PC gamers in need of a new rig should check out what Dell is offering this week in a limited sale of 15-20% off on select Dell and Alienware gaming computers. That encompasses three powerful laptops and one desktop, with savings up to $300. The sale is only available now through this Sunday, June 24.Dell's G15 gaming laptop is just $850, under the full price of $1000. It features a 15-inch, 1080p display with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 graphics card to support it, making this a great entry-level gaming computer. Going up from there are the Alienware m15 gaming laptop and Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 laptop/tablet, both for $1,450, down from the full price of $1,780. What the Alienware laptop lacks in functionality relative to the XPS 15, it makes up for with more powerful hardware under the hood with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 graphics card and a hybrid HDD/SSD. Lastly at the top end is the Alienware Aurora gaming desktop for $1,900 down from its usual $2,230. That comes loaded with an i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 8GB GDDR6 graphics card and 512GB solid state drive.Dell G15 Gaming Laptop -- $850Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 -- $1,450Alienware m15 Gaming Laptop -- $1,450Alienware Aurora Gaming Desktop -- $1,900If you act fast, Dell's sale is well-timed with a daily deal running now on Amazon for up to 63% savings on certain Logitech gaming accessories, like mice, keyboards, headsets, and speakers, which are precisely what you might need to complement a brand new gaming computer. Amazon also has a great deal currently on Xbox wireless controllers paired with a PC wireless adapter for just $45. Between these three sales, you should be able to get yourself a great new gaming set-up without breaking the bank.Info from Gamespot.com

E3 2019 is behind us, but even the most devoted video game fans are bound to have missed some news out of the show. The event is just too sprawling to keep up with it all at once. Nintendo keeps its own announcements deeply under wraps and contained mostly within its Nintendo Direct presentation the Tuesday morning of the show, but other announcements are often littered throughout the week in its Nintendo Treehouse streams.In case you missed any of the news and announcements, we've compiled them all below. You can also catch up on all the Xbox news, and despite Sony's absence, there was plenty of PlayStation news that we'll be wrapping up soon as well.Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel AnnouncedThe biggest announcement of Nintendo's conference was saved for the very end, when the company revealed the first teaser for a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The brief teaser video gave us scant details about the new game, and no clue about when to expect it, but it did drop some intriguing clues about the story. It showed Link and Zelda together, appearing to explore a tomb before something awakens. In the distance, Hyrule Castle starts to shake and rise.Series producer Eiji Aonuma has since revealed that the sequel came about because the studio simply had too many ideas to fit into the downloadable content."Initially we were thinking of just DLC ideas, but then we had a lot of ideas and we said, 'This is too many ideas, let's just make one new game and start from scratch.'"The teaser has led to plenty of speculation and theories about what it could all mean.Two More Nintendo Switch Models In The WorksReports have been circulating that Nintendo is developing new Nintendo Switch models, despite the company staying mum on the subject at E3. A new report indicates that the wheels are still very much in motion, albeit quietly.According to the report, Nintendo has moved production out of China and into Southeast Asia to avoid newly proposed tarriffs from the United States. That reportedly includes both production of the current model, along with two new ones. The first model is said to be similar to the existing Switch but with better components, while the second is a budget version with lower specs and a new look. Production of these models is reportedly well underway, suggesting their release could be close. The original reports suggested that the cheaper model could come out by the end of June, but that seems unlikely at this point. One or both could still be slated for this year, however.Animal Crossing Given New Title, But DelayedAnimal Crossing for Switch was slated as a 2019 game, but Nintendo has now pushed it into 2020. It wasn't all bad news, though, as the presentation also gave us much more detail on what to expect from the newly-dubbed Animal Crossing: New Horizons.New Horizons takes place on an island of your own, and you begin in a tent. You'll have more control over both your own look and the management of the society this time around, and you can enjoy the island lifestyle with a friend thanks to the addition of couch co-op. It won't support cloud saves, though, so this island is an island unto itself.Though delays are often a bummer, Nintendo explained that this one was an attempt to allow its workers to have a healthy work-life balance. Given the recent spate of studios caught putting their devs through heavy crunch, this explanation seemed to be met pretty positively from the community, although Nintendo's stock price took a hit in the wake of the news.Link's Awakening Is Coming This Fall, With Some SurprisesThe Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is being remade for Nintendo Switch, and the company announced a fall release date during its presentation. The game looks like a neat modernization of the Game Boy classic, but one surprise is the new addition of a Dungeon Editor mode. It will let you collect individual rooms from dungeons and interlock them to make your own dungeon mash-ups.To mark the game's release, Europe is getting a lavish collector's edition complete with Game Boy styled Steelbook case. The game will also release along with a new Amiibo showing Link rendered in the game's claymation-like art style. For more details check out our pre-order guide.Who You Gonna Call? LuigiThe centerpiece of Nintendo's E3 booth was Luigi's Mansion 3, the latest in the ghost-hunting adventure series. Luigi is back with the aptly named Gooigi capturing ghosts in a haunted hotel. The new trailer gave us tons of gameplay details, and our own hands-on time showed it to be a funny, engaging parody of survival-horror games.A Smashing New Set Of CharactersSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate was last year's big Nintendo release, but the enduring popularity of the fighting game has made DLC announcements almost as big as game reveals themselves. At E3 Nintendo revealed a bunch of new characters including the heroes of Dragon Quest and the much-requested Banjo-Kazooie.The Dragon Quest heroes actually count as one character, with the various forms serving as different appearances. Each of them is a sword-wielding character so the skin swapping makes sense. Banjo and Kazooie, meanwhile, are on loan from Microsoft as the two companies have gotten increasingly cozy lately.Pokemon Sword and Shield: It's Going to Be BigThe first main Pokemon game for Nintendo Switch, Pokemon Sword and Shield, is dropping this year. Nintendo gave the pair of games their own Nintendo Direct presentation just ahead of E3, revealing the new giant-sized Pokemon mechanic and a bunch of new mons. We've also learned how the Raid battles will work, which lets you team up with other trainers to take on one kaiju-sized pocket monster.Sword and Shield will honor the recent legacy of the series by working with the PokeBall Plus accessory released alongside the Let's Go games. That's not the only lesson it's taking from Let's Go, as we've also learned that it won't have random encounters.To the chagrin of some fans, though, Sword and Shield won't allow you to import your entire collection of monsters from previous generations. And this may be the norm going forward into future Pokemon games as well.Zelda Spin-Off Cadence of Hyrule Released, Is GreatIn addition to the Breath of the Wild 2 announcement and more details about the Link's Awakening remake, Nintendo ended the week of E3 with the release of Cadence of Hyrule. This Zelda spin-off from the studio behind Crypt of the Necrodancer borrows that game's signature rhythm gameplay, but set to remixed Zelda tunes in the land of Hyrule.And wouldn't you know it, the combination works. GameSpot's Cadence of Hyrule review concluded that the game wonderfully realizes the spirit of classic Zelda games and exploring the world is consistently fun and rewarding.