It looks like The Last of Us: Part II might be almost finished. Co-game director Anthony Newman said on Twitter that developer Naughty Dog is looking to hire people to help "close out" the long-awaited PlayStation 4 game. That wording suggests that development might be nearing an end.That being said, the "close out" period for The Last of Us: Part II might not necessarily happen quickly. Still, the fact that the game's co-director is using that terminology suggests the title is indeed at least entering the final phase of development.It's also worth mentioning that Newman never even mentions The Last of Us: Part II in his tweet, though his reference to closing out a project is no doubt related to that title. Naughty Dog has no other announced projects in the works.Naughty Dog vice president Neil Druckmann said back in April that Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson completed their shoots for Joel and Ellie, respectively. He said The Last of Us: Part II contains the "most ambitious cinematic shoot we've ever done."And that’s a wrap on Ellie, Joel, and the most ambitious cinematic shoot we’ve ever done. Tears were shed... #TheLastOfUsPartII pic.twitter.com/mRnlP54u4N — Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) April 18, 2019No release date, or even a release window, has been announced yet for The Last of Us: Part II. The parody website The Onion recently posted a silly story that said the game would launch in 2019, but Naughty Dog responded by saying it would share more information when it's ready. For more on the much-awaited PS4 game, check out everything we know about The Last of Us: Part II.Ordinarily, this would be an exciting time of year for PlayStation fans eager to learn more about what's coming next. However, Sony is not attending E3 2019 in June, so if the company has any news to announced about The Last of Us: Part II or any other projects, it will come elsewhere.The Last of Us: Part II is coming to PS4, but the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PS4 games, so Naughty Dog's title will play on the new system as well.In other news, one of The Last of Us: Part II's designers has joined the new Xbox studio, The Initiative.Info from Gamespot.com

Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 5, "The Bells," featured a shocking twist--and now the key sequence has been edited by a fan with Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" over it.SPOILERS BELOW.In the episode, Daenerys decides to torch King's Landing, even after the city surrendered. The move shocked fans, as the once merciful leader descended into her new role as the Mad Queen. The sequence was horrifying. King's Landing burned by the dragon Drogon, with its innocent inhabitants screaming for their lives and bloodshed abounding. It was terrifying.Now, Reddit has set the storming of King's Landing to Metallica's classic song "For Whom The Bell Tolls," and it works surprisingly well. Besides matching up with the title of the episode, For Whom The Bell Tolls already feels like a battle song with its heavy, building riffs that culminate in a soundtrack that seems fitting for the death and destruction in the show.The line, "Take a look to the sky just before you die / it's the last time you will" also has particular resonance and impact. Have a look:"The Bells" set a new ratings record for Game of Thrones with 18.4 million viewers. The episode was divisive, and for more, you can check out GameSpot's review of Game of Thrones: "The Bells."For more on the latest episode of Game of Thrones, check out our look at 5 new Game of Thrones Season 8 theories from Episode 5, 15 Easter Eggs and references you might have missed, and the meaning of Dany's dragon command.Info from Gamespot.com

The Simpsons has done it again: the show accurately predicted the future, this time in relation to a big Game of Thrones Season 8 twist.GAME OF THRONES SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW.In Episode 5, "The Bells," Daenerys torches King's Landing with her dragon, Drogon; she destroys the city and kills its innocent civilians in a move that few saw coming amid her turn to becoming the Mad Queen.As it turns out, the 2017 Simpsons episode, "The Serfsons," also showed a dragon destroying a city with its fire-breathing skills. The episode was a spoof of sorts of Game of Thrones, and it even featured the voice of Jaime Lannister actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game of Thrones.The Simpsons always find a way to predict these things. #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/plyDQl5U48 — G.T.A ☁️ (@GideonToba) May 14, 2019This is far from the first time The Simpsons has accurately predicted something. A Season 11 episode predicted Donald Trump would become president while a Season 10 episode stated that Disney would buy Fox. These seemingly strange things ended up happening in real life."The Bells" set a new ratings record for Game of Thrones with 18.4 million viewers. The episode was divisive, and for more, you can check out GameSpot's review of Game of Thrones: "The Bells."For more on the latest episode of Game of Thrones, check out our look at 5 new Game of Thrones Season 8 theories from Episode 5, 15 Easter Eggs and references you might have missed, and the meaning of Dany's dragon command.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

At a certain point in Rage 2, you become an unstoppable force, a lone wolf that can take down bandit camps, monsters 10 times your size, and crowds of deformed humanoids with your gratifying, destructive abilities and weapons. Not only does your suite of superpowers make combat a blast, it's the key to developing a satisfying momentum. It's too bad that, more often than not, the game doesn't do enough to keep that momentum going.Rage 2 doesn't waste a lot of time trying to explain to you why things are the way they are. It instead thrusts you into an open world with its fair share of places to go and things to do. In addition to bandits, mutants, and monsters, there's the villainous organization, The Authority, who wiped out your hometown. As the last ranger--elite soldiers with superpowered suits--it's up to you to corral three key leaders by carrying out their missions and finishing Project Dagger, a biological weapon to kill the Authority's seemingly immortal tyrant General Cross. It doesn't really matter who's who, just that you need to destroy those who are hostile. You're only marginally "super" at the start, but the gradual ascent to hero status is rewarding in that you accumulate a roster of devastatingly fun toys.Arks spread across the map unlock powers called nanotrites as well as multi-purpose weapons, and these tools pave the way for dynamic approaches to some intense combat scenarios. Nanotrites can be used in isolation or in sequence, creating a diverse yet easy-to-understand set of abilities that allow you to efficiently rip through enemies. For example, Slam is a strong ground-pound that does area-of-effect damage, and Shatter tears through armor and forcefully sends foes flying backward. Their strong impact is matched by their effectiveness, and when combined with a beefy shotgun or rocket launcher, you create a distinct, destructive flow in combat. It's not unlike nailing down an attack rotation in an RPG and seamlessly swapping firearms for the right situation in an arena shooter.Once you start stringing kills in succession, you can go into overdrive for a temporary boost where you essentially become invulnerable and weapons fire in an even more powerful mode. With all these capabilities in mind, you never have to resort to one individual tactic in fights because you're consistently cycling through all of your extraordinary tools. It's easy to see and feel the parallels with the modern Doom and Wolfenstein games, but Rage 2 distinguishes itself with how much you have at your disposal and how it's all intuitive to use.You constantly evolve your arsenal via extensive upgrade trees. It's not just about enhancing weapon damage or increasing overall health; nanotrites can be made more useful with shorter cooldown timers, bigger target areas, and additional effects. Weapons also have branching perks, and special unlocks called Projects stack even more buffs on top of all your other capabilities. Upgrading all these facets can fundamentally change how you operate during the moment to moment action and open up new, devastating approaches in combat.Rage 2's biggest issue is that it's structurally bare; most of its wasteland is made up of short, fragmented activities that hardly