Trials Rising is a sequel to a franchise that has a lot of things figured out. After multiple entries that have helped refine gameplay that was already good to start off with, Rising doesn't veer too far off the track. It still has a wonderfully diverse set of destinations to visit, each with their own over-the-top track design and goofy finish line antics. Each course still encourages you to repeat it nearly obsessively in the pursuit of that next perfect run to show off online. Trials Rising has the same engrossing gameplay the series is known for, but it offers no new surprises.Trials Rising is no more complicated to pick up and play than any of its predecessors. You only need to worry about your throttle, brakes, and the pitch of your motorcycle as you race across Rising's many 2D tracks, set in anything from a Russian missile silo to a tomato festival in the Italian countryside. This simplicity in control is complemented by a deep learning curve, challenging you to understand how Trials' physics work. They're not realistic by any stretch, but they do adhere to a set of rules that you'll need to become comfortable with to beat its most challenging courses.The balance of your motorcycle is the first hurdle. Although you're only given access to three during the lengthy campaign (more can be unlocked using either in-game currency or real money), each of them handles in very different ways. One gives you more thrust from a stationary start but limits your rotational speed in the air, while another has a frame so light that you need to be cautious of applying too much throttle on a straight and having your front wheel fly into the air above you. Trials Rising gives you suggestions on which motorcycles are best for certain courses, and it is fun moving from one extreme to the other in between events and learning to adjust accordingly.Controlling your motorcycle consists of shifting weight either backwards or forwards, determining whether you're going to gently roll over a hill at the end of a steep climb or see your wheels bounce away from the platform before you hurtle towards failure. It doesn't take long for basic maneuvers to start feeling like second nature. Small actions--such as leaning back to embrace a landing or shifting forward to go down a steep ascent--start blending together to create a tangible flow to Rising's earlier courses.These levels are less challenging and more instructive, giving you ample room to experiment with Rising's mechanics while also rewarding you well for less-than-perfect finishes. Later courses start increasing the difficulty significantly. Tracks require careful consideration over throttle control and feature more gruelling skills tests, which punish even the slightest miscalculation. You have a large number of events between these two extremes, though, which makes each new challenge feel like an appropriate test of your skills rather than a jarring spike in difficulty.However, even the most carefully executed runs through a course can become undone by obstacles that rely on seemingly random outcomes instead of skill to overcome. Catapults, exploding platforms, and more add an unpredictable nature to later courses that often feels more frustrating than exciting. A small variation on where you stop on a catapult before it fires you into the air can lead to wildly different outcomes, for example. It's one thing to fail a course and identify where you can get better, but it's another to be having the best run yet only to fail right at the end and not understand how you could've avoided it.Rising has an incredibly useful training school that has new courses unlock as you progress through the campaign. These events teach you new techniques that give you a deeper understanding of how to control your motorcycle while also providing challenging proving grounds to test how much you've learned. These provide some of the toughest challenges Rising has to offer, but without the stress of needing to finish first in a race or worry about how many times you fail.New to Rising are contract objectives from in-game "sponsors," which offer an additional level of challenge and extra rewards. With sponsors, courses you've already participated in can be replayed with some additional objectives. Anything from pulling off flips to limiting the number of faults you can have is on the table, tasking you with reprogramming your muscle memory and coming up with new routines on familiar tracks. Some of the most difficult sponsors will require you to finish first across several events; make a mistake along the way and you might as well start over. These are the least interesting of the bunch by virtue of feeling too unforgiving (even by Trials standards), but they're thankfully not required to unlock new events.Rising's more stunt-focused events are less rewarding. If the rest of Trials Rising only has one toe dipped into a pool of absurdity, these events have the whole leg. You can use the ragdoll physics of your rider to steer balls into a basketball hoop or aim for exploding barrels to try and bounce yourself along a never-ending track. None of these events really test your understanding of Trials' main mechanics and are instead just positioned as quick palate cleansers for in-between events. None of them are precise in the way that other events are, making them less engaging to learn and a slog to play.All events in Rising contribute to an overall player level, which you increase in order to access to events and unlock gear to customize both your rider and their motorcycles. Customization items are obfuscated in crates that randomly spit out three items at a time, with duplicates becoming a frequent occurrence just a few hours in. Frustratingly, these duplicates aren't immediately turned into in-game currency to save you the effort, instead forcing you to dive into multiple menus for each category of gear and sell them individually. The gear itself isn't varied or visually appealing enough to justify this headache, and it was easy to forget about it entirely after just a few minutes of wrestling with it.Trials Rising also features a suite of multiplayer options, ranging from public and private multiplayer matches to more intimate--and hilarious--local multiplayer modes. Online multiplayer is straightforward; you join lobbies with up to seven other racers and compete across three courses, with points awarded based on your finishes. Trials plays better in a local multiplayer setting, and Rising's Party mode lets you organize up to eight courses into a single playlist with custom rules that up to four players can compete in. A new tandem motorcycle makes things even sillier. Two players control a single motorcycle through a course, making smooth course runs nigh impossible as you struggle to maintain control. It's a fun distraction that can be played for brief laughs.Trials Rising isn't a reinvention of the franchise--it's an invitation to lose more hours to new exhilarating, technical, and ridiculous Trials courses.Rising still lets you create brand-new courses from scratch, and