Ratings might not be as high for The Walking Dead as they once were, but AMC clearly sees the long-running zombie show as one of its most important properties. There are several movies in the works, and last month it was reported that a new Walking Dead spin-off show was in "active development." It has now been confirmed that the spin-off--which would be the third Walking Dead TV series to date--has been picked up for a full season.According to AMC, the new as-yet-untitled Walking Dead show will have a 10-episode first season. Production will begin later this year with a premiere coming in 2020. There aren't many details yet about the plot, but it says the show will "feature two young female protagonists and focus on the first generation to come-of-age in the apocalypse as we know it. Some will become heroes. Some will become villains. In the end, all of them will be changed forever. Grown-up and cemented in their identities, both good and bad."The new show has been created by long-time Walking Dead writer Matt Negrete and Scott Gimple, the franchise's chief content officer. Negrete will also act as showrunner.In a statement, Negrete said: "I'm beyond excited to be a part of this new show set in The Walking Dead universe. Writing and producing for the original series has been the job of a lifetime and I'm honored to be working with Scott and all the fine Dead folks at AMC in this new capacity. I can't wait for the fans of the franchise to see what we've been cooking up!"The new Walking Dead spin-off will join Fear the Walking Dead, which is set during the early months of the zombie apocalypse and premiered in 2015. The fifth season is due later this year.The Walking Dead movies, meanwhile, were announced in November last year and are expected to focus on the character of Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln. Lincoln left the main show at the start of the most recent ninth season, but Gimple confirmed that he will return for the films, along with co-star Pollyanna McIntosh, who plays Jadis. It is unknown when they are likely to be released, but the first movie is expected to start filming this year.Recent audience numbers for The Walking Dead are nowhere near the numbers it enjoyed in 2014, when the Season 5 premiere became the most watched cable show of all time. Nevertheless, it is still the most popular drama on cable, and as The Wrap notes, its audience decline is in line with a fall in cable viewers across the board. Info from Gamespot.com

Apex Legends developer Respawn recently set live, then quickly disabled, a penalty on players who leave a match early. The studio says that while the feature is in the works, it accidentally went up before it was ready, prompting the temporary fix.In an update on the Apex Legends subreddit, community manager Jay Frechette said the studio has been working on the feature, but "it wasn't our intention or plan to have it go live with the [April 4] update." He says the penalty turned on early due to a piece of missing script, and the studio has since fixed it to disable the penalty. He states he doesn't have an ETA for "if or when" it will be released.The 1.1 update included some quality-of-life changes, like allowing you to invite a member of your last squad into your party, and the addition of squad invites to the Friends menu. You can also mute from the Leegends select screen, so altogether it seemed aimed at making the game easier to connect with good teammates and ignore bad ones.Still, the quit early penalty has been one of the most requested features among the community, since revolving around three-person squads means that a single premature exit can be a crippling blow to your team composition. The admission that the team doesn't know if the feature will be implemented at all suggests that it is still weighing the idea, possibly against other ways to deal with team composition issues.Info from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft has released the patch notes for the latest update for The Division 2. The update adds content and implements both balance changes and bug fixes. Perhaps most importantly, the update causes the NPCs in the White House Base of Operations to shout at you less.Thanks to the new update, the Invasion: Battle for DC DLC is now live. The DLC is free for all The Division 2 players. Invasion: Battle for DC adds a new world tier to The Division 2, with a raised gear score cap of 500. The DLC also adds a heroic difficulty, the Tidal Basin faction stronghold, brand-new weekly invaded missions, and three more gear sets--Ongoing Directive, True Patriot, and Hard Wired. The full outline of content coming in the DLC can be found listed on The Division 2's website.The new update adds weapon, mod, and gear overhauls as well. Damage on the MK17 rifle has decreased, while the power of both the LW M4 and LVOA-C RPM has been increased. The Model 700 marksman rifle also sees a damage nerf, while the AA12 shotgun and MG5 light machine gun both get buffed. Skills mods have been overhauled "to give more achievable requirements and more reasonable bonuses," so expect to see a change in almost every bonus and its corresponding requirement.One of the biggest adjustments in this patch involves weapon mods. Ubisoft has reworked a large number of them, and you can check out a full table on Reddit that outlines the new bonuses and (smaller number of penalties) that they now carry.Changes have also been implemented in several player skills too, with most of them aimed at drones. Bombardier drones will no longer get destroyed while climbing up or down a ladder or rope, nor will they crash into obstacles during their bombing phase. The firefly skill, revive hive, sniper turret, and chem launcher have all been updated as well.Dozens of other changes come to The Division 2 in this update. The full patch notes can be found on Reddit. Below, we've outlined the major changes.The Division 2 April 5 Update Major ChangesWeapons, Mods, and GearOverhauled the Weapon mod system, see the table at the end of