ask much from you and don't lead to anything worthwhile.What Rage 2 is short on, however, are opportunities to put all those abilities to good use. The main campaign structure makes itself clear early on; do a mission for each of three different leaders, fill a trust meter by finishing corresponding side activities, then complete one more mission for each of them before the finale. It doesn't sound like much, because it isn't. Some of these missions make for the game's better moments, but combat sequences wrap up just as you get into a rhythm. And the main questline as a whole comes to an underwhelming head rather quickly.Take a late-game mission, for example. You bust into a base with a massive tank, then blast through rooms of enemies before fighting a beast that takes more than a few shots to kill. But the tank sequence is essentially a thin on-rails drive-by, the rooms of enemies are recycled, and that beast is the same as ones you've fought before. There isn't much surprise or imagination for a campaign mission that's supposed to build toward a conclusion. Only once did the campaign put me in a position to get creative or extensively use my powers, and that was at the final boss.Main missions rarely make use of the vast open world the game has to offer, too. There's a sprawling jungle to the north and wide desert plains in the southwest, and only one main quest takes you to each of those locations. At no stage are you introduced to their central towns, so they really exist for faceless NPCs to tell you about side quest locations, which you can very well find on your own by chasing down question marks that populate your map.Side quests litter Rage 2's expansive wasteland, though it's made up of standard open-world fare, like clearing out a bandit den or pumping a huge mutant full of lead. Although fairly one-note, Convoys add some variety by incorporating car combat. Perhaps the best of the bunch is in taking over recharge stations where you have to fend off waves of increasingly stronger enemies with deadly efficiency--it's the most challenging type of mission as you have to pull out every stop and get creative with your powers and weapons, especially at higher difficulties.Rage 2 also lacks an identifiable charisma, which is disappointing for a post-apocalyptic world. While it makes a good first impression by kicking off with an unhinged, in-your-face attitude, it unfortunately never builds upon it.However, it gets to a point where you wonder why you're taking on all these brief missions. Sure, you get currency and materials for upgrades, but you're just getting them for the sake of it. Rage 2's biggest issue is that it's structurally bare; most of its wasteland is made up of short, fragmented activities that hardly ask much from you and don't lead to anything worthwhile.Rage 2 also lacks an identifiable charisma, which is disappointing for a post-apocalyptic world. While it makes a good first impression by kicking off with an unhinged, in-your-face attitude, it unfortunately never builds upon it. In fact, the narrative devolves into a series of interactions with bland characters that make the storytelling come off as hamfisted. It makes a few attempts at humor which don't land, and the setting's deranged archetypes fall flat. It doesn't let the subpar narrative get in the way for the most part, though stilted dialogue sequences try to bridge the gap between missions.It's as if the game is trying to strike a balance between the nonchalant badassery of Doom and the larger-than-life characterizations of Wolfenstein, and missing the mark on both ends of the spectrum leaves it directionless. As a result, it's hard to care about what you're doing in the world without much intrigue or a sensible thread to weave all your standard open-world activities together.Other minor issues may frustrate you as well, like the constant game-pausing notifications for rewards and progress that interrupt the pacing. For a game all about fast-paced combat, it's truly an odd choice to stop everything to say you completed a mission even as conversations are playing out. Also, dialogue may just cut out completely mid-conversation.I spent some time after finishing the campaign flying the Icarus gyrocopter from side quest to side quest while overlooking the vastness of Rage 2's open world. It's a gruesome wasteland with the potential to be a wide playground of opportunities to flex your robust set of abilities and weapons. And at times, it gave me just that. Yet I couldn't stop thinking about how that potential was left untapped. Open world games sometimes overstay their welcome, and it's odd to see Rage 2 have the exact opposite problem.Rage 2 is at its best when you're given the chance to keep up a gratifying momentum in combat, but struggles to setup the scenarios its combat deserves. It's satisfying in the way clearing out an open-world checklist is, especially because powers are such a joy to use. The disappointment comes from the fact that those activities are rudimentary in nature and the decent ones end well before you get your fill.Info from Gamespot.com

When Darkwood originally launched in early access in 2014, it was an ambitious game that suffered from clunkiness and a lack of identity. In GameSpot's early access review, writer Brett Todd admired its willingness to experiment with aesthetics and rework the concept of permadeath, but couldn't get past the fact that it wasn't quite ready to go on sale. Now, in 2019, Darkwood is an entirely new game.It was inevitable that Darkwood would be compared to similar open-world survival games like the Burtonesque Don't Starve, and from a gameplay standpoint their top-down perspectives and day/night cycles are similar. However, the most recent iteration of this macabre indie game is unwaveringly confident in itself. Darkwood revels in its eponymous darkness--even its daytime cycles are subjected to limited visibility, courtesy of its field-of-vision illumination. The best thing about this is that it doesn't rely on nighttime to be scary. Even at the crack of dawn, venturing too far from your hideout can result in you coming face to face with blood-curdling, satanic sadists hellbent on mauling you to death.The game assimilates a plethora of systems into its makeup, including crafting, bartering, and combat. Although the mechanics are quite complex, Darkwood offers an intense but fair learning curve. While the controls are clearly mapped out on the pause menu, learning how to manipulate some of the game's ostensibly unimportant mechanics can give you a major edge as you progress into its more difficult areas. For example, the game affords you skills in exchange for cooking in ominous ovens. These skills usually only have a minor impact on the game, allowing you to benefit from a daily single-use perk such as running without taking stamina into account. However, these perks come at a cost: For every skill you gain, you must apply a negative effect designed to hinder you for the rest of your playthrough. These are incredibly minor, but in a game as brutally unforgiving as Darkwood, it's essential to level up with caution, which subverts the entire idea of leveling up rapidly in the first place.As a result, opting to favor survivability over gratifyingly quick forward momentum often allows you to live longer in the end--something that's absolutely essential on Darkwood's harder modes, where lives are limited. But even on Normal difficulty, it's important that you recognize that this is an ambiguous world that necessitates experimentation. As the world deteriorates into madness around you, the only way to survive is to adapt alongside decay. Rather than help you, Darkwood's systems affect you in a much more neutral way. I spent a night boarded up in a hideout that was fortified to the teeth with barriers only to be attacked by packs of demonic dogs moments before the saving grace of the sunrise. However, I also happened to survive three nights in a row by hiding inconspicuously in a cramped corner, praying that I wasn't overwhelmed by hordes of red chompers in the twilight.Because you're never truly safe in Darkwood, it's easy to lose track of time. Eventually, days seem to merge into one another, and it becomes startlingly clear that the majority of society has descended into an irreparable state of madness. People live in a perpetually frozen cycle of day and night in which there are only two recurring parts of the same day, repeated eternally. The characters you meet are mostly uninterested in speaking with you, but among the Silent Forest's more