The Fantastic Four are a bit of a hot button issue over in the MCU these days, thanks largely to the mysterious Phase 4 and the recent Disney buyout of 20th Century Fox placing the team's film rights back in the potential MCU lineup. But the comics are, thankfully, a different story. After their triumphant return from their extended post-Secret Wars absence, the F4 have been holding down their own ongoing series and reestablishing themselves as Marvel's first family.And there's more on the way. Announced earlier today, Marvel will be publishing a brand-new "special series" centered around the Fantastic Four created by Gerry Dugan and Greg Smallwood called Fantastic Four: Yancy Street. Set within the main continuity of the Marvel Universe and following events laid out in their current ongoing book, Yancy Street will be a chance for the team to explore their own history and relationships with one another as they settle back into their old neighborhood.In the spirit of last year's Web Of Venom special series, Yancy Street will be a series of quarterly specials that afford the team the time and space to deal with some of their classic villains and settings in the spirit of their originators, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. The first issue will feature The Thing pitted against vintage villains, The Terrible Trio.Created back in 1961, the Fantastic Four were Marvel's first official superhero team, pre-dating both the X-Men and the Avengers. A team of scientists and friends exposed to mysterious extra-dimensional radiation that gave them fantastic (get it?) powers, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing remain some of Marvel's most beloved and well-recognized superheroes to this day. Their current ongoing series was launched in 2018.Fantastic Four: Yancy Street #1 hits shelves on August 21. Info from Gamespot.com

Ichigo Animation, a newly-established animation studio under Japanese real estate and clean energy production company Ichigo, has confirmed that it's teaming up with legendary filmmaker Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers) to release a new anime series.Ichigo Animation, founded on April 4 of this year as a subsidiary of Ichigo, will produce Oshii's new series, which is slated to broadcast and stream in spring or early summer of 2020 in Japan, according to Anime News Network. Oshii--who has developed the concept over the past decade--will be credited for the original story and scripting, and will serve as the project's chief director.Oshii is also serving director on an animated film adaptation of Baku Yumemakura's sci-fi series Chimera. However, Chimera currently has no release date, and it's unclear if Ichigo Animation has any involvement with the project.Oshii is most known for the Ghost in the Shell series, most notably directing 1995's Ghost in the Shell, 2004's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (which he also wrote the screenplay for), and 2008's remake Ghost in the Shell 2.0. He also provided the story concept for 2004's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG TV series.In addition to animation, Oshii has contributed to live-action adaptions such as directing and writing Garm Wars: The Last Druid and The Next Generation: Patlabor. He was also a special consultant on 2008's Wii combat flight simulator The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces.Info from Gamespot.com

PS4 first-person shooter The Persistence will receive a free update that removes the necessity to play the game in VR. Dubbed "the Complete Edition," The Persistence will make the jump from the PlayStation VR to "flat screen TVs."Firesprite's game director Stuart Tilley took to the PlayStation Blog to make the announcement. "The Complete Edition is going to be the next free update for everyone that already owns the game," Tilley wrote. "And for the first time ever, this update will make The Persistence playable on what we now fondly call 'flat screen TVs.'" Tilley also discussed a few additional enhancements launching alongside The Persistence: Complete Edition.In the graphics department, The Persistence: Complete Edition will "deliver 4K at 60 frames per second on the PS4 Pro, and 1080p at 60 frames per second on PS4." Lighting and particle effects will also be improved and will include "entirely new technical visual effects such as Motion Blur and Chromatic Aberration."Since The Persistence: Complete Edition can be played without the PSVR, camera animations had to get retooled. According to Tilley, the game's camera will now feature "subtle head movement when moving, and transitions between different poses--such as crouching and standing--are now animated to add a greater sense of situational awareness."Going from controlling in PSVR to controlling on a PS4 controller can be an awkward transition for some, but Tilley and the Firesprite team is looking to address any of these concerns in this free update. "There is also a brand-new way to interact with objects and collect pick-ups." Some weapons, like the Gravity Hook, will have "new ways to fire them when you are playing on your TV."Lastly, along with graphical and camera adjustments, the game's UI will get "updated to make them super intuitive for flat screen displays." There's no word on when The Persistence: Complete Edition will launch, but Tilley did confirm that the "free update is getting close to being complete." The Persistence is out now on PS4.Info from Gamespot.com