race on any that other players have uploaded, but its tools for construction are still ridiculously complicated to grasp. The course editor has no tutorials on how to get up and running and no templates which you can build upon to make editing slightly quicker. The confusing menus, overwhelming taskbar at the bottom of the screen, and unintuitive movement within the editor make trying to create even just a simple track a needlessly difficult chore.Trials Rising maintains the engrossing, challenging, and occasionally slapstick gameplay from past entries in the series, building upon it in small ways with a smartly implemented school to teach fundamental skills and modifiers to make events worth revisiting. But it also doesn't fix issues from the past, either. Its track editor remains uninviting to learn, and the more outrageous stunt events and course obstacles frustratingly lean more into random luck than calculated skill. Trials Rising isn't a reinvention of the franchise--it's an invitation to lose more hours to new exhilarating, technical, and ridiculous Trials courses. Info from Gamespot.com

Anthem's multiplayer focus represents a fairly massive change of pace for BioWare, which is best known for its choice-driven, single-player role-playing games. The developer's newest game even reminds you that it's best played with other people whenever you switch from Public play to Private. That said, you're still probably going to get a better experience playing by yourself--at least initially.In Anthem, you'll experience the story via a repetitive cycle. You'll talk to some NPCs in Fort Tarsis, get your story mission, head out in your javelin, hear some more narrative details over your radio, complete the quest, and be forced back to Tarsis to talk to some more people and get your next story mission. It's actually not all that different from how you complete the story in Mass Effect: Andromeda or Dragon Age: Inquisition, aside from being forced back to your hub area upon completing a quest. In theory, experiencing Anthem's story piece by piece with your friends is a cool idea, but in practice it usually results with you missing crucial details.If you decide to play Anthem with others, you're going to find yourself regularly shushing your companions or muting them entirely lest they speak over an important conversation. You're probably also going to be yelling at them to wait for you. If your allies get too far ahead of you, the game informs you that you're being left behind and will teleport you so that you can catch up. Getting teleported throws you into one of Anthem's many loading screens, during which you can miss out on a portion of an important in-game conversation or cutscene. This means it's not in your best interest to explore Anthem's world while playing the story if you're with others. Journeying into a mysterious cave or reading a text log typically results in being left behind and missing out on story beats as a consequence.As said before, you also can't start your next story mission until you return to Fort Tarsis and speak to the NPC who has your next quest. However, plenty of other minor characters populate Fort Tarsis--some carry side quests, while others are just fun to talk to. Some of the stories you hear from the NPCs in Fort Tarsis represent the best bits of narrative in Anthem. But again, it's hard to hear them when you have friends chatting in your ear--especially if they're egging you on to hurry up and just unlock the next mission so you can all get back to taking down enemy hordes and soaring through the skies. Every part of Anthem's story just becomes so rushed when you're with others.Where playing with friends does help, though, is when you're ready to tackle the endgame content. Destroying a titan with devastating combos composed of various primers and detonators set up by a team of Ranger, Colossus, Interceptor, and Storm javelins or tackling one of the more lengthy Stronghold missions are some of Anthem's best instances of gameplay. Although there are moments of idle radio chatter between your freelancer and some NPCs during the endgame missions, none of them have any major impact on understanding or appreciating Anthem's story. By the time you've completed the story and unlocked most of Anthem's endgame content, you should be close to level 30 as well, which allows you to tackle the more challenging Grandmaster difficulties where you can find the best loot and weapons in the game.So if you're set on jumping into Anthem, consider playing through the campaign the first time on your own. Playing the game on Easy or Normal makes combat a breeze--even Hard isn't all that difficult solo, but you'll have to be more strategic with how you play. Once you've gotten through the story at your own pace, then invite your friends to join you in tackling any leftover side missions you haven't completed, or jump into the Grandmaster difficulties and start grinding freeplay world events and Strongholds for loot with your fellow freelancers. It's not the way BioWare wants you to play Anthem, but, for now, it's the best way.If you're still on the fence about picking up the game, check out our Anthem review. Kallie Plagge gave the game a 6/10, writing "Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution" and remarking how it's "a co-op game that works best with no one talking."Info from Gamespot.com

The Halo TV show has been in the works for a very long time, and it suffered a setback recently when Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt dropped out due to scheduling issues. Now, his replacement has been found, and it's another big name in the TV and movie business.Otto Bathurst, who directed Black Mirror's horrifying first episode, "The National Anthem," has been tapped to direct and executively produce the new Halo TV show. After Black Mirror, Bathurst went on to work on Peaky Blinders and later 2018's Robin Hood movie.The highly anticipated series #Halo will begin production later this year and is set to be directed and exec produced by @OttoBathurst! #Showtime pic.twitter.com/ZShHPHd17X — Showtime (@Showtime) February 21, 2019The Halo TV show will air on Showtime, whose parent company, CBS, also owns GameSpot. The last we heard from network president of programming Gary Levine was that the Halo show is "evolving beautifully with rich characters, compelling stories, and powerful scripts."Showtime said previously that Halo is the network's "most ambitious series ever," and that's notable given Showtime is behind some massive productions such as Homeland, Shameless, Billions, and more recently the Jim Carrey show Kidding.The Halo TV show will feature Master Chief in some capacity, but it remains to be seen if he is the lead, or what other characters might join him. Kyle Killen (Awake) will serve as writer, showrunner, and executive producer.Showtime has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of Halo for its first season. The Halo show was originally announced back in 2013 with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television set to produce, which it still is.The next Halo video game, meanwhile, is Halo Infinite. The game is in development for Xbox One and PC. According to a recent report, it will be a launch title for a new Xbox console coming out in 2020.Info from Gamespot.com

