At the heart of any European town founded before the 19th century lies a church. It's the same with Anno 1800. At the center of your city sits a magnificent cathedral, its spectacular steeple reaching for the heavens and illuminating the lives of everyone who passes by. It’s a very beautiful church, but it’s hiding something.At the heart of Anno 1800 lies an intimidating and complex financial simulation. It may seem like you're overseeing the rise and occasional fall of a European-style city as it comes of industrial age. But really, you're juggling numbers, thumb wedged in the accounts ledger, finessing production efficiencies and stabilizing trade fluctuations. Anno 1800 is perhaps the prettiest spreadsheet I've ever seen.Each randomly generated map in the core sandbox mode unfurls as a mostly blank canvas, a glistening sea dotted with fertile islands waiting to be claimed by you and your (AI or human) opponents. As you grow and expand your reach across multiple islands and into the New World--and your empire undergoes its Industrial Revolution--you'll employ more advanced technologies, extracting coal and oil to fuel great belching factories and formidable steam engines. But the basic principle remains constant: Satisfy your population by employing them to manufacture natural resources into commodities that encourage more people to move to your cities.Everything becomes a production chain for you to configure, massage and optimize. Early on the choices you're making here are relatively simple; the virgin terrain of your first settlement makes it easy to place the knitter near the farm so the wool is delivered swiftly and the warehouse within range so the finished goods can be collected for immediate sale. But soon the need for a navy means you've had to build a sailmaker's yard which is now diverting wool previously used by the knitter. Building another sheep farm means finding the physical space for an additional farm as well as for all the extra housing for the new farmers. Extend this scenario a few hours into a game and it will encompass dozens of productions chains of increasing complexity and inter-connectivity.Managing these productions chains--whether it's work clothes and sails or beer and pocket watches--is an enjoyable exercise in a kind of "balancing the books" sense. You know you have to spend resources to grow, but your success depends on finding that ever-moving sweet spot between overreaching and not pushing far enough. It's necessary to keep the requisite resources flowing and meet the housing and job demands of your population, but it's not sufficient. To maintain a firm hand on your economy you have to appreciate the various financial levers available to you, allowing fine adjustments to tax rates and production ratios that can genuinely mean the difference between keeping it in the black and going bankrupt.Of course, it's also just as enjoyable to play the more visual puzzle game of city planning, slotting in that new building not only where its specific dimensions fit, but where it also retains proximity to its related structures in the chain. Nobly assisting matters here is the "move" tool that lets you--for no resource cost at all--pick up and move any building to another location. Need to pop a police station downtown but there's no room? Just move the nearby houses further down the street to open up the space. It really does look utterly beautiful when it all comes together, too, like an exquisitely detailed diorama that you can poke, prod and tweak to your heart’s content. There’s even a first-person mode that lets you walk the streets and observe all your townsfolk going about their day to day business. I especially welcomed the moments I was able to spend admiring the view before some new urgent matter warranted investigation and I had to return to crunching those numbers.Spinning all the plates becomes even trickier as you advance into the Industrial Age. Production chains that were once straightforward, one-to-one input/output ratios turn into logistical nightmares as multiple buildings start feeding into multiple other buildings. The demands of the job are only exacerbated by a lack of clarity in the feedback you're given when things aren't operating at full capacity. Simple things like knowing how many flour mills and grain farms support a bakery just aren't communicated clearly enough in-game or in the non-existent manual. I spent hours engaged in trial and error in such situations before finding a comprehensive external wiki that I found myself alt-tabbing to constantly while I played.There is a campaign mode that functions as a tutorial before it segues into the main sandbox. And there is an additional setting that enables a more guided experience, providing you with specific goals at the appropriate moments. I found both very welcome, even as someone who had played some of the previous Anno games. But at the same time, I felt that other important aspects weren't explained thoroughly enough, if at all, and it was frustrating to guess at solutions to problems I wasn't confident I'd even diagnosed correctly.Much of Anno 1800 is spent watching numbers go up and down. Total gold is going down. Now it's going back up again. There aren't enough workers for the number of available jobs. Okay, now there are too many workers and not enough engineers. Sometimes it's clear why these things are happening and sometimes it's obvious what you can do to rectify the situation. However, other times it isn't and it's really quite panic-inducing. My stomach tightened whenever the numbers plummeted into the red, but as soon as they shot back into the black I would feel a surge of relief. Even so, outside of these sharp swings, when the numbers remained relatively stable and my economy seemed to be ticking over steadily, I couldn't shake this nagging sense that everything was always on the verge of complete collapse.I spent all of my time playing Anno 1800 in a mild yet pervasive state of anxiety. As a city-building sim that emphasizes economic management, it is as robust and powerful as the steel factories it allows you to pollute the skies with. But for all the natural beauty of its island paradise and the architectural splendor of its churches, theatres, and piers, it's just a little too cold in its reliance on numbers and a little too impenetrable in its reluctance to show you its workings. I'm glad I visited, but I don't think I'd want to live there. Info from Gamespot.com

One of the most macabre scenes in A Plague Tale: Innocence is the eponymous plague, manifesting in the form of cursed rats. These vermin have a malevolent, otherworldly presence, their incessant screeching and scratching on stone pavements and atop piles of corpses making for a nightmarish, cacophonous din. Like sewage sludge, these creatures pour out of crevices towards their unwitting victims, ravaging them until they are just skin and bones. It’s an incredibly grotesque and spine-chilling sight--one that will linger in your mind hours later.But even though the rats are a constant presence in Innocence, they merely serve as the backdrop for its more poignant moments, featuring the two characters you’ll spend the bulk of your time with: Amicia and Hugo de Rune, a pair of young siblings who are suddenly thrust into this hellscape of war and pestilence. Set amidst the Hundred Years’ War during the Middle Ages, the comfort the siblings once knew as children to a noble French family has been ruthlessly shattered. The Black Death, too, has wrought terror upon the country, with the bulk of the French population either dying from the plague or eaten by rats. Compounding this is the Inquisition, a fanatical group of knights keen to get their hands on the last of the de Rune descendants. Surrounded with sludgy pools of grimy rats, and with murderous knights hunting them down at every other turn, the duo need to gather their wits, leaning on stealthier means to escape from this mess. But not only do you have to navigate through the bedlam as the teenage Amicia, you’ll also have to take care of the five-year-old Hugo; he panics