches on PlayStation 4 this week, so for the first time, PS4 owners can play the latest Madden ahead of release thanks to EA Access.Madden NFL 20 is also launching on PC, and those with memberships to Origin Access can start playing early, too. There are reports online that Madden NFL 20 early access through Origin Access Premier begins July 24, but this is seemingly unconfirmed.If history is any indication, the Madden NFL 20 early access trial on console and PC will let you play the full game (or presumably most of it) for a set number of hours, the exact number of which is unclear at this stage. All of your progress is likely to carry forward if you choose to buy the game outright. EA/Origin Access members save 10 percent on all EA digital content, which knocks down the price of Madden NFL 20's standard version from $60 USD to $54 USD.Another way to play Madden NFL 20 early is to pre-order one of the game's more expensive premium versions. The Ultimate Superstar ($100 USD) and Superstar ($80 USD) editions unlock three days early, beginning on July 30. These premium SKUs also include various in-game extras.Madden NFL 20 promises a series of updates and improvements. Among its most notable new additions is college football; a small selection of college football teams, including Florida and Oklahoma, are featured in the game's new Face of the Franchise career mode. You can check out a preview of the mode in the video embedded above. Also new for Madden NFL 20 are X-Factor super-abilities for some of the league's best players. Info from Gamespot.com

Recently, reports emerged that the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con controllers are liable to "drift," or register analog stick movement without any input from the user. This is a problem. And now Nintendo is addressing it.Vice obtained an internal Nintendo customer support memo that states that support members are now being told to offer users free repairs for the broken controllers, no questions asked and even if the controllers no longer fall under Nintendo's warranty. Additionally, those who paid for repairs are being offered refunds."Customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs," reads a line from the memo. "Additionally it is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair [...] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund."In an official statement, Nintendo said it takes "great pride in creating quality products and we are continuously making improvements to them." The company noted that it understands some Joy-Cons are "not responding correctly," and the new, consumer-friendly free repairs and refunds appear to be an attempt on Nintendo's part to make up for the issues.In its statement and in the support documentation, Nintendo never acknowledges that the Joy-Cons have a problem from a design standpoint. Nintendo is currently being sued over the so-called "drifting," so publicly admitting fault in that way is something the company is likely attempting to avoid.Here’s more pic.twitter.com/9MbrathIAp — Daniel Jacques (@NemisisPlays) July 14, 2019"This drift issue simply prevents consumers from playing games in the way they are supposed to be able to on this device," attorney Benjamin F. Johns told GameSpot sister site CNET. "It is extremely frustrating and I can understand why so many people are upset. We look forward to prosecuting this case."The legal team going after Nintendo have created a page for affected users to sign up to register their complaints. The lawyers, from Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith, are looking to launch a class-action case against Nintendo.Nintendo will release a new Switch model, the portable-only Switch Lite, in September. Additionally, an improved version of the original Switch will go on sale this August; it boasts a better battery life but other than that it is said to be the same as the launch edition.Info from Gamespot.com

