Unlike most battle royale games, Apex Legends puts its whole focus on team-based gameplay--it currently only supports games in which you join a squad of three to face off against other teams. For a lot of players, that means jumping into the game to be matched up with random other players as teammates, which comes with its own challenges.Playing by yourself in Apex Legends, rather than with friends on whom you can rely, can be tough. Random players have a tendency not to work together, they rarely talk to each other, and sometimes they run off and get killed. It's a lot tougher to be successful in a team game with players you don't know--but it's far from impossible. In fact, Apex Legends' innovations, like its robust ping system, can make the experience of playing with people you don't know pretty good, all things considered.Still, there are lots of strategies and situations to consider if you're jumping onto a team all by yourself. Playing alone with people you don't know means adapting to the situation if you want to be successful, and it means trying to make the team work even if you're at a communications disadvantage. Changing the way you play, and paying attention to how your teammates play, can help you take down those championships even if you're not with your full squad of buds. Use these tips to help you be effective on a squad in matchmaking, or even when you find yourself all alone, whether by circumstance--or by choice.Ping Like CrazyWhether you're playing with randoms or your best friends, the best thing you can do in Apex Legends is share information. Playing with people you don't know usually means talking is kept to a minimum, but but you can still do a lot for your team by sharing information with pings. This doesn't mean you should mark every Mozambique you pass--please, stop doing that--but high-power weapons like the Longbow, Triple Take, Spitfire, and Peacekeeper are worthy of sharing, as are high-level attachments and accessories. More than that, letting your team know where enemies are and have been lets everyone keep aware of potential threats, and that makes your random team a lot more likely to survive.Stick TogetherIt's tempting to wander off looting, striking out on your own a bit in order to grab the best gear you can without your teammates getting in your way, but resist the urge if you can. Spreading out so that your team can't quickly get together to aid one another is the best way to get beat in Apex Legends. What's more, most fights are won not by one particularly good player, but by the combined fire of a squad on a single enemy--it's the quickest way to take people out of the fight and skew the odds in your favor. If you let your randoms get picked off one at a time, you're going to struggle, no matter how clutch a player you are.Share And Share AlikeApex Legends is built on working together, and that goes beyond just shooting the same enemies or pinging good guns. Helping your teammates stay well-equipped and healthy will help you win matches. That means using your abilities when they'll help, if you're playing as someone like Lifeline, and it also means tossing teammates ammo, health, and shield pickups when they need them. Sharing will encourage players to share with you, and when you're all looking out for each other, your chances of winning are a lot higher. Keep your teammates alive and they'll help keep you alive, so share the loot wealth when you can.Observe And AdaptIf possible, watch how your teammates play and try to find the best way to help them, both with your character's abilities and with your weapon choices. Are they trying to snipe? You might be better off getting in close on enemies if that's the case. Do they prefer close engagements? Providing sniper backup might be a better role for you, then. Try to diversify your team's roles and capabilities so that you can handle a variety of situations and engagements. If you're all carrying close-range or long-range weapons, you're more likely to fall to a team that's more versatile.Don't Shoot At Enemies You Can't KillThis is a good rule no matter the situation in Apex Legends, but when playing with randoms, it's especially useful. If you see enemies in the distance, don't start firing unless you're sure your team is ready for the engagement, and your chances of winning are good. Taking pot shots at players you can't reliably down is a good way to give away your position to another team that could ambush you, and it risks starting a fight with a team that might be better outfitted than you and giving away the element of surprise. It's better to ping an enemy position and try to close the distance before you're spotted than to start shooting and hope that your teammates will figure out what to do.When Alone, Pick Your EngagementsThe big trouble with being alone is that most players opposing you are going to be sticking together, and any three-on-one battle you enter is highly likely to be a loser. When more than one player focuses their fire on you, chances are, the fight is already over. The key, then, is to pick off enemies when they're separated, or to get the drop on them. Whether you've bailed on your team because you don't like them, or you're alone after losing everyone else, keeping yourself alive is job one when solo. If you find yourself outnumbered, try to get away, and move carefully and quietly to make sure you hear anybody who might be coming up on you.Don't Just QuitBe the change you want to see in the world. If you're downed early in a match or you don't get the Legend you want, don't just bail on your teammates. You're just contributing to everyone's bad time--your teammates are stuck with a disadvantage, which means they'll have less fun, and then they'll be more likely to quit out of their next game at the first sign of trouble, and on and on. Instead of contributing to the frustrations of the community at large, stick around; you never know when a teammate might make a clutch play and manage to revive you at a respawn beacon. Info from Gamespot.com

Following the news today that Electronic Arts will not have a traditional press conference at E3 2019 this year, indie game publisher Devolver Digital quickly chimed in to confirm it will have a press conference this year. That's good news, considering Devolver's previous E3 press conferences were some of the wackiest, wild, and absurd the show has to offerDevolver confirmed in its tweet, "FWIW, we're still going to do an E3 press conference."FWIW we’re still going to do an E3 press conference. — Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) March 7, 2019Devolver's E3 press conferences in the past have been pre-recorded, and they're known to be truly absurd. The host usually makes jabs at video game industry trends and gaming culture in general. It's really great and refreshing.We can only imagine what Devolver will have in store for its 2019 E3 press conference. We'll be watching, that's for sure.EA won't have a traditional press conference at E3 this year, and, in a major shakeup for the annual summer gaming show, neither will Sony. Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Bethesda have yet to confirm their plans for E3 2019. Microsoft, meanwhile, is going big at E3 2019. The company will reportedly discuss its plans for next-generation consoles and more during the show.E3 2019 runs June 12-14, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more.One of Devolver's latest games, Ape Out, came out at the end of February. Here at GameSpot we gave it a 7/10 and called it a "pleasant, jazzy way to spend a few hours."Info from Gamespot.com

ToeJam & Earl was in many respects typical of the kind of game that defined the Genesis--charmingly eccentric, ostentatiously hip, staunchly uncommercial. A broad comic pastiche of tropes from early hip-hop and mid-'80s New York street style, this low-key co-op dungeon-crawler about alien rappers had what you'd call a vibe, and as one might have put it then, it was a trip just to groove with it. ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is faithful to this spirit. A ground-up remake from series creator Greg Johnson, it adheres so closely to the source material that it's hard to critique without it reading like a referendum on the original. Everything about the experience has been designed to make you nostalgic for the early 1990s, and sinking into its reverie of the past can be appealing. But too often it reminds you how far we've come since then, and makes you remember why certain things are better left behind.The setup is identical. As the game begins, our extraterrestrial heroes have crash-landed on Earth, their ship totally obliterated. At the same time, a black hole has warped the world out of recognition, the upshot of which is the planet has been laid out across small tracts of land stacked one on top of the other, the lot of them connected by elevators--sort of like a Salvador Dali landscape crossed with Super Mario Galaxy. The object of the game is to collect the 10 pieces of scattered debris that together comprise your ship so you can return home to planet Funkotron. The pieces are hidden, their locations randomized, and the distorted quasi-earth that houses them teeming with nefarious earthlings out to thwart you for reasons unexplained. It's glib and vaguely surreal. It's absurd, but you get the sense you're not meant to question it.Your pursuit of the 10 missing ship pieces unfolds not unlike the exploration of a dungeon in old fantasy role-playing games; Back in the Groove is a more or less standard example of the roguelite genre. Earth's ascending series of floating-island stages are generated procedurally--with the option to play a "fixed" mode that trains you to a static set of levels--while enemies and loot, both abundant, are randomized on each playthrough. Enemy placement and distance between objectives have the luck-of-the-draw quality that makes roguelites so engrossing (if frustrating), and death is permanent, demanding from-the-start replays.What distinguishes ToeJam & Earl from other roguelites are its style and its attitude. One of the first things you notice is how mellow it feels. It's an extremely gentle, easy-going game. That's not to say it can't be difficult--on random mode, I died frequently and agonizingly, and won by the skin of my teeth. But there's a kind of unflappable composure and lackadaisical pace throughout that makes the experience feel relaxed. This is a game that not only permits but rewards lounging in a hot tub for as long as you'd like, and in which the heroes don't run but saunter. Where most games tend toward the urgent and dramatic, ToeJam & Earl prefers things unhurried. The word for it is chill. It's very likeable.The overall look of ToeJam & Earl is unmistakable. Its vibrant aesthetic drew from a variety of urban artists of the era, including the pop art of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and the subway graffiti of Futura and Zephyr, and in its own cartoonish way the game is as authentic a snapshot of the period's hip-hop and street culture as films like Breakin or Wild Style. Of course, what was contemporary in 1991 is decidedly retro in 2019, and its bright acrylic colors and bold animations are all the more striking for their vintage air. This is particularly true of the patterned backgrounds used as interstitial lulls between levels. In the original these were loading screens; here they're technically unnecessary, but they add something unquantifiable, like grace notes, and have been wisely left in. It's in such touches that Back in the Groove best captures the mood of its predecessors.Old-school hip-hop looms over ToeJam & Earl, but it's actually funk, not rap, that