E3 2019 is just a few weeks away. Surprisingly, Activision hasn't announced the name of the Call of Duty it will show off during E3, something the company traditionally does prior to the show in mid- to late May. But we do know Activision will be showcasing 2019's Call of Duty at E3, whatever it may be.So far, Call of Duty is all Activision has planned for E3. Granted, the company doesn't need to announce anything else. Clues have been hinting that the upcoming Call of Duty will be Modern Warfare 4, a sequel to one of the franchise's most popular series. If that's all Activision has for E3 2019, that'll be enough.Activision has no scheduled E3 press conference, so the next Call of Duty will most likely premiere outside of any show. Sony won't be holding a press conference during E3 this year, and they're usually the one to host Call of Duty announcements.Activision does have a few more games scheduled for 2019: Crash Team Racing and Call of Duty: Mobile. However, neither has been confirmed for E3. They could be shown off, though. We don't know too much about 2019's Call of Duty. Even its name is still unknown. Infinity Ward has been confirmed as the developer behind the new game though. Five former Infinity Ward developers--most of which went on to work with Respawn on Titanfall and Titanfall 2 after finishing Modern Warfare 3--have returned to the studio to work on the new Call of Duty. Unlike last year's Black Ops 4, 2019's Call of Duty will have a traditional single-player campaign. Activision has confirmed 2019's Call of Duty will have a "huge expansive multiplayer world" and "fun co-op gameplay," but did not clarify any further. The game is already in a playable state.The one and only Activision game confirmed for E3 2019 has been listed below. If additional Activision titles are announced prior to or during E3, we'll update the list.All Activision Games Confirmed For E3 2019Call of Duty 2019Info from Gamespot.com

Twilight and Harry Potter actor Robert Pattinson could be the next Batman. Variety reports that Pattinson will play the Caped Crusader in the new standalone film, The Batman, which is releasing in June 2021. The film is directed by Matt Reeves, who made the latest Planet of the Apes movies.Deadline, however, reports that the deal isn't done yet. X-Men actor Nicholas Hoult is also reportedly a top choice to play Batman in the film. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. likes both actors, but Pattinson is the No. 1 choice at this stage.The Hollywood Reporter also weighed in. Their sources said Armie Hammer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were also considered for the role of Batman in the movie.Pattinson or Hoult will take over as Batman from Ben Affleck, who played the character in Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League. At 29, Hoult would be the youngest-ever actor to play Batman. As would Pattinson at age 32. Other actors to have donned the cowl include Christian Bale, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, and Michael Keaton, among others."Warner Bros., in giving Reeves plenty of time to develop the script, is hoping the latest iteration of the DC icon is done right, following the disappointments of Batman v Superman and Justice League," according to Variety.Sources told Variety that filming might begin on The Batman later this year or early 2020.The Batman would be Pattinson's latest project with Warner Bros. He's also set to appear in Christopher Nolan's untitled "event movie" that's coming out in July 2020.Affleck--who won Oscars for Good Will Hunting and Argo--was initially attached to write, direct, and star in a new Batman movie called The Batman. However, he eventually dropped out. Explaining his decision to leave, Affleck told Jimmy Kimmel that he "couldn't crack it."Info from Gamespot.com

In 2017, actress Michelle Rodriguez said she might quit the Fast & Furious franchise if the producers do not "show some love to the women" for the franchise going forward. Now, she's decided to come back for Fast & Furious 9 because the producers hired a female writer. Speaking to Bloomberg, Rodriguez said about the Fast & Furious series, "I felt like there was not enough of a female voice in the franchise." Rodriguez said Universal Pictures executive Donna Langley agreed that the Fast & Furious franchise needed to do better, and it was decided to hire a female writer. "If I'm coming back, I really want there to be a female writer to give it a female voice. And finally, they showed me some love, and said yeah!" Rodriguez recalled.The actress went on to say that she was tired of having to re-write lines that men wrote for her to say on the Fast & Furious series. Rodriguez didn't say who the female writer joining Fast & Furious 9 is, but that information should become known in due time.Rodriguez and Vin Diesel are the only remaining members of the Fast & Furious original cast still involved in the series, so it would have been a big deal if she left. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2017, Rodriguez talked about the "male-dominated environment" that she works in for the Fast & Furious series. "My heart doesn't feel right doing this in front of millions of people, so I can always oblige myself and depart because money, to me, isn't as important as my lines that you're not allowed to cross," she said.The next Fast & Furious movie is the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw starring The Rock and Jason Statham. Fast & Furious 9 with Michelle Rodriguez is slated for 2020.Info from Gamespot.com