In May 2019, The Pokemon Company revealed a new Pokemon mobile game: Pokemon Masters. Developed by DeNA, which assisted on other Nintendo mobile games like Fire Emblem Heroes and Super Mario Run, Pokemon Masters is a lot more complex than you might expect. In some ways, it's like many other gacha-style mobile games, tempting you to play more with the promise of (possibly) pulling your favorite characters. But Pokemon Masters limits microtransactions to a small corner of the game, leaving room for a surprisingly involved story mode to show through.I recently played around 45 minutes of Pokemon Masters, and it's not quite a pick-up-and-play kind of game. The actual narrative part of the story mode, like a lot of Pokemon games, is not particularly complex; you're a trainer in a new region called Pasio, where Pokemon Trainers form a "Sync Pair" with one partner Pokemon, and your goal is to become the Champion. But each chapter is broken up into several activities centered around battles, from point-and-click exploration of the region to boss fights against a famous Trainer. A big focus of the game is co-op play--it currently doesn't have a versus mode--but you have to go through a handful of story chapters to unlock the option of playing with others, because there's just so much to learn.It's hard to come to grips with Masters' 3v3 battles if you're used to Pokemon's traditional battle format. You control all three Trainers on your side of the battlefield, as well as their Pokemon--Trainers have support moves they can use just like a Pokemon's moves. The type-matchup system is simplified in that each Pokemon only has one type and one weakness, and those weaknesses are displayed clearly in battle. The battles take place in real time, and moves are tied to a cooldown timer, so there's a lot to manage all at once. Do you wait until your move meter fills to three sections so you can use a more powerful move--but possibly get hit a bunch while you wait--or do you forgo attacking entirely in favor of healing a Pokemon or boosting its stats?In co-op mode, you contend with all the same things and add human communication on top of it. You can play with friends and strangers near and far. Even in person, co-op play isn't easy; I was surprised at how close some of the battles ended up, even on the easier of the two difficulties available. There's also a special "unity attack" you can unlock if you chain enough attacks as a team without taking damage, which takes a bit of coordination or luck to execute.In short: 45 minutes was not enough to completely wrap my head around Pokemon Masters' battles, and I spend quite a bit of my time thinking about Pokemon as it is.The gacha part is much more straightforward. Masters features 65 Sync Pairs (a Trainer and their Pokemon) at launch, with a seemingly even distribution of characters from various points in Pokemon's history to appeal to a wide range of fans. You can unlock some of them during the story mode, I was told, but to get your favorites, you'll likely have to go "Sync Pair Scouting" and see what you get.The only thing you can spend real money on is gems, a currency exclusively used for this gacha side of the game (you can also earn gems in-game, though we don't yet know how much you'll have to play to get enough for one Sync Pair pull). I spent around 20 fake dollars during the demo to buy enough gems for 10 pulls, so while the pricing may not be final, getting all 65 Sync Pair teams at launch could probably take a good amount of time and/or money. I did get Ruby and Sapphire's Flannery, though, which was my main goal.Strangely, these microtransactions are sequestered in their own side menu, away from the story mode. They're unobtrusive and largely seem optional if you just want to go through the story mode; you can buy any items you might need, for example, with a different in-game currency. The benefit of going Sync Pair Scouting is potentially unlocking a more powerful pair or powering up one you already have by pulling a duplicate, but the microtransaction system seems very quietly utilized. I'll have to play more to know for sure, of course, but it has a certain "Pokemon is for everyone" air to it.Pokemon Masters is coming soon; it's set for a Summer 2019 launch on iOS and Android, though the exact date hasn't yet been announced. Pre-registration for the game is now open on both Google Play and the App Store.Info from Gamespot.com

Quentin Tarantino's ninth movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, opens in theatres in the United States this weekend. It's expected to make $30 million USD over its opening weekend in North America, according to a box office prediction from Variety.That would be among the highest domestic opening-weekends for any of Tarantino's movies. With $38 million over its first weekend, Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino's biggest opening ever, while Django Unchained also made in excess of $30 million ($30.1 million) for its opening weekend.As Variety points out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will likely appeal to the older movie-going audience; and this group doesn't always necessarily rush out for opening weekends. The movie is getting rave reviews, which suggests the film will continue to do well after Week 1. What's more, the film stars Hollywood A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, and Lena Dunham, among many others, so it will surely draw a crowd.Below you can see a rundown of the box office opening-weekends and final results for all of Tarantino's movies thus far, in chronological order. All box office numbers come from Box Office Mojo, except where noted.Quentin Tarantino Movie Box Office Numbers:Reservoir Dogs (1992) -- $147,839 US opening weekend / $2.8 million worldwide totalPulp Fiction (1994) -- $9,311,882 US opening weekend / $213.9 million worldwide totalJackie Brown (1997) -- $9,292,248 US opening weekend / $74.7 million worldwide total (via The-Numbers)Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) -- $22,089,322 US opening weekend / $180.9 million worldwide totalKill Bill Vol. 2 (2004) -- $25,104,949 US opening weekend / $152.2 million worldwide totalInglourious Basterds (2009) -- $38,054,676 US opening weekend / $321.5 million worldwide totalDjango Unchained (2012) -- $30,122,888 US opening weekend / $425.4 million worldwide totalThe Hateful Eight (2015) -- $20,317,321 US opening weekend / $155.8 million worldwide totalGameSpot's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood review scored it a 9/10."It succeeds immensely at being a fairy tale--a recounting of a time and place, an attempt to capture the essence of Hollywood's golden age, one that came to an end in 1969--but, maybe for Tarantino, never really ended at all," reviewer Michael Rougeau said.In other news, it was recently reported that DiCaprio was paid $15 million USD--or $5 million USD below his normal per-movie fee--to star in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. However, he could end up making $45 million USD or more when all is said and done.Info from Gamespot.com