and shouts for Amicia when she ventures too far from him--as any young child will presumably do when surrounded by a neverending miasma of death and decay.This arrangement does give Innocence the appearance of an elaborate escort mission, but fortunately, the game knows how to subvert the tedium that’s so typical of such games. A huge part is due to how human Innocence is. Despite his neediness and naiveté, Hugo is easy to grow fond of. His childlike wonder cuts through the wretchedness of their circumstances, allowing him--and helping Amicia--to appreciate the beauty even in the bleakest of times. In one scene, he quickly takes off to a nearby pier, fascinated by the curious sight of bubbles from frogs in the lake. Even a small gesture from him, such as plucking a flower--a symbol of tenacity in such trying times--to gently place it among Amicia’s braids, captures the warmth of their relationship. Such moments are heart-wrenchingly sweet, and you’ll share Amicia’s growing attachment to Hugo; his companionship is even greatly missed when she has to be paired up with other characters you meet along the way. On a mechanical level, it also helps that the artificial intelligence behind the characters isn’t hopelessly illogical, at least most of the time. Hugo isn’t usually one to chase after a butterfly in the thick of trouble, but the game still has its moments where a companion might accidentally take a kamikaze dive into a pool of quivering rats. Thankfully, these blunders are mercifully rare.With survival being the thematic core of the game, Innocence is, at its crux, a series of survival puzzles; you’ll need to avoid the ravenous rat colonies, as well as evade the knights of the Inquisition. The rodents are terrified of light and will scuttle away at its mere presence--a weakness you can exploit to make your way across death-stricken battlefields and cities. Yet key to survival is also vigilance; wander too close to the rats, and they will attempt to devour you, clawing at the fringes of the light as their teeth chatter with insatiable hunger. And when a few stray rodents manage to latch onto you, Amicia can drown in a whirlpool of vermin, as they viciously and noisily gnaw on her. Few scenes in video games manage to be quite as eerie as this, heightening the game’s cloying atmosphere of despair and danger.What’s decidedly less impressive, however, are the members of the Inquisition. As children, Amicia and Hugo won’t survive most direct confrontations with these armored brutes, who are only too eager to swing their cudgels and swords upon discovering them. Luckily for the de Rune siblings, the knights are also dumb as rocks; these barbarians are easily distracted by loud noises or sudden movements, such as by smashing a pot near their feet or tossing a rock towards a nearby chest full of armor. After staring at the offending object for a minute, the knight will mutter a variant of “Guess it’s just my imagination”--the most hackneyed and quintessential line used by hilariously obtuse NPCs in stealth games--and lumber back to their post, completely bewildered by the sound. In another far more egregious gaffe, another knight, while gawking at rats stripping his comrade to the bones, would grouse about the pointlessness of searching for his murderer, since they must be far gone by now. He then settled back to his programmed patrol, his back turned against the torrent of crazed rodents. For a game whose storytelling relies heavily on its atmosphere of dread and fear, such illogical instances absolutely butcher the mood.That said, the game’s puzzles eventually ramp up in difficulty in later chapters, which renders combat and confrontations unavoidable at certain points. As dim-witted as the knights are, they’re still mostly decked out in heavy armor and weaponry--and can make devastating enemies. To compensate for her lack of brute strength, Amicia can modify and augment her trusty slingshot and ammunitions with the right materials and a dash of basic alchemy, turning the humble tool into a deadly and versatile weapon. Hugo isn’t a passive companion either; reaching cramped, hard-to-access places is his forte, and he’s gutsy enough to crawl through smaller breaches in walls alone to open up new paths for Amicia--provided the coast is cleared. Other characters, like a talented young alchemist named Lucas and a pair of orphaned thieves called Mellie and Arthur, will come with vastly different capabilities--and each with their own affairs to settle in this dire tale.Scenes of desolation and tragedy mark Innocence’s dark, intriguing world, tied together with a narrative that’s genuinely moving without resorting to fetishizing the children’s sufferings. Despite their challenging situation, the siblings make do with what little help they get, bolstered by Amicia’s astounding resourcefulness, to survive this catastrophic mess. The game also magnifies the cataclysmic impact of the Black Death through a lens of cosmic horror, invoking the frightful atmosphere of H.P. Lovecraft’s macabre stories; the slithering rats, whether they are scurrying in the dank blackness beneath the city or trailing around half-eaten cadavers, never fails to be disconcerting. On the other hand, its villainous characters are almost painfully one-dimensional, with predictable twists and turns in the plot. This renders some of its revelations lackluster.Powerfully ghoulish depictions of the plague and rats aside, Innocence is ultimately an emotive story of resilience against harrowing odds. The game’s title is an obvious nod towards the loss of innocence the endearing young cast faces throughout their journey. But more than that, it also speaks of the depths of human depravity and the agonizing cost of survival in the midst of war. Despite the unremitting horrors of Innocence’s beginnings, the game occasionally lets in a faint glimpse of hope. One of my favorite moments is when Amicia spots another wildflower in a lone trek across the city, nestled among the decay of the rats’ revolting nests. Without her brother around, she picks it up, and places it gingerly in her own hair--a personal reminder to keep trudging on amidst the hardships, and a testament to her growing strength and tenacity. Despite flashes of predictability, moments like these will bring a lump to your throat, as it did mine. Info from Gamespot.com

You're facing down the scattered remnants of the last, great Han warlords, and your entire adult life so far has been building to this moment. Ever since you first took up arms at the age of eighteen against the corruption bleeding China dry, vengeance has been the one thing driving you forward. People call you the Bandit Queen, spitting the title at your feet in battle before your twin axes cleave their heads from their shoulders. As your forces pursue routed, scarlet-clad warriors, you feel the gaze of one of your lieutenants upon you, pivoting almost too late to meet their steel with your own. However, you're resigned to this by now, and he meets a gurgling end like so many before him who disagreed with your methods. No general suffers any threats to their rule, even when the peasantry starts to mutter about you and the old tyrant, Dong Zhou, in the same breath. There are no saints in Total War: Three Kingdoms, just a castell of death and destruction with its apex pointed squarely at the throne.The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is essentially the Chinese version of The Iliad in construction. Larger-than-life characters, an at-times heady mix of romance and intrigue, and a hell of a lot of fighting are what define it. However, it's almost entirely unique as a text because of the fact that it is widely treated as a reasonable record of the events of the turbulent period of 169 AD to 280 AD in Chinese history, despite embellishment. The Total War franchise is no stranger to adapting the militaristic trials and tribulations of our world's past, but Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a work that has at times straddled the dual worlds of academia and fantasy.While the popular Dynasty Warriors games have