provides the music. As the title promises, grooves abound. The newly recorded soundtrack, a raft of jams by virtuoso bassist Cody Wright, features such aptly named tracks as "Slow Groovin," "The Bass Master," and "Funk Funk Funk E," which sound as advertised. It's hardly the most diverse score, but I never found it repetitive. Those endless basslines feel inseparable from the tempo of the action and atmosphere of the setting, and as such contribute to what is on the whole a really coherent style. Tone, rhythm, visual design--it's all of a piece. And the few elements introduced expressly for the remake, like new enemies, items, and playable characters, don't depart from the template of the original in the slightest.There are things one expects even the most faithful throwback to modernize. But as if to protect the essence of ToeJam & Earl, next to nothing about the classic gameplay has been modified, supplemented, or otherwise upgraded. The game still controls like it's mapped to three buttons, and rather than streamlined it's merely simplistic. There's not much more to do than walk around and alternately locate ship parts and elevators as you evade earthlings, most of whom are so predictable and easily avoided that death is usually caused not by any one tricky enemy but by a bunch of them crowding you in a flourish of unlucky randomization. A pair of basic minigames (a crude rhythm game and an endless runner) feel like afterthoughts, and from beginning to end the campaign can be completed by a skilled player in under two hours.Items, like much else in ToeJam & Earl, are distributed at random, gift-wrapped and unidentified until opened or divined by magic. These presents are in ample supply, and there's a staggering number of types to discover, most of them outlandish. Some, like earthling-pelting tomatoes or enemy-attracting decoys, have obvious (if limited) benefits. Others, like an alarm that sits above your head and alerts enemies to your position or a kind of bomb that causes you to immediately self-destruct, are gag gifts, better left unopened. Most seem pretty arbitrary, as though included because they're amusing. None struck me as particularly useful--even the slingshot, which should be straightforward, is ineffective. They have no real effect on strategy, except as blunt instruments, and more often than not their randomness is a burden.A simple progression system--another holdover from the Genesis version--allows you to level up and earn titles ranging from "Weiner" to "Funklord." Now this system has been expanded upon with a basic stats tree governing your speed, luck, and so on, and in Back in the Groove graduation from one title to the next bears with it additional points in each category. The entire system is underdeveloped, and while boosts to these attributes no doubt do have some bearing on your speed or the frequency with which you happen upon valuable presents, the effect of levelling up on anything other than your health meter seems negligible. It mattered so little to my success moment-to-moment that I often forgot to redeem my level-ups when I'd earned them.Online multiplayer is one of the rare other modern amenities, and it is an awkward fit. ToeJam & Earl was a quintessential couch co-op game circa 1991; two players felt fundamental to a full experience. But while local multiplayer still delights as expected, playing with up to three friends or strangers online is not remotely the same. There just isn't enough ground to cover in a given level to warrant four different people searching for the same elevator, and not enough content other than that to keep everyone busy; walking around together is redundant, and splitting up a waste of time, as whoever happens on the goal first has to stand around waiting for the rest of the gang to catch up. One tardy straggler can make a level feel interminable.As if to protect the essence of ToeJam & Earl, next to nothing about the classic gameplay has been modified, supplemented, or otherwise upgraded.In its first incarnation, ToeJam & Earl could seriously strain the Sega hardware. An environment bustling with enemies could slow the frame rate nearly to a halt, and the game's madcap sense of creative abandon sometimes seemed too much for the console to handle. Back in the Groove suffers from similar technical defects, even on PlayStation 4, to the point where I honestly wondered whether the persistent freezing and stuttering might not be an ingenious reference to its underperforming forebear. There are intermittent problems with the randomization process, too, including, on multiple occasions, the failure of game-essential objects to appear, preventing advancement to the next level. Several times I arrived on a new level to find that the elevator to the following level was nowhere to be found, requiring me to exit and load a previous save file.ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove belongs completely and unapologetically to the early 1990s. This remake's most attractive features--its dazzling animation, its infectious bass--are ambrosia for the nostalgic and derive much of their charm from their fidelity to the Genesis original. But a lot has changed over the last 30 years, and the game too often fails to gracefully integrate new features to a modern standard. For every wistful reminder of bygone days and the pleasures of the era, there's a lingering fault or drawback that could have been smoothed over or mended. The issue with Back in the Groove's unwavering faithfulness to its predecessor is inextricable from what makes it occasionally so much fun: It's both captured the good and brought the bad back with it.Info from Gamespot.com

I'm glad I played through The Occupation a second time. My first playthrough did not end well. Yes, I made it to the end, I saw a final cutscene and watched the credits roll, but I wouldn't say I reached the conclusion of the story. In fact, I felt like I'd barely scratched the surface.After finishing it a second time I had a good handle on the major events of this bureaucratic thriller, but it wasn't until I'd played all the way through for a third time--and replayed individual sections several times over--that I felt confident I understood the motivations of the main characters. Even now, I'm contemplating a fourth go in an effort to figure out the smaller details and fathom just how deep the conspiracy goes.The Occupation is a story-driven stealth-adventure game that rewards repeat plays even if it can also, at times, feel hostile to the idea of enabling you to delve into its narrative nooks and crannies. It tells a mature, challenging story that is both overtly political and ambiguous enough to leave plenty to interpretation, while its core stealth mechanics deliver a suitably tense experience.For most of the game you play as an investigative journalist who is reporting on a terrorist attack at the stately campus of a prominent IT company. An immigrant employee of the company has been arrested in connection with the alleged bombing, but you've received a tip-off that not all is quite so simple. There's also the matter of the company's work on a personal data harvesting project that seems worryingly linked to the British government's proposed Union Act, an anti-immigrant and anti-civil liberty bill about to face a crucial vote in parliament. It may well be set in the 1980s, but the issues tackled feel all too relevant today. It's a smart story that's told with a deft, delicate touch.It's essentially a detective story in which you investigate scenes, gather clues, compile evidence, and interrogate eye-witnesses. You have arranged interviews with three key players at the company, and in between your appointments, you are able to explore the offices. The catch: you're on a time limit during each of the three main investigative periods. When that time is up--and it varies between 30 and 60 minutes of real-ish time--your interview starts regardless of how much incriminating information you've managed to obtain, and your line of questioning is limited to what you can actually prove.Navigating the office space is in itself a challenge. These buildings are a maze of corridors, security checks, staff-only areas, ventilation shafts, crawlspaces, and temporary construction sites. Remembering how to get from one room to another when you have to travel to another floor, in and out of restricted areas, stealing an ID card here, shutting off the mains power there, is a stern memory test even once you're familiar with the basic layout. But the environments have a real tactile feel that makes you want to keep exploring them.Complicating matters further, if any staff find you in a restricted area--rifling through their filing cabinets, for example--they'll ask you to leave, and if you persist, call security. Fortunately there are gaps you can exploit, both physical ones like the vent under that desk that leads into the locked room next door and temporal ones like those few minutes you have to log in to someone's computer and read their emails before they return from the bathroom. Little touches, like pausing to close the blinds in an office window before continuing your snooping, go a long way to making you feel like a genuine detective.Sneaking around is your best bet to avoid attracting unwanted attention, particularly from Steve, the company's amiable security guy, who wanders the complex and will usher you out of anywhere you shouldn't be. Sometimes he'll spot you from a distance and come to investigate, giving you time to leave the area or find somewhere to hide while he searches. The stealth is just light enough that you get to feel like you slipped by effortlessly without having to worry too much about memorizing patrol patterns or keeping to the shadows. Sometimes it's a bit silly, though, and requires suspension of disbelief like when you clearly dash into a closet from which the only exit is through a vent, but Steve just goes, "Huh, I wonder where he went?"On one hilarious occasion, Steve caught me trying to access someone's computer, so I tried ducking under the desk. He sighed, "I know you're in there," as he entered the room, walked over to the desk and crouched down next to me, shining his torch directly in my ever-so-guilty face. I could only laugh as he escorted me outside and gave me my final warning.Piecing together the clues obtained from all your clandestine activities while you match them to your mental map of the facility is extremely satisfying. A crumpled note found in a trashcan might suggest that someone is hiding something, but now that you’ve found a way into their office you realize you don’t have the password to their computer and will have to rethink your approach. Your dossier, which updates whenever you reveal something of significance, suggests your next steps but rarely spells out the solution. When you have multiple lines of investigation on the go it can be taxing to keep them all straight, but it’s also hugely enjoyable to scan your dossier again and try to spot that vital connection you’ve been missing.However, it's highly unlikely that anyone could collect every important clue on their first attempt, meaning your mandatory interviews with the key players will feel frustrating and almost painfully ineffective. There are no do-overs without actually starting a new game--the game autosaves only at the beginning of the investigation period, and you cannot create a manual save. It's frustrating when you run out of time and realize you didn't collect all the clues; on my initial playthrough I had nothing at all to pin on my first interviewee while I failed the second investigation period so badly my interview was canceled entirely. One option is to accept