amicable residents are an aspiring astronaut named Piotrek, who is attempting to build a rocket ship out of hunks of scrap metal, and a muttering musician who plays dissonant, apocalyptic notes on a broken violin in an effort to win the hand of a woman kept locked in the basement by her older sister--something made all the more horrifying by how poorly he performs. These post-plague virtuosos are at home in Darkwood's chaos, and their chosen vocations reflect the fact that they've already been absorbed by the chaos of this dynamic and disintegrating world. That's one of the most horrifying things about Darkwood: the way in which humanity learns to use madness as an asset in a world without order.That's one of the most horrifying things about Darkwood: the way in which humanity learns to use madness as an asset in a world without order.There are, however, some aspects of Darkwood that indicate the transient nature of life in the forest. At the beginning of the game, you're given the opportunity to euthanize your wounded dog, who sits outside your house whimpering in pain. If you choose not to, the dog transforms into a vicious varmint by the time you return later, ferociously clawing and gnawing at you in a deranged state of mindless violence. Darkwood's narrative is ambiguous at the best of times and is mostly to do with choosing which NPCs to favor in various subplots, but easily-overlooked details like this dog's fate tell disturbing tales of their own. As a result, some subplots only tell part of the story. Other details are intricately interwoven into the environment, and these narrative manifestations and the more ostensible plot points are of equal importance in understanding the world at large.That's what makes Darkwood so brilliantly-suited to console. Although on the surface a keyboard suits the game's mechanics--namely its hotfixed inventory system and the quickfire solutions that are often necessary for survival in the night--there's something much more visceral about playing with analog sticks and haptic feedback. Instead of simply pressing a combination of keys to attack anathemic abominations, you need to use hyper-sensitive camera control to succeed in combat. Dodging is mapped to an analog click, whereas shooting a gun genuinely feels instinctive because enemies close distance at an alarming rate. It's easy to miss point-blank because of a knee-jerk reaction, and it's the fact that you can be punished once and for all for doing so that makes the game all the more hair-raising.What makes Darkwood truly special, though, is its world. At one point in the game, you visit an area simply known as "The Village." Here, a group of deranged denizens worship a gnarled sow, deifying it as "The Mother of all Pigs." Almost everyone in the village has descended into a state of utter insanity, with one of the town’s most domineering residents having developed a gravitation toward chickens after locking up her own sister to save her marrying a chagrined musician. Most of the citizens here immediately associate you with an aura of antipathy, but the fact they live in such an aloof society is horrifying. All around, the world is darkening and fading, and this singular town, serving as a bastion against a descent into savagery, is inevitably lost. Because you, the safe and sound player, get to witness it from an external perspective, The Village's encroaching demise is drastically more affecting. This is the last of the world, and it's due to go out not with a bang, but a whimper.While Darkwood is an absolute marvel in terms of its aesthetics and gameplay--as well as its disarmingly dissonant score--I experienced several bugs that caused me to lose minor progress. In one case, I was trapped behind a disassembled tractor, which forced me to quit to the main menu and restart the game in order to press onward. On top of this, one of the game's areas caused the frame rate to drop so dramatically that playing became a chore. This was easily rectified, again simply requiring a soft reboot, but these glitches are a disappointing nuisance plaguing an otherwise exceptional game. However, these bugs aren't game-breaking. And even though they irritated me, I couldn’t pull myself away from Darkwood, no matter how much its uncanny world made me audibly squeal. Rather than relying on jump scares--although they are present, to a minor degree--Darkwood psychologically unhinges you. You’re consistently lured into a false sense of security as you hole up in an ironclad hideaway before night falls, or when seemingly benevolent NPCs beguile you with promises of collaboration against the hordes of darkness. It’s horror by subversion, because it’s only when you’re safest that you let your guard down--and it’s only when you take that singular breath of respite that you concede to utter susceptibility. There’s nothing quite as scary as momentarily looking away before being drawn back in by a sound cue or a controller vibration. And before you know it, it’s fight or flight, as you fall into the fray of the unforgiving darkness and are forced to compose yourself within a split second or risk losing half your inventory.In Darkwood, there’s an item you can show several NPCs called "photo of a road." What’s interesting about this is that several of these entirely disparate wanderers have the exact same response to this curious snapshot. "Around here," they say, "all roads lead to nowhere." And as Darkwood’s forest is guzzled up by the rapidly encroaching night, roads are no longer places-between-places. Instead, they’re a communal necropolis, waiting for the creatures of the night to tribute more destitute dupes to its earthy, deathly soil.Info from Gamespot.com

While the PS4 and Xbox One may be approaching the end of their life cycles, the Nintendo Switch is still very much just getting started. Nintendo's hybrid console burst onto the market two years ago and has been riding a wave of momentum ever since. As of March 31, the system has sold more than 34 million units worldwide, already overtaking the Nintendo 64's lifetime sales and putting it on pace with those of the company's most successful home console, the Wii.Despite the system's impressive sales, reports have begun to circulate that Nintendo is already working on new iterations of the Switch that will supposedly launch later this year. Nintendo, for its part, has neither confirmed nor denied the rumors, so whether such models exist is still conjecture at this point. That said, Nintendo has a long history of refreshing its consoles every few years, particularly its handhelds, and there's enough evidence to suggest the company will take the same approach with the Switch. With that in mind, let's take a look at everything we know so far about these rumored new Switch models.Table of Contents [hide]How Many New Switch Models Are Coming?What Has Nintendo Said About The New Switch?Will The New Switch Be At E3 2019?How Will The New Switch Be Different?How Many New Switch Models Are Coming?This past March, the Wall Street Journal reported that two new Nintendo Switch models would be released in 2019: a less expensive iteration with pared down features, and an "enhanced" version targeted at "avid" gamers. The following month, Japanese newspaper Nikkei published its own report about a lower-cost Switch, saying that a less expensive version of the system is coming this fall. Nikkei's story didn't touch on the "enhanced" Switch model mentioned in the Wall Street Journal's report, but it did claim that development on a "next-generation" version of the system would begin following the less expensive model.Lending further weight to the rumor, Bloomberg also published a report in April claiming that a cheaper Switch would be released this year. According to the publication, the system will launch as soon as the end of June. However, Bloomberg's report noted that the more powerful Switch model mentioned by the Wall Street Journal was "not in the works;" rather, the current Switch would get some kind of "modest upgrade" this year, although what that entails was not specified. While that likely rules out the possibility of an "enhanced" version of the system being released any time soon, there seems to be enough evidence that a cheaper model is on the way sometime this year.What Has Nintendo Said About The New Switch?Nintendo typically has a policy of not commenting on rumors or speculation, but the company has made general statements in response to the reports about potential new Switch models. During an earnings call last month, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said, "As