Since 2010, developer Quantic Dream only released games for the PlayStation family of consoles. But that's changing this year when the studio launches Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human on PC through the Epic Games Store.The French studio has now confirmed release dates for each title. Heavy Rain will debut first on June 24 for $20 USD. Beyond: Two Souls will follow on July 22 for $20 USD, with Detroit: Become Human, the newest release, launching sometime this Fall 2019 for $40 USD.Each title will also have a "sizeable" free demo available about a month before the full release. Here is the full release schedule:Heavy Rain Demo: May 24Full Release: June 24Beyond: Two SoulsDemo: June 27Full Release: July 22Detroit: Become HumanDemo: SummerFull Release: FallEach title is available to pre-order now on the Epic Games Store. The titles will be released on other digital PC stores later, but no official announcements have been made at this point.Quantic is going through big changes. Though it was never owned by Sony, the company exclusively released its games on Sony machines since 2010 with Heavy Rain. Now, the company is working on a new IP that will come to multiple platforms, while it's taken on NetEase as a minority stakeholder to help fund its "future technologies.""We are so grateful for twelve fantastic years of collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment and all they have allowed us to create and produce," Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said in a statement. "With this new partnership with Epic, we can now expand our products to a wider fan base and allow PC players to enjoy our titles."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

World of Warcraft's latest expansion has been raging on, with regular story events and content updates that tell the ongoing story of the Battle of Azeroth. Blizzard has now detailed the second major update, Rise of Azshara, which will take players to the hidden city of Nazjatar to face Azshara herself, along with the new city of Mechagon where gnomes have begun replacing themselves with cold machinery.This expansion continues the story of Battle for Azeroth and focuses heavily on a wide array of character customization options. From the new Heart of Azeroth and Essences menu to a punchcard with sockets to greater flexibility for your mounts, Rise of Azshara is squarely focused on giving high-level players a greater degree of control. GameSpot spoke with technical director Frank Kowalkowski and senior game designer Jeremy Feasel about the ongoing story, the mechanical flexibility, and more.Rise of Azshara continues the ongoing story of a massive war, but a new story trailer makes the focus much more personal. It features Thrall, attempting to live a peaceful life and discovering this is no longer possible. Feasel says that in the midst of this large conflict, the studio wanted to take a moment to pause and reconnect with these larger-than-life characters."One of the things we wanted to do was bring the storyline back home, back to family, back to the individual characters and races that make up Azeroth," Feasel said. "What are our faction leaders doing and what do they think about the state of the world? We check in with them periodically, but how do they feel about the actual war? It gives a chance to ground ourselves again, and remind ourselves what we are fighting for and who we're fighting for."While the story's conclusion isn't in sight yet for players, Blizzard already knows where all of this is eventually leading and even how it will lead to the next major story event. Part of that simply comes down to the long lead time for developing new areas, mechanics, and equipment."It takes some time to develop content so we need to know where the story is going," Kowalkowski said. "We definitely know where this arc is going. We definitely know how that is going to dovetail."Blizzard hopes that the story hooks and new mechanics, as well as checking in with beloved characters, it will sustain the game's success. The studio stopped reporting active subscribers in 2015, and the rise of other online games and genres like the loot shooter and battle royale mean it is no longer the uncontested king of the social-focused online game."[Players will] drop off for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's hey, I moved or traveled overseas," Kowalkowski said. "I think what we do is try and create the most compelling game that we can. Rise of Azshara is in response to a lot of feedback that we received both internally and externally, in terms of wanting to provide players more agency, more choice."Part of sustaining the game also means welcoming in players who have either lapsed for a long time, or even ones who have never played World of Warcraft before. With so much to do after 15 years, Rise of Azshara attempts to make the on-ramp smoother than ever and to allow players to catch up with their friends who may have already invested hundreds of hours into the game."Something that we are looking at especially with Rise of Azshara is making sure that characters don't lapse at any point upon their leveling scale; they can quickly get up to the point where they're playing with their friends in Nazjatar and Mechagon," Feasel said. "So if you're one of those players who stopped playing around the time the Tides of Vengeance came out, it's going to be easy for you to get