failure and resign yourself to playing through the whole thing a second time.But I'm so glad I did. On my second playthrough I was able to find more clues that proved the company was lying about certain things, and I discovered whole new areas of the offices I hadn't even seen the first time around. Still, I knew there were things I'd missed, things I didn't yet understand.I went back for a third playthrough. I had my handwritten notes from my second playthrough, and made sure I added to them whenever I turned up something new. But, as the minutes ticked away, I knew I wasn't going to find out everything. Time was running out and I still didn't know how to get into that office or how I was going to get that document printed. If I went to the interview without being fully prepared, the game would autosave and I'd have to move on whether I wanted to or not. So I quit out. I restarted a fourth time. Then a fifth.I still haven't cracked that first interview. I've finished the game three times now, played that opening section six times, and seen two different endings based on my choices and performance throughout. Each time through, I am discovering something new, some document that adds to my pool of knowledge or some previously unrevealed connection between two people that casts a new light on their relationship. It makes me feel like a proper detective. But it's an arduous process, replaying the whole section over and over, for what feels like ever-diminishing returns. I can't help but wish there was some sort of time rewind mechanic to alleviate the repetition.Of course, it seems churlish to complain too much about a game I'm enjoying enough to willingly replaying it again and again to explore every facet of its story. The Occupation is the sort of game you'll find yourself thinking about when you're not playing it, that gets under your skin in ways you didn't even realize. I'm going to play it again. Maybe this time I'll completely crack the case.Info from Gamespot.com

Assault Android Cactus, first released on PC back in 2015, is a game that feels perfectly suited to the Switch. It's the sort of experience that works equally at home on your TV and in your hands during a morning commute. Thanks to a handful of new additions and some excellent port work, this new 'plus' edition is the definitive way to experience Witch Beam's excellent twin-stick shooter.Assault Android Cactus+ isn't a major overhaul of the original, but it's a significant iteration. As before, there are 25 levels to play through, nine playable characters--five of them unlockable--and the game's focus is on chasing high scores and earning higher ranks for performance by repeating levels. The further you go, the more enemies the game hurls at you in each level, and the more hits it takes to kill them. It's a frantic experience, one where you're almost constantly beset by loads of enemies, swarming and firing shots at you. By the end of the campaign the onslaughts can feel unending, even though, in truth, levels only last a few minutes each.From the outside it looks hardcore, but one of Assault Android Cactus' strengths is how discernable and navigable the chaos is. Enemy bullets are generally slow-moving, and some enemies are far less dangerous than others. Each android comes equipped with a primary weapon and a more powerful sub-weapon, each of which is given a generously short recharge time, so it's often possible to slip right into a huge group of enemies, do enormous damage, and slip out again. Enemies can drop power-ups, which let you speed up, give you additional firepower, or--best of all--temporarily cause all enemies to power down, letting you rack up kills. Getting kills in quick succession lets you build chain combos--the key to getting a high score is making sure that one of your enemies dies every 2.5 seconds, which means switching between damaging more hardy enemies and wiping out the smaller, more vulnerable baddies often.To beat a level, and to maintain a high score and thus earn a good rank, you'll want to take as few hits as possible. Getting knocked down rips 10% off your total score thus far, which can be frustrating, particularly in the near-endless 'Infinity Drive' mode, where your total score can remain static or drop over a long period as knockdowns rack up. Every now and then a downed enemy will drop a battery, which you need to collect to charge your power, so going too slowly will drain your battery right down. You'll only hit a Game Over screen if you run out of charge, which can lead to great, tense moments as you fling yourself right through dangerous territory to grab a battery at the last moment.The game supports up to four players, too, with enemy numbers scaling, and unique leaderboards depending on how many androids you send out into the fray. This means that it's a great fit for parties or multiplayer nights, but as a primarily solo player, AAC never feels lesser for being played alone. If you're planning on playing it with newcomers, though, it's worth being aware that some characters are much easier to get to grips with--and thus more enjoyable to play as--than others. Any character with a slow rate of fire can feel ill-suited to the game's fast pace, and while there are potential strategic advantages to using a railgun or a shotgun, I found myself opting for the faster characters every time.Levels will typically feature some sort of topographical gimmick. There could be walls that appear and disappear, conveyor belts that make movement tricky, or floors that fall away and rise back up depending on where you're standing. Each presents unique challenges for how you can move through them, and while only a few of them require that you fundamentally change how you play, each one provides a neat twist. The five bosses, meanwhile, are all challenging and fun in their own ways, changing forms and attack patterns throughout their fights. These bosses are Assault Android Cactus+ at its most bullet-hellish, and learning how to weave between their attacks while doing damage is extremely satisfying.The campaign is a challenge, but not an extreme one--the end boss gave me more grief than any other level, but I still managed to beat in within six attempts. The new Campaign+, which is unlocked once you beat the final boss and is currently exclusive to the Switch version, will push you harder. It takes each level and boss fight from the original and ramps it up--right from the beginning, there's a considerable spike in the number of enemies you'll face in each level, and they tend to be hardier than the ones in the regular campaign, requiring far more shots to kill. Campaign+ might not add any entirely new levels, but doubling the number of leaderboards you have to compete on gives you more incentive to keep coming back and improving.Curiously, while most levels are noticeably more difficult than they were before in Campaign+, I found that there were some exceptions. Later levels, which were already designed with heavy enemy loads in mind, feel about the same when a few more are thrown in, except the scores you can earn are now much higher. The most profound changes are found in the boss fights, which transform from relative challenges into utter bastards across the board. They're still an enjoyable challenge, though, and thankfully every level is immediately unlocked in Campaign+, so you can jump around and skip any levels that are causing you frustration.Less showy, but no less significant, is the new addition of single-stick controls. This is an accessibility option, allowing you to play with a single Joy-Con with auto-aiming enabled, and it works extremely well. These controls even helped me to see the value in some of the more complex androids--Shitake's railgun, and its ability to hit multiple enemies at once, is much easier to use with auto-aim. You lose just enough control that the absolute highest scores on the leaderboard are still going to come from players who are using both sticks, but in terms of enjoyment, the game loses surprisingly little when played this way.The other tweaks made for the '+' edition are minor--new costumes, the option to rewatch the game's few cutscenes, and some balance changes--but there's also no trade-off in opting for the Switch version. The machine shows no signs of struggle running Assault Android Cactus+, holding a steady framerate in both handheld and TV modes regardless of how many enemies are on screen. The game's clean, uncomplicated visual style suits the small screen well, and although you'll need an Internet connection for leaderboards, trying for high scores on the bus, or--if your commute is long enough--plugging into the Infinity Drive feels irresistible.Assault Android Cactus+ is the ultimate version of an excellent game, and a perfect marriage between console and content. It's exciting and intense without ever being impenetrable, and the new Campaign+ feature is a great reason to dive back into the game even if you've already completed it elsewhere. Info from Gamespot.com

The upcoming PS4 exclusive Days Gone is fast approaching its release on April 26. Coming from Bend Studio, the developers behind the Syphon Filter series and Uncharted: Golden Abyss, the third-person open-world game takes a lot of cues from previous Sony AAA titles, all while set within the popular setting of a zombie apocalypse. After a recent hands-on session with the game, GameSpot editors Edmond Tran and Alessandro Fillari came together to share their thoughts on what it was like exploring Days Gone's take on the Pacific Northwest during harsher times.For more on Days Gone, check out our interview with the developers from Bend Studio about the making of the game, and stay tuned for our video impressions detailing how the new open world game stacks up.Alessandro: So to start things off, what do you think of Days Gone in the broader sense? The basic premise is essentially Sons of Anarchy by way of The Walking Dead, and I certainly got the impression it was sticking fairly close to those sources of inspiration. Like the main character, Deacon St. John, seems like he'd fit right in within either of those shows.Edmond: I've never seen SOA and I actively dislike the TV adaptation of TWD, so Days Gone didn't spark excitement in that sense. My reaction to the trailers and demos was that it looked okay, if a bit generic. But after reading preview coverage from yourself and Oscar last year, where you both sounded pretty unimpressed, this just flew way off my radar and I had very low expectations going into my first experience of the game.Alessandro: Yeah, I was fairly underwhelmed by last year's demo. To reiterate a bit, in addition to it feeling a bit run of the mill as an open world game, a big factor that left me unimpressed was the poor technical performance. In the 2018 demo, this was particularly noticeable during moments when you encounter massive swarms of Freakers--zombies, basically--which made these encounters a major drag. However, this recent build of the game was far more improved. I still felt a bit underwhelmed by some parts of what Days Gone is about, but I ended up finding more to like in this newer slice.The FreakersEdmond: Oh wow, I actually didn't see any of the huge hordes of zombies--I'm sorry, "Freakers"--in my three hours of the game at all so I can't really speak to how I found those, but I did run into one noticeable technical hiccup: I raided an enemy encampment where all the environmental dressing failed to load, so enemies were taking cover behind nothing and pickup items were floating in thin air. But I'm taking a "whatever" stance on bugs since this isn't the final product.Alessandro: Yeah, I saw some weird bugs as well, like some moments