very successfully depicted the fantasy, it's not been as easy to capture the intricate, personal stories of now-recognisable figures like Cao Cao, or to capture how they played into the wider scheme of the world as we know it. Total War: Three Kingdoms focuses keenly on those key figures and their motivations, using the literature's extensive canon as fodder for your own strategic in-game actions. Thrown into the thick of the battles and diplomacy of 190 AD, you'll need guts, gore, and perseverance to either unite China or to break the chains of oppression that hold its people fast, and Creative Assembly has succeeded in translating the themes from a decades-long, larger-than-life epic into a form that will appeal to both Total War enthusiasts and rookies alike.For the uninitiated, Total War is a mix of turn-based strategy and real-time battles where you take full control of squadrons of warriors and watch them duke it out against your foes on a picturesque patch of blood-stained grass. When you're not exerting military might on everyone else, entries in the series have historically focused on strategy elements akin to those that you would see in traditional 4X games like Civilzation. You have to balance expanding cities with diplomacy, manage population growth and happiness, and also deal with the very real concerns of keeping enemies off your tail. You do this by managing a series of complex, interconnected systems that influence everything from your inner circle to what a certain township might have to trade in winter. Give a town a governor with a green thumb and see trade flourish, or marry off a dissenter to an enemy and see previous peace treaties wither. As with every strategy title, the consequences of your choices are far-reaching, and Total War is an exercise in choosing wisely.The first thing that will stand out with Three Kingdoms is how it puts its best foot forward on its production values. Dynamic weather, lighting, and beautiful watercolour environments--ranging from mountains to besieged cottages--paint a striking backdrop for the conflict and bloodshed to follow. Your generals themselves remain rendered larger than life and in great detail, and their idle chatter (fully voiced in Chinese, if you so choose) lend them a lot of personality when you're taking your time deciding on your next move. The UI is also clean and well-designed; Three Kingdoms is a return to the usual gamut of interactive windows providing the minute details and statistics seen in older Total War titles, but information can be pinned and dismissed at will so you aren't fighting a battlefield of clutter.Detailed mechanics from previous titles return, which means a lot of information for more recent Total War fans to contend with. This is particularly noticeable when wrangling your allies, which is now essentially a full-time job. Managing relationships within your own coterie is no longer as easy as paying them to look the other way, nor are the effects almost instantaneous. It's now a long game of min-maxing retinues, victories, ideal reforms, and placation. While you're picking a general, faction identities are not as set in stone in practice as they may have been in previous titles. Playstyles ranging from expansionist and war-mongering to diplomatic can all be found in the same faction, and this translates nicely to create a dynamic inner circle.Some of the streamlining done in recent Total War titles has been walked back, potentially to emphasize Three Kingdom's focus on cults of personality in adherence with the source material for the game; your advisors and family members are all fully-fledged characters of their own with personality traits that will conflict, sometimes fatally, with your ethos. Making concerted decisions over a long period of time that are in line with your vassals' beliefs are necessary to keep them keen, lest you cop a challenge and a sword in the back when you least expect it. The threat of defection from your wider allies is always on the horizon too; the factions fighting over China are as fractured as the land itself. Where Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia invited you to ruminate upon keeping your faction cohesive so as to ensure that your reformations would live on, diplomacy and faction politics in Three Kingdoms feel much more like putting pressure on a bleeding wound. Everyone starts at each other's throats, with the major balance of power being in favour of the Han Empire.Whether you were part of the Yellow Turban rebellion, an independent warlord, or a former seneschal of the Empire, everyone at the time was clamoring for a piece of the pie, and having that reflected in Three Kingdom's mechanics is a nice touch. But you can sometimes feel pigeon-holed into conflict in a way that restricts your agency as a player. War declarations come hard and fast, with AIs as mercurial at decision-making as their portrayals in the source material. Sure, you can suggest marriage or pay a tithe, but taking the peaceful road often shakes out to be incredibly costly in negotiations. By the time you're staring down a line of cavalry encroaching on your territory, you can often feel like you only have one real option: to fight to the death.Combat in Three Kingdoms' main campaign has two distinct strains depending on which mode you're playing in: Romance, or the more traditional Historical option, which is more reminiscent of how Total War usually operates. While you can delegate combat to a dice roll of AI-generated auto-battling odds, getting bogged down in the minutiae of the battlefield is incredibly thrilling. You'll marshal your forces and pit them against those of your foes' in the pseudo weapons triangle of cavalry, infantry, and assorted others, all in real time. Whether it be a relentless siege against a settlement, meeting the Han empire in open combat, or simply trying to hold it together as someone else knocks on your gates with axe-wielding bandits, Total War's depiction of battlefield conflict is where it has always excelled, and Three Kingdoms is no different.However, the distinctive, much-trumpeted difference between Three Kingdoms and previous titles is the aforementioned Romance mode. This is where the fantastical merges with the historical in a way that offers you a new way to dominate opponents on the battlefield. In this mode, your generals stand head and shoulders above the rest, capable of single-handedly taking out entire squadrons on their own even as they yell out orders to the men rallying around them. In Romance mode, the strength of said generals grows in epic scale and scope over time, much in line with the fantastical deeds they perform in the source material. Generals also have the option to engage in duels with each other, which provides a spectacular, clash of the titans-style combative satisfaction. Three Kingdoms also lets you take these types of confrontations one step further in the new Battle mode, which lets you reenact famous skirmishes from Chinese history as these storied generals. It's both nicely educational and a refreshing change of pace.The game's tutorial is decent at helping you parse the essential mechanics from the math soup, but it feels like a large expository information dump as Three Kingdoms attempts to get you up to speed on both the world's ingrained politics and what to do with all these damn menus and buttons. You're given a crash course in everything from how to wage war to how to manage the people under your rule within the first 20 turns, which is mechanically almost a lifetime in-game, but not very long at all for someone who isn't familiar with Total War or the Three Kingdoms story to get properly acclimatised. But to its credit, Three Kingdoms does provide plenty of helpful supplementary material and difficulty adjustments to help rookies learn what they need to know to succeed, given enough time--from instructional videos to the pace in which the game unravels its conflicts on Easy difficulty, as well as the ability to streamline processes like waging war and building prosperous townships (the latter mostly through a one-size fits all approach to reformation). With enough patience, it's easy to be infected with Total War once you finally get your mouth around that first, overly-large bite.Three Kingdoms feels like a breath of fresh air. By harkening back to the intricacies of older titles and builds on some of the foundations laid by Thrones of Britannia, it offers a distinctly contemporary and thorough experience. This is the most ambitious that Total War has ever been, from the variety of different ways that you can enjoy the game to the sheer scope of the stories that they've weaved around each unique character's playable experience. Three Kingdoms feels like the rightful evolution of the series, pulling from its roots in historical military tactics to come up with an engrossing modern strategy game that is always a delight, even in its less well-oiled moments.Info from Gamespot.com