“Cadence of Hyrule is a fantastic Zelda game in its own right, even though it adopts the gameplay mechanics of another series,” James O'Connor wrote. “Beyond the aesthetics, it nails the satisfying sense of exploration and increasing power, and it revels in the joy of discovery, as all the best Zelda games do. It's an extremely successful melding of two great game series and an experience that makes you feel eager for Nintendo to do more interesting things with their major licenses.”Cadence of Hyrule is now available on the Nintendo eShop for $25.The Witcher 3 Coming To Nintendo SwitchThe Witcher 3 is one of the most massive RPGs of the generation, and soon you can take it with you wherever you go. CD Projekt Red's critically acclaimed game is coming to Nintendo Switch, complete with its two expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine and all other DLC.The Switch version will have some visual compromises to fit, but CD Projekt has been sharing screenshots and it certainly looks like the Geralt we all know. We even got a good look at his glistening body in a bathtub. You could see the iconic bathtub scene while playing in the bathtub, but we wouldn't recommend it as the Switch isn't waterproof.Check out our pre-order guide to see all that games in the package. Fire Emblems, Daemons, And MoreTwo more Nintendo-published games got shorter mentions during Nintendo's presentation. Fire Emblem: Three Houses had only a brief trailer since the game's release is already around the corner. You can check out our pre-order guide for more details. Similarly, the mech combat game Daemon x Machina got a release date trailer, pinning the game to September. Meanwhile, Astral Chain from PlatinumGames got a fresh look that shows it may scratch the Bayonetta itch.For those looking for something to play right now, Nintendo Online subscribers can play Double Dragon 2, Volleyball, and City Connection in the updated NES library. Or you can polish up your skills in Splatoon 2 as you prepare for the final Splatfest, scheduled to take place in July. Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft exclusive Gears 5, which unveiled a haunting cinematic trailer during the company's E3 2019 presentation, is only a few months away. Details about the upcoming third-person shooter continue to emerge with its September release right around the corner, and a new post on the Gears 5 official website provides some enticing information, including free content and the lack of a season pass.The news post outlines a bunch of the game's details. We get a cinematic glimpse at new Gear Fahz Chutani (played by Rahul Kohli, Rage 2's Garcia the Gregarious). The post also goes over the game's new 3-player co-op mode Escape, which you can check out 10-minutes of gameplay footage above. But the biggest piece of news centers around additional content.Developer The Coalition touts a "player-first experience," stating some of the game's additional content will be free. According to the post, Gears 5 will feature no season pass, no loot boxes, and free DLC maps for matchmaking and private play. The maps sound similar to Gears of War 4, but where that game required you own the map to play them in private matches after they left the playlist, this game doesn't seem to have that limitation. Though Gears 5 will have microtransactions, the post confirms that "all store purchases are direct," meaning no RNG (random number generator) will play in a role in what you get. An IGN report reveals that Gears 5 will feature seven different types of cosmetics that can be purchased will real money: costumes, weapon skins, banners (emblems with more surface area), expressions (emotes), executions, blood sprays, and marks (to mark targets). "The only random kind of chance you have is that there's a type of content that we essentially give to the player for free just for playing," The Coalition boss Rod Fergusson told IGN during E3 2019.Gears 5 follows Kat Diaz (played by Laura Bailey, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End's Nadine Ross) as she searches to uncover the truth behind her heritage and her connection to the Locust. Xbox boss Phil Spencer said Gears 5 was " looking great" when he visited the Vancouver-based studio in March 2019.Gears 5 will release on September 10 for PC and Xbox One. A versus technical test is scheduled for Friday, July 19, with Horde Mode getting its own test sometime this August.Info from Gamespot.com

Nintendo Switch games are notoriously expensive, but there are a few reliable ways to save yourself some cash. The Nintendo Eshop regularly has sales, and the company began offering a pair of game vouchers for $100 to players with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription that you can then redeem on two games, saving yourself up to $20. But on top of these deals, there's another way to make your money go even further that fewer people consider: gift card discounts.Currently, at Newegg, you can save 10% on a $50 Nintendo Eshop gift card by using promo code EMCTBVT49 at checkout. That translates into getting a $50 gift card for only $45, which may not seem like a huge price cut, but why stop there? You can then turn around and use that gift card on already discounted games, saving yourself even more money.Get a $50 Nintendo Eshop gift card for $45 »An even sneakier way to use discounted gift cards is to buy a pair of $50 gift cards and use those to buy two game vouchers at Nintendo for $100, assuming you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. (Reminder: You can get a year of Switch Online for free through Amazon Prime.) Not only are you saving $20 on two full-price games with the vouchers, but you're saving an additional $10 with the gift card deal, getting you $120 in value for only $90. That translates to getting two new $60 Nintendo games for only $45 each. Plus, you'll get 500 My Nintendo Gold Points from the voucher purchase, which equals another $5 in Eshop credit. The eligible list of games for Nintendo's vouchers includes upcoming releases like Pokemon Sword and Shield, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Super Mario Maker 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and more.This particular Newegg gift card deal is only running for a few more days, but gift card discounts do pop up often in case you miss this one. Xbox One and PS4 gift cards also get marked down by $5 or $10 regularly, so you can save money when shopping for those platforms as well. For example, BJ's members can currently get a $25 PlayStation Store gift card for only $20, which can be used to save even more money on some of the great PS4 games on sale right now.Info from Gamespot.com

Funko Pop vinyl figures have taken fandom by storm over the last several years, expanding into nearly every arena of pop culture, with gaming being a huge part of that. Amazon is now offering a sale on a huge variety of the figures, including a lot of characters from many of our favorite games.Most of the cast of Overwatch is here, along with several Pokemon and iconic characters from other franchises, such as Halo, Crash Bandicoot, Portal, and Horizon Zero Dawn. We've gathered our favorite gaming Funko Pops currently on sale below so you too can fill your desk with little, geeky friends like Aloy, Orisa, and Master Chief. If you're still hungry for more Pops, check out the recently-revealed additions from San Diego Comic-Con 2019, as well as our ranking of the best and worst Avengers Pops.Pokemon - BulbasaurCHECK PRICE ON AMAZONPokemon - CharmanderCHECK PRICE ON AMAZONHorizon Zero Dawn - AloyCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONThe Witcher - GeraltCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - GenjiCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - ReinhardtCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - HanzoCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - MeiCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - SymmetraCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - TorbjörnCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - DoomfistCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - WinstonCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - ZenyattaCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - OrisaCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - ZaryaCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - RoadhogCHECK PRICE AT AMAZONOverwatch - JunkratCHECK PRICE ON AMAZONHalo - Master Chief and CortanaCHECK PRICE ON AMAZONCrash Bandicoot - HimselfCHECK PRICE ON AMAZONPortal - TurretCHECK PRICE ON AMAZONInfo from Gamespot.com