characters had their guns stuck to their hands during cutscenes. But anyway, the times I saw herds of Freakers during this demo were some of my favorite moments during my playthrough. The first time was in a cave, which they like to hide out in, and the other time was when I was trying to rescue a survivor. When I went back to my bike after helping this NPC out, I found it surrounded by a hoard of freakers. I tried running for my bike, but they quickly got to me and I died. It was a brutal way for Deacon to go out, but with that said, I actually really dig how much of a presence the undead have because of their sheers numbers and how easily they can catch you off guard. They're a lot more unnerving to encounter than in most other zombies games.Edmond: Please, Alessandro. The "Freakers" don't like to be associated with common zombie folk, since Freakers are not actually undead, they're just really messed up living beings, hence the hibernation in caves and their need to eat and drink. Also a factor which really makes things very uncomfortable when the game put me in a situation where I had to kill freaker CHILDREN. It's messed up.I saw a few other freakers types, which were basically Witches and Boomers from Left 4 Dead, or Screamers and Bloaters from State of Decay, but the kids, the "Newts", mostly avoid you unless you're low on health. I got into a situation where I had to beat one with a baseball bat and I don't think I'm going to heaven anymore.Alessandro: Yeah, Newts only appear in specific areas where they set up dens, so thankfully they don't come up too often. It was very off-putting seeing them watch you from afar, just sort of looming in the distance. They'll only attack if you get in their space.The Open WorldEdmond: Which is something you don't necessarily have to do. I hate being reductive, but I really think the best way to describe this game is a narrative- and character-focused State Of Decay with a Far Cry level of freedom in approaching scenarios.My biggest takeaway from this game was how much I enjoyed the different ways you could use your variety of abilities and the environment to complete objectives, whether that be to get into a place, or destroy people or things. I respect any game that attempts to emphasise a flexibility to move back and forth between stealthy and loud approaches, or the fluidity to switch between ranged, melee, and guerilla combat techniques on the fly. I like mixing things up.Alessandro: That's actually a pretty fair way to describe the game. You do go around collecting herbs and helping survivors in the bases around the map. It channels a lot of the survivalist-experience you'd find from State of Decay, all within a large open world like Far Cry.And you know, I actually have to say that I ended up enjoying the setting of the Pacific Northwest a lot more than I thought I would. It went against a lot of my expectations for the region and it was pretty educational to be honest. The second area we got to explore in the demo seemed fairly close to a desert environment. It was inspired by the Belknap Crater, a real location that has a volcano. On one occasion I kinda got distracted by the beauty of the world that I totally didn't catch an obvious ambush spot in the road that was set up by one of the enemy factions.Edmond: Oh man, I was really caught off-guard by the random ambushes, and they led to some great watercooler moments, kinda like getting mugged in Red Dead Redemption 2. There was a moment during my session where I was wandering around, deeply focused on using the game's tracking mechanic to search the ground for some footprints, when I got jumped and overwhelmed.There were too many to fight close-quarters so I booked it into a nearby forest when I got an opening, dodging gunfire by weaving between the trees. I eventually ran down a hill, over a big rock, and hunkered under it. They lost sight of me but eventually, one passed right by the rock, I ambushed him as he wandered past, and thought: "thank you, varied environment for giving me that movie-like chase." They're definitely pitching the "high desert" and variable weather and terrain thing pretty hard. I've never been to Oregon, but the developers lead me to believe that there can be a blizzard in one region, real hot in another, there's no sales tax and everyone has their own craft beer, all of which affects how enemies behave, and how your motorbike reacts.Deacon's BikeAlessandro: Yeah, your bike is like your best friend in this game. It's your lifeline and it'll get you out of trouble fast. In addition to some general upkeep and keeping it gassed up, you can also upgrade the different parts to make it more durable. This all ties back into the survivor camps as well, since you can only upgrade it with their mechanics once you've built up enough trust with these camps.Edmond: ...which you do by completing missions, side stories, and bringing back freaker ears, animal pelts, that sort of thing. The bike really felt like my own, I had to protect it and keep an eye on it at all times, especially since I couldn't just whistle for it like a horse. I'm sure you can steal other bikes and maybe even buy a new one later in the game, but man I did not want this bike to get ruined, especially since Deacon loses his souped-up bike as part of the story in the first hour.Alessandro: Usually when you get a bike in a game, you want to go as fast as possible and do sick jumps, but it's like the total opposite here. I really went out of my way to avoid danger as much as possible on the bike. I seldom used the nitro boost.Edmond: My first inclination was to use the bike to ram enemies, but that kills its durability which I certainly did not want, since it'll then require more scrap to repair. I also really got into fuel conservation--I found myself being very light on the throttle and making the most of hills and momentum when riding it, which leads into the whole scavenging, crafting, and conservation aspect.Alessandro: During one encounter with some freakers on the road, they literally threw themselves at my bike to take me out. It did a lot of damage to myself and the bike. Even though it gives you a lot of mobility and freedom to explore, you're still very vulnerable on the bike, which I kinda like. It's very much an extension of you.Combat EncountersEdmond: You know what else was an extension of me? The spiked baseball bat I used across my entire session. I loved that thing so much that when it got close to breaking (most weapons have durability), I switched back to the weak-but-indestructible knife until I could get enough materials to repair the bat.Alessandro: There are a surprising amount of melee weapons to find. It sort of reminded me of a classic beat-em-up game. You can get lead pipes and spiked bats, and even machetes. Unless you're squaring off against heavily-armed bandits, close-range combat is generally really reliable.Edmond: It is! Well, unless you're fighting more than two people. But I really enjoyed relying on melee not only because it saved ammo, but because it was satisfying to perform and watch. I'm one of those Uncharted players that hip-fires like a maniac while closing the distance and then finishes with melee, and Days Gone caters to that same kind of flow. There's even a perk that enhances the damage when do when you switch it up like this, among other perks to boost weapon damage and durability. The shooting on its own felt serviceable enough, but at this early stage I found it was only really useful when you used it in tandem with the focus/slowdown perk. What did you think about the combat?Alessandro: For me, that was actually one of the areas where the game fell a bit flat. I mean the combat mechanics and amount of tools you have at your disposal are all well and good, but it just felt a bit unremarkable in actual practice. The mechanics on display, the slowdown shooting mechanic, and along with the variety of skills found within the fairly robust skill-tree, all of these are ideas that I've seen executed in plenty of other games. That's not totally a bad thing, but the way Days Gone goes about just felt more like going down a checklist of features to have in an open-world adventure game.Edmond: I definitely can't argue against that, though I feel like there's only so much you can do with a grounded, realistic setting like this without diving off the deep end. Although there is a gameplay element where you upgrade your stats with bio-injectors from the game's CDC (Centers for Disease Control) equivalent, so who knows? Maybe we'll get a double jump like New Dawn.Alessandro: I enjoyed the stealth gameplay however--which even comes with a tracking vision mode. That to me felt a bit more developed and also more in keeping with the tone. I especially liked seeing how the systems in the world would interact with one another, like when freakers attack other hostile humans.Edmond: Yes! I really appreciated the quality-of-life stealth features. You really need go out of your way to mark enemies with binoculars to get their pips on the map (it's not as generous as Far Cry), but you also get their vision cones. There's a sound indicator, they do the hiding in bushes thing, there are a few different tools to misdirect enemies, and the line-of-sight logic actually felt natural and believable.Alessandro: Yeah, the game does a nice job of helping you keep track of all these systems. I do hope we'll see a lot more variety towards the later sections. However, I felt that each of the systems--stealth, combat, and exploration--were better when they were blending different mechanics together, rather than in isolation. It's all about being super resourceful.Edmond: For sure, it's the ease of flowing between different states which keeps the encounters interesting, which I think they did for the three hours I played. I found certain situations where one kind of approach is just not effective--melee is impossible if there are more than two people like I mentioned before, for example, but I also found myself running low on ammo in prolonged firefights, meaning I would have to break line-of-sight, crouch-run between buildings to get across town, and find advantageous vantage points (like a hole in a boarded-up window) to get the jump and make sure my shots counted. I love doing that shit.CharactersAlessandro: What's your take on Deacon, the protagonist? The game really goes out of its way to try and sell you on the really harsh struggle he goes through.Edmond: Going in, I thought he was going to be a one-note, gruff biker dude. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see that he goes through a lot of real emotional twists and turns that really do work to make you empathise with him--this is a First-Party, "Wasn't The Last Of Us Great?"