a general rule, we're always working on new hardware and we will announce it when we are able to sell it." While not an outright denial, Furukawa's response is carefully worded and doesn't rule out the possibility that a new iteration of the Switch could be coming this year.Will The New Switch Be At E3 2019?While new game consoles are traditionally unveiled at E3, it doesn't appear that will be the case with the rumored new Switch. Despite not outright denying the existence of a cheaper model, Nintendo president Furukawa categorically dispelled rumors that a new system would be revealed at the annual trade show, saying the company has "no plans to announce [new hardware] at this year's E3 in June." Still, while Furukawa may have put the breaks on an E3 reveal, his comments leave open the possibility that Nintendo could announce a Switch revision sometime before or after the expo.How Will The New Switch Be Different?While nothing has been confirmed yet, the Wall Street Journal reports the new, less expensive Switch model would be positioned as a "cheaper option for casual gamers." In order to cut costs, Nintendo would reportedly remove certain features, such as controller vibration. Nikkei claims the cheaper Switch is being "designed for portable use," although the system would still be compatible with a dock and playable on a television.According to the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo is viewing the new Switch as a "successor" to its 3DS line, which the company has in recent years marketed as a budget-priced handheld aimed at children. This would seem to further support Nikkei's claim that the system is being designed primarily for handheld play. The reported timing of the system's release would make sense as well, as Nintendo has a number of Switch games on the way this year that will assuredly be big hits among children, including Pokemon Sword and Shield and a new Animal Crossing.Info from Gamespot.com

HBO's popular fantasy show Game of Thrones is almost over. Following the penultimate episode that aired last night (read our review of Episode 5, "The Bells"), the network has now released a trailer for Episode 6, which is the very last one of the entire series. As the trailer above alludes to, the series finale is expected to be a dramatic conclusion to the show that began back in 2011. Episode 5 spoilers follow.As is the norm for these preview trailers, there isn't a whole lot to glean from the footage. We see the reaction shots of characters like Arya and Tyrion (whether to last episode's carnage or something else is unclear), while the Dothraki seem quite happy with their victory. Daenerys, meanwhile, walks through her army, but we only see her from behind, leaving some question about her own reaction to the reality of what she's done. Has she truly embraced the Mad King (or Queen) in her, or will she express any regret over the countless innocents who she killed?There are other matters to wrap up, too, including how Bronn and that crossbow go about trying to get Tyrion to make good on his promise. He's not seen in the trailer, but presumably the mercenary has to pop up at some point, even if it's to get roasted by Drogon.One other point of intrigue that you might not have even noticed while watching Episode 5: Varys's attempt to poison Dany. While the show doesn't make this explicit, a pair of scenes with him suggest he's planning to do so, and just because he's dead doesn't mean his plan died with him. The young girl working in the kitchen is presumably still free, and she could carry it out at some point in the finale. Episode 6 is the 73rd and final episode of Game of Thrones. It's written and directed by Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The episode is 80 minutes long, just like Episode 5.While Game of Thrones is coming to an end, HBO is producing a two-hour documentary called The Last Watch that airs on May 26. In addition, HBO is working on multiple prequel spinoffs, one of which stars Naomi Watts and will begin filming later this year. According to author George R.R. Martin, three of the five prequel series are coming along well.Meanwhile, the actor who played Barristan Selmy on the show claims that Martin has finished the last two A Song of Ice and Fire books, and that he had struck a deal with Benioff and Weiss to wait until the show was done to release them.Read next: Game of Thrones Creators Explain All The Key Scenes From Episode 5 Info from Gamespot.com

Season 8, Episode 5, the penultimate episode of HBO's Game of Thrones, aired last night--and it was dramatic and arguably shocking. As it does for each episode, HBO has now released a cool behind-the-scenes, "Inside the Episode" mini-feature in which showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff break down all the key scenes and moments from Episode 5, which is titled "The Bells." Spoilers follow below.A lot happened in Episode 5, and it's very interesting to hear directly from Weiss and Benioff about the pivotal moments from the episode and how they might impact next week's series finale (for which we've already gotten Episode 6 preview trailer). You'll want to have seen Episode 5 before watching this breakdown. Here you go:Among other things, the two discuss Dany's fateful Mad Queen decision, as well as Jon's morals and the reality of what unfolds in King's Landing, as his and Dany's army ravage the city's occupants. They also talk about finally delivering the long-awaited Cleganebowl, the culmination of Cersei and Jaime's storylines, and more.Varys meeting his end isn't highlighted in this breakdown, which could be because there was so much else to discuss, or because this isn't the end for him. While he's certainly dead, Varys might have been plotting to kill Dany right in front of us--and his plan hasn't necessarily ended just because he got up close and personal with Drogon. Whether that does indeed come into play next week remains to be seen, but it could make for an exciting twist.Next week's Episode 6 is the 73rd and final episode of Game of Thrones. It is 80 minutes long, and given it is the final episode, we may finally learn who wins the throne. For more on Episode 5, check out GameSpot's review of Game of Thrones: "The Bells."Read next: Game Of Thrones Episode 6 TheoriesInfo from Gamespot.com

Season 8, Episode 5, the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, "The Bells," aired last night on HBO. While the action and conclusion to various character arcs were the main focus, football fans had a little something extra to keep an eye out for. The episode featured a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo appearance by NFL superstar QB Aaron Rodgers.Viewers think they spotted Rodgers as a Lannister archer or someone who got torched by a dragon. Here are some screencaps of the supposed cameo in question:So either @AaronRodgers12 was a Lannister archer or that dude that just got burned by himself or both idk. pic.twitter.com/4tnKSKCVKB — Dominic Calandra (@Dom_Calandra) May 13, 2019Incredible performance tonight by Mr @AaronRodgers12 pic.twitter.com/NnETtVWkFi — Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) May 13, 2019Rodgers himself confirmed a while back that he would appear in the fifth episode of Game of Thrones Season 8, so that might indeed be him. His team, the Green Bay Packers, hyped tonight's episode with a tweet of its own suggesting Rodgers would have a cameo, while Rodgers later showed off his outfit from filming his cameo. It seems Rodgers played a person who got lit up by one of Dany's dragons: View this post on InstagramIt was just for a few seconds, but I’ll always be thankful to have been on the penultimate episode of @gameofthrones #crazyepisodetonight #🔥🔥🔥🔥A post shared by Aaron Rodgers (@aaronrodgers12) on May 12, 2019 at 9:44pm PDT Rodgers is just the latest celebrity to have a cameo in Game of Thrones Season 8. Country music star Chris Stapleton and his bandmates played White Walkers in Episode 3. Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff appeared in Episode 4 during the dinner scene.Previous seasons of Game of Thrones have included cameos by musicians like Sigur Ros, members of Mastodon, and Ed Sheeran.Game of Thrones comes to an end with next week's series finale--check out a trailer for Episode 6 here. You can also check out GameSpot's review of Episode 5, "The Bells."Read next: Game of Thrones Creators Explain All The Key Scenes From Episode 5Info from Gamespot.com