the patch notes for detailed information.Fixed a wrong long-range damage value for M4 (super 90) and P416. Previously, they could sometimes increase damage over longer ranges instead of the other way around.Rifles Damage on the MK17 rifle reduced by 14%, also corrected this weapon not having a damage falloff over distance.LW M4 damage increased by 5%, RPM increased from 240 to 360.LVOA-C RPM increased from 240 to 380.Marksman Rifles Model 700 damage reduced by 13%.Shotguns AA12 damage increased by 16%.LMGs MG5 damage increased by 12% and fixed reversed falloff, causing the weapon to do more damage over a longer range.Updated initial accuracy on the Sig Sniper MCmillan T1. It should now be much more reliable to shoot as soon as it’s shouldered and the transition to scoped view is over.Reduced the amount of Critical Damage and Headshot Damage that can roll on Gear, including the amount on existing Gear. The actual values will differ depending on the level and quality of the gear it occurs on. This is partially in preparation for another world tier, where we felt these values were already at the limit of what was healthy in WT4.Complete overhaul of skill mods to give more achievable requirements and more reasonable bonuses. A closer equivalence between required skill power and the bonuses granted.Changed the amount of skill power on gear to not increase exponentially with level, but instead more linearly. This results in most skill power values on gear being lower, but in accordance with the lowered requirements.Tweaked the ranges of bonuses to be within acceptable bounds where they had extreme values before due to scaling errors. Most notably radius and ammo/charges values.Players will see both the bonuses and the requirements of almost all skill mods change as a result of this overhaul.In end game, both Superior and High-End skill mods exist to cover the different needs of different builds. They can overlap in power, but High-End mods have a higher maximum roll potential.We are looking at ways to provide lower value/quality mods in end game world tiers in the future to provide a solution to the fact that on very low skill power builds, there would be room for those mods, and currently we are aware that means you have to save mods from your leveling experience.Player SkillsFixed an issue which caused the Bombardier Drone to get destroyed while climbing up/down a ladder or rope.Improved feedback of Bombardier Drone crashing into obstacles during the bombing phase.Fixed an issue with Firefly payload sometimes failing to activate when reaching its target.Fixed an issue where Revive hive would not self-deploy if the agent was busy performing a different action such as using different skill when it triggered.Revamped the Sniper Turret version of the turret skill. It now will automatically target the hostile nearest to the players’ center-of-screen (the same method it uses to pick other turret targets) and will fire at that target when the button is pressed, without a lock-on order needed.If a player aims at a hostile, the sniper turret will attempt to match their aim, allowing precision shots using the sniper turret.An issue where the sniper turret wasn’t correctly getting bonus damage when hitting headshots has been fixed.Revamped the Chem launcher skill platform. Pressing the skill button will now equip the chem launcher similar to swapping to a weapon. The player can aim and shoot with normal weapon controls, as well as run with the skill and blindfire it.Quick deploy at the agents own position is still available for the repair version of the chem launcher, using the same controls as before.Unequipping the Chem launcher can be done using the skill button, the B (XBOX) / Circle (PS4) button or just using the weapon swap controls.Loot & RewardsControl Point reward containers are giving the correct number of items for the corresponding Control Point's defense level. Defense level 4 now awards 5 items instead of 3.Reduced DZ XP gain from Landmarks in Dark Zones.Reduced the quality and power for items dropped in Propaganda Broadcast and one drop of Settlement Blockade activities to be more in line with other open world enemies and activities.Updated XP rewards for low-level player playing in World Tiers to scale with player level.Supply Drop activity loot container items now scale with every consecutive container you open. This includes lowering the reward of the first crate, but results in similar rewards for the activity as a whole.Added 5 Specialized Apparel Cache Keys, awarded with levels 2 – 4. As a thank you for playing, all players that played before April 4 get 5 Specialized Apparel Keys, regardless of their level.Apparel Keys will be coming for those players later next week.Faction Key loot drops from Bounties are now guaranteed and are displayed in the loot preview.Adjusted bounty credit rewards to use scaling values in World Tiers instead of flat values so if a lower level player is playing with a higher-level player, they will receive an amount of credits more appropriate for their level.Changed Skill Unlock rewards to be non-invaded only so that players who co-op with a higher-level friend to play invaded before playing on story won't receive the rewards.Added Apparel cache key fragments to the PvP reward caches.Adjusted the rewards for the street execution activity to give slightly lower quality/source level gear so the rewards are more in line with the difficulty of the activity.Reduced the quality and source level charts used for item drops from the living world activities settlement blockade and Propaganda broadcast to be more in line with other open world drops and the difficulty of the activities.Updated Collectibles set XP reward to scale with player level.Fixed an issue which caused the Drone Helicopter to not use the correct loot table.CraftingIncreased Material cap for Standard and Specialized crafting materials to 400 (with all perks).Increased Material cap for High-End crafting materials to 50.Materials required for crafting weapon mods does not scale