-Styled Sony Game, after all. I saw enough in the preview to suggest that he's got range and maybe even some shit going on deep down.I thought the performance was pretty good. He's believably uncomfortable in some situations--there was a point where he had to coerce a teenage girl to come with him, he fumbles over his words and seemed like he had no idea what to do, so he lies to her. He visibly regrets it later on, but it's communicated purely through his facial expressions, which I found notable.Out in the world he's certainly tough, but it also seems like he has some repressed anger and deep sorrow when he's put into situations where he has to face Bad People--you can hear him breathing heavily and angrily, he mumbles things to himself like "oh so you wanna rob and murder helpless people? Well how do you like this, you scum", that kind of thing. It certainly adds a lot of character to the game and reminds you that this is a game about Deacon, not necessarily your own survival fantasy.To that point though, one thing I noticed about this demo was the absence of branching story choices. I saw some earlier gameplay demos where the same cutscenes we saw had moments where you had to choose what actions Deacon takes (like mercifully kill a man or leave him to the freakers, give your partner back his gun or keep it). These choices were previously pitched with the idea that you can change Deacon's relationship to the characters and perhaps the overall narrative, Telltale Games style. Maybe they're doubling down on the "Deacon's story, not yours" thing. Did you see any of that stuff in your previous demos?Alessandro: I didn't, actually. The recent stuff we played covered a lot of the same ground from last year's demo. It does seem like there's a greater focus on specific storylines for characters--which you can view in the game's menu. That young woman that you mentioned actually opens up her own storyline called "You're Safe Now", which deals with her circumstances in the camp you bring her to. This particular camp has its own troubles, most of which are related to the leader who imposes some harsh rules on everyone inside the safety of the base. Deacon clashes with her numerous times, which leads to some tense moments.But to your point, it does seem like there are moments that are prime for choices and player-agency. I do wonder if that's even a thing in the game at this point during the section we played. There was a particular moment early where you have to make a choice in executing a particular character. They sort of linger on the scene for a bit before Deacon ends up going through with it.I was initially a bit lukewarm on Deacon, in some cases I found him unlikable even, but I do agree that advancing the story helped humanize him a bit. I am curious to see how he'll change towards the end-game, and what sort of storylines will come about.Edmond: I also need to draw attention to the fact that the actor who plays Deacon, Sam Witwer, was the voice and face of the moody protagonist in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. So I think we all know how this story is going to end: Darth Vader saves him from a ravaged Earth and becomes his senpai.Closing ThoughtsAlessandro: I do have to say that I feel a little more positive about the game compared to last year's demo. The world itself was a lot more expansive and varied than I expected, and it was interesting seeing how those systems sort of mingle together. However, I still have some reservations. This game has been in development for over six years, and I feel that's very noticeable in the style and type of gameplay it employs--which is something that's been seen in numerous other games. The zombie apocalypse feels a bit passé for me, and I'm hoping that Days Gone has a lot more going on than what I saw.Edmond: I played a lot of DayZ, which well and truly burnt me out on the zombie thing. But I still enjoy scavenging and survival gameplay if the loop is done really well and there's a good hook. I wanted to like State of Decay 2, but it was a little too monotonous and soulless for me. I went into Days Gone with similarly low expectations, which is probably why I ended up feeling so positive on it. The fact that Days Gone is going to be so focused on narrative, characters, and flexible combat options has me eager to put time aside for it. But like you, I also hope it has some surprises up its sleeve.And an unlockable horn button. Let me beep the damn horn on the bike.Days Gone will release for PlayStation 4 on April 26, 2019.Info from Gamespot.com

Bend Studio, the developers behind the upcoming PS4 exclusive Days Gone, have seen the PlayStation platform grow through the ages. Starting out with Bubsy 3D, one of the earliest 3D platformers, they pivoted to great success with the Syphon Filter series--one of the original PlayStation's more defining first-party games. In the time since, Bend Studio worked closely with other developers on franchises like Uncharted and Resistance, but on the year of Syphon Filter's 20th anniversary, the studio is launching its first new IP in two decades.After spending some hands-on time with the game, we spoke with creative director John Garvin and game director Jeff Ross about the studio's formative years and how the new open-world game set in the Pacific Northwest aims to shake up the familiar trappings of the setting. The following interview has been edited for clarity and readability.Bend Studio is actually one of the oldest PlayStation developers still around today. This is the first new IP coming from the studio in a long time, so with that, there seems to be a lot of perspective on what makes a good Sony game.John Garvin: Well for 20 years, I worked on the Syphon Filter series, Resistance: Retribution, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and among others. We've always been working on third-person shooters that are narrative-driven, that's really what we do. But you're right, it's our first new IP in a long time. However, we're always thinking of ways to push the gameplay and ourselves further. The thing about working on Days Gone, is that the PS4 obviously has got a lot more power than anything we've worked on before. We couldn't have done something like the hoard gameplay on any other platform like the PS3 or Vita, and it was really exciting for us to do work on the PS4.Jeff Ross: To me, Bend Studio just always goes for it. We're in Central Oregon, we're kinda outsiders, but we're about making this big game. This one is certainly the biggest, but as a developer, we're small, scrappy and we're willing to kinda go for it and let it all hang out on this title.Garvin: And we're really lucky because Sony, I think, is unique to publishers and to platform holders because there is so much longevity in the production team. Some of the people on staff have worked on Bubsy 3D, and they've gone on to work on bigger games. But to your point about seeing the evolution of PlayStation, it's been pretty incredible because I love the fact that Shuhei Yoshida is willing to take chances and say, "Hey, how about a next-gen handheld platform? Or how would you guys like to build an Uncharted game on that?" That was quite an opportunity for us and that was something that we really appreciated happening.So Bend Studio has been making Days Gone over the course of six years, and we saw the game for the first time during the midpoint of that at E3 2016. Over this period, both Sony and the popularity of the zombie sub-genre has changed. Can you talk about how the game has changed over the years, and what's stayed constant?Garvin: Here's the funny thing about Days Gone, the core idea has been the same from day one. We had a concept painting that our art director had done, just spitballing ideas, and it's this character--we weren't calling him Deacon St. John back then--but he was sitting on the roof of an old sawmill and 1,000 zombies are snaking their way up to him. Our first tech demo was a re-creation of that and you have this one guy who's going to be fighting them. So we really asked ourselves "how do we turn that into a game?" You see movies that kinda do that, but the question is, how do you turn that into a game and make it fun? That was literally what drove the development early on for Days Gone.Ross: That key image, as a matter of fact, was the basis for our first E3 2016 demo. We knew it was a risk to come out with our biggest asset. That sawmill from the original concept piece was our first public demonstration of the game and we executed on that vision. Six years is a lot of time, but we also see it as a plus. It gives us the time to get things right. It's a great luxury. It is a long time to work on a game, but it's also a huge open world, dynamic game in next-gen fidelity.All the highways are destroyed and you're doing a lot of off-roading because they were trying to stop the hoard. These pieces all kind of tied together and basically what it's taken over the last six years is turning that into a game that had elements that were familiar because we feel really strongly that that's what genre is. It's the players that bring expectations to a game and they want to experience something that they're going to have fun with, but at the same time, we actually want to go against those expectations as well.I actually kind of appreciate that this game is set in the Pacific Northwest. It's a bit of an unusual area to have an open-world game.Garvin: Yeah from the beginning we wanted it in the Pacific Northwest. Most people actually don't know that the region is actually the mostly desert. Seattle is on the west side of the Cascade Range, as is about a third of Oregon, and that's where all the rain is. That's where all the green forest is. Where we live, it's mostly all desert which means that it's all scarred by volcanism. Which means you have ravines, you have buttes, you have all these steep sort of crevices everywhere. So all the vegetation is built up around that because it's high desert, it's very harsh, very extreme.We haven't seen this in a video game, and we thought it would be interesting, fun to explore and it would look beautiful. What better backdrop to fight a horde than this amazing environment that you're in.It actually went against a lot of my own expectations for what the setting was all about.Garvin: Yep, and it's all absolutely real. All this stuff is heavily researched so like the Belknap Crater is a place you can go in central Oregon. Something that we really haven't talked about, that we're really proud of, is the fact that all the different regions in the game have unique weather systems. It rains a lot less in the Belknap area, whereas the Cascade region it rains a lot more. As you move further south and into other biomes, you're gonna run into other types of weather patterns that are totally unique to those regions.Ross: Right, it's a beautiful and sinister environment. And honestly, it's like a character in the game in its own way. It can be snowing in the morning, it can be hot at lunch, then it can be snowing again or raining at night. It can snow as late as June or July too. It's really a dynamic environment, so we're not really stretching much for the game. We're just delivering on what's there.A common element for a lot of first-party PS4 games is that there's a strong focus on character, and Deacon seems to find himself in a lot of different events with other characters. I noticed there was a section in the main menu called Storylines, which kept track of your current relationships and objectives for these key characters.Ross: I'm glad you noticed the Storylines. We wanted to make sure there was very little dissonance in the open world and the story. We haven't really shown a lot of the main story yet, but everything you do in this world matters for an important reason. The Storylines mechanics was a way to kinda emphasize advancing the smaller threads in the larger storyline. It's a way for us to connect the open world activities that the player is doing and kinda frame it in a way that shows why it matters. There is a really tight integration between the two--the story and the open world systems.Garvin: I can tell you that when it comes to making a Sony first-party PS4 AAA exclusive, there's a heavy emphasis on character-driven storylines and narratives. You see a little bit of that in the demo, where you might see the storyline where you meet this girl you have to rescue. Last time I beat the game, it took me 30 plus hours to beat the golden path. That's one of the things we've been doing at Bend Studio for all these years; Character-driven experiences, and Days Gone is absolutely no exception.The release of this game is slowly coming up. So after spending so long on this game, is there anything about it that sticks out most for you?Garvin: Yeah I mean, to me, when I'm still playing I always have to pinch myself. It's something that we set out six years ago. We kinda told Sony that "Alright, we are going to make this huge open world game, with all these systems". And nobody really believed us, they trusted us, but they didn't believe it. To see that stuff come together, ultimately, when you get to the final credits of the game, the feels are there. Everything you've said it came together and the game stung, and it's everything we set out to make and more.Ross: It's really transformed us. When people tell us no, that redoubles our effort. It's like when they say something is impossible, we'll prove that we can do it. And man, I think we did it. So I'm really super proud of that. From my point of view, like you said, it's all about the feels. People are not expecting it and they're going to be surprised. By the time you get done with it you're going to have experienced a lot.Garvin: I think [Days Gone] is everything Bend Studio represents. We are sort of punching above our weight. We are really ambitious and we really want to create something that is awesome, even when we're just a small studio in the middle of the high desert.Info from Gamespot.com