The 91st Academy Awards were held this evening, and Green Book took home the overall award for Best Picture. The movie stars House of Cards actor Mahershala Ali as jazz pianist Don Shirley and Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen as his driver and bodyguard Tony Vallelonga in the Deep South. The film was directed by Peter Farrelly, who is one of the Farrelly brothers behind Dumb & Dumber, Shallow Hal, Me, Myself, And Irene, and There's Something About Mary.Ali also won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Green Book, while Farrelly, Brian Currie, and Nick Vallelonga (the son of Tony Vallelonga) won for best Original Screenplay.Also during the show, Rami Malek won Best Actor in a Leading Role for playing Queen singer Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, while Olivia Colman took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Favourite. Alfonso Cuaron took home the Best Director award for Roma, while Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Picture.Another highlight of the night was the performance of the song "Shallow" by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from A Star Is Born. The song won Best Original Song, and Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt, and Benjamin Rice shared the award.Marvel's Black Panther was also a big winner at the 91st Academy Awards. It was nominated for seven awards, and won three, making it the first Marvel movie to earn an Oscar. Its wins included Costume Design, Original Score, and Production Design.Below you can see a list of the Oscars categories and nominees. The winners are in bold. And for lots, lots more on the 91st Academy Awards, head to GameSpot sister site ET.91st Academy Awards Categories And WinnersBest PictureBlack PantherBlacKkKlansmanBohemian RhapsodyThe FavouriteGreen Book [WINNER]RomaA Star Is BornViceBest ActorChristian Bale, ViceBradley Cooper, A Star Is BornWillem Dafoe, At Eternity’s GateRami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody [WINNER]Viggo Mortensen, Green BookBest ActressYalitza Aparicio, RomaGlenn Close, The WifeOlivia Colman, The Favourite [WINNER]Lady Gaga, A Star Is BornMelissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?Supporting ActorMahershala Ali, Green Book [WINNER]Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansmanSam Elliott, A Star Is BornRichard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?Sam Rockwell, ViceSupporting ActressAmy Adams, ViceMarina de Tavira, RomaRegina King, If Beale Street Could Talk [WINNER]Emma Stone, The FavouriteRachel Weisz, The FavouriteDirectorSpike Lee, BlacKkKlansmanPawel Pawlikowski, Cold WarYorgos Lanthimos, The FavouriteAlfonso Cuarón, Roma [WINNER]Adam McKay, ViceAnimated FeatureIncredibles 2, Brad BirdIsle of Dogs, Wes AndersonMirai, Mamoru HosodaRalph Breaks the Internet, Rich Moore, Phil JohnstonSpider-Man Into the Spider-Verse, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman [WINNER]Animated ShortAnimal Behaviour, Alison Snowden, David FineBao, Domee Shi [WINNER]Late Afternoon, Louise BagnallOne Small Step, Andrew Chesworth, Bobby PontillasWeekends, Trevor JimenezAdapted ScreenplayThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Coen , Ethan CoenBlacKkKlansman, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee [WINNER]Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Nicole Holofcener and Jeff WhittyIf Beale Street Could Talk, Barry JenkinsA Star Is Born, Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will FettersOriginal ScreenplayThe Favourite, Deborah Davis, Tony McNamaraFirst Reformed, Paul SchraderGreen Book, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly [WINNER]Roma, Alfonso CuarónVice, Adam McKayCinematographyCold War, Lukasz ZalThe Favourite, Robbie RyanNever Look Away, Caleb DeschanelRoma, Alfonso Cuarón [WINNER]A Star Is Born, Matthew LibatiqueBest Documentary FeatureFree Solo, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi [WINNER]Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell RossMinding the Gap, Bing LiuOf Fathers and Sons, Talal DerkiRBG, Betsy West, Julie CohenBest Documentary Short SubjectBlack Sheep, Ed PerkinsEnd Game, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey FriedmanLifeboat, Skye FitzgeraldA Night at the Garden, Marshall CurryPeriod. End of Sentence., Rayka Zehtabchi [WINNER]Best Live Action Short FilmDetainment, Vincent LambeFauve, Jeremy ComteMarguerite, Marianne FarleyMother, Rodrigo SorogoyenSkin, Guy NattivBest Foreign Language FilmCapernaum (Lebanon)Cold War (Poland)Never Look Away (Germany)Roma (Mexico) [WINNER]Shoplifters (Japan)Film EditingBlacKkKlansman, Barry Alexander BrownBohemian Rhapsody, John Ottman [WINNER]Green Book, Patrick J. Don VitoThe Favourite, Yorgos MavropsaridisVice, Hank CorwinSound EditingBlack Panther, Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve BoeddekerBohemian Rhapsody, John Warhurst [WINNER]First Man, Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou MorganA Quiet Place, Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik AadahlRoma, Sergio Diaz, Skip LievsaySound MixingBlack PantherBohemian Rhapsody [WINNER]First ManRomaA Star Is BornProduction DesignBlack Panther, Hannah Beachler [WINNER]First Man, Nathan Crowley, Kathy LucasThe Favourite, Fiona Crombie, Alice FeltonMary Poppins Returns, John Myhre, Gordon SimRoma, Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quezOriginal ScoreBlacKkKlansman, Terence BlanchardBlack Panther, Ludwig Goransson [WINNER]If Beale Street Could Talk, Nicholas BritellIsle of Dogs, Alexandre DesplatMary Poppins Returns, Marc Shaiman, Scott WittmanOriginal SongAll The Stars from Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar, SZAI’ll Fight from RBG by Diane Warren, Jennifer HudsonThe Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns by Marc Shaiman, Scott WittmanShallow from A Star Is Born by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice [WINNER]When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by David Rawlings and Gillian WelchMakeup and HairBorderMary Queen of ScotsVice [WINNER]Costume DesignThe Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Mary ZophresBlack Panther, Ruth E. Carter [WINNER]The Favourite, Sandy PowellMary Poppins Returns, Sandy PowellMary Queen of Scots, Alexandra ByrneVisual EffectsAvengers Infinity WarChristopher RobinFirst Man [WINNER]Ready Player OneSolo A Star Wars StoryInfo from Gamespot.com