The World Health Organization, the public health division of the United Nations, has officially added "gaming disorder" to its registry of officially recognized diseases. This happened over the weekend when the WHO officially adopted the 11th revision of its International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11). All 194 members of the WHO voted unanimously to adopt the revision.According to the WHO, "gaming disorder" is characterized by a "pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour" online or offline. The official description goes on to say that gaming disorders can include the following: "1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences."People who are deemed to have the "gaming disorder" run the risk of "significant impairment" to their personal, family, social, education, and occupational lives, according to the WHO. The description goes on to say that "gaming disorder" can be a continuous condition or it can be episodic in nature. For it to be suggested that a person has "gaming disorder," they would display these behaviour patterns for a year or longer.The "gaming disorder" disease will become officially recognized by the WHO on January 1, 2022. According to GI.biz, the WHO came to its conclusion based on consultations with experts from a variety of backgrounds.In January, when the WHO first announced it would consider recognizing "gaming disorder," the US video game industry group, ESA, said the designation "recklessly trivializes real mental health issues.”"Just like avid sports fans and consumers of all forms of engaging entertainment, gamers are passionate and dedicated with their time," the ESA--which lobbies on behalf of the video game industry to protect its interests--said in a statement. "Having captivated gamers for more than four decades, more than 2 billion people around the world enjoy video games.""The World Health Organization knows that common sense and objective research prove video games are not addictive. And, putting that official label on them recklessly trivializes real mental health issues like depression and social anxiety disorder, which deserve treatment and the full attention of the medical community," the statement continued.At the time, the ESA said it strongly encouraged the WHO to reverse the action, but now that it has been officially adopted, it remains to be seen if there are any appeal possibilities.It's not just the ESA that's hitting back at the WHO over this decision. A statement attributed to the global video game industry associations--including the ESA (USA), ESA Canada (Canada), IGEA (Australia and New Zealand), ISFE (Europe), K Games (South Korea), and UKIE (United Kingdom)--says the WHO reached its decision "without the consensus of the academic community." The consequences could be far reaching and might achieve the opposite of what the WHO is setting out to do, according to the statement."There is significant debate among medical and professionals about today's WHO action. We are concerned they reached their conclusion without the consensus of the academic community," reads a line from the statement. "The consequences of today's action could be far-reaching, unintended, and to the detriment of those in need of genuine help."It continues: "We encourage and support healthy game play by providing information and tools, such as parental controls, that empower billions of people around the world to manage their play to ensure it remains enjoyable and enriching. As with all good things in life, moderation is key and that finding the right balance is an essential part of safe and sensible play."Last week, before the WHO decision came down, Sony's CEO talked about how the video game industry needs to do more to promote healthy gaming. "We need to take it seriously and adopt countermeasures," he told reports (via Kyodo News).Some games are already implementing features to promote healthy gaming behaviors. Recently, PUBG Mobile introduced a new feature that sends pop-ups to young players to remind them to put the game down and take a break.Info from Gamespot.com

The latest North American weekend box office numbers are in, and Disney's newest live-action remake, Aladdin, won the weekend with $86.1 million. The figure is expected to grow to around $105 million when Monday's Memorial Day numbers come in. Aladdin also opened in overseas markets this weekend, it made $121 million for the three-day period from international screens to push the movie's total global box office haul to $207.1 million after just one weekend. Aladdin didn't get the strongest reviews from professional critics, but actual audiences loved it. The movie picked up a near-perfect A CinemaScore rating. CinemaScore is a poll of audiences who saw a movie, and it is not unusual for the average critic score to vary from what audiences thought of a film, and this also appears to be the case for Aladdin. A strong CinemaScore rating also suggests that Aladdin will continue to perform well in Week 2 and beyond because of positive word-of-mouth.Aladdin stars Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Jasmine, with Will Smith playing the Genie. With more than $200 million worldwide for its opening weekend, Aladdin is director Guy Ritchie's biggest start ever. His next closest was 2009's Sherlock Holmes ($62.3 million opening). Aladdin also represents Smith's second-biggest opening-weekend box office ever, only behind Suicide Squad.As for the rest of the weekend box office, John Wick 3 made $24.4 million in the US and Canada over the first three days of the weekend; it's expected to climb to $30.5 million when Monday's numbers come in to finish No. 2 behind Aladdin. It's also notable that John Wick 3 has now made $181.5 million worldwide after just two weeks, which is ahead of the $171.5 million that John Wick 2 made across its entire theatrical run.Avengers: Endgame made $16.8 million for the Friday-Sunday period to finish No. 3; that number expected to climb to $21.9 million for the holiday weekend in the US and Canada. Endgame has now made $2.67 billion worldwide, meaning it still trails Avatar ($2.78 billion) as the biggest movie in history.Rounding out the top five movies at the US and Canadian box office this weekend were Pokemon: Detective Pikachu ($13.3 million) and the new James Gunn-produced superhero horror movie Brightburn ($7.5 million).May 24-26 North American Box OfficeVia Entertainment WeeklyAladdin -- $86.1 millionJohn Wick: Chapter Three Parabellum -- $24.4 millionAvengers: Endgame -- $16.8 millionPokemon Detective Pikachu -- $13.3 millionBrightburn -- $7.5 millionBooksmart -- $6.5 millionA Dog’s Journey -- $4.1 millionThe Hustle -- $3.8 millionThe Intruder -- $2.3 millionLong Shot -- $1.7 millionInfo from Gamespot.com