From time to time, the Xbox Game Pass library loses titles based on deals Microsoft had in place with publishers, and that's happening again this month. Six titles are leaving Xbox Game Pass on May 15, including two Xbox One games and four backwards-compatible Xbox 360 titles, according to True Achievements.Starting with Xbox One games, the Mega Man Legacy Collection and MotoGP 17 are leaving the Xbox Game Pass library on May 15. The Xbox 360 titles being removed on May 15 include Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Ms. Splosion Man, and Comic Jumper.The official Xbox Game Pass FAQ page states that removed games will become unplayable (but not deleted from your hard drive) so if you're in the middle of any of the titles scheduled for removal, you may want to finish them now.You can buy any of the expiring Xbox Game Pass titles outright for 20 percent off (or more), so that's also something to consider if you're eager to keep playing.While six games are leaving Xbox Game Pass this month, nine are being added, for a net positive of +3 for May. Some of May's additions include Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, The Surge, Lego Batman 3, and Tacoma. Here is the full list of Xbox Game Pass titles for May.Xbox Game Pass Titles Scheduled For Removal On May 15Xbox OneMega Man Legacy CollectionMotoGP 17Xbox 360Comic JumperMrs. Splosion ManStar Wars: The Force UnleashedStar Wars: The Force Unleashed IIInfo from Gamespot.com

The end is near: just one episode of HBO's acclaimed fantasy drama Game of Thrones remains. Sunday brought with it Episode 5, "The Bells," which saw the battle for King's Landing and the Iron Throne take place. It featured numerous significant developments for key characters on the show, while it wrapped up the arcs for others. You can read some backstory on the Mad King/Queen teases we've gotten previously, as well as the lead-up to Cleganebowl. One key scene is getting some additional attention today that you might not have thought much of at the time. At different points, we see Varys chatting with a young child who works in the kitchen and removing his rings. There's reason to believe he might have been planning to poison Dany, something that could come into play during the finale. Read on for our recap and review of the episode, and then check out some new theories and an Episode 6 preview trailer.Game of Thrones is at its best when bad choices have consequences and effect logically follows cause. The Red Wedding was the result of a string of terrible decisions that ended with devastating tragedy, making for one of the show's most impactful events; compare that with Cersei's destruction of the Sept of Baelor (and an entire city block) with zero repercussions over the show's last couple of seasons, which made Game of Thrones' world feel smaller and less realistic in the end.In a short-lived callback to this show's better seasons, Varys paid the price for his uncharacteristic carelessness in Season 8, Episode 5, "The Bells." Like almost every other character on this season of Game of Thrones, the Master of Whispers made bad decision after bad decision in the last couple of episodes. His scheming was remarkably un-Varys-like; "Hey, I'm thinking about doing some treason. Would you like to hear about it?" When Varys burned toward the start of this episode, it felt like just one more choice for Dany that really was no choice at all. But in retrospect, it stings more than most of the deaths this season because of what we learned by the episode's conclusion: Varys was right.Daenerys Targaryen has lived up to the worst parts of her family legacy, burning King's Landing to the ground, street by street, roasting tens of thousands of innocent people, apparently after the battle was all but won. The show and books foreshadowed this possibility countless times, so it isn't exactly out of nowhere. But by cramming Dany's actual transition from Good Queen to Mad Targaryen into just a handful of episodes, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have done the entire series and all its fans a disservice. Even though we knew this was a possibility, it was easy to root for Dany as she clawed her way up from nothing, overcoming abuse, rape, poverty, and countless other hardships to become the champion of the smallfolk, the freer of slaves--the Mother of Dragons and the Breaker of Chains.The fact that all it took for Dany to break bad was the death of a few friends, the loss of two dragons, and some accidental competition from Jon Snow makes all our years rooting for Khaleesi feel a little bit gross in retrospect. Her madness was not buried as deep as we had wanted to believe; this bloodthirsty rampage was just a hair trigger away. But that doesn't feel like a deliberate choice made for the betterment of the narrative; instead, it's clearly the result of a series of shortcuts necessitated by these last two seasons' shortened lengths. Dany's transformation into the Mad Queen starts to feel better-earned if you imagine it taking gradual shape over a couple of full-length seasons (or books).As it is, her actions in this episode don't really make sense. Why torch every street and pointlessly murder thousands of innocent people when she could fly straight to the Red Keep and melt Cersei, the woman who's actually wronged her? Even her father, the infamous Mad King Aerys, didn't go crazy overnight--his insanity was the end result of years of escalating paranoia and violence. Yeah, we know, every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin--but nobody ever said they flip a switch, and that's what we got this season on Game of Thrones.Technically speaking, "The Bells" was a masterpiece of cinematic fantasy television. The Fall of King's Landing might be the best battle of the entire series--the polar opposite of Episode 3's poorly conceived, sloppily edited, largely nonsensical Battle of Winterfell (the fact that both episodes were written by Benioff and Weiss and directed by Miguel Sapochnik has to make you wonder how exactly "The Long Night" went so bad). Dany finally visited fire and blood upon her enemies--and the innocent, as well--and regardless of how unearned it was, it looked absolutely incredible. The brutality and terror of Dany's attack was immediate and shocking in every shot, whether from Jon's perspective as he tried helplessly to intervene, or Arya's as she simply tried to survive (and help a few others get out along the way).And could anyone have possibly envisioned a better Cleganebowl? The Clegane brothers, Hound and Mountain, clashed in mortal combat (and it looked a lot like Mortal Kombat) with a dragon spewing fire from the sky in the background, high above King's Landing, the Red Keep coming down around their heads. Game of Thrones Season 8 has not been the cathartic flood of pay-offs for series-long arcs, foreshadowing, and predictions that many longtime fans deeply wanted, but the fight between Sandor and Gregor actually lived up to the hype. It was perfect, and much-needed, considering where several other character arcs wound up in the end.Jaime going back to Cersei is, to put it mildly, a disappointment. Many fans are likely wondering what the point of his arc was, if it wasn't overcoming his worst instincts and becoming a better person. Everything Jaime has done, all the things he's been through, were for nothing? He experienced maybe the most significant growth of any character in the series just so he could backslide completely and go skulking back to Cersei to die with her in the end?That seemed to be one of the main themes driving Game of Thrones' penultimate episode ever, and thus, driving the series as a whole: Even the best of us can't escape the worst parts of our instincts, our families, and ourselves. Tyrion made the same mistake--trusting his sister, against all odds--over and over, and it cost everything. The Hound went down with his brother--an ending I won't complain about--but thematically, one that could have been avoided. And, of course, there was Daenerys, who actually had a choice--a real choice!--and elected, in that moment, seemingly with the flip of a coin, to tread the darkest path imaginable.Even with everything that's happened, it's not clear how Game of Thrones' final episode will wrap things up. Arya is the one island of hope in the fiery sea of nihilism and cynicism about human nature that Game of Thrones has become. She fought her darkest instincts, and chose life over revenge. If she drives a knife through Daenerys's heart in the end, it won't be because of a personal grudge, or to make way for Jon to seize power. It will be for the greater good, and an ending like that may be the best conclusion we can hope for at this point.Info from Gamespot.com