With Game of Thrones Season 8's April 14 release date quickly approaching, HBO has released some new footage just in time for the 2019 Oscars. The footage came in a larger video full of clips from various of the premium cable network's upcoming shows, including Big Little Lies Season 2, Barry Season 2, Watchmen, and more.The video opens with a shot of ravens flying around the top of the Wall, which isn't anything to write home about. But if you skip ahead to around 48 seconds in, you'll see what's really exciting in the new footage: some recent arrivals at Winterfell.Check out the video above.As you can see, Dany's lethal Unsullied army of eunuchs will apparently arrive at Winterfell some time during the upcoming Season 8--and with them, Dany's largest dragon, Drogon. It makes perfect sense that they'd be marching North, given what happened in the Game of Thrones Season 7 finale. I'd bet this will be in the first episode, given what little HBO usually reveals about new Game of Thrones seasons before they air.There's not much else to glean from this, although it's worth watching the full video for a look at some of HBO's other upcoming shows. Keep checking GameSpot for all the Game of Thrones Season 8 coverage you need leading up to the April 14 release.Info from Gamespot.com

It didn't take long for Black Panther to make an impact at the Academy Awards, snagging two Oscars early in the evening--one for Best Costume Design and the other for Best Production Design--and not stopping there. In all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe film has been nominated for 7 Oscars.Upon accepting her award for Best Costume Design, Ruth Carter was quick to give thanks to Spike Lee for giving her her start in 1988's School Daze, which he directed. She also gave thanks to Marvel for creating Black Panther in the first place, saying, "Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design, we turned him into an African king.""Thank you to the Academy, thank you for honoring African royalty and the empowered way women can look and lead on-screen," she continued. This was Carter's first Oscar and also sees her making history as the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. "This has been a long time coming," she joked.As for the Best Production Design awards, Hannah Beachler did the majority of the speaking for herself and Jay Hart. "I stand here with agency and self-worth because of Ryan Coogler," she said of Black Panther's director. As with Carter, Beachler also gave thanks to Marvel, who she said "lifted us up" every day during the process of making the film.As the show continued, Black Panther stayed in the forefront, picking up its final award of the night for Best Original Score. Accepting the award, composer Ludwig Göransson remembered, "Thank you, Ryan Coogler. Ryan, working with you has been an incredible honor. I remember 12 years ago we were in our dorm at USC, writing the score to your first short film."Make sure to check out our list of all of the 2019 Academy Award winners.Info from Gamespot.com

As part of the 91st Academy Awards broadcast tonight, Netflix released the first teaser trailer for its upcoming mobster movie The Irishman from Martin Scorsese. It doesn't contain any footage, sadly, but we hear the voices of some of the characters, including Robert de Niro.De Niro plays Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, who supposedly had links to the mob and was said to be involved in the disappearance of union boss Jimmy Hoffa in the '70s. Al Pacino will play Hoffa. The movie also stars Anna Paquin, Ray Romano, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel. It's based on the Charles Brandt book "I Hear You Paint Houses." You can watch the trailer in the video embedded above.Scorsese is a Hollywood legend who is known for his mobster movies. He won an Oscar for the Boston mafia movie The Departed, while he is also known for Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, and Mean Streets.While The Irishman is a Netflix movie, it's also coming to theatres when it releases sometime this fall. For more on the 91st Academy Awards, check out GameSpot's roundup of winners.Info from Gamespot.com

Epic Games has dropped some Fortnite teasers indicating what awaits us in Season 8, and it appears a pirate theme is preparing to wash ashore. Both teasers pair poems about buried treasure and seafaring threats with spooky pirate imagery.The first teaser references "X marks the spot" and treasure, with an image of a hook. The second has an image of a snake, and warns you to beware "those who arrive on the waves." The teasers are counting down days until Season 8 launches, which will be on Thursday, February 28.Given the poems, it seems likely that the players will be able to hunt for loot in buried treasure form, and there may be some form of AI opponent arriving on ships. New teasers are dropping every day so we may see more specific hints as time goes on.'X' Marks The Spot Treasure aboundLoot that has been lostCan always be found. 4 days to Season 8. pic.twitter.com/1U8n7x4pQQ — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) February 24, 2019This means you have just a few days left to unlock the Prisoner Skin levels and Waterfall challenges to earn your rewards. When the new season rolls over, it will bring an all new Battle Pass (which you can earn for free) with its own challenges and skins and new game mechanics. Season 7 ends this week, just prior to the start of Season 8.Fortnite has become known for its big seasonal changeover events, each of which changes its gameplay in some significant ways. So far, this is one big distinguishing factor it has against a new challenger in the battle royale genre, Apex Legends. That game has taken off quickly, but Epic Games says Fortnite is still doing fine for itself. It just set a new record and announced a massive prize pool for its esports tournament.Sssomething shimmersWithin the cave... But beware of those Who arrive on waves. 3 days to Season 8. pic.twitter.com/Gn7ttmR39m — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) February 25, 2019 Info from Gamespot.com

Anthem's official launch day arrived on February 22, and it has shot straight to the top of the UK physical sales chart. The PS4, Xbox One, and PC game pushes last week's No.1, Far Cry: New Dawn, down to No.2.No more new titles entered the chart this week, allowing sales monitor Chart-Track's top 10 to remain largely unchanged. FIFA 19 rises two places to No.3, as Red Dead Redemption 2 (No.4) and Metro: Exodus (No.5) round out the top five.Despite Anthem's chart-topping debut week however, Eurogamer reports the game's physical sales total just half the number of boxed copies shifted in the debut week of BioWare's last game, Mass Effect: Andromeda. The intervening two years have seen a shift toward a greater proportion of games' sales coming digitally--and downloads are not tracked by Chart-Track--while Anthem's various digital special editions made the game available early. However, a physical sales decrease of 50% is a considerable one--and Andromeda's boxed sales themselves were half those of the previous game in the series, Mass Effect 3.Anthem has suffered from a number of issues so far, some of which were fixed in a day one update. The issues contributed to a mixed critical reception for BioWare's game, including a 6/10 from GameSpot in our Anthem review."Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution," wrote Kallie Plagge. "It's a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment--of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you'll inevitably come crashing back down."Info from Gamespot.com