Hideo Kojima has posted a new teaser video for his mysterious upcoming project, Death Stranding. Released on Twitter, the video shows the outline of a hand and the words "Create the rope." Some eerie music plays in the background, while flashes of mysterious objects appear as well.It's hard to make sense of, which is par for the course with Death Stranding. Check out the video for yourself in the embed below and let us know in the comments what you've spotted.#deathstranding pic.twitter.com/5b470xUPnR — HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) May 26, 2019Death Stranding is Kojima's first new game since his split with Konami. Very little is known about the game, and that appears to be intentional, with Kojima weaving secrets into its new trailers and teasers like the one he released today.The game features a number of celebrities, including The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus in the lead role, as well as Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, Lindsay Wagner, Guillermo del Toro, and Troy Baker.Speaking to Metro, Reedus said he's never seen anything like what Kojima is doing with the game."The concept is so far out into the future. Instead of eliminating everyone around you, it's bringing everyone together," he explained. "It's a very positive video game, but scary and depressing at the same time. It’s kind of a new movie. I've never seen anything like what we're doing."At the Tribeca Film Festival in April, Kojima talked about how Death Stranding will make you cry.No release date has been set as of yet for Death Stranding. The game was announced for PlayStation 4 and PC, and it'll be released on console through a partnership between Kojima's new studio, Kojima Productions, and Sony. A recent report said Death Stranding might also release on PS5.Info from Gamespot.com

The Overwatch League has lost its commissioner. Nate Nanzer, the OWL's first-ever commissioner who led the eSports organisation from the ground up, has left Blizzard.He left Blizzard to join Epic Games where he will head up the developer's eSports and competitive gaming efforts for the massively popular battle royale game Fortnite. Needless to say, he is a huge get for Epic, as Nanzer was instrumental in the creation of the OWL.In a Twitter thread, Nanzer said leaving Blizzard was the "toughest decision" of his entire life "because it means I won't get to work with the best staff, players, teams, owners, partners, and fans in eSports anymore." Nanzer said he is proud of what the OWL has achieved in its early days.While he was the public face of the OWL, Nanzer stressed that the league's success wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of so many other people, and fans. "It isn't about me; it's never been. It's about all of you," Nanzer said.He said he leaves Blizzard with the OWL "in great hands.""I can't wait to see where the team takes the Overwatch League in 2020 -- and beyond. And I'll be cheering right there alongside you, every step of the way," he said.Activision Blizzard hired former Fox Sports boss Pete Vlastelica to take over for Nanzer as the OWL's commissioner, according to ESPN.As for Nanzer's new job at Epic, the company said it's "excited to welcome Nate to the Epic Games team, where he'll be working with us on competitive Fortnite."In addition to Fortnite, Epic's other big eSports game is Rocket League. Epic acquired Rocket League and developer Psyonix earlier this year.Info from Gamespot.com

In Observation you play as SAM (Systems Administration and Maintenance), the AI assistant of a space station that represents the joint efforts of Europe, China, and Russia. Your abilities are limited by your absence of a corporeal form--for most of the game you're controlling the cameras dotted around the station and interacting with any computers or digital panels within their range of vision. You have access to a station map that expands over time, and you're able to jump between cameras across the entire ship at will. It might sound like a limiting conceit, but Observation uses your unique position of omniscient claustrophobia to craft a compelling, creepy, and extremely original narrative experience.The year is 2026, and you're on the station with Emma Fisher, a European crew member who awakens at the game's beginning to find that she has no contact with the rest of her crew on board. It's immediately clear that something catastrophic has happened; the station is no longer in Earth's orbit, and no-one is answering her attempts at communication. To say much more would be to spoil elements of a plot that are best left to surprise you--the first major twist happens within about 20 minutes. Suffice it to say that Observation's narrative unfurls slowly across the entire length of the game, with its mysteries growing all the more complicated and your sense of dread deepening as the game goes on.Observation absolutely nails its distinct lo-fi, sci-fi aesthetic. The cameras crackle and jump as you shift between them, and the stylistic film grain and distortion over every visual emphasizes your slight removal from the reality of the situation Emma is facing. Like many science fiction works of the last forty years, Observation is indebted to Ridley Scott's Alien--some of the tech aboard the space station feel like antiquated products of a decade long past. This aesthetic, paired with the game's too-near future setting, gives Observation the pleasant feeling of an uncovered classic or remake of an ambitious, older piece of work. SAM is far and away the most advanced piece of technology on the station, and even when you load up your own system menu (which lets you view the map, check system alerts, and perform other functions that unlock during the game) you're treated to some pleasantly analog and retro buzzing and whirring sound effects.You experience most of the game through the slow panning and zooming cameras, an effective tool at creating a creeping sense of tension, although the occasional cutscene is used to better capture action at a crucial moment. It's not about jump scares or personally being in danger; again, to say too much more would be to spoil the game's clever pacing, but it's a game that's incredibly effective at building dread more than overt terror.The actual gameplay is, for the most part, pretty simple. You need to explore the ship as much as you can from your various vantage points, scanning every document and inspecting every laptop you encounter, opening and shutting hatch doors, and interacting with the station's equipment. The bulk of the puzzles boil down to figuring out how to operate SAM's interface, finding schematics to help you operate certain programs, and learning the necessary procedures for the instructions you are given.The game does an excellent job of taking complex ideas and procedures and presenting them as simple operations. Everything from opening the airlock to securing the doors between sections of the station boils down to a few button presses; occasionally you'll have to take part in what is essentially a timed mini-game, but for the most part, you're just following basic instructions. The main challenge comes from figuring out how the different parts of the ship all work together, and reasoning through the impact of your actions and what information you do and don't currently have access to.At certain points, you'll need to control a spherical droid that can float around the station--and, more excitingly, outside the station--freely. It's a bit of a pain to control in tight spots, and it's easy to lose your bearings because the concepts of up and down are relative in zero-gravity environments. But there's a real thrill in breaking free from the static cameras and floating through the station, and in getting used to the sphere's limitations. Observation doles these sections out expertly, using the droid when it needs to make you feel more a part of what is happening. It plays on the droid's symbolic sense of place extremely well; it's the physical element of SAM that sells Emma's growing friendship with him.Often what you need to do next, and how to do it, will be spelled out extremely clearly, though the game's instructions could stand to be a tad clearer in a few sections. One time it seemed like I had hit a particularly abstract puzzle, but it turned out that I'd actually encountered a glitch where a certain event didn't trigger properly, which necessitated a quick checkpoint reset. This was a pain, as the game's checkpointing can be a bit strict--you keep any information you've collected