The recent launch of Season 8 in Fortnite: Battle Royale brought a great deal of new content to the game. Now, just a few days later, developer Epic Games has released another update that brings something that had been teased and fits in nicely with the season's pirate theme. Patch 8.01 is out now, and its primary addition is the new Buried Treasure item. Here's how that works and everything else that's new in today's update, including a vaulted item and new Limited-Time Mode.As detailed in the patch notes for update 8.01, the game now lets you track down treasure. Buried Treasure specifically refers to a Legendary-tier item that takes the form of a map; players use it to uncover loot hidden across the island. Players can only hold one map at a time and anyone who manages to find a chest will be rewarded with Legendary loot. Once you arrive at the target location, you'll dig up the treasure with your pickaxe. These maps can be found from floor loot and chests.Although Buried Treasure is the big new feature, there are some smaller additions, tweaks, and changes to the game too. Slide Duos has been introduced as the new Limited-Time Mode. This makes it so you essentially slide around everywhere--your run speed has been increased, but friction is "greatly lowered," and there is no fall damage. Everyone else gets a Grappler with unlimited ammo to help them traverse this slippery world.In terms of balance tweaks, the Infantry Rifle has a lower chance of appearing out of chests and being found on the floor, as does the Clinger. Bottle Rockets have been vaulted altogether, meaning you won't encounter them in the game for the time being. Additionally, you can now slide down terrain without taking damage from an increased angle.Finally, Epic is testing out a new type of tournament with the Gauntlet Solo and Gauntlet Duo Test Events. Check out the full patch notes for the Battle Royale below to see everything that's new with this just-released update on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and mobile.The launch of Season 8 means there's a new Battle Pass to get too. This gives players a chance to unlock a number of new skins and other cosmetics. There are already fresh challenges to complete as well. You can find tips for those in our complete Season 8 challenges guide.Fortnite: Battle Royale Update 8.01 Patch NotesGameplayIncreased the angle at which you can slide down terrain without taking damage from 65 degrees to 75 degrees.Limited Time Mode: Slide DuosSummaryIce blocks on everyone's feet, infinite ammo Grapplers in everyone's inventory - a recipe for a slippery good time!Mode DetailsFriction greatly lowered.Max run speed greatly raised.Falling damage removed.Infinite ammo Grapplers added to everyone's inventory.Weapons + ItemsBuried Treasure It’s a map that is used to track down buried chests on the map. Chests contain a trove of legendary loot.X marks the spot! The chest must be dug up using a pickaxe.There is a limit of one map held at a time.Legendary Rarity.Can be found from Floor Loot and Chests.Reduced Infantry Rifle availability Reduced the chance of receiving an Infantry Rifle from Chests from 14.41% to 13.39%Reduced the chance of receiving an Infantry Rifle from Floor Loot from 2.41% to 2.24%Reduced Clinger availability Reduced the chance of receiving Clinger’s from Chests from 9.42% to 5.52%Reduced the chance of receiving Clinger’s from Floor Loot from 1.27% to 1.02%Vaulted Bottle RocketsEventsNew Tournament: Gauntlet Solo Test Event & Gauntlet Duo Test Event We are running a new type of tournament as a test of several format updates.Extended Hours: This event consists of a single session which lasts until March 9th 00:00 GMT. Due to the extended hours for this event, Duo players will each have their own score that remains when changing partners.Note: Due to the playlist featuring matchmaking based on your score, the quality or availability of matches may differ at certain times of day.Updated Scoring: Match Limit: NoneBus Fare: -2 Points Each match played will reduce your score by two points in the form of a ‘Bus Fare’ at the start of the match.Tournament scores cannot go into the negatives - at the end of a match, if a player has a negative score for the tournament then their score will be reset to zero points.Victory Royale: +3 Points (+10 Total)2nd - 5th: +2 Points (+7 Total)6th - 10th: +2 Points (+5 Total)11th - 25th: +3 Points (+3 Total)Each Elimination: +1 PointMatchmaking: Players are still matchmade against opponents with similar point totals.Matchmaking will wait for up to 8 minutes before creating a match with the closest players available.Matchmaking will search in a considerably wider points range after 4 minutes of searching.At the conclusion of the Gauntlet Test Event, the Top 5% of players based on their final score will unlock the ‘Gauntlet Finals’ tournament.New Tournament: Gauntlet Solo Finals & Gauntlet Duo Finals Scheduled 3-hour event, check tournament in-game for your local time. Note: NA East and NA West are now separate for scheduled tournaments, and no longer share a leaderboard.Scoring: Match Limit: 10 GamesVictory Royale: +3 Points (+10 Total)2nd - 5th: +2 Points (+7 Total)6th - 10th: +2 Points (+5 Total)11th - 25th: +3 Points (+3 Total)Each Elimination: +1 PointTop 3000 players in each server region will advance to Round 2 on Sunday during same time block.AudioImprovement to the standard AR sound so that it's not overbearing on the shooter.The sound made when a player destroys a structure is now louder when instigated by enemies.Footstep audio blends in the above/below layers, rather than binarily switching between them.Footstep occlusion traces from the head of enemies when they're above or below.Reduced the volume of the Season 8 Victory Umbrella.The Season 8 Victory Umbrella now uses the correct sound on Mobile/Switch.MobileBug FixesFixed an issue when pressing the fire button with 2 fingers causes fire action to continuously loop.Info from Gamespot.com

In its ongoing quest to keep things fun and fresh, Fortnite developer Epic Games has introduced a new gameplay feature for Season 8 with the game's latest update. As part of patch 8.01, players will now be able to use maps to hunt for treasure. However, this isn't like the treasure hunts from seasons past, so we've put together a short overview of how it works.Naturally, the first part of hunting for treasure is getting your hands on a map. These maps can be found as Floor Loot or in Chests. They are a Legendary item that take up an inventory slot, and you can also only carry one at a time--so no hoarding them! Using your map will make a small dotted red line appear in front of you. However, this line doesn't extend out very far, so it's designed to serve as an indication of the general direction you should be heading instead of a direct path to it.Once you're close to the location you'll see a golden shaft of light marking exactly where you need to dig with your pickaxe. There's also a very hand "X" to mark the spot. Digging takes a little bit of time, so be careful and make sure there aren't any other players around to pick you off. When you successfully open the chest, you'll be treated to some items of Legendary rarity level.One thing to keep in mind is that, like other items, treasure maps can be forcefully taken from you. That means that if a player kills you, they can grab the map and hunt down the treasure instead. Naturally, you can do the same, so if you're feeling a bit piratey, you could hunt down players using their maps and then take them out to snatch their loot.The first set of weekly challenges for Fortnite Season 8 is now available, and the two trickiest of them task players with visiting the new Pirate Camps and finding a giant face in the desert, jungle, and snow. You can see the complete list of this season's objectives in our full Season 8 challenges guide. Info from Gamespot.com

Judgment is coming to the west. Sega announced that the game from the studio behind Yakuza is coming to PS4 on June 25. Those who pre-order digitally will get a head-start on the detective adventure game on June 21.Originally titled Judge Eyes in Japan, Judgment is a narrative-driven game in which players assume the role of investigator Takayuki Yagami looking into grisly crimes. It's been described as Yakuza meets Phoenix Wright, for the way it blends a heavy story focus with investigative gameplay sequences. It also shares a setting with the Yakuza series: Kamurocho, the fictionalized city modeled after Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo.Though it shares some common traits with Yakuza, though, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi says this game is "completely different" from its other works. Yakuza has become a critically acclaimed series of its own, most recently concluding the gangster melodrama series with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.For more on Judgment, check out our extensive hands-on preview."If I've learned anything from seven Yakuza entries, it's that Ryu ga Gotoku Studios makes good on the details it throws into its games," Michael Higman wrote. "Judgment provides a fresh perspective of a familiar setting. It may not be a Yakuza game by name, but the spirit seems to still be there. You can investigate Kamurocho's latest crimes as Takayuki Yagami in Summer 2019 when Judgment launches exclusively for PlayStation 4."Info from Gamespot.com