If you're in the market for a Nintendo Switch, you can save some money by purchasing one at about 10% off the regular retail price. Retailer Newegg has the neon red/blue and gray variations for just $270, with a coupon code.Though the price displays at the full $300, you can shave it down by entering "EMCTVVA34" in the promo box at checkout. This is a low-cost alternative to the standard deal running currently across several retailers, which gives you a $35 Eshop credit with the purchase of a new Switch console. If you don't particularly need the Eshop voucher it saves you some money.Deals on Nintendo hardware and software are relatively rare compared to other consoles and PC. The Switch has been a particular sales powerhouse for Nintendo, and the company recently outlined some of its plans for the coming year in a Nintendo Direct presentation. Those included lots of details about Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Super Mario Maker 2, and a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.Meanwhile, the company is undergoing some changes in leadership. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is retiring, to be replaced by current sales VP and on-the-nose reference Doug Bowser. Fils-Aime has been known throughout the industry for his larger-than-life personality and enormous stature, so the announcement was met with rounds of fond farewells from around the industry.Info from Gamespot.com

Three classic Resident Evil games are headed to Nintendo Switch in the near future, Capcom has confirmed. The original, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4 all have an Eshop release date of May 21.Switch owners in North America can purchase Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0 as part of an Origins Collection at retail, though it appears the games will not receive physical versions in Europe. Pre-orders begin in all territories on February 28; pricing has not yet been revealed. There's no word regarding any additions or changes to these versions of the games.Nintendo Switch previously received Resident Evil: Revelations and Resident Evil: Revelations 2, but May will be the first time a mainline title from the popular horror series come to the Switch. The original Resident Evil first released in 1996, and many of its successors are third-person survival-horror games, while others are more action-centric or play out in first-person. The 2002 prequel Resident Evil 0 and 2005's Resident Evil 4 are considered some of the best games in the series.The franchise's most recent entry is a remake of Resident Evil 2, which launched for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in January. We awarded the game a 9/10 in our Resident Evil 2 remake review, saying it's a "stellar remake of the original," but as yet it is not listed for release on Nintendo Switch.Info from Gamespot.com

Even after massive hits like Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption series, the setting of the old west isn't something you see games used that often. But with the upcoming Outlaws of the Old West, coming from developer Virtual Basement, this online open-world survivalist take on the timeless concept of the Western aims to give the setting a different spin. Throughout your journey in the open world, you'll be able to explore the vast plains and snowy mountains in order to survive the lawless lands of the old west.Releasing in early access on March 12 for PC, Outlaws of the Old West brings up to 150 players into an open-world where they'll scrape together resources found from exploring and foraging throughout the environment. In familiar survival game fashion, everyone starts out with little to no resources, and you'll have to slowly acquire the necessities to survive. If you aren't able to meet your character's basic needs, such as food and water, then they'll meet their end fast--and anything you had on you at the time of your death will be free for others to take. Much like in the old west, you'll have to contend with constant threats from nature and the occasional ruthless bandit or two that want what's yours.We spent some time checking out an early build of the game and got to see what to expect in the online world. With the game being in development for more than two years, Outlaws' core gameplay is very familiar as far as survival-focused adventures go, though what sets this apart from other titles is the setting itself. During our session, executive producer Tim Hesse explained why they set their sights on the old west."One of the primary reasons why we chose the setting was because of how underutilized it is," said Hesse. "The developers had experience working on other survival games, and they love the Western setting, and honestly, there aren't that many games like that out there. In some ways, it's a little more challenging making a game set in the West, because if you did a sci-fi survival game you could come up with anything you would want. With Outlaws, we are limited to the time period, which keeps things focused."Outlaws features some rather strict rules with its take on survival gameplay. If you're able to gain enough resources and survive the elements long enough, you'll gradually work your way up to become a seasoned survivor, giving you the means to explore further into the wild. Eventually, you'll be able to build houses and even take up minor professions. Though there are NPC characters that roam around--including bandits, some townsfolk, and even miners holed up in their gold mines--the majority of the interactions to be had are with other players. Though you can form parties, and even create guilds, you're still free to become a true outlaw and rob others. Doing this, however, will affect your standing in the world, and if you cause enough chaos, other players can put a bounty on you, painting a large target on your back.With that steep focus on survival-gameplay and resource gathering, the mechanics and itemization in the online game can get extremely granular. For instance, to acquire a lasso you'll first need to get plants to serve as the precursor materials, which then need to be taken to a spinning wheel for crafting. And of course, the spinning wheel will need to be made first from spare wood materials before you can do all of this. It was interesting to see how deep the crafting was in the game, which seems to go a bit further than other survival-focused games out there.With the PC serving as the testing grounds for the game, the full retail release will eventually make its way to PS4 and Xbox One. According to the developers, they'll be directly engaging with the community while in the early access period. From our experiences, the pre-release was noticeably rough around the edges on the technical side of things, but the concept still showed solid promise. It'll be interesting to see how Outlaws of the Old West can act upon the rich and underused setting of the old west and evolve its online world from there.Info from Gamespot.com