as aggressively and has much lower values in endgame.Removed a small increase on materials required for crafting weapon mods after upgrading the crafting bench quality.Changed the upgrade blueprints for exotic weapons Lullaby and Ruthless to not show up on the vendor until you are level 30.Increased the power for the wandering vendor so her inventory has a narrower Gear Score range closer to the top of the World Tier Gear Score Range.Set all exotic upgrade blueprints to award you the upgraded weapon on the max gear score of the current tier.Removed a tiny increase on materials required for crafting weapon mods after upgrading the crafting bench quality.Exotic weapons are now pre-equipped with lore text mods. These mods do not have stats and cannot be equipped elsewhere.TalentsBlind Justice – Modified the Buff that increases damage to your next shot now expires at end of combat and when out of combatFirst Blood - Updated Normalized MMR Talent First Blood Text to correctly explain that the first shot after reloading from empty is the enhanced bullet.Bug FixesFixed an issue that could cause undesired appearance changes to agents after login in or using the barber. Players that have been permanently affected by an appearance change will unfortunately not be changed back with this fix. We want to apologize for any inconvenienced caused by this and we’re looking into options to allow players to fully customize their agent in the future, but we do not have a timeline for this feature.Fixed an issue where the Cluster Seeker Mine could split up more often than intended.Fixed an issue where the Defender Drone could have unlimited uptime.Fixed an issue which prevented players from finishing the Unite cypher riddle.We're confident this is not bugged anymore.Fixed an issue that would cause the Stronghold activation animation to always play when entering the Base of Operations.Fixed several instances of Audio logs not playing automatically when picked up.Fixed an issue that could cause players being unable to finish the Side Mission Worksite Community.Fixed an issue where players were unable to update their crafting bench after reaching a new World Tier.Fixed an issue with NPCs sometimes not reacting properly to cooked grenadesFixed an issue with Hunters not always appropriately despawning if a player flees a combat spaceFixed rare issue where NPCs could get stuck when attempting to melee a player in coverFixed issue with the Explosive Seeker Mine occasionally failing to path to its targetFixed bug where players could fast travel to non-friendly Control PointsFixed bug that made encounters with friendly NPCs requesting resources too rareFixed bug where underground enemies would come to the surface during the dayFixed an issue where players were able to obtain gear with a higher gear score than intended Any owned High-End items will be lowered to Gear Score 500.Any owned Superior items will be lowered to Gear Score 490.Clan caches no longer award items higher than the maximum loot Gear Score.Recalibration still allows Gear Score to increase slightly past the maximum loot Gear Score.Info from Gamespot.com

Dave Bautista was already known as one of WWE's biggest stars when he took on the role of Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, and since then his second career as a movie star has continued to flourish. This summer he gets one of his biggest roles so far, in the action comedy Stuber. The first trailer has now been released.Stuber stars Bautista as a tough, grizzled cop who is forced to call an Uber in the middle of a case. Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani plays the driver unlucky enough to accept the booking, and inevitably finds himself thrown into a wild, action-packed, and extremely dangerous operation as Bautista sets out to take down some bad guys. The Guardians movies have shown Bautista's comic skills, and this new movie looks like it will deliver both hilarious buddy comedy and over-the-top action scenes. Check out the very funny trailer below.Stuber also stars Iko Uwais (Mile 22, The Raid Redemption), Natalie Morales (Battle of the Sexes), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Betty Gilpin (GLOW). It's directed by Michael Dowse, who previously helmed the ice hockey comedy Goon, as well as episode of Preacher and Future Man. It releases in July 12.Bautista is one of the many big names set to star in the much-anticipated new adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel Dune, which releases in November 2020. In addition, he is expected to appear later this month in Avengers: Endgame and will star in the upcoming Netflix zombie movie Army of the Dead, from Batman vs Superman director Zack Snyder. Bautista also made a return to the ring this weekend, for a showdown with Triple H at Wrestlemania 35.Info from Gamespot.com

Bethesda has announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades is now open to all and free to download. You still need a Bethesda net account in order to play, though.Now that Blades is available for all, Bethesda already has it's eyes set on tweaking the game. "Next up: We’re looking at all your feedback and rebalancing the most difficult enemy in the game… the silver chest," the studio tweeted.Blades is the first mobile installment in The Elder Scrolls series, although Bethesda still describes the title as a "pure Elder Scrolls game" with "console-quality graphics." Unlike The Elder Scrolls games on PC and consoles, Blades doesn't have an open world. Instead, the game is composed of a series of interconnected environments--some of which are still "very large," according to Bethesda."We could do it," Bethesda director and executive producer Todd Howard said, when asked about implementing an open-world in Blades. "We'll see how people interact with it. Because it's mobile, we know people may play... We need you to get something meaningful done in 10 or 15 minutes. Do you know what I mean? Even though you could sit down and play it for as many hours as you want."Blades had been delayed from it's original launch date of Fall 2018 for Android and iOS devices. Although there are plans to port the game to both PC and consoles, Bethesda hasn't announced any planned release window for those versions.The next mainline The Elder Scrolls game was first teased during E3 2018. Currently only titled The Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda has announced that the game will not be shown off at E3 2019. Neither will Starfield, which is currently scheduled to release prior to the upcoming The Elder Scrolls game.Info from Gamespot.com