Update: Sadly, George R.R. Martin has disputed that he's done with the final two books. In a post on his blog, he categorically denied that either of the novels is completed--and, in fact, he says the second of the two, A Dream of Spring, "is not even begun.""It seems absurd to me that I need to state this. The world is round, the Earth revolves around the sun, water is wet... do I need to say that too?" the author wrote. "It boggles me that anyone would believe this story, even for an instant. It makes not a whit of sense. Why would I sit for years on completed novels? Why would my publishers--not just here in the US, but all around the world--ever consent to this? They make millions and millions of dollars every time a new Ice & Fire book comes out, as do I. Delaying makes no sense. Why would HBO want the books delayed? The books help create interest in the show, just as the show creates interest in the books."So... no, the books are not done. HBO did not ask me to delay them. Nor did David & Dan. There is no 'deal' to hold back on the books. I assure you, HBO and David & Dan would both have been thrilled and delighted if The Winds of Winter had been delivered and published four or five years ago… and NO ONE would have been more delighted than me."Original story: Game of Thrones will wrap up in less than a week's time, as Episode 6--the series finale--premieres this Sunday, May 19. There are spin-off shows on the way, but the end of the main show (read our Season 8 Episode 5, "The Bells" review) has left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans. But an alternate way to experience the story may soon be on the way: the final books. A former Game of Thrones actor has claimed that the conclusion to author George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series--upon which Game of Thrones is based--is already written and simply waiting to be published.As flagged on Reddit, Barristan Selmy actor Ian McElhinney made a claim during a panel in April at Epic Con in St. Petersburg, Russia, that will have book fans screaming: Supposedly, Martin has finished the last two books of the series, "The Winds of Winter" and "A Dream of Spring." He just hasn't published them yet due to a deal he struck with those behind HBO's show."I don't know if you know more than me about this, but what I've been told is that George has already written books six and seven," McElhinney said. "And as far as he's concerned, there only are seven books. But he struck an agreement with David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], the showrunners of the series, that he would not publish the final two books until the series has completed. So all goes well, in another month or two, we might get books six and seven, and I'm intrigued to know how Barristan, for instance, ends up going through those final two books."Martin is well-known for taking a long time to complete new entries in his epic--the first book in the series, "A Game of Thrones," was published all the way back in 1996, and the last entry to hit bookshelves, "A Dance of Dragons," didn't come out until 2011. That means it took 15 years for Martin to complete four books; it also means that since Season 1 of Game of Thrones, book fans have only had what's aired on HBO to hold them over as they waited for Martin to catch up.In April, Martin told GameSpot sister site Entertainment Tonight that writing on "The Winds of Winter" has "been going very well lately," but he also reiterated his usual position on when to expect the new book: "It'll be done when it's done." So Martin hasn't hinted that he's sitting on two completed books, just waiting for Game of Thrones to end--but on the other hand, eight years is a long time, and it's definitely possible he could have completed at least one, or maybe even both, in that period, given how long the others took to write.How the books might differ from the TV show is a question a lot of fans want answered. Martin has said he's known all along where the stories were going, and he told Benioff and Weiss what the major beats of the conclusion were years ago. But Martin also told Rolling Stone he wished the series had a few more seasons to wrap everything up, and there are plenty of examples of the show making changes or going in different directions from what's in the books. It's definitely possible things could wind up differently in "A Song of Ice and Fire"--or at least take a different path to the same place. After all, a lot of characters who have died on the show still live in the books, not the least of whom is Barristan Selmy.While Season 8 might be at its end--Episode 6 airs this coming Sunday, May 19--there are potentially more Game of Thrones spin-off shows on the way. Martin recently said three of the five in development are "still moving forward nicely." One, which he previously said might be called The Long Night, starts shooting later this year, while the other two "remain in the script stage, but are edging closer."For more on Season 8 of Game of Thrones, check out Benioff and Weiss explaining the major developments of Episode 5, and then check out some new theories going into Episode 6.Info from Gamespot.com

The topic of "crunch," or developers working long hours to complete milestones, has been much-discussed in the games industry over the years. Now, Swedish developer MachineGames, which develops the new Wolfenstein series for Bethesda, has commented on crunch.In a recent Reddit AMA, production and tech boss John Jennings said the very nature of making games--and specifically "finding what's fun"--is not so simple to model for when it comes to development timelines. He suggested that periods of crunch do occur at MachineGames, but the studio is trying to eliminate crunch, even if that makes life for the studio's management more difficult."As you're a developer I'm sure you know that crunch is a difficult topic," Jennings said in response to a question from a fellow developer. "'Finding what's fun' in games is so hard to schedule and plan for. The labour laws in Sweden are very prescriptive about what's legal but crunch is also something that we're actively working at eliminating from our studio, and I say that genuinely, rather than as some trite PR answer.""We've built a policy over the last 12 month[s] and we're putting in a lot of effort to stick to it, even if that makes life for us in management more difficult from a business perspective sometimes."Jennings did not lay out any of the specifics regarding MachineGames' policy regarding crunch.Before this, the developer of Path of Exile took a hard stance against crunch, with its CEO saying he refuses to require his team to work long hours. This came after reports of the studios behind titles like Fortnite, Mortal Kombat 11, and Red Dead Redemption 2 reportedly pushing developers to work extremely long hours. Recently, the developer of the popular battle royale game Apex Legends said it wants to "avoid crunch that can quickly lead to burnout or worse."The next Wolfenstein title is Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which launches in July for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A $30 USD budget-priced spinoff, the title lets you play as Soph or Jess Blazkowicz, who are B.J. Blazkowicz's twin daughters. There is also an optional co-op mode, which is new for the franchise. Info from Gamespot.com