Hand of Fate developer Defiant Development is winding down. The Australian studio announced today that it will no longer develop games; the company said it is now "in caretaker mode" to support its existing games instead of developing new ones."When we started this studio, we did so with a clear goal in mind. To hire great people, to create great games and to do that in an ethical manner with respect for our team and our audience," the studio said in a statement. "The Defiant model has always focused on creating games nobody else would. Games that reflected the skills and passions of our team. Games that did something new. Our process has always been focused on iteration and exploration. We go into dark places, searching for hidden treasures. We set out without knowing where the journey will take us, and we do so knowing that the unknown is not always safe."This was a "risky way" to develop games, Defiant acknowledged. "When it succeeds it delivers things you could never have considered possible. When it fails, it leaves you without a safety net," the company said.Unfortunately for Defiant, the studio's nine-year run appears to be coming to an end. It appears staff have been let go, as a smaller team stays on to support Defiant's existing titles, such as Hand of Fate 2 which was released in 2017."Studios rise and studios fall, but people are always more important--to the people of Defiant, staff, friends, families, and partners, thank you. May your futures shine bright, and may you change the world for the better," Defiant said.Finally, Defiant shared a trailer for a brand-new game the studio was working on: A World In My Attic. Unfortunately, it appears this intriguing-looking, adventure-looking game may never see the light of day. For now, you can check out the trailer below.Founded in 2010, Defiant Development also created the mobile games Ski Safari and Heroes Call. The company is based in Brisbane, Australia "because the fantastic weather makes up for the global isolation."While Defiant might be closing down, the company said there is "no question" that Australia remains a great place for independently owned studios to make games. "There are many Australian studios old and new demonstrating that Australian game development is truly world class," the company said.Defiant has reached the end of it's nine year journey.I am exceptionally sad, but that's not really germane. What is important is that some of the best game developers on the planet are now looking for new roles. Please get in touch if you'd like to help them land. https://t.co/0Uudiz8LmU — Morgan Jaffit (@morganjaffit) July 24, 2019 Info from Gamespot.com

Comedian Chris Rock is rebooting/re-imagining the horror movie franchise Saw, and now it's been confirmed that the film is coming sooner than expected. According to Deadline, Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures have moved the release ahead multiple months. The movie is now expected to hit theatres on May 15, 2020 instead of its previously announced October 23, 2020 release date.This is a change for the Saw franchise, as the eight previous movies were all released in October to capitalize on the spooky vibe of the Halloween season.The movie is described as "Saw on steroids," but it's not clear what that means. The idea came from Rock, who will play a police detective investigating horrible murders. Samuel L. Jackson will also star in the movie as the father of Rock's character. Max Minghella plays Rock's police partner, while Marisol Nichols is playing the police captain boss of Rock's character.Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell are executive producers on the new Saw, which is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II). Pete Goldfinder and Josh Stolberg, who wrote the script for the 2017 Saw movie Jigsaw, return to write the script for the new Saw.The first Saw premiered in 2004, and seven sequels followed in seven consecutive years, with Jigsaw rounding out the bunch in 2017. Info from Gamespot.com