The first clip from Avengers: Endgame has been released. The much-anticipated follow-up to Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War arrives later this month, and focuses on what remains of the world's mightiest heroes as they try to stop Thanos and get their friends back. It features a small Thor-Captain Marvel interaction we've seen before but otherwise sets up both the Avengers' mission in Endgame and addresses a question everyone has been wondering: Where has Captain Marvel been?The clip sees Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, War Machine, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel forming a plan to take on Thanos. When Banner suggests that the results might be the same as last time they fought the mad tyrant, Captain Marvel tells them that there's one essential difference: "Before, you didn't have me." Cap also gets to drop a mild curse word, so be warned if you only like Steve being polite and respectful! Check it out below.This clip was part of the 10 minutes of footage that was recently screened to GameSpot. Check out our look at what else we learnt from this Endgame footage. In addition, a new trailer was released last week, and you can also read our report from the recent Endgame press conference, at which directors Joe and Anthony Russo spoke about how they approached Endgame after the shocking events of Infinity War.Avengers: Endgame releases on April 26, 2019. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Brie Larsson, Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Danai Gurira, Paul Rudd, and Josh Brolin.Endgame will be followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home in July, with Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury both returning, along with a variety of characters from Homecoming. Info from Gamespot.com

Blizzard has started teasing its next limited-time event for Overwatch, called Storm Rising. On April 7, a clipping from the fictional newspaper Havana Sun was posted on Overwatch's main website. Blizzard followed up the next day with a tweet detailing classified Overwatch information--both revealing the story for Storm Rising and possibly teasing a new playable hero called Sojourn. Said tweet can be seen below.The Havana Sun newspaper clipping is written in Spanish, with an English translation provided beneath it. The article details the unknown corporate takeover of Don Rumbotico, a popular distillery with a "controversial" history. Apparently, after Don Rumbotico founder Clara and Basillo Diaz refused to sell the Havana distillery to an "anonymous financial group," they were met with repeated hardships and eventually had to sell their company regardless. The article goes on to list that Don Rumbotico isn't the only Havana icon to be bought by this mysterious group, and ends with a weather warning for an approaching storm. What this all means for Overwatch isn't completely clear until the follow-up tweet is also taken into account.> Accessing archived file...Decryption status: IN PROGRESS Target: Located pic.twitter.com/AUmV8LlUJc — Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) April 8, 2019The tweet contains a decrypted audio recording for an archived mission briefing in the Overwatch team's database. The message is to Commander Morrison, putting the date of the recording prior to the fall of Overwatch and Morrison's transformation into Soldier: 76. The briefing admonishes Morrison for trying to track down Doomfist, as going after the villain's accountant Maximilien and connecting them back to Doomfist would prove a much easier task. The voice then states Tracer will lead the team tasked with tracking Maximilien down, and she'll be joined by Winston, Genji, and Mercy. The briefing ends with the voice identifying themselves as Sojourn.The trailer then ends with the tease that Storm Rising will occur April 16 through May 6. Though Maximilien has never appeared in-game, he's been a part of Overwatch's lore for a while as a council member in Doomfist's villainous group, Talon. Most likely, he's the one behind the financial group buying up the local icons in Havana, and Tracer and her team will attempt to investigate his holdings under the cover of the fierce storm that's approaching the city. This story will presumably be told over the course of a four-person co-op PvE mission. Blizzard has not confirmed this, but this style of storytelling has been used in Overwatch's previous April limited-time events, Retribution and Uprising, before.What's most compelling is the introduction of Sojourn, as she's never been mentioned before but she sounds like someone who possesses great authority either within or over Overwatch. Whether she's an upcoming playable hero remains to be seen, but it sounds like she'll play a substantial role in the upcoming limited-time event.Overwatch is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Info from Gamespot.com