Square Enix showed off a lot of Final Fantasy VII Remake during its E3 2019 presentation, including info on its new combat systems and March 2020 release date. The Japanese company is ready to show off more, as we've just been given a huge assortment of Final Fantasy VII Remake screenshots.The screenshots look similar to Kingdom Hearts in aesthetic, but with a darker, grittier palette. They show iconic characters Aeris, Barret, Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth, all rendered in typical Testuya Nomura fashion. Some are stills from combat encounters with bits of the HUD visible, while others are likely from explorative gameplay sections. There also seem to be a handful of shots from possible in-game cutscenes, including an epic back-to-back shot of Cloud and Tifa. You can check out the new screens below.We discussed the modernization of Final Fantasy VII Remake in a feature article, with managing editor Peter Brown saying he "[fell] in love with the world and characters all over again" after going hands-on with the game on the E3 2019 show floor. "It would be far too premature to claim that the final product will be as amazing as my demo, but at the risk of sounding naive once again, I'm given hope as I recall the experience I had when I first played the original PlayStation demo in 1996, and how that experienced carried over to the full game," Brown wrote of the demo.Final Fantasy VII Remake will launch exclusively for PlayStation 4 on March 3, 2020. Square also confirmed that the hotly-anticipated RPG will be playable on PlayStation 5 and will span two discs worth of gameplay content.Info from Gamespot.com

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the new mobile game from Warner Bros. and Pokemon Go developer Niantic, is now live a little early in the US and UK. Since its announcement, Wizards Unite has drawn frequent comparisons to Pokemon Go, and not without reason; not only are both titles developed by the same studio, they share many similar gameplay elements. Now that we've gotten our hands on the full game, how exactly do the two titles compare? Read on as we break down their similarities and differences, or check out more in-depth guide to Wizards Unite for Pokemon Go players.The general thrust of Wizards Unite is very similar to Pokemon Go, albeit with a Harry Potter spin. Just as in the Pokemon mobile game, gameplay primarily revolves around exploring the real world in search of collectibles. Rather than catching Pokemon, however, you'll be hunting for "Foundables"--people, creatures, and artifacts from the Wizarding World that have begun appearing in the Muggle world.Not only is the basic premise of Wizards Unite similar, many of its elements have analogs in Pokemon Go. The game's equivalent of Gyms are called Fortresses, and just as in Pokemon Go, these will host Raid-like "Wizarding Challenges" that will require players to team up in-person to tackle. Instead of a Pokedex, you have a Registry that gradually fills out as you collect Foundables. Inns serve the same function as Pokestops, while Portkeys are similar to Eggs; after you've used either a Gold or Silver Key (Wizard Unite's version of Incubators), you'll need to log a certain number of steps and the Portkey will take you to a Wizarding World location.While the games' foundations are very similar, however, Wizards Unite differs from Pokemon Go in some significant ways. The most obvious is the sheer amount of content it has from the outset; right from the start, Wizards Unite features a variety of quest objectives to complete. The game also places a bigger emphasis on story, with fully voiced dialogue and a clear--if not entirely comprehensible--plot running through the experience.Wizards Unite also employs more traditional RPG-like elements than Pokemon Go does. Once you've reached level six in the game, you'll be able to choose a Profession, which will allow you to unlock abilities in skill trees. The game also features a potion-brewing system.Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is available to download now on Android (through Google Play) and iOS devices (App Store). Like Pokemon Go, it's free to download and features optional microtransactions. You can read more about the game in our hands-on impressions of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.Info from Gamespot.com

Apex Legends has been one of 2019's biggest successes, and developer Respawn Entertainment is looking to keep its success going with Season 2. During EA Play at E3 2019, the creators revealed what's to come for its battle royale spin-off from the Titanfall franchise, and how much the team learned following the runaway success after its surprise February debut. In addition to a significantly revised battle pass--lessening the grind and offering better rewards--we also learned of some buffs coming to characters like Mirage, along with everyone's favorite gun--the Mozambique.But the biggest news to come from EA Play was the reveal of Wattson, the game's upcoming new legend. During EA Play, we spent some time talking with Apex Legends project lead Drew McCoy and lead product manager Lee Horn--along with a surprise special delivery from Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella. In our talk, they reflected on the fast and unexpected success of the game, and the big lessons they learned following the game's debut.For more info on Apex Legends, including what weapons will change and why dragons have suddenly appeared on the map, be sure to check back with us for updates on this evolving game.Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.First off, can you talk about what it was like seeing Apex Legends become such a hit after launch?Lee Horn: Yeah, I mean, the first couple weeks was just us watching twitch being like “Oh my god, I can't believe this is happening.” No one here expected to find such a rabid fan base so quickly, and to find fans that were just excited about our game. This was great for the team, everyone was like “Yeah, we put a lot of time into this and it's great to have that payoff.” But it's also a learning experience for us.Drew McCoy: It was crazy. Nothing can prepare you for that. You realize what's happening as it's happening. You don't get much premunition to it, and so it's just kind of washing over you.Horn: On the first day, I think we were watching the meters fill up and it's like, “I can't believe we have that many players already.” Everyone was cheering, it was a very surreal experience.McCoy: Yeah, we smashed our 7-8 week expectations on the first day. So it's like "Oh no, what's going to happen?” There's a little strip mall next to the office. At lunch, we went over to get some food, but because everything was just continually growing, I actually brought my laptop and logged into work so we can watch the graphs while we ate--in case something started breaking. I was with a lot of the server engineers and that was our life for a while.Horn: Now we can sort of take a breath.McCoy: Yeah, time to get back to work.Lee: Yeah, get back to work.Following that success, it seems like there was a number of paths you could have taken with the game. What did you think was important to focus on first?Horn: We definitely wanted more variety. We want you to sort of tackle a bunch of different things with challenges, but we're not trying to go crazy yet. Again, a lot of people play the core of the game. We want to shake it up, but nothing too crazy. There's a fine line and we'll keep dancing on that. We're also trying to come up with more game modes. We now have the Elite Queue, and that sort of gives players, especially the hardcore, a new way to play. Then the evolution of that is, with Season 2, we'll have ranked. It's not a temporary one, that's more of a full feature game mode for Apex Legends.With that in mind, what were some of the lessons learned from the last version of the Battle Pass, and how that informed what was to come with Season 2?Horn: We spent a lot of time reading Reddit, going through Reddit, getting the community feedback. A lot of it was like we talked about, the game came out, it was like "Oh, crap we've got to work fast, we got to add more." The players were asking for a Battle Pass so we kind of had to do the best we could do given that we had a five to six-week timeline to work with.So with this season, we've heard all the feedback. A big thing for us this season is challenges, which will keep the gameplay fresh as you're leveling up. The total time to get to max level is reduced considerably, and even casual players will feel a nice ramp-up to the battle pass. We're putting crafting metals in, that was a big community request, and you will be able to get the legendary of your choice. We added three other legendaries to the track, so that's Caustic, Octane, and then the Spitfire weapon skin. We're also adding three new content types that will replace the voice lines, badges, and the stat trackers. We're leaving other things as a surprise for when season two launches, but there will be completely new categories that you've never seen before content.Another change that a lot of people are happy about is for Mozambique, a gun that's somewhat notorious for being unreliable in most combat encounters. Can you talk about the general reception it's had