EA Access, the subscription service from publishing giant Electronic Arts, launches today, July 24, for PlayStation 4. It's been a long time coming, as the service premiered all the way back in 2014 on Xbox One. A countdown clock on EA's website reveals exactly when EA Access go lives--July 24 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET (1 AM BST / 10 AM AET on July 25).Sony initially blocked EA from launching the service on PlayStation, but the company eventually came around (though it never really explained its change of heart). A version of EA Access called Origin Access is available on PC, though it runs independently of the Xbox One and PS4 versions.EA Access on PS4 will be available for $5 USD/month or $30 USD/year. Included with your membership is access to a growing catalog of games, known as the Vault. The library includes a number of big, popular, and well-received games such as Titanfall 2, Madden NFL 19, and Battlefield V, among many others.Additionally, members get 10 percent off all digital EA games and content. For full-priced games, this brings the price down from $60 USD to $54 USD. Finally, members get access to the Play First trials, which normally provide 10 hours of early access to the full versions of new EA titles prior to their official release.EA Access launches for PS4 just in time for the Play First trial for Madden NFL 20, which releases on July 25.Do you plan to subscribe to EA Access on PS4? Let us know in the comments below!Info from Gamespot.com

Sony's US PlayStation Store summer sale went live just recently, and now the company's European and Australian divisions have followed suit. There's up to 60% off some big PS4 games in the sale, which is called the Summer Sale in Europe and the Winter Sale in Australia.Spider-Man, for example, is currently down to £25 / $40 AU, which is convenient timing given the recent release of the new Spider-Man film, Far from Home. God of War's deluxe edition is the same price, while another PS4 exclusive, Days Gone, is down to £40 / $63 AU.Rockstar's big hitters have also seen their prices slashed. You can grab Red Dead Redemption 2 for £35 / $55 AU or Grand Theft Auto V's premium edition for £13 / $18 AU. And if you're a sports fan, there are a few bargains to be found, like FIFA 19 at £16.79 / $28 AU or NBA 2K19 for £16 / $31 AU.You can take a look at the full list of games on sale on the PlayStation Store. The promotion ends August 21, though Sony warns some titles will leave the sale before that date. On the other hand, new titles will be added on August 7.There's not too long left to grab July's free PS Plus games on PS4, meanwhile. Detroit: Become Human and Horizon Chase Turbo are available through August 5.Info from Gamespot.com

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled has stormed back into first place in the UK all-format physical sales charts, according to sales monitor Chart-Track. The remastered kart racer gets a little help from Amazon's Prime Day to beat Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, though it should be noted the latter is a Switch exclusive while the former is also available on PS4 and Xbox One, so has a larger potential install base.As a result of those two games' strong chart performance, last week's No.1, Super Mario Maker 2, drops to No.3 for the week ending July 20. Elsewhere, Chart-Track says Prime Day helped 34 of the top 40 games register an increase in sales over last week, with FIFA 19 (No.4), Red Dead Redemption 2 (No.5), and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (No.7) the main beneficiaries.The new Marvel game fared well in our review; critic Richard Wakeling awarded it an 8/10. "More so than its predecessors, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order excels because of its character diversity and the ways its disparate heroes work together," he wrote. "For this reason alone it's an ideal co-op game, whether you're playing with another friend in the same room or with three friends online, but the AI more than holds its own if you're playing alone, too. It falters in places, but there's still nothing quite like the Ultimate Alliance series, and this long-awaited third entry makes it a triumphant return for a superhero brawler that feels more relevant than ever." Read more in our full Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order review.You can read the full top 10 sales chart for this week below, courtesy of UKIE and GfK Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.Crash Team Racing: Nitro-FueledMarvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black OrderSuper Mario Maker 2FIFA 19Red Dead Redemption 2Mario Kart 8 DeluxeCall of Duty: Black Ops 4F1 2019Spider-ManMortal Kombat 11Info from Gamespot.com