Avengers: Endgame releases later this month, marking the end of the Infinity Saga. We don't know a ton about what the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will entail, but Marvel has enlisted more comedic talent to join its ranks. Comedian and Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley, The Lego Ninjago Movie) will star in the forthcoming The Eternals.According to the Hollywood Reporter, Nanjiani will star alongside Angelina Jolie (Maleficent, Unbroken) in The Eternals. Jolie, as stated in the report, is said to play a character named Sersi, an outgoing Eternal who is willing to brush shoulders with humans. Nanjiani's role, however, has yet to be revealed. The project is led by director Chloe Zhao (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider), with writing by cousins Matthew K. (Zombie High School, The Agency Blues) and Ryan Firpo (Bet Raise Fold, Baalin: Control).The first Eternals comic was published in 1976 by late writer and artist, Jack Kirby (1917-1994). The Eternals, an offshoot of life created by an alien race called the Celestials, were established to protect the Earth from the Deviants, a dastardly project by the Celestials gone awry. 30 years later, eclectic writer Neil Gaiman gave the superheroes a facelift in 2006, bringing them and their universe to the modern era with a seven-issue miniseries that concluded in 2007.Nanjiani, who was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards for the romantic comedy The Big Sick--he co-wrote the movie with his wife, Emily V. Gordon--has a busy year ahead of him. Along with appearing in Men In Black: International (June 14) and Stuber (July 12), he's starring in two other films currently in post-production, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle and The Lovebirds, both slated for a 2020 release. A new trailer for Stuber, in which he stars alongside Dave Bautista, was just released.Along with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Black Widow's standalone movie, The Eternals is one of several movies we know are coming to the MCU. However, the only one with a specific name and date is Spider-Man: Far From Home, which releases in July. For more, check out our roundup of what we know about Marvel's Phase 4.Info from Gamespot.com

Investigations, interrogations, serial murders, and a whole lot of plot twists--it's all here in the upcoming puzzle-adventure mystery AI: The Somnium Files, the latest game from Zero Escape director Kotaro Uchikoshi and the team at Spike Chunsoft. It's not much of a surprise that AI borders on bizarre and grotesque, as you can see in the latest trailer (see below). Having seen it in action briefly and getting a taste of its early gameplay, it appears to be in the same vein of Uchikoshi's past work, but with it's own unique flair.Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (colloquially known as 999), Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, and Zero Time Dilemma formed a trilogy of mind-bending narrative experiences built around puzzle-solving. But Uchikoshi has traded the twisted escape room premises of those games for putting you in the shoes of a detective. With Uchikoshi and assistant director Akira Okada on-hand during my demo time, I asked about their approach in creating something new and thematically different that still had the spirit of past games."What I had in mind is that I wanted to make this for adventure game fans around the world, including investigations into a separate dream world," Uchikoshi said. "I can't go into details right now, but as an adventure game, you want to expand as much as you can so everybody can have fun. Everyone knows what an adventure game is like, but in 2019 I wanted to make that a little more fresh."People who haven't played adventure games: first go home, try to drink a gallon of tequila, make sure your mind's loose, and then just accept what it is. Then you'll get used to the game, and it'll just suck you in. - Kotaro UchikoshiThere is a thematic twist that's new for Uchikoshi, which shares a few similarities to aspects of Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain or even Suda51's The Silver Case. Okada even points to games such as The Walking Dead and Life Is Strange as influences. However, a lot of AI: The Somnium Files' DNA can be traced to Zero Escape, since you're still trying to investigate and unravel mysteries from a first-person perspective, at least when you're taking the role of the main protagonist Kaname Date.As Date, you talk to folks around the crime scene and examine your surroundings, but that's only half the work. His cybernetic eyeball named Aiba (pun intended)--and partner in crime-solving--can enter an alternate dimension to unlock deeper secrets, new pieces of evidence, and more abstract thoughts of the specific characters involved. It almost reminds me of Persona 5's Phantom Thieves entering the Metaverse to uncover the true nature of others, and ultimately affect those people's reality. Aiba gets a moe anthropomorphization in these sequences, where you roam around a deformed version of the crime scene from a third-person point of view. The catch is you have a limited amount of time to investigate this dimension, and interacting with story-critical objects will consume time depending on the action you take. Thus, AI offers branching narrative paths dictated by your decisions and actions.I got a sense of pressure in these moments and asked Okada how they approach balancing difficulty for a narrative-based adventure game."In general you would play more and more of the game, doing puzzles, and that was the challenging part, for me as well, playing a ton of puzzles and trying to balance the levels together," Okada responded. But in general, playing the game multiple times will help the player out, help understand the puzzles." It seems that players have to live with the result they earn in AI, at least for chunks of the game, and that's how branching paths are constructed--something like 428: Shibuya Scramble came to mind. Okada continued, "We think a lot about accessibility, options for difficulty, options for games that aren't entirely story based. So I think that's still a big concern."A heavy narrative is the driving force in AI: The Somnium Files, and in that department, there's been a bit of an unconventional lead-up to this game. If you haven't been following, I'll catch you up a bit. Uchikoshi first revealed AI as his next game at Anime Expo 2018, and held a panel covering some of the design philosophies. Promotion for the game then pivoted to shining the