It's going to be a great weekend for PC gamers on a budget, as the Epic Store just launched a storewide sale with some incredible deals, and multiple free games are available from various digital stores right now. For exactly zero dollars, you can claim horror anthology Stories Untold from Epic and open-world sports adventure Steep from Ubisoft for a limited time. The latest freebie on our radar is from Humble Bundle--and unlike the previous two deals, you can redeem this one on Steam.Humble is giving away Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition for free for the next few days, and all you have to do is sign up for the store's newsletter. The offer is available until Sunday, May 19 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET or while supplies last, so don't wait too long to claim this deal.GET GUACAMELEE FOR FREE AT HUMBLE »Guacamelee is an excellent Metroidvania-style action-platformer that tells the story of agave farmer Juan Aguacate, who is in love with the mayor's daughter. At the beginning of the game, Juan is killed by evil skeleton Carlos Calaca; however, he's later given a magical luchador mask that allows him to return to the world of the living and fight demonic skeletons in his quest to rescue his true love and save his town.The game earned an impressive 9/10 in GameSpot's Guacamelee review for its charming characters and dialogue, great combat, unique visuals, and masterful balance of drama and comedy. "Even if 2D platformers aren’t your thing, Guacamelee's bound to have something for everyone, whether it's the humor in the writing and world design, the great combat, or even the ability to transform into a chicken," wrote GameSpot's Peter Brown. "It's an excellent ride while it lasts, and with the extra content on board, the PC version is the best way to travel through the troubled town of Pueblucho in style."If you enjoy Guacamelee, consider picking up its equally-superb sequel, Guacamelee 2, which is 60% off at Humble as part of its Spring Sale. The game is only $8 for the next week or so.Info from Gamespot.com

A new set of Season 9 content has arrived in Fortnite. We're now in Week 2 of the new season, and that means there's a new assortment of challenges to complete across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. As usual, clearing this week's tasks will reward you with Battle Stars, which in turn will level your Battle Pass up and unlock the new Season 9 rewards.That's not all you can get by completing challenges, however. Epic has an extra reward in store for players who manage to finish all seven tasks from a given week: a special loading screen. These screens all feature a cool piece of artwork, but the real reason you want to get them is because they hold a clue pointing you to a free item hidden somewhere around the island.In past seasons, completing all the even-number weekly challenges would give you a chance to collect a free Banner, which could be used as a profile icon. However, Epic is doing things a little differently this season. If you finish two weekly sets of challenges, you'll still unlock a special loading screen; however, this one won't point you to a free Banner, but rather a Fortbyte, a new type of collectible introduced this season. Fortbytes resemble small, glowing computer chips, and they can be found by meeting certain criteria, such as completing a certain number of challenges.The reward for completing two weeks' worth of Season 9 challenges is the Neochasers loading screen pictured above. This time, however, the clue isn't hidden within the loading screen itself, but rather its description, which reads, "Last seen at battling at Dino Park outhouse, these two can't be stopped." That's where you'll find Fortbyte #13. Head south of Paradise Palms, near the three dinosaur statues, and find the port-a-potty there. Destroy it to reveal the Fortbyte, which is now all yours for the taking.Unlike previous Utopia challenges, you don't need to unlock the aforementioned loading screen to find this Fortbyte; you simply need to have purchased a Season 9 Battle Pass to collect it, so if you fall into that category, you can go straight to its location and pick it up without completing any of Week 2's challenges. If you still need help finding the chip, we've marked its location on the map below. You can also watch us walk you through the challenge in the video at the top of this guide.If you still need to complete any challenges from earlier in the season, you can find tips for all the trickier ones in our full Fortnite Season 9 challenges guide. And if you want to take a look at all the new cosmetics up for grabs, you can see all of the Fortnite Season 9 Battle Pass rewards in our gallery.Week 2's challenges arrive shortly after the release of Fortnite's 9.01 update, which introduced yet another new weapon to the battle royale game: the tactical assault rifle, a fully automatic gun with a 30-round magazine. However, to make room for it, Epic has vaulted an older weapon: the combat SMG. You can see everything else that's new in the full patch notes on the official Fortnite website.Info from Gamespot.com