OPINION: When I first saw Kano's shiny head in Mortal Kombat 1, I hated him. I bloody hated him. He had a bullshit knife projectile, an even more bullshit cannonball roll. And I mean, just look at the guy--he sported a bright white gi, a dumb bandolier (for what?), and a cheap-looking metal mask. I hated the sight of him, especially because he was the one Obviously Bad Guy in the original roster. He was also just straight up the least interesting character. In a game with ninjas and magical projectiles, Kano was just a boring goon with a knife; a waste of space.He didn't get any better in the following 26 years, suffering from some questionable redesigns, like the one where he started wearing a lock of Sonya Blade's hair around his neck like a creep. In Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, instead of being a man of Japanese-American descent, Kano was retconned to be Australian, a supposed nod to the misinterpreted accent of Trevor Goddard's (RIP) cockney version of Kano in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film. This was an interesting decision, but not one that fundamentally changed how unexciting Kano was.Can't spell Kano without "No."UNTIL NOW. In Mortal Kombat 11, a game filled to the brim with objectively top-notch character redesigns, Kano is suddenly ALL ABOUT his Australianness. It's a great move, the perfect move, and what's more, this redesign is executed in an unprecedented, brilliant way. In fact, MK11's Kano is the best and most authentic Australian character in any video game, ever. Yes, even more Australian than Roger, the playable kangaroo in Tekken.There's a depth to his character that goes beyond an imagined upbringing and accent that elevates him far above just a caricature. You can see it in the way he carries himself. The humorous Australianisms, throwaway swears, and casual "mates" that drop naturally into his quips. His more relaxed personality and grounded appearance--he looks like a dad you might meet at a beach BBQ, downing beers with his belly hanging out, embarrassing you in front of your friends with his 70s pornstar moustache and misguided, chauvinistic jokes.Every little detail about Kano in Mortal Kombat 11 is in service of fleshing out his new, amazing personality--no longer just a Crime Dude with a knife, he personifies the mischievous, rowdy, and give-no-shits nature of the best and worst Australian society has to offer (often associated with being a "larrikin," a dated but idealised embodiment of these tropes).It's rounded out with a stellar voiceover job by JB Blanc, who I was convinced was a native Aussie until I looked him up (he played Gustavo Fring's personal surgeon in Breaking Bad!), which sounds genuine without being over-the-top and cartoonish like say, Junkrat in Overwatch (though I love him too). Kano in Mortal Kombat 11 is endlessly entertaining to me--he is the world citizen's Johnny Cage.The quintessential Australian tourist experience. 🇦🇺#MK11 pic.twitter.com/tcFQOyfKa4 — Edmond Tran (@EdmondTran) April 30, 2019I bloody love Kano now. I love how well he represents my country. I love how you can learn so much about Australian culture by simply observing and studying Kano. In fact, I love the details about his character so much that I spent far too much time ignoring my regular work and compiling this handy dossier of Kano-isms to teach you about Australia. Hey look, you've read this far, might as well keep on learning with...Table of Contents [hide]KANO: A CULTURAL GLOSSARYKNIVESBEERSPISSINGSHIRT, NONEKANO, THE NAMESHITS, NONE GIVEN (See also: SELF-DEPRECIATION)CRIMEKANO'S FIGHT QUIPS: EXPLAINEDKANO'S MOVELIST NAMES: EXPLAINEDKANO'S GEAR NAMES: A CRASH COURSE IN CLASSIC AUSTRALIAN ROCKTL;DRKANO: A CULTURAL GLOSSARYKNIVESKano's primary weapons of choice are his signature knives. Now, the obvious connection you might be drawing here is the well-weathered Crocodile Dundee quote ("That's not a knife...") but there's a more modern line to be drawn--Australia's strict gun laws. It is incredibly difficult to own any kind of firearm in this country unless you have a very good and specific reason, as it damn well should be. Kano doesn't have the luxury of bringing goddamn firearms into a fighting tournament like literally all the American fighters, so I imagine he just had to get really good with whatever he could obtain from the shops easily. Sure, he's supposed to be an inter-dimensional arms dealer or something, but according to Baraka in Mortal Kombat 11, all the guns he provided to the Tarkatans were busted anyway so who the hell knows?BEERSOn top of a seemingly infinite supply of knives to throw, Kano also has a seemingly infinite supply of beer to drink. And he drinks. A lot. There's an intro animation where he drinks a beer. There's an outro animation where he drinks a beer. There's a between-rounds animation where he drinks a beer while spacing himself out for the next round. One of Kano's fatalities has him sculling (quickly drinking) a beer, glassing (hitting) his opponent with the bottle, and then waltzing with their corpse like the fun-loving guy he is.Drinking is Kano's most endearing new character trait to me, because of how true to character it is--Australians love to drink. We have one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption in the world. It is a central part of our cultural identity. It's part of our day-to-day. Pubs are places you take your families for lunch. Our oldest living former prime minister is famous for inhaling beers like the best of us, and even has a brew named in his honor. Hell, I had a couple of beers at lunch before writing this. Drinking defines our best times and our worst times--having a laugh, and having a brawl. Kano's drinking behaviors exemplify both.PISSINGKano's default intro animation sees him pissing on the floor before a fight ("Bloke's gotta mark his territory"). It doesn't matter if it's outside in the dirt, in a robotics lab, or on a nice glossy stage. His brutality victory animation also sees him piss on the floor. I mean, I get it--a person who drinks as much as Kano is going to need to piss a lot, and honestly, when you're camping or driving through the rural areas of Australia you'd be forgiven for pissing on the side of the road or by a tree--only about 0.2% of Australia's land mass is urbanised (though 90% of the population occupies that 0.2%, it's wild). Hell, even after a big night of drinking I could understand if you needed to piss in an alley or something, even though it's legally a punishable offence here.But Kano's pissing habits are more likely an indicator of his disregard for the self-seriousness of Mortal Kombat's pageantry, which is definitely an Australian attitude to take. And I just want to make it clear that we don't all piss on the street at every opportunity, okay?SHIRT, NONEKano doesn't wear a shirt in his MK11 default costume. He definitely isn't the most toned fighter on the roster, though he does alright ("Over 50 and still a rippa!"). But it's a dad-bod flaunt more than anything, and like most dads, he's probably reached an age where he doesn't give a shit anyway. Especially when you're in Outer Realm and it's hot. It's hot in Australia, too. Our summers regularly hit over 40 degrees Celcius (104 Fahrenheit), even higher with climate change, so it's not a big deal to see people walk around without shirts. You do what you gotta do, and Kano is a practical guy.KANO, THE NAMEI have no idea where series creators Ed Boon and John Tobias actually got the name "Kano" from. My best guess, via Google, is that "Kano" is a Japanese name that loosely translates to "masculine power", and given that his original nationality was Japanese-American, I guess that checks out. It still checks out in Mortal Kombat 11--Kano is a pretty manly middle-aged white man, after all. But man, Kano works so well as an Aussie-as-hell Australian name.We like to truncate long words in Australia, but not only that, we like to add an "O" to the end of words, too. Avocado? Avo. Liquor store? Bottle-O. Gas (service) station? Servo. Afternoon? Arvo. I could go on forever. With Kano's retconned nationality, I could 100% believe that "Kano" is just an Australian nickname for something longer. What could that be? Kane? Kayden? Caleb? It could be anything. But it works--"Yea mate, Kano's (Kayden's) gone to the servo (gas station) to pick up some durries (cigarettes)".SHITS, NONE GIVEN (See also: SELF-DEPRECIATION)There was a thing in entertainment news recently, where middle-aged American actress Anjelica Houston threw shade at the middle-aged cast of Poms for, what I can gather, doing what she thought was a dumb middle-aged movie idea. Jacqui Weaver, a beloved middle-aged Australian actress who is part of the Poms cast, publically retorted in a separate interview, seemingly without any regard for social etiquette or self-preservation, saying simply, "She can go f*** herself."Australians aren't one to beat around the bush and put up with bullshit. The blasé, single-minded dismissal of pretentiousness, I think, is an endearing cultural trait. Kano does this so many times in his interactions with the rest of Mortal Kombat's high-and-mighty cast of rulers, gods, and narcissists, casually dismissing whatever holier-than-thou shit they might have going on. This sits comfortably together with a self-deprecating lack of awareness, too, for better or worse. Some of my favourites:Noob Saibot: "I am Death's hand!"Kano: "Bugger off, mate"and:Sonya: "I only deal in dead criminals."Kano: "Talkin' out of your clacker (anus), luv."not to mention:Kano: "Why is it we ain't we mates, Raiden?"Raiden: "Perhaps your life of sin and licentiousness"Kano: *pause* "Yea that could be it."CRIMEOkay, so despite his newfound endearing dad energy, Kano is still a dishonest dude by nature. He's a little bit of a sleaze:Kano: "Want to taste Australia's best blood sausage?"Skarlet: "I would rather taste your blood, Kano."Kano: *pause* "Would you settle for me sausage?"