Fortnite Battle Royale is preparing to launch Season 10, and has been setting the stage for the changes to come. That will mean a new Battle Pass, changes to the map, and new gameplay mechanics. It's a lot to keep up with all at once, so we've compiled everything we know so far.When Will Fortnite Season 10 Start?Typically a Fortnite season lasts 10 weeks, which would have put the start date for Season 10 within the week of July 15. This season is instead planned to last until August 1, which may be due to the timing of the Fortnite World Cup. Epic may have wanted to reserve any large map changes until after the competition had ended.This will also allow the game to launch its Season 10 during or just after its planned Birthday Event, which will offer special rewards and challenges. Items like birthday cakes and presents will also be scattered around the map, offering health/shield regen and special loot drops.How Much Will the Fortnite Season 10 Battle Pass Cost?As usual, the Season 10 Battle Pass will most likely cost the usual price of 950 V-Bucks. You can buy a bundle of 1,000 V-Bucks for $10/£8, making that roughly the price point for a Battle Pass that will last over the next few months during Season 10. The Battle Pass entitles you to challenges and their associated cosmetic rewards.What's in the Fortnite Season 10 Battle Pass?Season 9 is ongoing, and as usual a big world event has started to set the stage for things to come. This time it was a giant battle pitting a mechanized bear against a huge monster that took place on Saturday, July 20. The robot was apparently built to fend off the monster, and when it showed up the mech automatically activated. The mech powered up by breaking into the Loot Lake vault and taking a powerful orb, then drew a giant sword to defeat the monster and left the monster's body and the sword behind.What all this could mean for Season 10 is still mysterious, however. The themes for the seasonal changeovers are often surprising, so the next season could have nothing to do with mechs, monsters, or giant swords at all. Based on past seasonal events, this stage-setting probably created conditions for some unexpected consequences that will factor into the next big map change Info from Gamespot.com

PC gamers are beginning to lose their patience with juggling multiple clients when they just want to find and launch their games. Trying to figure out which EA games were shifted from Steam to Origin, tackling Uplay, and remembering which games are now Epic Store exclusives has been a cause of frustration for PC players, but there may be a solution. Enter GOG Galaxy 2.0, which promises to unify all of your PC games in one very pretty client.I began using GOG Galaxy when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt first came out and while I loved the DRM-free capabilities, the platform itself was buggy and generally not a great user experience. But GOG Galaxy 2.0 looks to be a vastly improved edition, and as the beta isn't open to everybody yet, you can get an inside look in our feature video above.The first thing which is really apparent is that GOG Galaxy 2.0 is gorgeous. The visual and functional overhaul is impressive and heavily customisable. Importing your games creates an insightful and intuitive overview of your collective PC gaming library, and your PlayStation and Xbox libraries for that matter. Currently it's not possible to import any Nintendo games, but for games on every other platform you're able to view your achievements, hours played, and friend's stats. You can also explore your entire gaming library using filters and search parameters.The closed beta doesn't contain every planned feature and as it's receiving constant updates, there are certain things that don't work as intended. There are general bugs, some missing trophies and progress, and Galaxy can occasionally lose its connection to certain clients--but these problems don't outweigh the advantages of the platform, especially how it enables the integration of all your clients into one. This requires some setup as you need to log into each of your clients to connect them to Galaxy, but if you don't consider Captcha software to be your arch nemesis like I do, it's pretty painless.Finishing the process rewards you with a comprehensive gold mine of your own data and a client that will never have you scratching your head trying to remember what platform Mass Effect 2 is on ever again. Once you link your platforms your library auto-populates with art, playtime stats, and achievements. There are gaps where art is missing, but icon and background art can be imported straight from your computer.You can boot games from GOG Galaxy 2.0 but you do still need to wait for the original client to get running in the background. My wait times varied by platform, with Steam proving to be the fastest and least intrusive third-party platform to integrate. Some clients like Origin and Uplay still insist on popping up on your desktop when you try to launch a game from either platform, but a feature is in the works which will automatically close clients when exiting an associated game. Galaxy does let you install games straight from the launcher, but of course if you want to buy the latest Epic Store exclusive, for instance, you'll still need to take yourself over to its specific store to buy it.The only time you'll really run into a problem is if you haven't enabled your clients and games to auto-update. I don't auto-update my platforms or games because I still remember getting yelled at for using up all our family's data when I was a teenager living at home so booting a game like The Division 2 can mean waiting for Uplay to update and run and then waiting for the game itself to update and run. Bonus points if Galaxy also required an update at launch. Fortunately, sifting through the piles of data in GOG Galaxy 2.0 to find out which game I've logged the most time in--145 hours in Divinity: Original Sin II apparently--is a perfectly good time waster while waiting on those progress bars. Generally, you'll want to make sure you are auto-updating so you don't run into this problem, in which case you should sail right into the game with far less waiting around. I did most of my gaming offline and away from distribution platforms until the 2000s so while GOG can't paint me a perfect data-riffic picture of all the weekends I spent playing Heroes of Might & Magic III or Age of Empires II from dawn until dusk, there is still plenty of stats to check out.It's worth noting that GOG Galaxy 2.0 isn't the first all-in-one launcher. Playnite is an open source library manager that imports games from all of your platforms into one and while by all accounts it does the trick, GOG Galaxy 2.0 has some special additions under its pretty hood. Galaxy includes a bookmark function that lets you pin games, genres, or custom tagged groups to your sidebar. Custom tags can be created instantly and you can group together whatever strange amalgamation of games you choose. There are also plenty of UI options like filtering by platform, operating system, tags, or whether or not the game is installed. The platform is also open-source allowing for community-made plug-ins which should enable clever users to expand the breadth of what GOG Galaxy 2.0 is capable of.Overall the process is as streamlined and well-executed as you'd expect from a beta. You can hide games in your library, which I did for trials, and if you own a game on multiple platforms it'll combine the stats under one page for you. As a space to hold your half a dozen gaming libraries it's entirely sufficient and missing trophies or sluggish boot times from certain platforms don't take away from how much easier it makes modern PC gaming. Galaxy is also intending to integrate your friends from other platforms into the client which CD Project says could extend to sending a message to a friend on PS4 who receives it instantly, but this functionality is yet to be implemented.A handful of years ago I couldn't imagine GOG Galaxy working for me as a replacement for Steam, despite how much I loved the DRM-free and offline play options, but Galaxy 2.0 is a vastly different beast. It may not have the library to replace your existing platforms, but the relative ease with which it unifies all your clients means that, at least for me, playing my PC games through GOG Galaxy 2.0 from now on is looking to be a no brainer. Info from Gamespot.com