Season 8 of Fortnite is just around the corner. With only a few days remaining in Season 7, developer Epic Games has now confirmed that the new season of the battle royale game will kick off across all platforms this Thursday, February 28.Just as it has done in the run up to previous seasons, Epic is dropping teasers in the days leading up to Season 8. Each of the hints thus far has come in the form of a poem that suggests the new season will have a pirate theme; the first references "X marks the spot" and treasure, while the second warns players to beware "those who arrive on the waves."What this means as far as gameplay goes remains to be seen, but it'll presumably somehow tie into the earthquakes that have been occurring in the game. Players first began experiencing these tremors earlier this month following the release of Fortnite's 7.30 update, and they've been growing in intensity since, so much so that cracks are now appearing in the island.We'll find out soon enough what all this means for Season 8, but in the meantime, players still have a few days to complete any remaining Season 7 challenges, including the new Overtime challenges. Epic is giving the Season 8 Battle Pass to players for free if they finish these Overtime challenges, so you'll want to complete them before the season ends to get your hands on the pass without having to shell out any V-Bucks.You also have until the end of Season 7 to unlock all the variants of the Prisoner skin. If you need help finishing any of this season's challenges, you can find all of GameSpots tips and guides in our complete Season 7 challenges roundup.Info from Gamespot.com

Avengers: Endgame promises the culmination of a story arc that has lasted more than a decade. The ambitious Marvel Cinematic Universe has borrowed liberally from the criss-crossing continuity that comic fans have known for years, and evolved into a sprawling movie empire. And because it has become so larger-than-life, it’s easy to forget that it began with a single hero. Tony Stark was our unlikely introduction to this universe. Now it’s time for his character to exit, and in the process, to finish one of the longest continuous character arcs in filmmaking history. By the time the credits roll on Endgame, Tony Stark should be deceased.The MCU has introduced or reintroduced dozens of heroes to the big screen, but none has had a single coherent character trajectory quite like Tony Stark. Captain America has become disillusioned and questioned what his patriotic symbolism means, and Thor has gone through a variety of relationship ups-and-downs with his brother Loki, but Stark has had the most room to subtly grow. Part of that is his sheer screen-time. Due to a combination of his appearances in his own trilogy of Iron Man films, all of the Avengers films, and even cameos in others like Spider-Man: Homecoming, actor Robert Downey Jr. and the MCU writers have had the space to develop Stark to an incredible degree.In addition, he’s one of the few Marvel heroes who is utterly mortal, making his character that much more identifiable. Other regular humans like Black Widow or Hawkeye just haven’t taken center-stage like Stark. All this builds a relatable human story of a man--a particularly gifted one intellectually, but just a man nonetheless--responding to and coping with the existence of profound knowledge and unfathomable stress.In the original Iron Man, Tony Stark was a selfish, smug jackass. It took a near-death experience and seeing the consequences of his irresponsible lifestyle firsthand to force him to confront his own complacency. This was the crucial first step to his growth as a person, although he only extended his heroism to correcting his own mistakes and interdicting the misuse of Stark weapons against innocent people. He hadn’t yet learned how to look outside himself or work with others in any meaningful capacity.This was partially corrected in Iron Man 2, which, although it was the sloppiest of all the movies in characterization, did knock Tony down a peg and allow him to see the value in having support from others. In this sequel, he started to act self-destructively, and only survived thanks to help from his friends Rhodey and Pepper, and to a larger extent, Black Widow and Nick Fury.By the time The Avengers arrived, Tony Stark was still cocky, but he’d accepted some amount of a mantle of leadership and an appreciation for teamwork. At this point, it’s precisely because of this increased sense of responsibility that he clashes with Captain America. Cap’s criticism after Agent Coulson’s apparent death is harsh, but correct: Tony Stark isn’t a soldier, and deep-down he simply doesn’t believe that sacrifices are necessary. This is fundamental to understanding Tony Stark, and his relationship with Cap puts it into sharp relief. As we know from Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve Rogers was the type of man to jump on a grenade just to protect those in his company--most of whom thought he was a worthless wimp. Tony Stark didn’t have that trait. His clash with Cap is about a disagreement that comes up over and over throughout the series. Stark always believes that he can engineer a clever solution, a backdoor, a failsafe. His origin story is grounded in outwitting a problem to keep himself safe, and that continued to define his approach. That’s why, when he made the impulsive decision to fly into space at the end of The Avengers, it was a moment of real growth. But it also devastated him, and led to a series of decisions driven by trauma.When Iron Man 3 began, he was wracked with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had seen the expanse of the universe and grappled with the magnitude of its threats. A man utterly confident in his ability to deal with anything the world threw at him suddenly had to cope with the idea that there are other worlds, and he felt a responsibility to be the guardian of his own.It was this realization that led him to build the Iron Legion, an army of his own equipped to take on any conceivable specialized task. This reckless sense of unilateral responsibility also led him to build Ultron, dubbed “a suit of armor around the world.” This is when he conspicuously pointed out that cosmic threats were “the end-game” that all of his machinations revolved around. And most crucially, the vision shown to him by Scarlet Witch was one of mass death of all his allies and friends. The worst part, he confided in Nick Fury, was that he didn’t die with them. This was a major shift in his perspective and values. As the team entered Infinity War, Tony Stark had developed more healthy interpersonal relationships, but we quickly learned that he was still constantly mindful of intergalactic danger. In fact, he’d developed a suit that is on him at all times, equipable in seconds, and specifically engineered to deal with cosmic threats. Arguably his decision