your next level up to unlock your first Essence. So you're not lagging severely behind, you can jump in and start playing with them, start gathering essences right away."Essences are one of the deeper customization systems being added in Rise of Azshara. The game also adds punchcards with colored sockets reminiscent of gems. It all has a feeling of familiarity for long-term players, and that comes from wanting to introduce more flexibility."I think all of these things are evolutions of things that we've done before, in a way that makes it feel like you have a lot of different ways to customize your character that is just purely item-level based," Feasel said. "So there's always some way for you to log in and figure out, okay, this is how I want to advance my character today. There's ten different ways for you to do that."Other new additions are quality-of-life adjustments. Mount abilities, for example, let you equip your mount with other special attributes that they don't have by default. The specific example Blizzard cited was the Water Strider, which has the water-walking ability. With the new mount system, you can equip that ability on any mount. The studio was very frank about this as a response to a piece of player frustration, but it took a broader approach than the feedback necessarily required."We are looking at a situation where we heard two things from the community," Kowalkowski said. "One was, I'm sick of using the Water Strider everywhere and at the beginning of every expansion for the first six months. And the other thing, because water walking, felt like it was a very powerful ability at that point. And the response can be, well, we'll just take water walking over with their mount and that was actually one of the things we discussed."When we look at a system like that: how can we give that utility, but also give people what they asked for? I don't want to see the water walking mount all the time. Typically it's a lot of trying to hearing what the players are saying but identify what the problem is and then come up with a solution that's going to address the problem, rather than just hearing the feedback."In terms of both mechanics and lore, the team doesn't show any sign of slowing. World of Warcraft is a hodgepodge of fantasy tropes and heroic conquest, and that flexibility gives the team lots of room to explore. The Battle for Azeroth is deadly serious, but even the Rise of Azshara expansion shows the duality of the world. Azshara's lair is dark and foreboding, while the lost city of Mechagon is often goofy and light-hearted. Blizzard feels this is the strength of its world."I think one of the interesting things about the Warcraft universe--we go to another planet and fight a titan god one day, and then other days you're rescuing pigs in Goldshire," Feasel said. "We can tell very different storylines. We can create very different characters. Probably one of the most fun parts of the making of World of Warcraft is lifting up a character from a nothing side-quest to be something fans really care about and follow and has a Hearthstone card made about her. It's something that we strive toward all the time because there are so many different characters and personalities in the world to draw from. I feel like we're just scratching the surface."Rise of Azshara is scheduled to release this summer. For those who prefer the retro experience, Blizzard also announced World of Warcraft Classic will launch on August 27, with a beta scheduled this week and stress tests throughout the summer. Read our interview with the project leads on bringing WoW Classic back to life, and check out the neat 15th Anniversary Collector's Edition releasing in October.Info from Gamespot.com

Adult Swim's wildly popular animated comedy series Rick and Morty is finally returning. The long-awaited fourth season was given a release date as part of a broader set of announcements from WarnerMedia today. In a brief announcement video, the duo themselves announced Season 4 will premiere in November 2019--although they sound a little unsure about which year it actually is, currently. A specific day was not confirmed, but you can check out the video above featuring the two characters, both of which are voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland.This isn't the first confirmation that more Rick and Morty is on the way. Season 4 was announced some time ago alongside word that the show will be getting a whopping 70 more episodes. Each season so far has been 10 episodes, so the order for 70 more could mean a full seven additional seasons, although that structure has not been confirmed. Regardless, we're essentially assured we have years and years of Rick and Morty ahead of us.It's been a notoriously long wait for each new Rick and Morty season; Season 1 aired from 2013-14, while the most recent episode--the last of Season 3--came in October 2017. Getting through all 70 confirmed episodes won't take decades to complete, though, because the creators have committed to reducing the wait time between seasons. So far each season has been roughly two years apart, and now the wait between fresh episodes should be significantly reduced."I think we'll be able to move a little quicker," co-creator Justin Roiland told GameSpot last year. "We're not going to have these big, long gaps between seasons. We're going to just keep the machine going and schedule staggering vacations for people so we don't burn out. It's going to just be a perpetual production, which