through scanning objects, but it doesn't save after major actions, so it's hard to know exactly what you'll have to redo when you exit out. But it's not too big an issue, as I never lost more than a few minutes of progress.Slowly discovering every system on board, inspecting every room, and unlocking more menus and commands within SAM's UI is an absolute treat. Observation is a visual stunner, with only the odd lip-sync issue occasionally distracting from the level of polish and craft on display. Later events ramp up the inherent creepy isolation of a space station perfectly, too. The story is compelling and exciting right up until the credits roll, and the game doesn't let up on revelations, twists, or the increasing tension of knowing that the game is building towards something wild. Observation also achieves the extremely rare feat of containing audio logs that are both compelling and make sense within its world.Observation is a wonderful example of how to do focused, self-contained science-fiction storytelling in a game. It's well-written and clever, and nails the sci-fi tropes and aesthetics it both plays to and builds upon. It's a game that demands to be analyzed and thought about further once you're done with it, and while the internal world of the game is small, inhabiting it is a real pleasure. Info from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Go's Extraordinary Raid Week is coming to an end on May 28, which means there are only a few days left to battle new Raid bosses and earn extra bonuses. Before the event officially wraps up, however, Niantic is holding a special Lapras Raid Day today, May 25 (May 26 in the Asia-Pacific region), which will give you a chance to battle the popular Ice Pokemon in Gyms--and maybe even catch a Shiny one.The Lapras Raid Day runs from 11 AM to 2 PM local time. During that window, Lapras will appear as a Raid boss, and you may even encounter its Shiny form. Moreover, you'll be able to catch Lapras that know the event-exclusive moves Ice Shard and Ice Beam. You can also earn up to five Raid Passes--the item you need in order to participate in Raid Battles--from Gyms during the event. You can read more details about the Lapras Raid Day on the official Pokemon Go website.That isn't the only event on the horizon for Pokemon Go. Beginning next week, Niantic is bringing three Legendary Pokemon back to the game. Cresselia will appear in five-star Raids from May 27 to June 18; Kyogre will follow from June 18 to June 27; and Groudon will return from June 27 to July 10. Not only does this give you another opportunity to add these rare Legendaries to your collection, you'll have a chance to encounter each one's Shiny form during their respective stints as Raid bosses.Niantic has also announced the first details for Pokemon Go's next Community Day. The monthly event will return on Saturday, June 8, and this time, the featured Pokemon will be Slakoth, the adorable sloth from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. During June's Community Day, Slakoth will appear in the wild much more often than it normally does, and you'll have a chance to catch its Shiny variant. On top of that, Pokemon Eggs will hatch at a quarter of the distance they typically require.In other Pokemon Go news, Niantic recently rolled out a new wave of Gen 4 Pokemon. Gible, Hippopotas, Cherrim, and more Pokemon originally from Diamond and Pearl are now available in the mobile game. Additionally, Niantic introduced new kinds of Lure Modules, which attract certain types of Pokemon and allow you to evolve Eevee into Glaceon and Leafeon.Info from Gamespot.com

Overwatch League, the official competitive scene for Blizzard's team shooter, is pitting fans against each other to win the honor of topping the teams. The winning team gets to take over the official OWL Instagram account.From May 27-31, equip an Overwatch League team hero skin and take part in Quick Play or Competitive matches. Each match you complete earns one point for the team you're representing, and the winning team will be announced on June 3. It all works similar to Splatoon's Splatfests, which tie team colors to surveys.The announcement notes that you must complete a match for your point to register, including overtime. It's okay if you need to switch to a different hero, as long as you were wearing a team skin at some point during the match. It also doesn't matter if you're wearing the Home or Away skin. You can also contribute points on Twitter by tweeting with the #MyOWLTeam hashtag and tagging your favorite team. Blizzard promises that stage three of the event will begin on June 6, but it didn't specify exactly what that will entail.This is run concurrently with the middle of the Overwatch Anniversary event, which runs through June 10. As usual that has introduced a bunch of new skins, as well as other cosmetics and rotating brawls. Still, if you're a fan of the Los Angeles Gladiators or the Philadelphia Fusion, you may want to put aside your Honeydew Mei or Gargoyle Winston temporarily and support the team.Info from Gamespot.com

Sony apparently plans to bridge the console generation gap in a somewhat different way with the release of the PS5. It's spoken about the possibility of PS4 and PS5 playing together via backward compatibility once the new system is released, but Sony has no plans to leave the nearly 100 million PS4 owners in the past just yet. Given how much recent attention has been given to PS5 and the fact that Sony won't be at E3, you might wonder what's going with its first-party games slated for PS4. Are games like Death Stranding and The Last of Us II still coming to PS4? Sony has reaffirmed that these exclusives are indeed still headed to the current-gen platform."For the next three years or so, PS4 will be the engine of SIE's engagement and probability, as we seek to keep the existing owner base engaged and delighted and attract new owners from different markets and different demographics," SIE CEO and president Jim Ryan said during a Sony Investor Relations Day 2019 presentation (via IGN). "In this we will be massively helped by an outstanding roster of new and exclusive games that have yet to be launched."Ryan was speaking over a slide at the investor meeting, which featured a graphic (pictured above) with one tile that read "Outstanding roster of exclusive AAA games still to come," followed by thumbnails of three upcoming PS4 games: The Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding, and Ghost of Tsushima.This doesn't rule out the possibility that these games are also released on PS5, but Ryan and the rest of Sony are not ready to cut off the flow of PS4 games just yet.We recently saw footage of the PS5's insanely-fast load times, thanks in large part to the system's newly-equipped solid-state drives. Despite some of the impressive power packed into the system, PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny told Wired writer Peter Rubin that the PS5 will have an "appealing" price point: "I believe that we will be able to release it at an SRP [suggested retail price] that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set."Info from Gamespot.com