When I think about my own history with Mortal Kombat, it was all about beating my brother or friends one-on-one so I could finish them with a savage fatality in MK3. It revolved around a light-hearted sense of competition wrapped in a disgustingly hilarious gore-filled fighting game. By no means has that been lost in Mortal Kombat 11, but it's not necessarily the thing I'm most excited about. Even as I pay closer attention to the FGC and find pro-level play ever-fascinating, it's the single-player content that I'm eager to jump into.During a preview event in Chicago, Illinois--home to developer NetherRealm Studios--I had the opportunity to spend about two hours with Mortal Kombat 11's latest playable build. This included a roster of familiar faces such as Johnny Cage, Cassie Cage, and Kano in addition to the playable characters available during January's reveal event. But this time, I got a taste of the game's story mode and Towers of Time challenges, and messed around with Variations and customization. Considering the pedigree of NetherRealm and the breadth of content Injustice 2 packed in, it doesn't come as much of surprise that MK11 follows suit.Get ready for present-day Johnny Cage arguing with '90s Johnny Cage.Story TimeFrom the opening cutscene to the end of the first chapter, it's apparent that MK11 touches on some of the best parts from NetherRealm's previous work. After the stellar execution of Injustice 2's story mode, that had a cinematic flair expected to accompany DC universe characters, you'd hope that carries over into MK11, and it does. Mortal Kombat 11 picks up where MKX's story left off, and starts with the scene that was shown during the game's reveal. In the Jinsei Chamber, Raiden decapitates the Elder God Shinnok just before the mysterious Kronika shows up to hint at her time-manipulating abilities, saying, "The arc of the universe bends to my will. It is only a matter of time," and halting the flow of blood from Shinnok's severed head.Cut to Earthrealm, where Cassie Cage earns a promotion within the ranks of the Special Forces commissioned by... her mom, Sonya Blade. As the unit's leader, Sonya insists it isn't due to nepotism and tells Cassie that she has to pass one more test: to fight... her mom. You're put in Cassie's shoes in this chapter, and there's still that smooth transition from cutscene to fight that gets you into the action without a hitch, blending gameplay and story seamlessly. After a brutal (yet respectful) beatdown that's oddly humorous in context, the whole family comes together as Johnny Cage jumps in to celebrate the promotion with his daughter. But the good times are in short order; Raiden arrives to let everyone know that an evil Liu Kang and the Netherrealm army are on the prowl, and Earthrealm must hurry to take them down.Cassie and Sonya are leading the Earthrealm Special Forces to put an end to the Netherrealm army.In the war room, Raiden, Sonya, Johnny, and Cassie gather to devise a plan for a two-pronged assault on the Netherrealm, and it turns out successful at first. Raiden mows down the hordes of brutes, raining lightning as a one-man-army while acting as a diversion for the Special Forces to infiltrate the castle. Jade and Kabal catch wind of the invasion, and start to throw hands with Jacqui Briggs and Cassie, and now you enter another playable fight. Although I'm not at liberty to discuss a few important details that close out this opening chapter, it was left on a cliffhanger when the Earthrealm army starts to get overwhelmed and Sonya falls victim to the castle's crumbling walls. All the while, I was drawn into what MK11 is trying to do with its cast and narrative beats thanks to incredibly well-rendered character models and a high-stakes script that will have both series fans and newcomers invested. That's not to mention the wild possibilities in store when merging timelines begin to factor into the story.After the stellar execution of Injustice 2's story mode that had a cinematic flair expected to accompany DC universe characters, you'd hope that carries over into MK11, and it does.NetherRealm isn't afraid to play fast-and-loose with its narrative and timeline. The introduction of Kronika and time manipulation may seem like an easy excuse to throw in all its characters and insert fan service at will, but it's Mortal Kombat, and that means things were always bound to get bonkers. MK11 opens the door for some wild possibilities that are already apparent in the new story trailer (see above) by giving us a taste of not one, but two Johnny Cages riffing off of each other. It's also evident in the trailer that this creates room for more complicated conflicts, plot twists, and ever-changing allegiances between the Netherrealm and Earthrealm.I spoke with series creator Ed Boon about many things, but among them was story inspiration. He pointed to the writing team, stating, "They came up with this whole time bending thing and bringing characters back from the past. So when we got excited about that, a lot of it just sparked [the thought], 'Okay, now we can do this, this and that!'" When asking NetherRealm game designer Derek Kirtzic about the direction MK11 is taking, he said, "You're going to start seeing the resurrection of a lot of old characters. A lot of fan favorites. And it's always just [a question of] how we can continue to expand on this universe."Kronika's time manipulation is sure to make the story mode a wild ride. Maybe we'll see Liu Kang face himself.The cinematic presentation is sharp as ever, and the premise is more enticing than its predecessors. It helps big time that MK11 will be a high watermark visually for the series, with a cast that's vividly brought to life (and death). If there's a disappointing aspect from the small snippet I played, it's that the story mode might be a bit light on the gameplay front by having only a few fights throughout. But let me tell you about the Towers of Time.Towers of TimeIf a heavier emphasis on gameplay and challenge is what you're looking for in MK11, you'll want to dig into the Towers of Time mode. Here, you're presented with a multitude of towers, each that embody a series of thematic fights in rapid succession featuring modifiers to keep things fresh. This may sound familiar since it's essentially a parallel to Injustice 2's Multiverse Mode.Fighting games sometimes struggle to maintain solo players' attention, but it seems to be a concern that's being firmly addressed in Mortal Kombat 11.In the "Kold Chill" tower, I had to win four matches, one after the other, with the perk of having Sub-Zero available as an assist. I could call him into the fight for a quick attack using the right stick; directions dictate what he'd do whether it was a launching attack to initiate a juggle or a freeze that stunned my opponent for a second. Things got spicier in the "Test Your Might" tower that granted me access to Konsumables, which are modifiers that let me equip special attacks to the right stick or grant me buffs during fights. The catch here is that I had to win two rounds without my health bar replenishing after winning the first round--on top of that, the CPU-controlled opponent only had to win one round to finish the fight. It turned into this weird mix of turtling as I called in meteors and missile strikes from the Konsumable perks I equipped, but also moving in close to land a combo without taking too much damage in the process. It's a different way to enjoy the game, and a means of acquiring new gear to tinker with the roster's Variations.The Towers of Time aren't static, though. They'll also act as incentivized leaderboards. When I asked Ed Boon about how the mode will keep players interested beyond what's in the launch package, he said, "we're introducing different online game modes that are single-player-focused and give you your own personal challenge, to go up leaderboards and also earn special prizes and whatnot." You can think of these as daily or weekly challenges, similar to ongoing events in other online games. Kirtzic described it as, "almost like an infinite amount of single player content." If my brief time with the game is any indication, NetherRealm seems to be tackling Mortal Kombat 11's longevity from several different directions, though we'll have to wait and see how well these future challenges sustain interest in the game and change up the experience.A Matter Of TimeFighting games sometimes struggle to maintain solo players' attention, but it seems to be a concern that's being firmly addressed in Mortal Kombat 11. The game will have Klassic Towers and the Krypt mode in addition to the story and Towers of Time, though we weren't able to check them out. However, none of the content would really land if it wasn't for MK11's heavy, satisfying fighting system that improves upon a good foundation set by NetherRealm's previous games.There's also a sense of playfulness throughout the game, even as dark and violent as the game can get. Relentless gore might be a deal-breaker for some but for many, the cartoonishly over-the-top brutality is a staple that makes the series what it is. You'll be able to see for yourself when Mortal Kombat 11 hits the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on April 23.Editor's note: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios provided accommodations for the Mortal Kombat 11 preview event in Chicago, Illinois for which this feature is based on.Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft has announced another handful of games coming to Xbox Game Pass throughout the first half of March. You can prepare for spring by hoarding up the latest in an open-world action franchise, racing across the finish line, building a super-team, and exploring the wasteland.The first two games, Just Cause 4 and Lego Batman 2, are coming on March 6. Just Cause 4 is the most recent release on the list, having just come out in December. It's the latest in the series starring professional dictator-overthrower Rico Rodriguez, letting you cause wanton destruction amid new extreme weather events like snowstorms and tornadoes. Lego Batman 2 brings back the Dark Knight alongside a host of other famous DC crimefighters to save Gotham City from the blocky schemes of Lex Luthor and the Joker.Then on March 14, the service will add F1 2018 and Fallout 4. F1 is the official game of the globally popular racing series, and features media interviews and other events to help shape your reputation as a racer. It also brings the French and German Grand Prix back to the racing calendar. Fallout 4 is the latest traditional installment in the RPG series, sending you out on a quest among the wastes to locate your missing son.The listing ends there, midway through the month, so we're likely to see another announcement covering the second half of March sometime later. Microsoft similarly split February.Xbox Game Pass is an all-you-can-eat subscription service, offering dozens of full games to download for a monthly fee of $9.99 / £8. Microsoft is including first-party games at launch to sweeten the deal, and in February that gave players access to Crackdown 3. You can check out the line-up of Game Pass games here.Just Cause 4 - March 6Lego Batman 2 - March 6F1 2018 - March 14Fallout 4 - March 14Info from Gamespot.com

Mortal Kombat 11 has already featured a ton of recognizable faces from the breadth of the entire series, and more returning characters have appeared. Erron Black, Cassie Cage, and Jacqui Briggs--all characters who made their first appearances in Mortal Kombat X--feature prominently in a new story trailer and have been confirmed as playable fighters.The trailer focuses on Kronika and her attempts to fix the rift being caused by Raiden by drawing together multiple realities in order to reset the timeline. That brings in some recognizable characters we know from the series like Johnny Cage, along with newer additions that just appeared for the first time in the last game. The trailer shows each of the newly announced characters in story sequences, as well as brief snippets of what would appear to be their fatalities. [Update: An additional trailer has revealed a more in-depth look at Cassie and her moveset.]Cassie Cage is the daughter of Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage, while Jacqui Briggs is the daughter of Jax. Erron Black is an Outworld gunslinger and mercenary. You can read more about what to expect from our new Mortal Kombat 11 preview.NetherRealm is planning an online stress test for March 15-17. That test will be closed and only available to select players in the US, and only for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. Another beta test will be coming from March 28-31, which will be open for Xbox One and PS4 pre-orders. Pre-ordering also gets you Shao Kahn as a playable character. Once the full game releases on April 23, it will come to those platforms along with PC and Nintendo Switch.Info from Gamespot.com