is exciting."If you're still catching up on the show, or are already a die-hard fan, be sure to check out our collection of in-depth Rick and Morty breakdowns.This news regarding Rick and Morty was just one of numerous announcements coming from the WarnerMedia 2019 Upfronts. Another big piece of news was that TNT is getting back into the wrestling business, as it will be the home for the upstart AEW. Like Season 4, AEW's weekly show will debut later this year.Info from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft's pirate game, Skull & Bones, has been delayed for a second time. The PS4, Xbox One, and PC game was initially scheduled for a 2018 release, before being delayed to financial year 2019/20. It has now been delayed again to "after 2019/20." Additionally, the game won't be shown at E3 2019, which takes place next month.Ubisoft revealed the news today in an earnings report. The vague "after 2019/20" refers to financial periods, as opposed to calendar years, meaning the earliest Skull & Bones might now launch is April 2020. Explaining the delay, Ubisoft told GameSpot: "For new IPs, it is common to have evolutions of creative vision and this requires more development time."The game's official Twitter account also published a short video talking about the delay and decision to skip E3. Producer Karl Luhe talks about making the game as good as possible and that Ubisoft remains committed to it. The video also features some behind-the-scenes looks at the development of the game. Luhe notes they'll be back "as soon as [they] can" with further updates on the game.We’re going to batten down the hatches and push back on the game’s arrival—this is a challenging news for us all, but it’s what’s needed to make Skull & Bones as awesome as it can be!Our focus remains on quality first and we’re grateful for your undying support ☠️⚔️ pic.twitter.com/ZCt85tY3TG — Skull & Bones (@skullnbonesgame) May 15, 2019The naval combat game was first revealed at E3 2017, and we came away from both that and the following E3's demo feeling excited. The game is being developed by Ubisoft Singapore, the studio that made Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's ship combat sequences.There is also a Skull & Bones TV show on the way. On whether the game's new delay will affect the TV show, Ubisoft told GameSpot "the Skull & Bones TV series has no impact on the development of the game--and vice versa."Ubisoft has quite a lot on the way. Beyond the recently announced Ghost Recon Breakpoint, it's now confirmed it has three unannounced, triple-A games coming early in 2020. It didn't share any details on what those games will be, although it seems likely that we'll learn about at least some of them during Ubisoft's E3 press conference next month.Info from Gamespot.com

Crunchyroll has announced a team up with Twitch Prime to offer more anime-focused rewards for Twitch Prime subscribers. Starting today, 30 days of free Crunchyroll Premium will be offered to all Twitch Prime subscribers. This offer ends on June 16, so act while you can."While we constantly focus on delighting Crunchyroll fans, we also feel it's our responsibility to continue to proliferate the popularity of anime to new audiences," Crunchyroll head of partnerships Eric Berman said in a press release. "We pride ourselves on working with like-minded, fan-focused partners and are excited to offer all Twitch Prime members a free pass to Crunchyroll right in time for the huge spring anime season."You can watch anime on Crunchyroll for free, but having a Premium subscription unlocks certain perks. The best one is getting all new episodes of every simulcast anime about an hour after they air in Japan, which is usually a whole week before non subscribers get it. A subscription removes all ads from every anime on the site as well, and unlocks specific discounts on items in the Crunchyroll Store. You get a 50% discount on home video titles within the first week of their launch, for example, and a 10% discount on apparel.A little over half of the anime we recommended in our eight must-watch Spring 2019 anime series list are on Crunchyroll. Of the eight, the action-packed shonen Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, harem romantic comedy We Never Learn: Bokuben, slice-of-life Hitoribocchi no Marumaruseikatsu, classic remake Fruits Basket, and sports anime Cinderella Nine are all on Crunchyroll.Saga of Tanya the Evil is also on Crunchyroll, so this Twitch Prime deal offers a chance to catch up on the series ahead of the release of the sequel movie. In our Saga of Tanya the Evil - The Movie review, I wrote, "Provided you've watched Season 1 of the anime, [Saga of Tanya the Evil - The Movie] is a satisfying continuation to one person's desperate struggle to one-up a god by ending a worldwide war, only for her to learn the price for her hubris. It introduces far too many characters to keep track of, though, opens on a scene that definitely didn't need to be included, and squanders most of its battles with incessant chit-chat from all those involved. But watching Tanya outsmart her opponents with sadistic glee is enjoyable fun, and her final fight with Mary is the best the anime has ever looked."Anime isn't all you can get with a Twitch Prime subscription. For May 2019, all Twitch Prime subscribers will get five specific PC games for free. You have until May 31 to download them, but once you do, they're yours to keep forever. In order to own a Twitch Prime subscription, you need to be an Amazon Prime member and then link your Amazon account to your Twitch account. Sign up for Twitch Prime »How to link an existing Amazon Prime account to Twitch »Info from Gamespot.com