...and he's definitely still wickedly unscrupulous, often talking about making shady deals, cutting people open, and delivering heads in boxes. No doubt you've already drawn the "Australia is a criminal colony" conclusion, and look, that's fair. A lot of white Australians are descended from the convicts who arrived from England in the 18th century, but a lot has changed since then.Today, Australia is a massively multicultural nation that is heavily comprised of immigrants and refugees (my family included) from all over the world--Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa--and we're also home to some of the world's oldest indigenous cultures. What I'm saying is that the English criminals we're often associated with are a part of our history rather than our identity. Kano is an exception, rather than a rule to our modern upstanding values. But then again, our current, mostly Anglo government regularly locks up refugee families and children in off-shore detention centres so hey maybe not.And now, a crash course in Australian slang: KANO'S FIGHT QUIPS: EXPLAINED"On Ya Bike!"F*** off, basically. You don't actually need to be referring to someone's physical bicycle for this to work."Best chuck a u-ey!"A u-ey is usually in reference to a u-turn in a car, but also can be used to refer to a 180-degree turn. Again, Kano is basically telling someone to f*** off. Related: doing doughnut in a car is called a "dough-ey"."Nice bit of tucker.""Tucker" means food, but I know very few city people who use that term in casual conversation. Also, Kano eats a lizard while he says this, and I don't know any Australian who has ever eaten a lizard. Does a crocodile count? They taste like chicken."Don't be a bludger.""Bludger" is slang for a lazy person. "Bludging" might also mean skipping out on school or procrastinating. You hear a lot about bludging in this country.(To Cassie Cage) "You sound like a shithouse American tourist."Basically what it sounds like. American tourists are shithouse.(To Baraka) "That's a bonza attitude!""Bonza" means good!(To Kano) "Whaddaya say we split some stubbies?"A "stubby" is a term for a small-sized bottle of beer, as opposed to a "longneck", although the measurements for beer vary by region in Australia.(To Scarlet) "Now your blood's worth bottling.""You're very special", basically, but to be honest I have never heard anyone say this so someone at NetherRealm obviously just Googled "Australian slang" when they ran out of ideas.(To Kotal) "Let's just give it a burl.""Give it a go", basically. We had a former GameSpot employee who said this quite regularly, and for a long time I thought he was just making words up.(To Jax) "We ain't here to f*** spiders"A turn of phrase that means you came here for a specific reason. Not f***ing around, and not spider f***ing, naturally. That's gross.(To Jax, when asked about his first crime) "I was an ankle biter, five or six."Ankle biter is Australian slang for child. Australian children do not actually bite your ankles. Except for maybe that feral kid in Mad Max 2.(To Johnny Cage) "Good luck with that, ya drongo.""Drongo" is Australian slang for "idiot" or "stupid person".(To Liu Kang) "Whatta bunch of dills.""Dill" is also Australian slang for "idiot" or "stupid person".(To Kabal) "Back off, you ungrateful yobbo.""Yobbo" is also Australian slang for "idiot" or "stupid person" (we have heaps), but usually a rude or particularly unsophisticated one.KANO'S MOVELIST NAMES: EXPLAINEDSpewin'"Spewin'" is what you say if you can't believe something happened. I guess it also means "vomiting". The combo string that has this name involves Kano spitting (not vomiting) in his opponent's face so I think "Spewin'" probably refers to the act of surprise here.Fair Suck Of The SavThis is another one I have never heard anyone use seriously, but it basically means "to have a fair go", and the "sav" refers to a sausage, which is a little gross. We also call sausages sandwiches "sangas". They are our national food--a staple at hardware stores, school fetes, and at polling places during government elections.Cut SnakeWhat happens when you cut a snake? It gets angry. "Cut snake means "angry". Don't cut a snake.FIGJAMThis is incorrectly written out in lower case letters in Mortal Kombat 11, but it's actually an acronym for "F*** I'm Good, Just Ask Me", as immortalised in the hip-hop track of the same name by Australian group, Butterfingers.Penal ColonyAustralia was originally founded as a penal colony. Makes sense.Face Like A Dropped PieAnother kind of obvious turn of phrase--what happens when you drop a pie? It gets pretty ugly. Personal-sized meat pies are another iconic Australian food thing. Most people in the world think the idea of meat in a pie is gross. Those people are wrong.KANO'S GEAR NAMES: A CRASH COURSE IN CLASSIC AUSTRALIAN ROCKA number of Kano's equippable eye masks are actually classic Australia rock music references, and I was honestly giddy when I saw some of these mentioned. Not familiar with one of Australia's golden eras of music? Mortal Kombat 11 is a great place to start. Follow those YouTube links for a good time.Hunter KollectorHunters & Collectors, more affectionately known as the "Hunnas", were an 80s pub rock band. Holy Grail is a karaoke classic I remember GameSpot's editor-in-chief belting out on the regular back in the day.Mental and EverythingMental As Anything were a laid-back 80s pop-rock band. They're great, I love them. The Nips Are Getting Bigger is one of their best songs, but it's definitely not the biggest. That accolade goes to...Live It UpLive It Up, which is Mental As Anything's biggest hit. This is an absolute classic. Listen to it now. I think it was in Crocodile Dundee? I haven't actually seen that movie, so I wouldn't know.Midnight Oil MarauderAnother 80s group, Midnight Oil remain one of Australia's most successful political rock bands. Their frontman, Peter Garrett had a long stint as a government minister. He's also well known for his uh, unique dance moves.Bed BurnerBeds Are Burning is Midnight Oil's most famous track, and probably one of the most iconic Australian rock songs of all time. It's a protest song that deals with the ever-present issues of indigenous land rights.Cold ChiseledCold Chisel are yet another beloved 70s/80s Australian pub rock band fronted by Jimmy Barnes, who Americans might know better as the screaming cowboy in the sky in that one video. Their best song, another karaoke classic, is Khe Sanh, which tells the story of a returning Vietnam veteran.Mister Dirty DeedsEveryone knows AC/DC, right? Right. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is what this is a reference to. Good band, good song. Bon Scott was gone too soon.Cruel SensationI want to say that this one is a reference to New Sensation, a song from Aussie 80s rock band INXS. But it could also be a reference to another 80's rock band, The Cruel Sea.Kill.u.tonightSimilarly, I reckon this one is a reference to Need You Tonight by INXS. Another great song. That guitar riff! These are ALL great songs.Eye HooksThis gross reference is likely related to 70s glam-rock band Skyhooks. They had a bunch of hits, but Horror Movie is probably the one that skyrocketed them to success. They're basically Rocky Horror Picture Show, the band.TL;DRI've left out a bunch of things, and there are certainly a few Kano references in Mortal Kombat 11 that don't quite hit the mark. But man, going through all these Kano details makes me so proud to be an Australian, and so happy to see and play as a genuine Australian character. I'm so damn impressed by the effort, commitment, and execution of dad Kano. It definitely feels like there were some bonafide Australians (maybe Queenslanders? There are a higher amount of maroon [state colour] outfits and QLD location references) who worked hard to turn Kano into the lovable bogan (unrefined person) he is in Mortal Kombat 11. That, or some really dedicated Americans did a lot of in-depth research and managed to pull it off with measured grace.Either way, good onya. Kano is the best Australian to ever appear in a video game, and everyone at NetherRealm who had a hand in his redesign or even so much as looked at Kano during development deserves a promotion. That would be bonza (good).Info from Gamespot.com