spotlight on one important character: Iris Sagan, an in-universe influencer and pop star under the stage name A-set. She spilled into the real world with songs, music videos, and interactions with fans through Twitter and YouTube--hell, I even 'interviewed' her and Uchikoshi at the start of all this. We learned a lot about her, like her favorite Hatsune Miku song and opinion on the best boy/best girl of the Danganronpa series.However, it was pretty clear where things were going once Iris' own YouTube videos were corrupted with creepy subliminal messages. A few horrifying videos went up a couple weeks ago, one of which was just camera footage of her apartment left running without a trace of her presence, and another showing a bi-pedal polar bear about to chop her in half with a saw blade. Since then, her channel has had two hilarious video in promotion of the game featuring her commentary on Uchikoshi himself and different parts of the game's lore. In the game itself, we've seen her crying for Date's help and on the verge of getting killed Saw-style in the latest trailer. It's wild.There's been a heavy focus on Iris, but what about the other characters? We don't know much about Date yet, other than the fact that he works for the Tokyo MPD and lost his memory six years prior. So I asked about how they approach creating characters and what we could expect from the game's cast, to which Uchikoshi responded, "First of all, the care and balance of personalities is very important to me. So the character types don't double up. If we have a sad person, we don't want another sad person. And the game is based on a murder mystery, so we kind of want you to try to figure out who these characters are, while everyone's working together."One of A-set's new videos features a cheery Uchikoshi-san.Admittedly, I couldn't get much out the rest of the game's cast, but character design appears to be a major appeal. Having employed the talent of Yusuke Kozaki (known for his work on No More Heroes, Fire Emblem, and Pokemon Go), it's an important aspect. Okada agreed, saying, "I think since the illustration and art is visually attractive, during the whole game, while you're playing, it'll draw you to the story also. Looking at the characters, that's how I started getting hooked. The visuals would get you first, then the mysteries will get you to keep on playing."AI seems to be really going for it with its outlandish pretense, and I wouldn't expect anything less from Uchikoshi. I think his continued response to my questions about why people should keep an eye on his new game says a lot. "So, for the people who already played adventure games, I understand they'll really like this one," Uchikoshi said. "But people who haven't played adventure games: first go home, try to drink a gallon of tequila, make sure your mind's loose, and then just accept what it is. Then you'll get used to the game, and it'll just suck you in." Please don't try this at home, or anywhere, really.You can take up the role of detective and adorable eyeball sidekick in AI: The Somnium Files when it launches for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on July 25, 2019.Editor's Note: Translations for the interview portions with Kotaro Uchikoshi and Akira Okada were done by Spike Chunsoft.Info from Gamespot.com

April is officially underway, which means we're almost halfway through 2019. This year has already has seen some major titles arrive across PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, and while this month is fairly quiet compared to March, there are still some big-name games on the way to each platform.Headlining April's releases are Mortal Kombat 11 and Days Gone, Sony's long in-development zombie game for PS4. While those may have garnered the most attention, they are hardly the only titles worth looking out for. This month also sees a number of older games arrive on new platforms. Two of 2017's most acclaimed titles, Cuphead and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, hit Switch in April, while Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remaster and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age to Switch and Xbox One.There are plenty of other titles on the way this month as well, from the anticipate Super Meat Boy sequel, Super Meat Boy Forever, to SteamWorld Quest: The Hand of Gilgamech and BoxBoy + BoxGirl, the first Switch installment in HAL's clever puzzle-platforming series. You can see all of the biggest game releases for April 2019 below. For a wider look at what's ahead this year, be sure to check out our complete list of game release dates in 2019.Nintendo Labo VR Kit (Switch) -- April 12Nintendo's marquee Switch release this month is the Nintendo Labo VR Kit, the fourth set in the company's growing line of DIY games/peripherals. The full package comes with a game card and an assortment of crafting materials used to assemble six unique Toy-Con accessories, which when combined with the Switch hardware will allow you to play a handful of minigames--and even some Switch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild--in basic VR. The full Labo VR Kit costs $80, while the starter set runs for $40.Further reading:Nintendo Finally Does VR, In The Most Nintendo Way PossibleNintendo Announces Switch VR Headset--As A New Labo KitSwitch Getting Labo VR Support For Super Mario Odyssey And Zelda: Breath Of The WildCuphead (Switch) -- April 18More than a year after it first released on Xbox One and PC, Microsoft and developer Studio MDHR are bringing their critically acclaimed platformer, Cuphead, to Nintendo Switch on April 18. Not only will the Switch version will feature the same challenging run-and-gun gameplay and hand-drawn 1930s-style visuals that made it such a beloved hit on other platforms, it'll also receive Xbox Live support through a post-launch update, allowing you to unlock Achievements for the game even when you play on Nintendo's hybrid console.Further reading:Cuphead Announced For Nintendo Switch, Will Have Xbox Live SupportNew Nintendo Switch