Nintendo Switch's NES library continues to grow little by little. May's free NES games are now available for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. This month brings three more classics to the hybrid console, as well as a special save state for one of last month's games.Joining the lineup this month are Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr., and Vs. Excitebike, a two-player version of the classic racing game. Rounding out the new games is an SP version of Star Soldier, which was added to Switch's NES library in April. This version starts players off on stage 8 with a powered-up starship.#NES games have been added to Nintendo Entertainment System - #NintendoSwitchOnline! Play as Donkey Kong’s son and rescue your dad in Donkey Kong Jr., race with two-player split screen in VS. Excitebike, and recover your stolen gold bars in Clu Clu Land!https://t.co/6Essu4Gof0 pic.twitter.com/ZusjUWs5jZ — Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 15, 2019The NES library is one of the perks Switch owners get for subscribing to the Nintendo Switch Online service. It launched back in September 2018 with 20 games and has been updated every month since with new titles. In addition to the aforementioned Star Soldier, April brought Punch-Out and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels to the service, while March's additions consisted of Kid Icarus and StarTropics.Individual NSO subscriptions run for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year. If you're interested in trying the service, you can grab a free year of NSO from Twitch Prime. Nintendo also offers a Family Membership, which covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple systems, for US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55. Other benefits for subscribing include the ability to play Switch games online, cloud save data backup for most games, and exclusive offers such as Tetris 99, which is free to download for NSO members.Speaking of Tetris 99, the puzzle game recently received its first paid DLC. It costs $10 and introduces two offline modes, CPU and Marathon. Even those who don't have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription can download the DLC, but you'll need a membership in order to play Tetris 99 online against other players. The game's third Maximus Cup competition also takes place this week, from May 17-19. Players who rack up at least 100 points during that time will unlock a new theme based on the original Game Boy Tetris game.Info from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft is making big plans for the coming year. The company revealed during its latest financial earnings that it still has three more unannounced triple-A games coming within the next fiscal year, teeing up a likely set of E3 2019 reveals. Each of them is slated for release by March 31, 2020.Though the company was relatively quiet in its financial report on plans for these three games, it did drop a few intriguing clues. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during the investor Q&A that each of the games are full-priced releases. The studio also seemed to suggest that the games will be different genres, calling them each "unique experiences" that occupy different spaces in the market. The Q&A also narrowed the release window to Q4, which suggests they'll release between January and March of 2020.The three unannounced games were part of a slate of four games total coming in the fiscal year, one of which was announced last week: Ghost Recon Breakpoint. That game is a followup to Ghost Recon Wildlands, but offers a host of new mechanics and options.Another possible game on Ubisoft's slate could be the next Assassin's Creed, which is rumored to take place in the Viking era. However, that game is said to be coming in 2020, and Assassin's Creed games usually target a fall release, which would put it outside these fiscal year plans. We also learned today that Skull and Bones, the pirate combat game, has been delayed.That leaves at least two games unaccounted for in the next year. Those could include franchises like Watch Dogs or Splinter Cell, experimental one-offs like Steep, or even another partnership with Nintendo like Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Ubisoft says we'll hear more about these games soon, which likely means during Ubisoft's E3 press conference.Info from Gamespot.com

The Xbox Store had a great offering of Xbox One game deals last week, and the digital store is keeping the ball rolling this week with another solid batch of deals. Here are the best discounted games to grab on Xbox One right now:First up is a collection of "Super Saver" deals up to 85% off some Xbox One games, including Tomb Raider's Definitive edition for $6 and Sleeping Dogs' Definitive edition for only $4.49. The complete first season of Life Is Strange is available for only $4, and you can grab Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for $4.50.Golden Week may have ended, but you can still find deals on Japanese-developed games for Xbox One. SoulCalibur VI, which released last October, is 67% off right now; you can pick it up for $19.80. Final Fantasy XV's Royal edition is marked down to $25 from $50; Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is now $15 instead