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

My Friend Pedro's best moment is the first time you get to use a frying pan to kill someone. This is an action game that bends over backwards to make sure you look cool, where every kill is meant to make you feel special, and the frying pan is the best realization of that vision. The bullets in My Friend Pedro will ricochet off certain objects, and if the angles line up just so--as they do the first time you encounter a frying pan--you can kick the kitchen implement into the room ahead of you, and then take out all the enemies in that room by shooting the pan, watching as bullets ping off it and cut through anyone standing nearby. It's glorious.In these moments, My Friend Pedro feels like a beautiful, brutal ballet. Indeed, the game is entertaining for most of its runtime precisely because of how over-the-top and theatrical its kills are. Killing enemies by shooting a frying pan, ricocheting your shots off a sign, or kicking an object right into someone's face is entertaining. However, it's also a game that has fewer tricks up its sleeve than it initially suggests, and will run through most of its good ideas just past the halfway point. That’s not to say that the game gets bad--it’s fun all the way through--but it starts to feel less inventive and exciting than those pulpy, crazy earlier levels do. You play as an unnamed, masked protagonist who is accompanied on his violent journey by Pedro, a talking banana who acts as both narrator and instructor throughout the game. It’s clear early on that there’s something a bit off about Pedro, and while there are some eventual "reveals" to contend with, he’s mostly there to lend the game a sense of weirdness and to offer hints and tips as you go. There's a thin plot, but it's easily ignored--the only really important information is that you need to run through each level killing all the enemies, and if you kill every enemy quickly without dying, you'll get a higher score. There's a score multiplier that allows you to chain kills for more points, and trying to compete for a solid spot on the leaderboards is a good incentive to replay earlier levels on more challenging difficulties.As you chain together kills through the game's 40 levels, you have opportunities to shoot enemies while going down zip lines, riding on top of rolling barrels, jumping through windows, skateboarding, and bouncing off of walls. You can activate your focus at any moment to line up your shots and time your bullet-dodging spins perfectly. If you have two guns equipped, you can aim them independently, letting you dive right into the middle of a group of enemies with twin uzis blaring in different directions.Shooting your enemies is a joy, for the most part, but the combat isn't without its faults. The game's default auto-aim assist locks you onto the nearest enemy or potential target if you’re pointing your aiming reticule in their direction, which can sometimes make it more difficult to pull off the stunt you’d envisioned. If an enemy is standing in front of an explosive canister, for instance, aiming past them for that gratifying explosion is difficult because your gun sight won’t pull away from them. Thankfully, you can turn auto-aim down to almost nothing, which gives you more freedom at the cost of making the game a bit more challenging overall. My Friend Pedro suffers a bit from a lack of enemy variety, and while the style of goon you're facing changes over time--you fight assassins in the second set of levels, then professional gamers not long after--the main difference is that some of them have more health than others. There are some slight variations, but most enemies can be taken down in the exact same way: by pointing and shooting, with or without theatrics. Your enemies will shoot back with increasingly powerful guns, and while you can feel untouchable when you’re diving into a room in slow motion, they put up enough of a fight, even on "Normal" difficulty, that you need to be careful.Every now and then you might have to deal with a sentry gun or a minefield, too, but the game is at its best when you’re proving your superiority to organic enemies. Those slow-motion dives into hails of enemy bullets that visibly crawl through the air towards you are obviously inspired by The Matrix, and My Friend Pedro gets closer to capturing the feel of that film's shootouts than many of the myriad games that have paid homage to it. There are also a few boss levels to contend with, which are brief diversions that make some attempt to mix things up, but even these peak with the first one. The game runs through most of its ideas for creative ways to kill people pretty quickly, and while that sense of wonder never quite dries up, its truly great moments become more spaced out in the second half.In later stages, the game features numerous platforming sections as a way of keeping things fresh. They're never complicated enough to require you to really think them through, and several of them suffer from the game's finicky controls. While the movement controls are fine for combat, they're often hard to contend with when you're trying to traverse tricky terrain. When you're asked to roll and jump and slide down ropes with great precision, as you sometimes are, the game stumbles, as the controls don’t lend themselves well to exact platforming. This only really becomes a major problem right near the end, as the final few levels get extra demanding.The level designs also grow uglier as you go, too--when Pedro explains that you're fighting gamers in the sewers because video games tend to feature sewer levels, it's funny, but not funny enough to justify the drab aesthetics that the sewers display. That's not to say that these levels are devoid of joy--a late mechanic that gives some enemies shields that need to be deactivated adds some nice strategic depth and most levels serve up at least one or two sections where you can pull off some cool moves--but overall they're not as free-wheeling and enjoyable as the game is in its early stages.There's some padding, and the game suffers whenever there aren't enemies on screen. It's also, oddly enough, less entertaining when you start to get access to more powerful weapons--the late addition of a sniper rifle feels fundamentally at odds with the game's up-close-and-personal action, and while the assault rifle you unlock in the game's second half is powerful and fun to fire, it’s a shame they didn’t go a step further with its wildness and let you dual-wield the best guns for maximum carnage. My Friend Pedro is greatest when you're close enough to the bad guys to warrant continual cost-benefit analyses of running up and kicking them to death, but sometimes the best way to progress is to take out your enemies from a distance by pointing and shooting without much flair.But then you get to leap through a window on a skateboard, jump and spin through the air in slow-motion, firing uzis at two enemies at once; when you kick an explosive canister around a corner and pop out to shoot it just before it hits an enemy in the face; or when you jump between two walls, spring out of a gap, and take out two guys with a shotgun before they even know you're there. My Friend Pedro might pepper its later stages with fewer exciting moments, but the moments that make the game fun never fully go away. As soon as I finished the game, I restarted at a higher difficulty, keen to test my improved skills on harder enemies. There are sections in My Friend Pedro that are as satisfying and thrilling as you could hope for in a game like this, where it nails the feeling of being an impossible video game hero who can perform the unimaginable with great style and flair. There's a lot of appeal in replaying your favorite stages over and over, trying to move up the leaderboard. It isn't consistently exhilarating throughout the entire campaign, but My Friend Pedro is worth playing because it’s full of moments where you can jump down a shaft and shoot in two directions in slow motion, or kill an enemy by kicking the skateboard you’re riding into their face, or take out a room full of bad guys with the help of a frying pan. When it dedicates itself to letting you be inventive and weird with how you rack up your kills, My Friend Pedro is wildly enjoyable. Info from Gamespot.com