since launch, and how you wanted to change it?Horn: So, I think we're leaving that one for a surprise, but our hope is that we'll have some late-game potential for it. If you find it, you'll consider it as a real choice versus a sort of temporary measure. But I mean, we enjoy a good meme, and it's exciting to see people responded so strongly to it. That's sort of why we added like a joke throw away animation. Now, when you replace Mozambique, you like just throw it down.So yeah, we embrace it but we also--at the same time--are trying to come up with ways to be viable and things like that. So a lot of the changes you'll see for weapons are sort of trying to give the underplayed weapons situations when they're good.Is there a worry there that a slight buff to one gun--even the Mozambique--could seriously disrupt the flow?Horn: Yeah, most of the time we try to stick with hop ups [gun attachments that alter weapons] so that way it sort of makes it late-game, because you have to find component A and component B and put them together. So the Mozambique's still the early game, better than a kick--or arguably better than a kick, but it's still worse to some people. So yeah, we're trying to do it through ways that will make it not better early-game necessarily. We're buffing some damage here and there, and some small tweaks to just sort of make it not feel like a wet noodle gun. But we are trying to make it so that it'll be worthwhile when trying to progress to the next weapon. That is a goal, and hopefully the hop ups we'll add as well can make it exciting and open up new gameplay.The new Legend coming to the game is Wattson, who has some cool tactics that relate to locking areas down. Have there been any cool tricks or skills that you've seen players pull off from your playtests?McCoy: Well, I'm a mostly simple player, so Wattson's like really complex for me. You have to plan, have an idea, and try to execute on it. So I'm part of the wrong one to ask about her. I don't know if you've had any really good experience with her?Horn: We've seen some cool things so far. Like when there are multiple teams in Skull Town with Wattsons, and they essentially just lock it down with her fences. They basically turn it into this crazy prison city.McCoy: I was actually in a final circle once where Caustic and Wattson were hunkered down in a building during the final circle, and it was like impenetrable. We got just destroyed because it was their house and we were not welcome.Lee Horn: (Laughs) Yeah so they'll have a great trade-off of being really strong, or that duo will be really strong in buildings obviously, but if they get caught out in the open and they didn't have time to set up. So it's a lot of like anticipation gameplay and sort of thinking about where the fight will be versus reacting to the fight right now.Can you talk a little about the process of making a new legend?McCoy: Generally, a legend can take a year and a half to make--so we came up with our main roster really far in advance. We have a bunch of them that we prototype and iterate on, and they all have kind of like different stages they go through in development. We have to make sure that they're fun enough, they've got a good personality, their assets are looking good, and that they have a silhouette that gives off their personality.It just takes a long time. We've got stuff that we haven't shown yet that we've been working on for more than a year and a half. That's the tricky part about game development, the live service world. People expect satisfaction immediately and they don't realize how long it takes to make content. So we have to use our crystal ball and think; what are people going to like a year from now? And start working on that while looking at what the game's doing and it's adjusting along the way. It's kind of a dark art.I'd imagine that you all must agonize over how new legends will play with others.Horn: We play test the game twice a day, which can be up to three or four hours if you participate in all of it. That's usually where we get that kind of insight. We'll lock all characters but say the four or five we're working on, and just play those so we can get a lot of reps on them. That's where we feel out the balance changes. We also have periodically brought in streamers to give feedback. Not for marketing purposes but just to play the game, tell us what's working. If they have a crystal ball, what do they see happening with this character if it was to come out as it is? That's been really helpful as well.Editor's Note: At this point, Respawn Entertainment Co-Founder Vince Zampella arrived with lunchtime fajitas for the devs, proudly asking McCoy and Horn "would you like some fajitas?" He stuck around for the remainder of the interview.Since you're here, what are your overall thoughts on just how successful Apex Legends has been?Vince Zampella: Yeah, holy shit, right? (Laughs) It just went way past our expectations. I think Lee and Drew already spoke this, but you know, it creates its own set of problems too right? We weren't prepared for it, I mean even like just on the hardware side. It's a great problem to have, don't get me wrong, right? But it's still like, I think Drew was walking around in a zombie-like state for about two months. It's created a lot of work, but it's amazing to see. I don't think we would change it if we could. It took us all by surprise.Did the sudden success of the game force you to reevaluate certain features or shift your perspective of what the game can be?McCoy: Not necessarily what it could be, but like a really practical example of what we wanted to focus on was anti-cheat. Cheaters go to games that are popular. Not that we were expecting the game to fail, but we weren't expecting it to be as popular as it was. So we thought our anti-cheat would be sufficient--it turned out it wasn't. So we had to divert a bunch of resources away from other things, and start working on cheaters, spammers and stuff like that. That's just one of the things we knew we were going to have to do if the game got big enough. We just happen to do it in the first month, rather than it be twelve months down the road.Horn: A lot of the features we wanted on day one was going to be hard to deliver, regardless of how much time we had. But now that frenzy at launch has died down, we can now sort of take a breath, and then get back to work.Info from Gamespot.com

WWE's next PPV is Stomping Grounds, coming to the WWE Network on Sunday, June 23. Among the many matches on the card, New Day member and WWE Champion Kofi Kingston will defend his title against Dolph Ziggler in a steel cage. These are two superstars have been fan favorites for years and have both risen--and risen again--to the main event in 2019.This Sunday's steel cage match for the WWE Championship is a daunting task for Kingston, as he's up against another veteran superstar just as athletic as he is. "Honestly, Dolph is one of my favorite opponents, and I almost forgot how much I enjoyed competing against him," Kingston told GameSpot. "Over the past few weeks, I've been able to do so on some of the live events, and back in 2000, I think it was 2009 all the way through 2010, we wrestled each other every single week on Raw and Smackdown, and all the live events; probably a good 500 times. Now we get to go out and do it again after our careers have both gone in different directions, and now we come back and do it again for the WWE Championship, like that's really what it's all about."Kingston sees this rivalry with "The Showoff" and the types of wrestlers they both are comparative to two other iconic WWE superstars from the past. "Back in the day, you had Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart going at it for the Intercontinental Championship, and then years, later they were doing the same thing for the WWE title as well," Kingston continued. "Not to put ourselves on the same level as those legends, but that's really the way I like to think about it is, we were guys who were underrated, undersized, underappreciated, underused, undervalued, and somehow, someway we've been able to stay at it and for the past decade, and still be at the top of the game."It's a story that's a lot deeper than just the physical steel cage match. It's the whole journey that we've been through over the past decade of trying to get to this point, and now we can finally do it in the steel cage at Stomping Grounds, it's going to be awesome. It's going to be a war between us, but from a performer's perspective I can't wait, I can't wait. I feel like we bring out the best in each other, and the real winners are going to be the fans that get to witness us go at it toe-to-toe, so I'm pretty excited about it."Without a doubt, Kingston vs. Ziggler is one of the most anticipated matches on the card, and you can see the battle between them yourselves, when Stomping Grounds comes to the WWE Network on June 23 at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. We're predicting that Kingston will come out on top.Info from Gamespot.com