of $60; and Valkyria Chronicles 4 is discounted to $30 from $60.May 17 marks 10 years since block-building phenomenon Minecraft was released, and as one of Microsoft's biggest games, the store is celebrating with a sale. The base game was recently added to Xbox Game Pass, where members can play it for free. As a bonus, you can get three months of Xbox Game Pass for only $1 right now. For non-members, Minecraft's standard edition is on sale for $10. The Minecraft Starter Collection, which includes the Greek Mythology Mash-up, Texture Pack, two skin packs, and 700 Minecoins, is discounted to $20 from $30. Meanwhile, the Master Collection, which includes the base game, 1,000 Minecoins, the Starter Pack DLC, and Creators Pack DLC, is available for $40 instead of $50.As usual, these deals are available through next Monday, May 20 (with the exception of the Minecraft deals, which run through the following Thursday, May 23).SHOP THIS WEEK'S XBOX ONE DEALS »See some of the best game deals below, and visit the Microsoft Store to see everything available at a discount this week.Aven Colony -- $9.89Battle Chasers: Nightwar -- $7.49Dead or Alive 6 -- $48Deus Ex: Mankind Divided -- $4.50Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 -- $15Everspace -- $7.49Final Fantasy XV - Royal Edition -- $25Final Fantasy XV Season Pass -- $7.50For Honor -- $10Get Even -- $7.49Life Is Strange 2: Episode 1 -- $4Life Is Strange - Complete First Season -- $4Minecraft -- $10Minecraft: Starter Collection -- $20Minecraft: Master Collection -- $40Murdered: Soul Suspect -- $3My Hero One's Justice -- $30Octahedron -- $6.49Rayman Legends -- $5Shenmue I & II -- $19.49SoulCalibur VI -- $19.80Steep -- $9.90Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition -- $4.49Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition -- $6Valkyria Chronicles 4 -- $30Info from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft has released the full patch notes for the latest update to The Division 2, Title Update 3. The major piece of content included in the update is Operation Dark Hours, The Division 2's first raid, but new features, apparel, and quality-of-life changes are included in Title Update 3 as well.Operation Dark Hours is an eight-player raid available for those who've reached World Tier 5 and defeated Tidal Basin. The raid sends you and your team up again the Black Tusks, who have taken over the Washington National Airport. "Teamwork, collaboration, and adaptation will be necessary to defeat the Black Tusk," The Division 2 community manager Johan LindholmMore wrote in the Title Update 3 patch notes. Operation Dark Hours is scheduled to go live tomorrow, May 16 at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM BST.Ubisoft has announced that the first teams to complete Operation Dark Hours first will receive limited-time prizes. The very first team will have their team photo displayed in The Division 2's White House for all other players to see. Any team that completes the raid between May 16-23 will receive a cosmetic arm patch. If you can't pull together an eight-person team in time--which is a likely possibility considering the raid won't have matchmaking--you'll still be rewarded with a clan banner icon and a trophy just for completing the raid at any point in the future.For Year 1 Pass owners, Title Update 3 adds the first two Classified Assignment missions. Completing them allows you to hear the stories behind the fall of DC prior to the start of The Division 2's campaign and also unlock backpack trophies. Title Update 3 also includes The Division 2's second Apparel event, which adds new outfits, masks, emotes, and weapon skins to the game.The full patch notes for Title Update 3 can be viewed in the link above. We've gone ahead and listed the highlights below. The Division 2 is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.The Division 2 Title Update 3 Patch NotesCommendationsAdded new Commendations for Operation Dark Hours. Removed the following Commendations.28 Days Distinction - Record 672 hours (28 days) of time in-game.Distinguished Service Ribbon – For 30 consecutive days, on each day play for at least 1h and complete 1 mission.Supreme Response Distinction - For 7 consecutive days, on each day complete 4 main missions and rescue 5 civilians.Year One Merit - Play on 14 days per month, on a total of 12 months.Division Service Merit - For a total of 100 days, on each day play for at least 1hour and deliver 20 resources to control points.Developer comment: We removed these Commendations as we felt that they were not delivering a great experience for players. Often times you could miss out on your daily login or lose your streak with no error of your own. We’re adding different Commendations that still let you show off your dedication towards the game, without the login requirements. For those players that have already earned the above-mentioned Commendations they will remain visible as completed.Added a new vanity patch reward for all players as compensation for any lost time due to the above changes.Added five new Commendations Full Deck Distinction – Acquire all Snitch Cards.Distinguished Service Distinction – Complete 30 hours of service.Supreme Response Distinction – Complete all main missions and Strongholds on Hard difficulty (or above).Control Point Takeover Merit – Take over 50 Heroic Control Points.Invasion Service Merit – Complete 10 Invaded Strongholds.Changed Peacock Award to specifically use the ‘Jumping Jacks’ emote.Changed