Season 9 of Fortnite continues with a new batch of content for the hit battle royale shooter. On top of the ongoing Downtown Drop limited-time mode, Week 3's challenges are now live across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, and mobile devices. These are your best bet for snagging all the new Season 9 cosmetics, as each task you complete will net you Battle Stars, which in turn will level your Battle Pass up and unlock rewards.Week 3's challenges are particularly straightforward, so you shouldn't have too much difficulty completing them. This is fortunate, because there's an added bonus for finishing all seven challenges from a given week: You'll also complete one of Season 9's Utopia challenges, which will reward you with a special loading screen. These typically hide a clue that points you to a free item hidden somewhere around the game's map, such as a Battle Star that will level your Battle Pass up by one full tier.If you've finished three weeks' worth of missions this season, you'll complete the third Season 9 Utopia challenge and unlock the loading screen pictured below. Per tradition, this screen features a clue leading eagle-eyed players to a free Battle Star. Specifically, the clue is scrawled onto the concrete wall the puppies are standing on; look closely and you can see the sketch of a Battle Star above a stack of cars. You'll need to go to someplace on the map that resembles the drawing in order to find the item.If the drawing wasn't clear enough, you can find a pile of cars like that in Junk Junction, near the northwestern corner of the island. Glide toward the area at the start of a match and you should be able to easily spot the stack of cars. Make your way to the top and the Battle Star will appear. Collect it, finish the match, and your Battle Pass will be leveled 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 watch us lead you to it in the video at the top of this guide.Unlike Week 2's secret Fortbyte #13, there's a caveat to be aware of before you can collect this Battle Star. The item will only appear if you've complete three full weeks' worth of challenges, which means you won't simply be able to go to the stack of cars in Junk Junction and expect to find it unless you've done all of the necessary work first. If you need help completing any earlier challenges, you can find guides for all the trickier ones in our full Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup. We'll continue to update that with more tips as the season rolls on.Epic recently rolled out Fortnite's 9.10 update, which kicked off the aforementioned Downtown Drop LTM, which features its own assortment of challenges to complete and rewards to unlock. Alongside that, Epic introduced the Hang Time bundle, which comes with a pair of Jordan tie-in skins. Other changes the patch made include the addition of Hot Spots--areas on the island where you'll have a chance to find Rare or better loot--and the reintroduction of the Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle, which is once again available in Vending Machines, chests, and as floor loot.Info from Gamespot.com

This year's mainline Call of Duty title is rumored to be a new Modern Warfare, but it's not the only Call of Duty game coming this year. Activision is also releasing Call of Duty Mobile, and the company has now revealed the title's Battle Royale mode. In a blog post, Activision said the mode is similar in structure to Black Ops 4's Blackout mode and other battle royale games in that players are dropped onto a "colossal map" and must fight until only one player--or one team--remains alive.It does share some similarities with Blackout, but it stands alone with its own unique elements as well, Activision said. It's referred to specifically as battle royale, rather than Blackout. The key points are as following:Up to 100 players supportedSolo, Duo, and four-player teams are being tested currentlyThere are six classes, each with their own unique ability and skillYou can revive teammates, who drop back into the map from a cargo plane after healingYou can play in first- or third-person, though this is locked in before a match begins, and players will be matched together with those using the same camera perspective.The map features locations from past CoD games including Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, and Black Ops II.Vehicles are supported, including ATV, Light Helicopter, SUV, and Tactical Raft.Call of Duty Mobile is only still in the "early" stages of development and testing, so things could change. That being said, Activision released some work-in-progress images; see them in the gallery below.Here is a rundown of the game's classes, with descriptions written by Activision:Call of Duty Mobile ClassesDefender: With the ability to place a deformable Transform Shield, this class also is Reinforced, raising resistance to all damage except bullets. Mechanic: Able to call an EMP Drone to create electro-magnetic interference on hostile forces, this class also features the Engineer ability, granting augmented sight to vehicles, hostile traps, and other equipment.Scout: Utilizing the Sensor Dart that can view hostile positions in the immediate area of the radar map, this class also benefits from the Tracker ability; allowing you to see fresh footprints of hostiles.Clown: A master of distraction and friend of the undead, this class has a Toy Bomb to detonate, summoning zombies that only attack hostiles near to them; due in part to the Clown having the Anti-Zombieability, which reduces the zombies’ aggression distance.Medic: This class can place a Medical Station that continuously heals the Medic and associated allies in the immediate vicinity. In addition, the Master Healer ability allows a Medic to heal more quickly, and reduces the time it takes to revive teammates.Ninja: Lastly, this clandestine class has a Grapple Gun that fires a hook, allowing you to propel yourself up and onto target buildings or across the landscape at speed. Movement is quiet too, due to this class having the Dead Silence ability.In terms of reviving, players who die drop a dog tag. Players can pick up the dog tag and press a button to revive their fallen teammate. It takes some time, and it must be completed fully before a player gets respawned via a cargo plane drop.The full blog post has all the important details you need to know, so head to Activision's website to read all about Call of Duty Mobile's battle royale mode.Call of Duty Mobile is developed by Tencent's Timi studio. It will release around the world, and the first, small-scale beta recently began in India. Another beta is coming to Australia "soon," with more regions to be supported later on. Info from Gamespot.com

After releasing the first details of his plan to go after loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics in video games, Republican US Senator Josh Hawley today officially released the full text of his bill. Not only that, but Hawley revealed two co-sponsors, and they are both of the rival Democratic party."It's pretty simple. Video game companies shouldn't put casinos targeted at kids in their games. Proud of this bipartisan effort," Hawley said on Twitter.The two co-sponsors of the bill, which is called Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act, are Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Ed Markey (Massachusetts).The bill asks Congress to regulate some pay-to-win microtransactions in video games, while it also seeks a ban on loot boxes for games that are designed to appeal to people under the age of 18. Specifically, the full wording of the bill states that it would become illegal for a publisher to release a "minor-oriented" game that features pay-to-win microtransactions or loot boxes, while it also seeks to previously released games from receiving updates that add such mechanics.Key to this bill is how pay-to-win and loot boxes are defined. The bill states that a pay-to-win mechanic is one that "eases a user's progression through content otherwise available within the game without the purchase of such transaction," as well as one that "assists a user in accomplishing an achievement within the game that can otherwise be accomplished without the purchase of such transaction.It is also defined as something that "assists a user in receiving an award associated with the game that is otherwise available in association with the game without the purchase of such transaction." And finally, the bill states that pay-to-win also means a purchase that "permits a user to continue to access content of the game that had previously been accessible to the user but has been made inaccessible after the expiration of a timer or a number of gameplay attempts."Exclusions include difficulty modes, cosmetic items that do not affect gameplay, and add-on content like DLC packs and expansions.As for loot boxes, the bill defines a loot box as a "randomized or partly randomized" item that unlocks a feature of the product or adds to or enhances the entertainment value of the product without