Games: Nindies News RoundupCuphead ReviewMortal Kombat 11 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) -- April 23The latest entry in NetherRealm's long-running fighting game series, Mortal Kombat 11, arrives on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch later this month. Picking up after the events of 2015's Mortal Kombat X, the game tells a time-bending story in which past and present versions of characters come face to face and must stop the machinations of Kronika, the Keeper of Time. It also boasts an impressive roster of fighters, from returning favorites like Scropion and Liu Kang to entirely new characters like the Elder God Cetrion.Further reading:Mortal Kombat 11 Reveals Another Brand-New Character, The KollectorMortal Kombat 11 Has No Loot Boxes, Neo From The Matrix Won't Be AddedMortal Kombat 11 For Nintendo Switch Doesn't Compromise What Matters MostDays Gone (PS4) -- April 26It's been a long time coming, but Sony's PS4-exclusive zombie survival game Days Gone is finally set to release on April 26. The game puts players in the role of Deacon St. John, a bounty hunter who travels around the open-world, post-apocalyptic remains of the Pacific Northwest on his motorcycle, battling zombie-like creatures known as Freakers and coming to the aid other survivors.Further reading:New PS4 Exclusive Days Gone Goes GoldDays Gone Creators Talk Bringing The Zombie Apocalypse To Unexpected TerritoryDays Gone Feels Familiar, But That Isn't Such A Bad ThingFull April Release ScheduleGamePlatformRelease DateBomber Crew: Complete EditionPS4, SwitchApril 2Darksiders: Warmastered EditionSwitchApril 2Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World MissionPC, SwitchApril 5Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney TrilogyPS4, Xbox One, PC, SwitchApril 9Dangerous DrivingPS4, Xbox OneApril 9Neo Atlas 1469SwitchApril 9Shovel Knight ShowdownPS4, Xbox One, PC, SwitchApril 9Zanki Zero: Last BeginningPS4, PCApril 9Earth Defense Force: Iron RainPS4April 11Hellblade: Senua's SacrificeSwitchApril 11Nintendo Labo VR KitSwitchApril 12Konami Anniversary Collection: Arcade ClassicsSwitchApril 18Anno 1800PCApril 16Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD RemasterXbox One, SwitchApril 16World War ZPS4, Xbox One, PCApril 16CupheadSwitchApril 18Dragon's Dogma: Dark ArisenSwitchApril 23Mortal Kombat 11PS4, Xbox One, PC, SwitchApril 23SteamWorld Quest: Hand of GilgamechSwitchApril 25BoxBoy + BoxGirlSwitchApril 26Days GonePS4April 26Super Meat Boy ForeverPS4, Xbox One, PC, SwitchApril 26Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac AgeXbox One, SwitchApril 30Info from Gamespot.com

Fighters are finally coming from the cover of the shadows as we rapidly approach the release of NetherRelam's Mortal Kombat 11. Alongside returning characters like Kung Lao and Liu Kang, and the announcement of another brand-new fighter named The Kollector, Kitana is sharpening her fans. A new trailer/TV advertisement reveals that Kitana will join the Mortal Kombat 11 roster.The minute-long trailer's nothing more than a tease, featuring no actual gameplay footage. Instead, it starts with eyes whitening out and an announcer pondering what people fight for. A series of people walk in a straight line in what looks to be a dark, abandoned warehouse, representing confirmed Mortal Kombat 11 characters Sub-Zero and Raiden before Kitana whips out her fans and toss one at Scorpion, initiating a short but sweet CG fight. It may not be that long of a trailer, but it's tantalizing nonetheless. You can watch the trailer above.Mortal Kombat 11 will feature no loot boxes whatsoever, according to a rapid-fire Game Informer interview with series creator Ed Boon. In the same interview, Boon confirmed that while The Matrix's Neo won't appear in Mortal Kombat 11--he did get dangerously close to appearing in Injustice 2--the game will boast 25 characters at launch, with "30-something to finish." Before The Kollector was announced, Mortal Kombat 11 saw a new fighter enter the fray, the Elder God Cetrion.Ahead of the game's release, we recently had the chance to try out the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 11. Though the graphics are obviously downgraded and development isn't being done in-house--NetherRealm handed the port job off to Miami-based Shiver Entertainment--the fighting mechanics and consistently smooth frame rate haven't been compromised. You can conveniently take your gore with you.Mortal Kombat 11 launches on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 23.Info from Gamespot.com

Niantic is bringing another Legendary Pokemon back to Pokemon Go for a limited time. Beginning Monday, April 15, the Eon Pokemon Latios will make an encore appearance in the hit mobile game as part of a special Raid event, giving players their first opportunity to capture it in nearly a year.Latios is scheduled to appear in Raid Battles for a full week, leaving the game again on April 22. As before, you'll first need to team up with other players in real life and battle the Legendary Pokemon before being able to catch it. Niantic teases that you'll also have a chance of coming across a Shiny Latios during the Raid event.Latios first appeared in Pokemon Go alongside its twin, Latias, last May. The other Eon Pokemon returned for its own special Raid event back in February. Both Latios and Latias are dual Dragon/Psychic-types, which makes them vulnerable to Ghost and Dark Pokemon like Gengar and Tyranitar. Other Dragons like Salamence and Pokemon Go's current Legendary, Giratina, will also be effective against it.Ahead of the Latios Raid event, Niantic is holding another Legendary Lunch Hour this week, on April 10, from 12-1 PM local time. During that hour, there will be an increase in five-star Raids featuring Giratina in its Origin Forme, which has more attack-oriented stats than its standard Altered Forme.Following the Legendary Lunch Hour, Niantic will host the next Pokemon Go Community Day this Saturday, April 13. That event will run from 3-6 PM local time and will feature increased spawns of the rare Dragon Pokemon Bagon. Niantic also announced a series of Pokemon Go Fest events for Chicago, Germany, and Asia later this summer.Info from Gamespot.com