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the Pokemon Go-style AR game from Niantic set in the fantastical world of Harry Potter, is launching very soon. It was confirmed this week during a presentation in Los Angeles that the game will launch this Friday, June 21. It will be available as a free download on supported mobile phones.Wizards Unite is already out in parts of the world, including Australia and New Zealand, where the game is in beta. The game's launch trailer has also been released; check it out below.Wizards Unite is a free-to-play game supported by microtransactions. You can spend money to buy Gold, which can be spent on numerous different time-savers and more. For more on the game's microtransactions, check out GameSpot's breakdown here.Wizards Unite was originally scheduled to launch in 2018 before being delayed into this year. You can read more about the title in our hands-on impressions, and Android users can pre-register for it on Google Play. Info from Gamespot.com

One of Nintendo's biggest surprises at E3 2019 was the reveal of a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is coming to Nintendo Switch. BotW has already received some substantial downloadable content, so why not continue to expand the game with additional DLC? Now, series producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed some new insight into why Nintendo is making a standalone Breath of the Wild sequel.Speaking to Kotaku, Aonuma said the development team had "too many ideas" for new DLC for the original Breath of the Wild, so the studio elected to make a sequel."When we released the DLC for Breath of the Wild, we realized that this is a great way to add more elements to the same world. But when it comes down to technical things, DLC is pretty much data--you're adding data to a preexisting title," Aonuma added. "And so when we wanted to add bigger changes, DLC is not enough, and that’s why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit."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 full interview touches on a number of other interesting subjects, including how overtime and crunch is handled on the Zelda development team. Read the full interview at Kotaku.Aonuma isn't the only returning member of the Breath of the Wild development team, as game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi is also back in that role. Nintendo has also said the developers were inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2.Earlier, Aonuma spoke to Game Informer about why the team wanted to make Breath of the Wild 2."One of the reasons we wanted to create a continuation was because I wanted to revisit that Hyrule again and use that world again, while incorporating new gameplay and new story," Aonuma said.In addition to Aonuma, Breath of the Wild game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi will serve as the director on the Breath of the Wild sequel.A lot of the details on the Breath of the Wild sequel are being kept under wraps for now, but the first teaser trailer gave us a lot to think about. Check out GameSpot's breakdown of the Breath of the Wild sequel trailer breakdown here to learn more.Info from Gamespot.com

It would appear that some news about NHL 20 will be announced today, June 19. The NHL video game Twitter account released a teaser image on Tuesday that states "Tomorrow" with a graphic of NHL 20 attached. That certainly makes it sound like we might know a lot more about the game within a matter of hours.June 19 is also when the 2019 NHL Awards are taking place in Las Vegas, so it appears that whatever announcement EA is teasing could happen then. EA historically has announced new entries in the NHL series during the NHL Awards, so it's a safe bet that you'll want to tune in if you're eager to see what EA has in store for this year's game.Tomorrow. #NHL20 pic.twitter.com/CTc6XZNE2l — #NHL19 (@EASPORTSNHL) June 19, 2019The NHL video game series is confirmed to return this year, but EA hasn't said anything about it as of yet. GameSpot's NHL 19 review scored that game an 8/10, and you can currently play it free with a subscription to EA Access on Xbox One.EA typically releases new NHL games in September ahead of the NHL season debut in October, so you can expect NHL 20 to launch around then.Are you looking forward to the next NHL video game, and what are you looking for from it? Let us know in the comments below!Info from Gamespot.com