Mission Discovery Merit Commendations to track when a player collects loot from loot boxes, not opening the loot boxes. This will ensure that all players that are in a group can earn this Commendation when playing the respective missions.CraftingIncreased the base cap for Receiver Components and Protective Fabric crafting materials by 200, meaning that their caps now start at 350 and end at 600 with all material capacity perks.Inaya al-Khaliq in the Base of Operation is now a Crafting Vendor, she can be found next to the Crafting Bench in the White House. Added Specialized and Superior Skill Mod Blueprints to her stock.Added an extra weekly Blueprint to her stock.Moved crafting Blueprints from the Base of Operations vendor to her stock.Note: While Inaya will have a variety of Blueprints available, there are still other sources in the game like Settlements and Control Points.All exotic items upgraded through crafting will get the maximum Gear Score of the current crafting bench tier.GearBonus Armor granted on blue attributes gear significantly increased.Armor percent can now be found as Defense Attribute rolls.Health percent can now be found as Defense Attribute rolls.Gear sets Hard Wired Now grants Skill Damage instead of Shock Duration.Ongoing Directive Now grants special ammunition into any weapon, including the weapon currently equipped.Now grants special ammunition on any kill, not just weapon kills.True Patriot Decreased debuff cycle from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.Increased damage dealt to nearby targets when Full Flag is active to 50%.IconsThe Confidential Gear Set intel item now has a project icon to better reflect its use.LootLoot containers will now reset at a preset time of day. Control Point reward container will now also reset with this daily timer.Improved quality and quantity of Drone Helicopter loot.Slightly reduced the quality of items from Clan Caches.Cabinet loot containers now have a chance to contain Dark Zone keys.Increased ammunition drop chance from enemy NPCs to limit situations where players would run out of ammunition during prolonged fights on higher difficulty activities.Dark Zone contaminated loot does not drop below player's average Gear Score and will guarantee Gear Score 500 when the player has reached 500 Gear Score.Heroic difficulty Mission bosses, Stronghold bosses, Bounty bosses and Heroic Control Points reward containers will guarantee Gear Score 500 when the player has reached 500 Gear Score.Loot now skews more towards the top end of its allowed Gear Score, resulting in fewer items below a player's average Gear Score, and items that do drop below it will be closer to that average more often.Increased the rewards for daily Hard and Challenge mission Projects and they will guarantee Gear Score 500 when the player has reached 500 Gear Score.MissionsNew feature: Post Mission Activity Summary After completing missions, players may opt to look at an activity summary showcasing their performance in that activity and allowing an expanded look at a variety of detailed statistics.Bank Headquarters Reduced difficulty for solo players.Roosevelt Island Reduced difficulty for solo players.ModsHive users can now find +healing on the Experimental Blend mods.Hive users can now find +radius on the Network Firewall mods.New mods: Auxiliary Skill BatteryAuxiliary Skill Batteries fit in Skill mod slots and grant Skill Power.NPCUpdated RC Blade to fix various issues. Elite Medic's Pulse Grenade has been changed.No longer applies disrupt.Reduced Impact radius.The grenade impact radius should now be easier to see.Decreased damage of Veteran, Elite and Named NPCs.Greatly decreased melee damage of all Tank NPCs.Moderately decreased melee damage of all non-Tank NPCs.Decreased Thrower NPC’s accuracy with grenades. They are no longer professional baseball pitchers or cricket fielders.Slightly decreased damage of Elite/Named War Hound.Civilian Control Point Officers now wear pants.Civilian Control Point Officers now wear protective body armor. Safety first.Civilians with fully upgraded Settlements now wear combat harnesses and have slightly more health.Upgrading a Settlement now slightly increased Civilians' damage.NPCs will now be slightly less defensive while in cover and being aimed at by a player.Decreased likelihood of NPCs using ladders in combat.Decreased likelihood of NPCs using special navigation out of combat.Civilian NPCs will now stay further away from players in cover, lessening the chance of them taking a player’s preferred cover location. We get it, you're very protective of your favorite cover spot.Civilian Hostages are now more protective of their lives.Fixed issue with many explosives causing extreme amounts of threat, confusing NPCs.Fixed various sliding issues with NPCs following recovery from a Status Effect.Enemy NPCs should no longer be able to stagger players with a melee attack if the player has a Ballistic Shield equipped.Drone Helicopter Increased health.Increased damage.Improved movement.Decreased Outcast Suicide vest explosion radius.Lowered NPC damage and health above normal difficulty.Increased variety of NPCs at higher difficulty levels.Open WorldImplemented various UI and audio improvements to Living World activities.Control Points Control Point difficulty is now more clearly communicated, using regular difficulty names in addition to Alert Level.Approaching enemy patrols and convoys are now signaled more clearly during Control Point Takeover.The Civilian