E3 2019 is just around the corner. The annual trade show returns on June 11, but before then, a number of the industry's biggest publishers will hold press conferences showcasing some of the new games they have in the pipeline. That includes Bethesda, which confirmed it is hosting its own E3 press conference again this year just a couple of days ahead of the expo proper.This year, Bethesda's press conference takes place on Sunday, June 9, a few hours after Microsoft's E3 Xbox One briefing. The presentation is set to kick off at 5:30 PM PT / 8:30 PM ET (1:30 AM BST on June 10) and will be broadcast online for viewers at home via Bethesda's Twitch channel and other places.As for what we can expect from the conference, Bethesda has been very tight-lipped. During last year's briefing, the publisher unveiled a number of huge titles, including Rage 2, Doom Eternal, The Elder Scrolls VI, and a brand-new property, Starfield. So far the publisher has only confirmed that Doom Eternal will have a presence at this year's conference, but it certainly won't be the only game the company shows off. We know DLC for Rage 2 is on the way, so we may get our first glimpse at that during this year's briefing.However, two titles we can safely rule out are Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI. Last month, Bethesda's Todd Howard confirmed that neither title will be at this year's show. According to the company, last year's reveals were just a "sneak peak" at the technology it's been working on, and that both Starfield and ES6 are still a ways off, so we'll likely need to wait a little longer to get more details about those games.Be sure to check out GameSpot's full coverage of E3 2019 for the latest breaking news. You can also see what all the other publishers have lined up for this year's show in the full E3 conference schedule.All The Bethesda Games Confirmed For E3 2019Doom EternalInfo from Gamespot.com

Total War: Three Kingdoms, the 12th and latest installment in the Total War strategy series, is releasing next Thursday, May 23 on Windows PC, and if you're planning to pick up the game, you might as well save yourself some money. The upcoming game is already marked down to $49.19 at Fanatical as part of its huge May Madness sale, and the digital store is offering GameSpot readers an exclusive promo code that slashes an additional 5% from the price, bringing it down to $46.79 (22% off). That's a solid deal for a brand-new game launching at $60 on Steam and elsewhere. This promo ends at midnight ET / 5 AM BST / 2 PM AET on May 27 (and 9 PM PT on May 26).To claim Total War: Three Kingdoms at that sale price, head to the game's store page on Fanatical, where you'll see it's currently discounted by 18%. Add the game to your cart, and in the right-hand sidebar, enter the promo code TWTKGAMESPOT to see the full discount applied. You'll receive your officially licensed Steam key right after purchase, and you can redeem it on Steam immediately.GET TOTAL WAR: THREE KINGDOMS FOR $46.79 »Besides saving some cash, you'll also earn the Yellow Turban Rebellion DLC for pre-ordering or purchasing during the first week. The DLC includes:A new sub-culture to play as: the Yellow Turban RebellionThree new playable warlords: He Yi, Gong Du, and Huang ShaoNew weapons and armorThree new hero classes: Healer, Scholar, and VeteranNew character skills based on the virtues of Taoism: frugality, compassion, and humilityNew approach to technologyNew unit rosterTotal War: Three Kingdoms is set during the Three Kingdoms period in China, beginning in 190 AD. You'll play as one of 12 legendary warlords, each of whom intends to conquer the entire realm and unite China under their rule. Like other Total War titles, Three Kingdoms is a mix of turn-based strategy and real-time battles between your forces and enemy squadrons. Besides the military aspect, Total War: Three Kingdoms also involves expanding cities, managing population growth, and other strategic elements.The game earned an 8/10 in GameSpot's Total War: Three Kingdoms review. "Three Kingdoms feels like a breath of fresh air," wrote critic Ginny Woo. "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

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