to venture into the far reaches of space itself carried an implicit acknowledgement that he may not make it back to Earth. By the end of that film, his absolute worst fear was realized when his mentee, Peter Parker, died in his arms.We can glean additional meaning from the actions of one of Stark’s fellow heroes. Doctor Strange only gave up the Time Stone to save Tony, after explicitly stating that he would rather let his allies die than surrender it. We can infer that he did this because, after peering into the possible futures, he saw only one that was a success: the one in which Tony Stark lives.Consider Tony Stark’s position and mindset as Avengers: Endgame approaches. He’s finally internalized that sacrifice is sometimes necessary, and he feels survivor’s guilt over living through the randomness of Thanos’s cataclysmic snap. Yet he appears to be crucial to whatever eventuality will stop Thanos. Whatever the Avengers are planning to restore the other heroes and set things right, it’s now Tony Stark who is most primed to sacrifice himself for the greater good. No more failsafes, no more witty solutions, no more outsmarting the problem. Just sacrifice. Someone will need to hold the line, and while Captain America will be more than willing, Tony Stark needs to make sure that it’s him in order to satisfy this decade-long character arc. It’s possible that the trajectory of Tony’s character arc has happened by chance--that this is all the coincidence of several different script writers planting seeds that will never quite bear fruit. It’s possible that the various teases and winks that Captain America will die in Avengers Endgame are not clever misdirects after all. Maybe the Russo brothers feel they’ve already devastated us with death, and this victorious conclusion will be all catharsis and joy.But I hope not.As much as I love Tony Stark and Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of him, Marvel has a chance to use its enormous ongoing universe to deliver a powerful conclusion for the character who started it all. It would be a fitting, emotionally resonant send-off to the franchise that brought a new level of serialized storytelling to the silver screen. Tony Stark helped us all become part of a bigger universe. It’s time for him to make a satisfying exit from it.Info from Gamespot.com

Ubisoft has released the full patch notes for the final scheduled February update for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Titled Patch 1.1.4, the update comes to Xbox One, PS4, and PC tomorrow, February 26.The most notable addition included in the update is New Game Plus, a much requested feature from the Assassin's Creed community for Odyssey. To access New Game Plus, you'll need to finished the Family Quest Line, which is the largest of the three mainline campaign stories in Odyssey. Once you've completed that storyline, you'll see the option to play New Game Plus on the main menu between Load and Options. Playing New Game Plus puts you back at the beginning of Odyssey's story, but you keep all of your gear, mounts, spear and ship upgrades, abilities, drachmae, and crafting materials. You'll also have the choice of continuing to play as your Kassandra or Alexios or switch to the other playable protagonist if you want a change of pace.Patch 1.1.4 also adds 10 decorative frames for use in Odyssey's in-game Photo Mode. There are also new accessibility options included in the update that allow you to further customize how subtitles appear in-game. Support for Odyssey's upcoming Legacy of the First Blade Episode 3: Bloodline DLC--coming to all systems March 5--and the next month's Lost Tales of Greece missions is included in the patch too.Most of Patch 1.1.4 contains miscellaneous and balancing updates, as well as over five dozen bug fixes. We've outlined the full list below. Spoiler warning: the bug fixes contain major story details from late-game campaign, Lost Tales of Greece, and Legacy of the First Blade DLC missions.Assassin's Creed Odyssey Patch 1.1.4 NotesMiscellaneousThe tier of the perks available on a Lieutenant obtained from Ubisoft Club and the Store will now scale based on the player level.Hard mode fights in the Arena are now a bit harder.Added an option to hold down the respective key to increase the number of items quicker.Improved some UI aspects of Photo Mode to increase usability.Increased maximum player level to 99. NINE NINE.Added new Ship tiers to the game.Added more Mastery Levels.Added two Mercenary tiers and rewards.Added 22 Viewpoints that can be fast traveled to.BalancingDrachmae acquisition has been rebalanced across several sources Lowered Drachmae gained with Contracts.Increased Drachmae gained with Bounties and Conquest Battles.Crafting Materials acquisition from Naval sources have been rebalanced Added chance to loot Iron Metal and Soft Leather from sinking ship and looting floating loot.Scaled floating loot quantity based on player level.Lower chance to loot Precious Gem and Obsidian Glass from sinking ship.Increased Wood quantity from Epic Ship.Athenian Hero set bonus will be improved to give: All Arrows Pierce Shields and +30% Hunter Damage.Added a missing perk to the Epic Heavy Bladed Champion's Axe.The Bounty cost for high-level players at a high level of bounty has been slightly increased.Celestial Crown will now increase damage to swords, as intended.Bug FixesDLCAddressed various issues with the Protector of Persia quest.Adjusted a cutscene and tweaked some dialogue in Shadow Heritage.Main GameGameplay Addressed various issues with engravings and perks.Addressed an issue where players couldn't obtain Nestor's rewards under certain circumstances.Addressed an issue causing the big battle in Achaia to end before enemy forces were depleted.Special Lieutenants can be hired after multiple recruiting. Back to work, Misthios!Hephaestus declares players will no longer be lit on fire by candles or when lighting braziers in tombs.Invisible mercenaries will no longer be easy to track when activating the Multi-Shot ability. Say that again, but slowly.Rapid fire will now work as intended on the various NPC types.Addressed an issue preventing players from dealing damage when attacking with a melee weapon.Addressed an issue allowing the "Tamed animals deal poison damage" legendary engraving to be unlocked from the beginning.Addressed an issue causing players to spawn on a building when fast traveling to Georgios' Reach.The Daughters of Artemis will no longer be hostile to players after becoming their leader or being provoked. Overthrow averted.Addressed an issue where Kallisto the Bear would leave the Arena invincible.Patrols will no longer grab corpses that were made invisible with the Death Veil ability.Addressed an issue preventing players from dismounting a horse while talking. Don't ride and talk, Misthios.World Addressed an issue causing several cultists to spawn underground.Players will no longer be swarmed by hordes of wannabe centaur NPCs when entering towns for the first time.Addressed an issue preventing players from looting Orichalcum