Officer will now revive downed players during Control Point takeover and judge you silently.Players can now select the civilian takeover icon on the map as a respawn option during Control Point takeover. The option is disabled after the enemy leader joins the fight.Players can now fast travel to civilian convoys and takeover squads from the map.Black Tusk now send War Hound Convoys carrying gear and weapons to Tidal Basin when the mission is available.Info from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft is planning to increase the pace of its content updates for its upcoming slate of games. Asked if content drops are rapid enough to compete with Fortnite during an investor Q&A, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company is ramping up its efforts. He specifically named Rainbow Six Siege and the upcoming Ghost Recon Breakpoint as examples, but signaled this is a broader strategy going forward."It is something we have been working on in the last 24 months. Our teams are getting organized to come more regularly with content and lots of our games are going to come with drops of content and events on a more regular basis," Guillemot said. "Rainbow Six is increasing its content drop speed a lot already and you will see that this year. Ghost Recon Breakpoint will see content drops on a regular basis because they will also have the PVP, the co-op, and the campaign."So you can expect all the products, and not only Rainbow Six, having content drops regularly. It’s the new trend now in the industry and those drops are making lots of people come back to the games and also spend money in them."Guillemot didn't go into further detail, but that may be that some of Ubisoft's release plans are still under wraps. The financial statements and investor call also revealed three more triple-A games are in development, all releasing by March 31, 2020. Those are said to represent a broad range of game types, as Ubisoft said they're each "unique experiences." Ubisoft also announced that its pirate ship combat game, Skull and Bones, is delayed past the March of 2020 and won't be shown at E3.Rainbow Six Siege is known for making a dramatic turnaround with live content after a somewhat rocky launch. Ghost Recon Breakpoint appears to be adopting the strategy of regular content updates as well, after Wildlands continued introducing special episodes long after launch. Even single-player games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey have become notable for their wealth of post-launch content.Ubisoft has been shifting towards a live game model for some time, and Guillemot's comments didn't necessarily commit to updating with the frequency of Fortnite. The studio behind Apex Legends, a battle royale competitor with Fortnite, has explicitly stated it isn't aiming for weekly content drops to maintain a healthy studio culture. It isn't clear exactly how frequent Ubisoft intends to update its games, but it will be some degree more than the current pace of Siege.Info from Gamespot.com

The long-awaited conclusion to Game of Thrones is just a few days away. Season 8, Episode 6 premieres this Sunday, May 19, marking the end of both this abbreviated season and the show overall. Following the preview trailer that debuted right after Episode 5, HBO has now released photos from the next episode--but they're a bit different than usual. Spoilers ahead.HBO is usually quite reticent to spoil the upcoming episode with its previews; these aren't exactly modern movie trailers giving away major story beats and moments. The brief Episode 6 teaser kept the specifics to a real minimum, and now the preview photos are doing the same. They don't give away anything that wasn't already in the trailer, and just as notably, HBO has only shared a mere two images, which is far less than we typically see. Clearly, the network wants whatever is coming to be a surprise (although this does nothing to deal with the possibility of leaks, which have been a problem all season long).The first of the two photos features Tyrion, who can be seen standing amongst the rubble in King's Landing. He doesn't look particularly pleased, just as you'd expect; he put his support behind Daenerys and believed in her, and he even put his life at risk to free Jaime in the hopes of preventing a massacre of innocents in the city. Dany opted to go Mad Queen instead, and now Tyrion is faced with having to live with this reality that Varys tried to stop.The second photo matches up with a shot from the preview trailer. Dany, standing victorious on the edges of the burning city, faces away from us with her back to the camera as her army stands in formation all around her. If there was any question about how many troops she had remaining after Episode 3's battle, it looks like she's doing just fine in that regard.Her troops appear to be in full support of her, and we know from the preview trailer that the Dothraki in particular seem pleased with the outcome of the battle. But we still haven't seen Dany's face in Episode 6, or really, since she made her fateful decision to destroy the city. Seeing if she has any remorse will have to wait for this Sunday, though it's too late to undo her actions. Queen of the Ashes might be the best she can hope for at this point.In the meantime, we have Episode 6 theories about where things in the finale and an Episode 5 breakdown. But with the way things have already played out, we know Game of Thrones exists in its darkest timeline.Info from Gamespot.com