The most surprising thing about Cadence of Hyrule, despite being so unusual, is how much it immediately feels like a Zelda game. Aesthetically, it sits somewhere between A Link to the Past and the cartoonier Four Swords games, but its Zelda roots run much deeper than that; This is not just Crypt of the NecroDancer reskinned. Much like The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on 3DS, Cadence is a shorter, smaller riff on the classic 2D Zelda template with a unique twist, a game that will strike a chord with long-time fans but also feels fresh and exciting.In the game's opening, Cadence (the protagonist of Crypt of the NecroDancer) is dropped into Hyrule by a mysterious vortex and must choose whether to awaken either Link or Zelda. From there, the game is pretty open--you explore a randomized overworld map in search of classic Zelda items and the four dungeons that need to be completed before you can storm Hyrule Castle, which has fallen to the game's big bad, the villainous musician Octavo. You'll eventually unlock both characters (and, potentially, two others), but being able to play as Zelda from the outset is wonderful and feels like a long-overdue correction of the series' namesake frequently being sidelined.The game doesn't tell you exactly where to go at first, but thankfully the initial hour or two of simply moving between screens, uncovering your map and figuring out how your procedurally generated version of Hyrule fits together, is exhilarating. If there are monsters on the screen, you'll need to move in time with the beat of the game's music, indicated by marker at the bottom of your UI, timing your movements in four directions to avoid and attack enemies ripped from the Zelda universe. Each enemy has its own attack pattern and most have a clear "tell"--if a wolf looks like it's about to pounce, for instance, you'll want to make sure that you're not on the square in front of it on the next beat, whereas bigger enemies might have larger attack areas that will be marked on the ground one beat ahead of their assault. It's a system that the game frames as a "dance" between you and your enemies, and this is apt, as I would nearly always find myself bopping and tapping my foot alongside my movements.Learning the rhythmic patterns of enemies, and reaching the point where you figure out how to best attack them so that you can properly counter-attack or defend yourself, is a consistent pleasure. When you slip into the zone and feel like your movements and steps are perfectly in sync with the rhythm and movements of your enemies, it's extremely satisfying, especially as you find new areas and monsters throughout the game and slowly conquer them. Coming back to an area you found intimidating early in the game and handily slaughtering all of the enemies, which causes the music to calm and loot to drop, feels fantastic.Attacks and interactions are automatic depending on where you're standing, with each screen being divided into grid-based titles that you move between. There's an emphasis on being mindful of your movements and your surroundings on a beat-by-beat basis throughout the entire game, so it's handy that every song follows the same tempo--once you're tapped into it, your ability to move through the game is dependent on your ability to read the many different enemy animations and quickly plot out your movements on the fly. The only exceptions are certain hazards in the game world that slow or speed up the beat, and one inspired puzzle which asks you to step to the beat of a familiar piece of Zelda music. The entire soundtrack is made up of beautifully reworked pieces from the Zelda series, with a number of tunes featuring as speedier, upbeat variations. They're all wonderful remixes of tracks that many players will already feel a strong attachment to, and the mostly consistent beat throughout the game keeps things manageable since you only really need to learn and become accustomed to one rhythm. There are plenty of fun aural Easter eggs for long-time Zelda fans, too. It's worth noting that there is also an accommodating accessibility option called "fixed beat" mode which stops enemies from moving unless you're moving, removing the need to follow the rhythm.Cadence of Hyrule also has light roguelike elements, but it's a very generous system that encourages you to use your consumable items rather than stockpiling them. When you die, you lose any keys you've collected, all rupees, your shovel, your torch, and any stat-boosting items you've picked up. Your vital gear stays with you, though, as do all the weapons you've found. You won't need to do anything as drastic as finding your best sword or the hookshot again, which mitigates any frustration and keeps you focused on pushing forward.Many of these classic Zelda items are hidden away in the overworld, but none of them are actually necessary to progress through the game. In fact, it's entirely possible to simply make a determined beeline towards each dungeon, and the game's timed leaderboards will likely entice many a speedrunner. For the rest of us, though, making the effort to find and use all the classic Zelda items will make the challenge easier, and going to the lengths to locate the items strewn throughout Hyrule is a hunt worth taking because simply playing the game is a joy in itself. Cadence of Hyrule understands how much the pleasure of playing a Zelda game comes from the feeling that you're rising to the challenge of your environment, and after hours of learning and internalizing the rhythms of various enemy attacks, finding yourself less intimidated by all the creatures the game throws at you is a great feeling. Some items do end up feeling quite superfluous by virtue of not being necessary, however--I never once effectively used the boomerang, for instance, and even the bow (which can be equipped with numerous different types of arrows) feels inconsequential.The dungeons are fun but short, requiring you to venture through randomly generated floors full of monsters and, eventually, combat musically-themed takes on classic Zelda bosses. These bosses all have wonderful designs that merge old favorites with new instrument-based powers, complete with genuinely funny pun names. There are very few puzzles in the game; the dungeons are entirely focused on combat and exploration. I found that the last two of the initial four in the overworld were extremely easy, as my version of Zelda had become quite powerful (I was on a long undying streak, equipped with some very useful buffs). But Cadence of Hyrule more than makes up for it with the challenge of the final trek through Hyrule Castle, which makes the extremely fun final boss battle, and the credits that roll after, feel well earned.Once you're done, there are plenty of enticing reasons to come back, too. Hunting down every piece of treasure is a fun reason to spend more time exploring and fighting, and if you've found the right items the map will tell you exactly where unclaimed treasures are lying and let you warp around at your leisure, allowing you easily mop up any that you've missed. If you start again, the fact that the map randomizes each time means that you'll have a different experience, as areas will look different or have altered layouts. There are also daily challenges, which plop you down at the beginning as either Link or Zelda and let you compete on a leaderboard to see how far you can get on a single life, as well as a permadeath mode. These modes are really just there for more avid players looking to master the game, but it's good to have the option. You can also play through the entire game in co-op, with one player taking control of Cadence while the other plays as Link or Zelda, which is a great addition. If one player dies you both go down, and if one of you moves to the next screen the other player will be warped there too, so working together to line up on the beat is important. The game works better as a single-player experience, but it's a nice choice to have.Cadence of Hyrule is a fantastic Zelda game in its own right, even though it adopts the gameplay mechanics of another series. Beyond the aesthetics, it nails the satisfying sense of exploration and increasing power, and it revels in the joy of discovery, as all the best Zelda games do. It's an extremely successful melding of two great game series and an experience that makes you feel eager for Nintendo to do more interesting things with their major licenses. Info from Gamespot.com