Bethesda has announced that the new repair kits coming to Fallout 76 can be earned in-game or bought with real world money. The kits are designed to repair weapons and armor without needing to waste resources."Repair Kits are new utility items that will help you spend more time looting and shooting, and less time toiling away at a workbench fixing your gear," Bethesda wrote in the latest Inside the Vault blog post. "We've received lots of requests for Repair Kits, and we're excited to add them in the weeks following Patch 8." Patch 8 is scheduled for tomorrow, April 9.Patch 8 adds two types of repair kits: basic and improved. Basic kits are single-use and repairs any one item to 100% condition. You'll be able to unlock them in the in-game Atomic Shop with Atoms--Fallout 76's microtransactions that can be bought with real money or earned by completing challenges. Improved kits are also single-use, but they repair a single item to 150% condition, allowing them to last much longer than they normally would. The improved repair kits can only be earned for completing in-game content, such as defeating the Scorchbeast Queen.Following Patch 8, more of Fallout 76's Wild Appalachia expansion will release on April 16. A new dungeon, called The Burrows, will be unlocked for you to explore with a squad of other players. Bethesda plans on releasing further details about the The Burrows during next week's Inside the Vault, but promises the dungeon will be a "daunting new subterranean battleground." Next week's Inside the Vault will reveal more details about Fallout 76's upcoming in-game camera and memory book features too, which brings a new quest and challenges on April 16.Player vending, which allows you to set up your own store to sell items to others, has been delayed. No longer coming in Patch 8, player vending is now scheduled for Patch 9, which is currently expected to release sometime in May.Wild Appalachia is the first of three large content drops scheduled for Fallout 76 in 2019. Nuclear Winter, coming this summer, brings a new game mode and features to Fallout 76, along with a new prestige system and two challenging raids. This fall, Wastelanders adds a story expansions that includes a new main questline, factions, events, and features.Fallout 76 is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.Info from Gamespot.com

Just days after the release of Shazam, screenwriter Henry Gayden is reportedly already set to write the Shazam sequel alongside director David F. Sandberg and producer Peter Safran. That's according to a new report from The Wrap.While details of the plot, returning cast, and release time are still unsurprisingly vague (what do you expect? The movie just came out) the confirmation of a sequel is really no surprise. After all, those post-credits stingers left a pretty major cliffhanger dangling in the air.With any luck, we'll see a full return of the cast, including Asher Angel's Billy Batson and Zackary Levi's Shazam, who anchored the first film with plenty of heart and humor as well as Mark Strong's surprisingly sympathetic Dr. Sivana who, we can only hope, has a few more villainous tricks left up his sleeve.Shazam's already raked in an impressive sum of money in the box office after opening this weekend--which really isn't surprising, considering just how great it is. It's also jam-packed with all kinds of obscure DC Comics references and Easter eggs--were you able to spot them all?And while we wait for more Shazam details to come trickling in, don't forget that there are other DCEU movies just over the horizon. Take a look at the brand-new trailer for Joker, Joaquin Phoenix's standalone villain origin story heading for theaters on October 4, and keep an eye out for the very latest from Birds of Prey, on track for February 2020. Info from Gamespot.com

Although it hasn't been confirmed, it looks like Anno 1800 is becoming an Epic Games Store exclusive. Originally scheduled for a Steam release, Anno 1800 will be discontinued on Steam after its release date of April 16.We'll update this story when we confirm which PC game store Anno 1800 is going to."Sales of Anno 1800 will be discontinued on Steam after April 16th due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store," a notice on Anno 1800's Steam page reads. "The publisher has assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam."The notice doesn't list what other store is getting the exclusive, but given what's happened over the past few months, it makes sense to assume it's Epic. Since 2018, several titles have left Steam just prior to release and gone to Epic instead. Some games have even been pretty major triple-A titles too, such as Metro Exodus and The Division 2. Prior to Anno 1800, Borderlands 3 was the latest triple-A title to join the Epic Games Store as an exclusive, although it's only an exclusive for six months as opposed to other titles' year-long exclusivity.Also, when Ubisoft announced The Division 2 would be an Epic exclusive, Epic revealed that its partnership with Ubisoft would continue with "additional select titles." No further details were supplied at the time, but Epic did tease that those titles are all scheduled for release "during the coming year." Anno 1800 fits that criteria, so it would make sense to see the game launch on Epic come April 16.There's been a lot of vocal discontent for games that launch exclusively on Epic, especially if the titles were initially scheduled for release on Steam. After the announcement that Metro Exodus would be leaving Steam for Epic, both Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light were heavily review bombed by players disappointed in the decision. The same happened to Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel after the reveal that Borderlands 3 would be an Epic timed exclusive.Info from Gamespot.com