The Shinobi known as the Wolf, the protagonist of From Software's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, is at a serious disadvantage. As he ventures through the hostile territory of the grounds of the castle where his master, the young Divine Heir, is being held prisoner, he constantly faces overwhelming odds and foes as deadly as any found in the Dark Souls games. Combat is difficult and punishing--and death comes frequently.Players' relationship with death has been central to many of From Software's games, from Demon's Souls and Dark Souls to Bloodborne. In those games, death carries a massive penalty, costing you your ability to strengthen your character, and causing every decision in combat to become one of risk versus reward. Should you fight that enemy that could kill you to gain a massive payday in power-increasing souls, or avoid the gamble? Should you press the attack for a risky win, or stay conservative and wait for a better opening but prolonging the fight inviting potential disaster?Sekiro deals in a lot of the same sorts of situations, with enemies that are exceptionally deadly and combat that's unforgiving; you're going to die--a lot. The difference is that Sekiro handles death differently than other recent From Software games, turning it into a tool in your arsenal, while also making it even more punishing. GameSpot recently had a chance to spend a few hours playing Sekiro, which included its opening area. What was most striking was how the omnipresence of death colors the experience in a new way compared to From Software's other games, creating new strategies and new pressures. In Sekiro, death doesn't just have combat and progression consequences--it alters the game's story.That story begins with the Wolf, essentially, dying. After an attempt to rescue the Divine Heir in a short tutorial section, the Wolf is defeated by the Heir's captor, losing an arm in the process. The Wolf awakens sometime later, having survived thanks to a strange power. Coming to in a dilapidated shrine on the castle grounds where the Heir is being held, the Wolf finds that a strange sculptor has fitted him with a prosthetic arm called the Shinobi Prosthetic. It's equipped with a grappling hook, and upgrading the arm over time is one way you'll progress your character in Sekiro. The prosthetic can be fitted with various weapons; we tried a flamethrower and an attachment that threw stunning fireworks in the faces of enemies. Other attachments include blades, and switching between your weapon options quickly makes the Shinobi Prosthetic function a bit like the trick weapons of Bloodborne.After meeting a few other people hanging around the shrine to help out, including a nurse who won't say who her master is and a samurai who lets you practice on him because he can't seem to die, Sekiro starts to advance like any other Souls game, in which you strike out and explore the world around you. Sekiro's grapple means you can reach high areas like rooftops, from which you can scope things out and plan your route and your combat options, and you can even sneak up on enemies or descend on them from above to kill them without a fight. That's good, because fighting enemies is tough, especially when there's more than one of them; your ability to grapple out of danger, even briefly, is going to keep you alive.Staying alive is important, but death in Sekiro is more nuanced than in Souls games. If you're killed in battle, the Wolf can use his strange power to resurrect himself. In fact, you can use death as a tool-- enemies will often wander away from you after you fall, allowing you to resurrect and sneak up behind them to deal huge blows.The caveat is, you only get two chances to revive yourself, and after that, the consequences are dire. Like Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, you lose a huge amount of progress if you die and can't be resurrected. As you fight and kill enemies, you gain points you can use in progression trees to buy new skills and abilities for the Wolf to make him stronger; if you die, you lose half of all the points you've accumulated (but not the skills you've already acquired). The same goes for money, which is what you use to upgrade the Shinobi Prosthetic. Unplanned deaths seriously hamper your progression, and unlike the Souls games, you can't return to your own corpse to reclaim what you've lost.What's more, death has further-reaching consequences than just slowing your ability to make yourself stronger. The more you die, the more a sickness called Dragon Rot grows in the world around you, and it can begin to afflict the people you've interacted with in the game. When a character you've met in Sekiro gets sick with the Dragon Rot, it'll change the ways they interact with you, possibly even stopping them from talking to you (or helping you, or selling you things, as the case may be). The sickness is represented by an item called Essence of Rot in your inventory, and you'll get one for each infected character. We didn't see what those characters' ultimate fates might be--Activision developers on-hand wouldn't reveal whether they could die in the name of holding back spoilers, but did say you'll be able to search for a cure to the disease to potentially the sick.Though dying can be a huge setback in Sekiro, there is a chance you won't suffer the full pain of losing half of what you've earned every time. Sometimes when you die, a mechanic called Unseen Aid will kick in. This is basically a chance for divine intervention from the gods and Buddha, allowing you to keep all your experience points despite going to your grave. Unseen Aid has a relatively low chance of kicking in, though, and the more Essence of Rot you're carrying around, the lower the chance of receiving Unseen Aid becomes. The more you die, the tougher on you Sekiro can be.So even with the revive system, death is a big consequence in Sekiro. Making sure you can avoid death's penalties has a big impact on how you'll play. You get two revive charges, but once you use them, each has a different requirement to restore them. One you get back from resting at one of the many idol statues in Sekiro, which are equivalent to the Souls games' bonfires, complete with the mechanic of restoring enemies you've already defeated to surrounding areas. The second charge comes from actually killing enemies--which means that you'll need to be aggressive when you return to the fight, or retreat to an idol (and respawn any defeated enemies) to protect yourself. Even if you just have the idol charge, you'll need to kill an enemy in order to be able to use it, though; you can't reclaim your own life without swapping one in return.Despite death being an ever-present consideration, our time in Sekiro demonstrated how important being aggressive can be. Not only is it essential to make kills in order to restore your revives to deal with bad situations, but aggression baked into all of Sekiro's combat much more than in From's previous games, thanks to the Posture system. Posture refers to an enemy's ability to deal with your attacks; as you strike them or parry their blows, their Posture is lowered, and once it's completely emptied, they're staggered. That lets you get in close for a deathblow strike to do massive damage. While you can do damage with attacks when you parry a blow or break an enemy's guard, deathblows from breaking Posture and stealth attacks are the real way you win fights in Sekiro. Getting them generally requires getting right in enemies' faces, though, because Posture is both about deflecting enemy attacks and landing your own--and it's a constant balance between maintaining your own Posture and breaking your opponent's. It makes for tough, up-close fights where pressing the attack is rewarded, and the hit-and-run, conservative tactics of avoiding damage in Bloodborne and Dark Souls are much less effective.Though Sekiro offers more combat options thanks to the addition of stealth mechanics like sneaking through bushes to ambush enemies, and the grapple that lets you zip away from enemies or onto rooftops to reposition, it definitely carries From Software's signature difficulty. The systems surrounding death and combat in the game make for a fresh take on what Souls fans are used to, but with effects that might be even more crushing than before.What's interesting is the way Sekiro is using ideas similar to what fans are familiar with to create fresh experiences--whether it's combining the assassination opportunities of stealth that even work on some bosses, with more aggressive combat; or thinking about ways to both use and avoid death. Sekiro's different spin on From Software's formula creates a new, interesting relationship with video game death for players, while continuing to be just as crushing as fans expect.Info from Gamespot.com

Rainbow Six Siege's new DLC drop, Operation Burnt Horizon, is now available. The expansion has been rolling out for PS4, Xbox One, and PC over the course of March 6, signaling the start of a new Siege season and year.Year 4, Season 1 brings two new Operators, Mozzie and Gridlock, as well as a new map named Outback. Gridlock is a 3 armor, 1 speed attacker who comes equipped with three Trax Stingers--throwable, expanding spike clusters that slow and damage enemies who walk on them. Think of them as attacking versions of razor wire that cause damage--and make a similar amount of noise. Gridlock is therefore seen as an anti-roaming Operator. Her weapons include the F90 assault rifle or M249 LMG, as well as the Super Shorty sawed-off shotgun.Mozzie, meanwhile, is a 2 armor, 2 speed defender who wields three deployable Pest devices, which will automatically hack and take over any enemy drone that enters a small radius. The drone is then fully under the command of the defending team; a small blue light is the only indicator to attackers that their drone is no longer under their control. Mozzie can use an AR9 assault rifle or the R10 Ronie machine pistol, as well as the same Super Shorty as Gridlock.Outback is the accompanying Australian-themed map to Operation Burnt Horizon. Its restaurant, hotel, and fuel station form a relatively small L-shape arena that offers ample opportunity for close quarters combat. Outback is free for all players, while Gridlock and Mozzie can be unlocked with in-game Renown or by buying the Year 4 pass--though it's worth noting those without the pass will need to wait until March 13 to buy the knew Operators.Additionally, a bunch of Operators are being tweaked for Year 4. Dokkaebi's phone will auto-hang up after a 12 second ring, for example, while the planned changes to Capitao's crossbow bolts will no longer go ahead. Ubisoft had planned to increase the bolts' area of effect, but the developer now says it needs more time to evaluate data from the test server.Other changes include a decrease in the amount of health you'll possess when revived--you'll now get back to your feet with 20 HP, rather than 50, while Ubisoft is also tweaking how leaning works to help combat lean spamming. The camera will come from the center of your Operator's head, rather than the side you were leaning to, as was the case before.For more on Rainbow Six Siege, you can check out the new season's trailer above or read more about Gridlock, Mozzie, and Outback here. You can also read Operation Burnt Horizon's full patch notes on the Ubisoft blog.Info from Gamespot.com