Hot on the heels of Fortnite's 9.30 patch, Week 7's challenges have now arrived on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. Not only will completing these tasks help level your Battle Pass up and unlock more of Season 9's cosmetic rewards, an extra bonus awaits if you can clear all seven challenges from a given week: a special loading screen that points to a free item hidden somewhere around the map.The loading screen is the reward for completing one of Season 9's Utopia challenges, and the item they point to varies by the week. Each even-numbered Utopia challenge will lead you to a Fortbyte, a new kind of collectible to find in Season 9. Odd-numbered Utopia challenges, on the other hand, will guide you to a free Battle Star, which will level your Battle Pass up by one full tier once collected.Complete seven weeks' worth of Season 9 challenges and you'll unlock the loading screen pictured below. This week's screen is set in the Pressure Plant, the new facility located where Season 8's volcano stood. The clue this time should be fairly easy to spot; look on the left side of the picture and you'll see a Battle Star on the set of stairs. That's where you'll find it in the game.Make your way to the Pressure Plant after you jump into a match and locate the stairs featured in the loading screen--the Battle Star will be floating in the air there, just as teased. Build your way up to it to collect it, then finish the match and you'll level your Battle Pass up by one tier. If you need more help finding it, we've marked the Battle Star's location on the map below. You can also see where we go to find it in the video at the top of this guide.Unlike the aforementioned Fortbytes, which can be found by anyone who owns a Season 9 Battle Pass, the secret Battle Star will only appear if you've cleared its corresponding Utopia challenge and unlocked the above loading screen, so you can't simply go to the right area and expect to find it if you haven't done the necessary work. If you need helping finishing any of this season's challenges, you can find tips for the trickier ones in our complete Fortnite Season 9 challenges guide.Fortnite's 9.30 update arrived on June 18 and added a new item to the game, the Chug Splash, which can be thrown to heal yourself and other players within the range of its explosion. With the update, Epic also vaulted three items--the Boom Bow, Dual Pistols, and Dynamite--and tweaked a handful of other ones. You can find the full patch notes for the update on Epic's official website.Info from Gamespot.com

Russell Crowe is among the list of actors who turned down the role of Aragorn in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film series, and now he's spoken about why he said no to what could have become a career-defining role. Crowe told Howard Stern that it was his impression that Jackson never really wanted him for the part, and he agreed that it was his understanding that the studio went after him because he was so popular at the time."I didn't think Peter Jackson actually wanted me on the film; I think he was forced into talking to me. There was a moment in time where everybody wanted me in everything," Crowe said. "And he's a fellow New Zealander; so I can hear his voice. I'm talking to him on the phone. And it's like, I don't think he even knows what I've done. My instinct was that he had somebody else in mind, which turned out to be Viggo Mortensen. And he should be allowed to hire the actor that he wants."Other actors who reportedly said no to the role of Aragorn include Nicolas Cage and Daniel Day-Lewis. Stuart Townsend was ultimately cast as Aragorn. He spent months training and filmed multiple days on set before Jackson decided to recast the role with Mortensen.Stern said, and Crowe nodded in agreement, that Crowe was offered 10 percent of the gross box office performance of the Lord of the Rings series. That would have made him an enormously wealthy person, but Crowe says he doesn't lose sleep over it. After all, Crowe casually dropped $35,000 on a dinosaur skull that he drunkenly bought from Leonardo DiCaprio.According to Stern, Crowe missed out on $100 million by passing on The Lord of the Rings, but it might have actually been more. If Crowe was actually earning 10 percent of total box office grosses for the series, he would have made many, many millions more considering the series brought in more than $3 billion. Sean Connery, meanwhile, passed on the role of Gandalf. He was reportedly offered $10 million per movie in addition to 15 percent of the franchise box office, which would have amounted to $450 million or more, according to Syfy.Also in the Howard Stern interview, Crowe talked about passing on another high-profile role: Wolverine. Hugh Jackman was eventually cast, and Crowe praised his performance. "Even if I had done the film, I wouldn't have carried it through with the grace and the direction that Hugh gave it," he said.The latest Lord of the Rings movie is the biopic Tolkien that tells the story of author J.R.R. Tolkien's life and the events leading up to his writing of the acclaimed series.Info from Gamespot.com

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has suggested that the form factor of the new Xbox Project Scarlett might not be traditional. Speaking to Xbox On, Spencer said the design of the next-generation console isn't locked down yet, though he personally knows what it will look like."At some point we'll show what it looks like," he said. "The physical ID is not done. I know what it's gonna look like. It's gonna be--I think it's a cool-looking, new thing, which will be interesting. But we don't have a final ID done."Spencer said Microsoft did not show the design of Scarlett at E3 because it wasn't ready yet. Also, form factor isn't the most important part of what makes the system compelling, he said."It's not like we're going to put a half-done ID out there and say, 'This is kind of what it will look like,'" he said. "That's not really the thing that's going to drive purchase decision."Other unknowns for Scarlett are its name and price point. On the name, Spencer confirmed that Scarlett is only a working title, and as with the form factor, he says, "I hope somebody is not making their buying decision on this product based on what it's named."Regarding the price of Scarlett, Spencer said he understands that pricing "will be important." Microsoft has a price point in mind--that he didn't share--but he acknowledged that it could change based on a number of factors, one of which is how Trump's tariffs with China shake out."The price will be important. Clearly, price is one of those things that people want to know," he said. "As we're watching how the cost of the components are coming in, and things like tariffs and other things, trying to figure out what that price is going to be next year. We have a price point in mind; I think we're going to hit that. But we want to make sure everything comes in right. We'll get price out as soon as we can."Trump's proposed tariffs with China would put a huge 25 percent tax on electronics--including video games--that are shipped into the United States. Microsoft, and others, manufacture consoles in the country and would in theory pass along the cost to consumers leading to a more expensive product. The tariffs aren't in place yet, and they might not go through. Despite that, Nintendo has already decided to shift production of its Switch models--including its new, more powerful system--out of a China as a result of the threat.Scarlett launches in Holiday 2020 with Halo Infinite releasing day-and-date as a launch title. Scarlett was at one point thought to be the name of Microsoft's two-SKU next-generation console strategy spanning a high-power model, codenamed Anaconda, and a lower-spec system known as Lockhart. However, multiple recent reports state that Microsoft is no longer moving forward with the Lockhart system. At the same time, in the Xbox On video Spencer on multiple occasions references new consoles with plural terminology. It's not clear what's going on, and Microsoft has not commented officially on if it will release one or two next-generation consoles. Info from Gamespot.com