Sega has teased something new for the Yakuza series, setting the debut date in August. The new game will seemingly introduce an all-new protagonist now that Kazuma Kiryu's story has concluded, but the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has indulged in teasing the fans about the new game.A tweet promises a press conference to be held in Japan on August 29. The announcement was accompanied by an image of Ichiban Kasuga, the protagonist Yakuza Online, suggesting he'll factor into the game somehow. It's unclear if this will be considered the next mainline Yakuza game or a spin-off, or even additional content for Yakuza Online.【抽選で15名様をご招待！】PS4『龍が如く最新作』記者発表会に『#龍オン 』ユーザーの皆さまを抽選で15名様限定で特別にご招待します！シリーズ最新作の新情報を世界で一番最初にチェックできるチャンス！エントリーはこちらhttps://t.co/KbwaMNbEem pic.twitter.com/JcNsYPQfe8 — 『龍が如く ONLINE』公式アカウント (@RyuOnline_PR) July 23, 2019Yakuza Online first introduced Kasuga. That game detailed his backstory as a former Tojo Yakuza released from prison prison, now having to find his way through a changed world.The last game developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio released was Judgement. Though Judgment was a very different game from the rest of the Yakuza series, it added a similar flavor to the world and came with mechanics of its own, with mixed results."It's disappointing to realize that Judgment is at its best when it veers closer to the mold that it came from," Edmond Tran wrote in GameSpot's review. "Even though the game's familiar fighting and side activities will happily keep you occupied, it's a shame that the most intriguing and unique additions are also the dullest things about Judgment, because the new roster of characters have been wonderfully crafted otherwise. Yagami, Kaito, and the supporting cast are incredibly endearing, and following their every move as they unravel the sinister machinations looming under the surface of Kamurocho is a sensational journey. I can't wait to return to these characters, but I'm hoping we can all do something different next time."Info from Gamespot.com