fragments in several areas.Addressed an issue preventing players from purchasing items from Sargon if the item shared a name with one in their inventory.Addressed an issue causing too many mercenaries to rally to Mykonos under certain circumstances.Addressed an issue causing players to remain trapped in a room at the Farm of Elais.Addressed an issue preventing new weekly contracts from appearing until reloading.Addressed various issues that could prevent Belos the Beast, Cyclops, or Medusa's minions from scaling to the player's level as intended.Crane of Georgios can now be fast traveled to.Addressed an issue causing players to be stuck in the Leader House in Keos.Players should now be able to complete Trachis Fort.Quest Addressed an issue preventing Myrrine from traveling to her destination.Addressed an issue preventing players from progressing in She Who Controls the Seas.Addressed an issue causing the objective to disappear in Persian Puppetry under certain circumstances.Addressed an issue preventing players from continuing A Family Legacy.Addressed an issue preventing players from continuing We Will Rise.Addressed an issue preventing players from completing Prince of Persia under certain conditions.[MOTHER OF ALL SPOILERS] Addressed an issue in Ancient Revelations preventing players from killing Pythagoras.Addressed an issue causing the Find and Rescue the Actor objective in The Curse of Fame to display incorrectly.Main quests will now appear after completing the Unearthing the Truth quest.Addressed an issue during Awaken the Myth preventing players from completing the Sphinx after defeating Stentor inside the Arena.Addressed an issue during Heart for a Head where the quest item was not available in player's inventory.Addressed an issue preventing players from triggering the cinematic to complete A Fresh Start.Testikles will remain alive for players to pick up in Delivering a Champion.Addressed an issue during A Good Toast where an invulnerable NPC could be found in the Leader House.Addressed an issue preventing players from beginning More Questions Than Answers if fast traveling when the letter was open.The quest item located in the chest at the Cave of Arktoi will now be available in Hard to Artemis.Addressed an issue preventing players from receiving the By the Fates quest.Addressed an issue preventing players from completing the On the Grapevine quest if killed, upon respawn.Addressed an issue allowing the ship of Nestor the Formidable to be destroyed by enemy ships.Addressed an issue where NPCs would no longer follow their objective after saving or loading in Learning the Land.Addressed an issue causing the Daughters of Artemis to remain invincible after completing Daughters of Lalaia.Addressed an issue preventing players from interacting with Barnabas to complete A Night to Remember.Addressed an issue preventing players from completing Hunter Camps after finishing Daughters of Artemis.Addressed an issue preventing Athenian ships from entering into conflict with the Adrestia in The Battle of Pylos.[SPOILER] Daphnae can now be killed in deep water during Artemis's Request.Addressed an issue preventing the legendary boar from dropping its pelt during Daughters of Artemis.Addressed an issue preventing players from completing the Poison in the Air weekly quest.Addressed an issue preventing players from completing the Burned Bodies and Broken Skulls weekly quest.The Clear the Land for Athens contract will now generate where Daughters of Artemis spawn.Addressed an issue with the Ostraka Killer View.Character & AI Addressed various animation issues with NPC and player character.Addressed an issue causing Mercenary's pets to attack if players shoot fire arrows at them. Also: please don't shoot arrows at any pets, thanks.Addressed a variety of inappropriate NPC reactions.Addressed a variety of incorrect player controller actions.Photo Mode Using the reset option will now function as intended in Photo Mode.Addressed an issue causing Depth of Field to be disabled when using the left stick while editing in Photo Mode.Addressed an issue in Photo Mode causing Bloom to be very dim.Addressed an issue causing flickering in Photo Mode under certain circumstances.Adrestia & Naval Addressed an issue preventing some players from boarding when prompted.Addressed an issue preventing the game from autosaving when entering open waters or calling the Adrestia.Increased the Adrestia's health regeneration rate when players are out of combat.Ship upgrade stats will correctly be reflected in the player stats card.[PC] The Aim action toggle is now working for Naval combat.Addressed an issue preventing players from upgrading the Adrestia.Addressed an issue where DLC Lieutenants needed to be manually reassigned.Performance & Stability Addressed various issues causing long loading times.Addressed several freezing issues.Addressed a game crash when the cinematic for the Cyclops begins.[PC] Addressed an issue causing low FPS when using the latest Nvidia drivers on GTX 1060 Max-Q GPU.[PC] Addressed an issue causing juddering and unusual CPU usage on some laptops.Graphics, Animations, & Audio Addressed various graphical issues with world objects.Addressed various lighting issues.Addressed various sound issues.Addressed various visual effects with weapons and outfits.Addressed various camera issues.[PC] Addressed a graphical issue that could occur if 8 GB VRAMs reached maximum capacity.User Interface, Menu, & Subtitles Addressed various UI/HUD display issues.Addressed incorrectly displayed text.Addressed various dialogue mismatches.The "!" above the Inventory tab will now disappear after players have hovered above the acquired items. Praise be.Recruiting enemy NPCs will no longer add to the quest objective counter if asked to "kill" enemies.When using the All filter in the menu, Chapter and Legacy quests will be in order.Addressed an issue causing background flickers in the Options menu.Rewards for defeating the Mythical Creatures will now be displayed in the quest description.Addressed an issue where the Transmogrification menu wouldn't become available as intended on Level 8.Mercenary Tier S2 players will be granted Hephaistos's 20% discount in the Workshop, as intended.Addressed an issue preventing players from gaining Ability points after reaching 207.Addressed an issue causing the 200 Free Helix Credits to be missing.[SPOILERS] Addressed an issue preventing players from being rewarded the Abraxas horse skin when reaching the Tier 1 Mercenary rank.[PC] Corrected several CPU and GPU miscalculations displayed in Performance Analyzer.[PC] Addressed an issue preventing players from scrolling through detailed stats with the mouse wheel.[PC] Addressed an issue preventing the HDR option from applying correctly.[SWITCH] Added support for the in-game store on Nintendo SwitchTM system.Ubisoft Club, Achievements, & Trophies Changed the description of the Lord of the Seas achievement to match new progression.Addressed an issue that prevented Legacy of the First Blade achievements from unlocking.Info from Gamespot.com