A big part of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is battling against the dark creatures, oddities, and magic-users of the Wizarding World. Some of the best rewards and rarest Foundables in the game are locked inside Fortresses, which put you into cooperative battles with other players on your side. If you're a player of Pokemon Go, some of this will be familiar to you--but Wizards Unite adds a lot of depth to its battle system, as well. We've got even more Harry Potter: Wizards Unite coverage on our hub page.When you level up enough, you'll unlock the ability to pick a Profession, which lets you upgrade yourself with perks and abilities that make you more effective in battle and useful to your teammates.Choosing a Profession is a big part of the game, as is spending the items you earn as you play in order to level yourself up over time. But how to choose whether you should be an Auror like Harry Potter, a Magizoologist like Newt Scamander, or a Professor like Albus Dumbledore? There are a lot of factors that go into the decision, including what kind of wizard you want to be, what battle stats are important to you, and how you'll best contribute to a team of players.We've run down the basics of the Profession system below to help you make the right decision. Here's everything you need to know about Wizard Unite's class system, including each class's specializations, and what the stats you'll be upgrading with the game's RPG elements mean and how they work.Which Profession Is Right For You?There are three different professions to choose from in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which become available when you hit Level 6. Each has different benefits and drawbacks. All the professions have different areas of combat they specialize in, and are tuned to defeat different kinds of enemies. Picking the job that matches your playstyle in battle is important, but having a balanced team in situations like multiplayer Wizarding Challenges in Fortresses is also essential to victory. The good news is, you can switch specializations at any time, so if your team is short on someone to specialize in dealing with Curiosities or Beasts, you can change roles to fill the gap. There are three jobs from which to choose, each with its own unique tree of skills and perks you can earn over time.AurorUnder the mentorship of none other than Harry Potter, Aurors are the folks who specialize in magical combat against the Dark Arts. Their abilities tend to focus on combat strength and dealing direct damage to enemies, so think of them as the frontline fighters of the Wizarding World. Aurors have the lowest Stamina, or health, of the three classes, but the highest Power. They also get more critical hits, and do more damage with them, than other wizards. Aurors do extra damage to Dark Forces enemies but take extra damage from Beast enemies.MagizoologistRubeus Hagrid serves as mentor to Magizoologists, whose abilities are more aligned with caring for creatures--and other humans. This is your defensive healer class of wizards, wielding spells that are more about helping out the team than damaging enemies directly. They also have the highest Stamina of the three classes. Magizoologists are strong against Beast enemies and weak against Curiosities.ProfessorWith Minerva McGonagle heading their order, Professors are a more versatile class of wizard. Their spells focus generally on buffing their teammates and debuffing their enemies, making them the status manipulators of a squad. This is your middle-of-the-road class, balanced between the power of Aurors and the defensiveness of Magizoologists, but with a lot of good traits of both. Professors do extra damage to Curiosities and take additional damage from Dark Forces enemies.Upgrading Your SkillsYou'll need to keep an eye on a new set of items you'll find as you venture through Wizards Unite, once you've unlocked Professions: Scrolls and Spellbooks. You'll spend these in the skill trees of your professions to unlock new spells and passive perks that make you more effective in combat, like gaining additional stamina or dealing more damage.Scrolls come from the chests unlocked when you complete Traces and catalog Foundables in your Registry, so they're fairly easy to come by. Especially in the early part of the skill trees, you'll mostly be spending Scrolls to advance and unlock different abilities and perks. Tougher to get are Spell Books, which are found in the chests when you complete Wizarding Challenges in Fortresses. If you want to advance your wizard abilities, you're going to need to engage in multiplayer battles with other players.The StatsWhen you reach the Profession screen, you'll see a page that gauges a series of stats you'll increase for your wizard as you unlock perks in the skill tree. Their meanings aren't immediately clear, so here's what each one does:Stamina: Your health in battles.Power: The strength of the spells you use against enemies.Protego Power: The strength of your protection spell, used to defend against incoming attacks from enemies.Precision: The likelihood of landing a Critical Hit, which does increased damage.Critical Power: The boost in damage you get when you land a Critical Hit.Proficiency Power: The bonus strength of your spells against enemies your class is especially strong against.Deficiency Defense: Added protection against enemies that do bonus damage to your class.Accuracy: How likely your spells are to hit their targets.Obviously, increasing all these stats is important, but some stats are higher for certain classes than others. Aurors are geared toward Power and Precision, Magizoologists toward Stamina and Defense, and Professors toward Accuracy and Proficiency.Important Stats: Proficiency Power, Deficiency DefenseThere are lots of stats you can amp up in your skill tree as you progress through it, including the power of your offensive spells and the effectiveness of Protego, your magical defense. But when it comes to specializing in your particular Profession, you're going to want to keep an eye on two stats: Proficiency Power and Deficiency Defense.Proficiency Power denotes how much of a boost you get against enemies that are weak to your chosen Profession. If you're an Auror, you'll get a bonus against Dark Forces enemies such as Death Eaters, but Proficiency Power dictates how big a bonus you receive. Especially when you're able to play with other specialized wizards on a team, boosting this stat will make you highly effective in your particular role.Deficiency Defense is the other side of the coin. The higher the stat, the less of a hit you take against the enemies to whom you are weak--in the case of Aurors, that would be Beast enemies such as spiders. Regardless of your strategy, investing in Deficiency Defense will help you survive in battle no matter what kind of enemy you're facing.Coordinate With Friends And TeammatesIt's possible to change your Profession on the fly, but you're going to access more perks and stronger abilities sooner if you specialize in one job instead of investing in all three skill trees. Therefore, if you mean to be a serious Wizards Unite player, you're going to want to team up with other people in your area and coordinate your Profession choices with them. If you've got a strong team, you can spread out your Professions and capabilities, making you a much more effective unit in multiplayer. On the other hand, if you intend to play Wizards Unite more casually, any Profession will probably do the job.Choose CarefullyThe strongest upgrades are the "Lessons" toward the bottom of each skill tree. Every time you spend Scrolls or Spell Books to unlock a node, you gain access to the ones beneath it--but you don't have to purchase something from every single node in order to progress down the tree. That means it's beneficial to be discerning about what lessons you invest in as you upgrade your wizard; you don't need to buy everything, and doing so will impede your progress toward your best skills and perks. Pick your way down the skill tree to try to get upgrades that feed into your playstyle, so you can get the best upgrades sooner. You can always go back and fill in with additional nodes if you find you're lacking in a particular stat later on.Info from Gamespot.com

It's a strange thing to knowingly bid farewell to a fictional character you've followed for over a decade, and then learn to love their replacement. I teared up a little when longtime protagonist Kazama Kiryu finally exited the Yakuza series (presumably for good) at the end of The Song Of Life. But as we wait for Yakuza to begin anew in earnest, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has crafted a different opportunity to revisit the staple setting of Kamurocho as newcomer Takayuki Yagami, a disgraced defense attorney turned private investigator. And fortunately, despite some unremarkable additions to the standard RGG template, by the end of Judgment it's hard not to feel like you want to spend dozens upon dozens more hours with Yagami and friends.Yagami might not be a yakuza, and Judgment might not be a mainline Yakuza game, but you'd be mistaken for thinking that the overarching narrative of Judgment doesn't heavily adopt the criminal theatrics that RGG Studio has become known for. While the plot kicks off with a relatively straightforward investigation into a serial killer, Yagami's investigation into it uncovers a vast, complicated and interweaving conspiracy of secrecy and betrayal that involves the history of the cast, the Japanese legal system, the Tokyo police department, multiple yakuza factions, and higher stakes beyond. It's an unsurprising escalation, but it's told in such a way that keeps you glued to the screen--the mystery is gripping, the