disclosing what the actual content is until after the purchase of the loot box.The bill defines a "minor-oriented" game as one that is targeted at people under the age of 18 as judged by the subject matter, the visual content, and the music or audio content, among other things. No examples of what a "minor-oriented" game are were provided. The bill's language also does not say if Hawley will work with the United States' ratings organization the ESRB on this bill. That group is owned and operated by the Entertainment Software Association, which opposes this bill, so that could be one reason why.Hawley's bill says he's able to ask for this ban under the Federal Trade Commission's Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices act.In addition to the ban on some loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics, the bill is asking for a study to be conducted on the effect of pay-to-win and loot boxes that would be commissioned not later than two years after the act is enacted.Hawley and his co-sponsors are asking for the study to analyze the psychological effects of pay-to-win microtransactions and loot boxes on users and also to study game development practices related to pay-to-win microtransactions and loot boxes, among other things. It's not clear why Hawley is asking for these studies to be held after his bill is theoretically enacted and not before it.The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act's co-sponsors released statements in support of the bill to The Verge. Markey said, "Inherently manipulative game features that take advantage of kids and turn play time into pay time should be out of bounds." Blumenthal commented, "Congress must send a clear warning to app developers and tech companies: Children are not cash cows to exploit for profit."For its part, the ESA has said it opposes Hawley's bill. The trade group, which represents the video game industry's interests in Washington D.C. and also runs E3 every year, is in business to protect and support its members. A lawmaker from Hawaii who also targeted loot boxes told GameSpot that the ESA sent lobbyists to Hawaii to try to kill his bill. In response to Hawley's bill, the ESA said in a statement to PC Gamer that countries like Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have also determined that "loot boxes do not constitute gambling.""We look forward to sharing with the senator the tools and information the industry already provides that keeps the control of in-game spending in parents' hands. Parents already have the ability to limit or prohibit in-game purchases with easy to use parental controls," the ESA said.An Uphill BattleResearch firm Cowen & Company released a note to investors about Hawley's proposal. The overwhelming majority of bills that are proposed never pass in US Congress, and Cowen & Company said Hawley's bill is no exception in that it faces an uphill battle.Analyst Doug Creutz says Hawley's bill represents a "far more serious, existential-level threat" to gaming, and specifically mobile gaming, because it also focuses on pay-to-win mechanics in addition to loot boxes.As for why Hawley's bill might run into trouble, Cowen & Company acknowledged that Hawley is an outlier among Republicans in that most Republicans are pro-business and regularly oppose regulation on technology companies. Not only that, but Congress is "barely functioning" in 2019, with lawmakers focusing more on "must-pass legislation" that keeps the government open."Loot boxes have very little mind share in Congress," Cowen & Company said.The firm also said Hawley's bill might face a roadblock because the Supreme Court already decided in 2011 that video games are protected as free speech under the First Amendment. As such, some lawmakers might not want to be involved in a committee about loot boxes and microtransactions, Cowen & Company said. One of the new bill's co-sponsors, Richard Blumenthal, supported the bill that sought to ban the sale of violent video games to minors which was eventually struck down.The next step for Hawley's bill would be to head to a Congressional hearing. No hearing is currently scheduled, which may not bode well for the bill. However, Cowen & Company noted that Markey and Blumenthal coming on as co-sponsors gives the bill more chances at getting a hearing. Hawley, a freshman Senator and the youngest US Senator at age 39, sits on the Judiciary Committee and he might ask chairman Lindsey Graham for a hearing, Cowen & Company said.Another issue at play is that the FTC already announced it is holding a hearing on August 7 to dig into loot boxes. Democratic lawmaker Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire) requested this hearing, though despite that, she did not become a co-sponsor of Hawley's bill.Overall, Cowen & Company says the video game industry should take Hawley's bill seriously, even though it also believes the legislation is not a near-term concern. You can read the full text of the Protecting Children From Abusive Games Act here.Read next: Nintendo Is Removing Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem Mobile Games In Belgium Amid Loot Box ConcernsInfo from Gamespot.com

Lucasfilm might be developing a movie based on the 2003 BioWare RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. According to BuzzFeed, Lucasfilm has hired Altered Carbon creator Laeta Kalogridis--who also wrote the scripts for Shutter Island and Alita: Battle Angle--to pen the script. Kalogridis also produced the box office juggernaut Avatar, which is the highest-grossing movie in history (at least for now).Knights of the Old Republic takes place 4,000 years before the events of the Star Wars prequels and centers around the clash between the Sith and Republic. It's one of the more highly regarded Star Wars games ever released.News that Lucasfilm is developing a Knights of the Old Republic movie is not a surprise. At Star Wars Celebration in April, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the studio talks about making a Knights of the Old Republic movie "all the time." Kennedy straight-up confirmed at the time that a Knights of the Old Republic film would at least be considered. "Yes, we are developing something to look at," she told MTV News at the time.According to BuzzFeed, Kalogridis is "close" to finishing the initial draft of her script for Knights of the Old Republic, which could be a trilogy. Three anonymous sources told this to BuzzFeed.Kalogridis would become the first woman to script a Star Wars movie since 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, which was co-written by Leigh Brackett.If the Knights of the Old Republic movie is indeed real, it is not coming anytime soon. The next Star Wars movie is 2022's film from Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. (The duo are working on a series of Star Wars movies, as is The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson.) BuzzFeed's report notes that Kalogridis has not yet submitted the Knights of the Old Republic movie script's first draft, so it could be a very long time before the movie gets made (if it ever does). There is no word as of yet regarding who will direct or star in the film, or when it may be released.Whatever the case, Knights of the Old Republic is a fan-favorite Star Wars game rich with storytelling opportunities, so it's exciting to think about what could happen.#Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy talked to us about the future of #StarWars – including a Knights of the Old Republic movie and female filmmakers taking the helm, as well as Palpatine’s surprise return in the trailer for @StarWars #EpisodeIX pic.twitter.com/HCjEhdlRv7 — MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) April 16, 2019The next Star Wars film is this December's The Rise of Skywalker, which concludes the new trilogy that began with 2015's The Force Awakens. It also wraps up the entire Skywalker Saga that started back in 1977, so it is truly the end of an era. The first images from the film recently emerged, and they showcase some brand-new characters.Info from Gamespot.com