Director Ari Aster's 2018 feature film debut Hereditary starring Toni Collette put the director on the map, and now he's back with another spooky movie titled Midsommar. Reviews and reactions have started to appear for Midsommar ahead of its theatrical release, and appears Aster hasn't suffered a sophomore slump but instead put together another excellent horror film.Midsommar was screened at a premiere tonight, and reactions have poured in remarking that it's a terrifying and unique film based on Aster's own life and specifically was inspired by a break-up he went through. We've collected a series of Twitter reactions that you can see below.Writer-director Jordan Peele, known for his own disturbing movies like Get Out and Us, saw a very early cut of Midsommar and remarked in the Fangoria magazine that it's set to become the "most iconic pagan movie" ever.Midsommar opens in theaters on July 3. It stars Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, and William Jackson Harper.I’m extremely envious of everyone who gets to see MIDSOMMAR for the first time ... because you are in for one incredibly mondo-fucked up experience. — David Fear (@davidlfear) June 19, 2019MIDSOMMAR will do for Swedish pagan solstice rituals what Psycho did for showers. a psychedelic fairy tale about ridding oneself of fear and pain — absolutely delightful from its nightmare of an opening to its floral purge of a finale. 💐🌞💐 — david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) June 19, 2019Had about an hour to process #Midsommar and Ari Aster sure likes to analyze grief. He can also shoot the hell out of a movie — can’t remember a recent movie that was as beautiful as this one. Complete mind fuck. — Beatrice Verhoeven (@bverhoev) June 19, 2019It sounds cliche to say you've never seen anything like it before, but holy shit. MIDSOMMAR is absolutely insane in all the best ways. — Matt Shiv (@shivvy) June 19, 2019MIDSOMMAR: a wickedly funny romp with Ugly Americans and Freaky Swedes in the woods, a premium cut of one of my favorite subgenres (daytime horror), and just so confidently made. Ari Aster takes the very idea of a sophmore slump and sets it ablaze — David Sims (@davidlsims) June 19, 2019I had to pee for the entirety of MIDSOMMAR’s runtime and I stuck out the whole thing, that’s how good and weird it is — EMMAR Stefansky (@stefabsky) June 19, 2019MIDSOMMAR: Psychologically fragile tourists meet a full blast of Swedish folk horror, mounted by Ari Aster at the peak of his atmospheric powers. No director in horror is working at his level of choreography, the daring of his alienating moments. What a weird spell this is. — Joshua Rothkopf (@joshrothkopf) June 19, 2019MIDSOMMAR: Great date movie. — Sean Fennessey (@SeanFennessey) June 19, 2019Things that are great about MIDSOMMAR:1. Florence Pugh.2. Henrik Svensson's next-level production design.3. Pawel Pogorzelski's slow, steady camera that lulls you into a state of calm.4. Ari Aster meditating intensely about trauma and loss in the most fucked up ways. — Neil (@rejects) June 19, 2019May I just say? Midsommar will easily be one of my favorite films of 2019. @AriAster is not only skilled as a horror filmmaker but in this film emerges as an American answer to Von Trier or Haneke. I had a blast Q&Aing tonight. Thx @A24!! https://t.co/KsMWqjbkQ7 — Leslye Headland (@LeslyeHeadland) June 19, 2019Midsommar is a hilarious rom-com romp and also the most disturbing horror I've seen in ages. It can be two things. — Tom Philip's dumb (@tommphilip) June 19, 2019 Info from Gamespot.com

When is Naughty Dog's The Last of Us: Part II releasing? That's one of the biggest questions in gaming right now. Beyond the fact that it's still coming to PS4, we don't have any idea of just when it's releasing, and now game director Neil Druckmann is having some fun with the discussion.He joked on Twitter that The Last of Us: Part II is delayed by five minutes every time someone asks for the release date. Naturally, people responded to his tweet by asking for the release date.FYI... every time someone asks for the release date, the game gets pushed back by five minutes. 😈 — Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) June 15, 2019The Last of Us: Part II is rumored to release in February this year. Just recently, Ellie actress Ashley Johnson said on a Critical Role video that she thinks the game is coming out during a month that starts with the letter F. Kotaku writer Jason Schreier also believes The Last of Us: Part II could release in February, while noted industry analyst Daniel Ahmad says February 2020 is the current internal date for The Last of Us: Part II.Officially, no release date--or even a release window--has been announced yet for The Last of Us: Part II. The parody website The Onion recently posted a silly story that said the game would launch in 2019, and Naughty Dog responded by saying it would share more information when it's ready. For more on the much-awaited PS4 game, check out everything we know about The Last of Us: Part II.The Last of Us: Part II is coming to PS4, but the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PS4 games, so Naughty Dog's title will play on the new system as well.In other news, one of The Last of Us: Part II's designers has joined the new Xbox studio, The Initiative.Info from Gamespot.com