drama is irresistible, and the performances are excellent.Yagami and his partner Kaito are the primary emotional conduits, and they remain incredibly empathetic and genuinely likable characters throughout. They have interesting personal dilemmas and arcs of their own, and a warm, convincing dynamic together, regularly joking around and pulling one another's chains, and sharing determination when they need to. Kaito is a former yakuza who acts as the brawn to Yagami's brains--though Yagami still manages to be an impossible kung-fu savant, for reasons that are never truly explained in any meaningful way, and in skinny jeans, no less. The two bring a delightful vibe to the otherwise serious nature of the story, and they are treasures.In some ways, Yagami is more believable and well-defined as a protagonist than Kiryu was in the Yakuza series. Where you were often encouraged to put Kiryu, a typically unwavering deity of honor, through uncharacteristic sojourns into weirdly perverse pursuits, Yagami rarely acts in a way that feels out of character, nor are you allowed to get involved in anything that goes against his demeanor. It's a notable quality that helps to make him more consistently likable, even if he does do something you think is idiotic.Judgment's side activities do their best to reflect Yagami's nature. Side missions are mostly framed as citizens calling upon Yagami for his private investigator services, though are still a place for RGG Studio's penchant for absurdism to get a workout. More interesting is the game's Friend system, which allows you to befriend dozens of unique individuals spread across Kamurocho, whether via side missions or their own discrete activities. Performing a variety of tasks in service of a person will level up your friendship with them, eventually giving you access to perks like secret items on a restaurant menu or a helping hand in combat. It's a nice thematic element that rounds out Yagami's character as a good-natured, friendly neighborhood PI. The uncomfortably debaucherous side of RGG games is still present in Judgment, though it's mostly left to be associated with the more unsavory characters and aspects of the plot rather than Yagami himself. That means the saucier activities of Kamurocho are gone, including the entertaining cabaret club management minigame. Instead, there's a dating aspect where you can grow closer to women Yagami has already befriended over the course of the game, which involves regular interactions via in-game text messages, and eventually a series of dates. It feels more wholesome as a result, though only as wholesome as a 35-year-old man dating a 19-year old can be.Elsewhere in the game's entertaining array of side distractions, Judgment features an incredibly robust Mario Party-esque board game, a two-player port of Fighting Vipers, an original light-gun shooter called Kamuro Of The Dead, an obviously-made-in-a-different-game-engine version of pinball, and drone racing. That's on top of a healthy, familiar selection of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Puyo Puyo, UFO catchers, darts, batting cages, Mahjong, Shogi, and various casino card games, among other activities, all seen in previous Yakuza titles.There are plenty of other familiar aspects that return from previous Yakuza games, but not all of them shake out to be in Judgment's favor. For example, while the game's major cinematics are lovingly rendered and animated as always, lesser, more stilted character models with cold, dead eyes still dominate a lot of the game's cutscenes and suck some emotion out of the otherwise excellent drama.Kamurocho is another weary aspect, which is an admittedly blasphemous notion at first--the district itself still feels lively, bustling, and full of things to do--but this is still very much the Dragon Engine-era Kamurocho from Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2, both of which released a year prior. But it's not just the fact that Kamurocho is still relatively fresh in your mind if you've been following the series closely (there are only a handful of new interiors), it's Judgment's lack of a meaty palette cleanser--nearly all Yakuza games since the 2005 original have featured an additional city to free-roam in, or at least additional protagonists to help add a bit of excitement to the series' familiar formula. Judgment has a tiny additional interior location situated outside of Kamurocho, but it's purely a story setpiece.Conversely, many of Judgment's attempts to add to the core Ryu ga Gotoku template wear out their welcome almost immediately. Yagami's position as a lawyer-turned-private-eye means there are a lot of segments that involve tailing and chasing people, getting into places he isn't supposed to, searching for clues, and making deductions. The prospect of performing all of these thematically appropriate activities would be attractive were they not all mechanically boring in practice.Tailing and chasing people are the biggest offenders, made worse by the Judgment's heavy reliance on them. Slowly following targets through the city while trying not to let the targets spot you (they're all very on edge) is a dull, slow, and arduous process which is often made more frustrating by the infamous RGG Studio movement system, which is clunky at the best of times. A reliance on predetermined hiding spots strips the act of any dynamics and creativity. Chases are faster but equally monotonous auto-running sequences where you need to steer Yagami left and right within a set path, avoid any obstacles, and perform the regular quicktime event to keep up with a target. With the exception of one amusing sequence on a skateboard, the game's numerous chases are all ultimately stale, when they should get your heart pumping. Searching for clues and making deductions are poised to be the more attractive mechanics due to the game's legal bent--Yagami will sometimes need to search an area in first-person for clues or explain a hypothesis or contradiction. But these moments are let down by being incredibly straightforward, and expecting something that sits anywhere near to what you might find in a Danganronpa or Ace Attorney game would be misguided. You're provided with a checklist of things to find during search scenes, meaning the discoveries don't feel revelatory--but finding the hidden cats is the real treat here. Deduction segments feel more like opportunities for the game to make sure you've been paying attention to the story so far, rather than a chance for you to join the dots and stumble upon the discovery for yourself.While the mystery in Judgment is certainly a journey that you're merely accompanying Yagami on, the lack of player agency in the detective segments makes them feel like a useless chore. There are two different types of lockpicking minigames--which are fine, if uninspiring--and there's also a bizarrely unexciting mechanic where you have to choose which key on Yagami's keyring to use when entering certain doors. The most interesting new idea is the addition of a couple of brief sequences where you play as one of Yagami's co-workers and go undercover, which only left me wanting to see that idea explored even further.Ultimately, most of Yagami's progress is made by doing what all good protagonists in RGG games do best--kicking the shit out of people. Yagami has two different kung-fu influenced fighting styles: Crane style is designed to deal with groups of enemies, whereas Tiger style focuses on single-target damage. Fighting starts off feeling a bit clunky and limiting--especially the flashier Crane style, whose moves come with long recoveries and see Yagami spend more time doing flips than landing hits--but this changes over time as you upgrade Yagami's combo speeds and attack damage, making the risk of opening yourself up more viable. Tiger style is more intricate and versatile, however, with a much larger and more powerful variety of moves to unlock and use--including an exploding palm technique that's a blast to use again and again. Additional fighting techniques are introduced to flesh out Yagami's flashy, acrobatic style and include the ability to leapfrog enemies, wall jump, and link attacks off those maneuvers. The Yakuza series' explosive "Heat" moves appear as "EX" moves, allowing you to execute devastating cinematic special attacks, reliant on specific environmental and combat situations. Despite not being a Yakuza game, combat is your primary interaction with the world in Judgment. Fighting all sorts of delinquents, gangsters, and at one point, a group of academic researchers is still very entertaining, though, and it's great that there are abundant opportunities for you to lay down some street justice.It's disappointing to realize that Judgment is at its best when it veers closer to the mold that it came from. 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