BioWare has released the launch trailer for Anthem, which is scheduled to come out for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on February 22. You can play the game on February 15, though, with EA or Origin Access.The launch trailer focuses on a team of four Freelancers suiting up for their next mission. Each Freelancer pilots one of the different Javelin exo-suits, and the trailer showcases the unique flight and combat mechanics of the four. You can watch it above.First up is Ranger, which is strong enough to take a hit, but dashes out of the way of additional enemy fire before detonating the combos of the other Javelins with its precise, multi-targeting Ultimate attack. Up next is Colossus, which is strong enough to tank attacks with its shield as it dives into the front lines. Interceptor, meanwhile, dodges out of the way of enemy fire, darting between attacks with flips and dashes, and supporting the Colossus and Ranger on the front lines. Storm takes up the rear on the offensive, flinging fire, lightning, and ice from a relatively safe distance.EA is expecting BioWare's newest game to sell as many as 6 million copies by March, with lifetime sales ending up being much higher. CFO Blake Jorgensen said EA is confident that Anthem will reach these numbers based on the popularity of the game's VIP and open demos, despite the major connectivity issues present in the former.Anthem could be a major risk for BioWare, as it's another game-as-a-service title that's launching in an industry where Fortnite is still popular, Apex Legends has taken the world by storm with 10 million unique users, and Ubisoft's The Division 2 is a month away from release. There's only so much time people can devote to these games, but BioWare seems confident it can maintain a playerbase with its planned endgame content. At launch, Anthem will include three extra difficulties that unlock at level 30, the game's current cap. You'll also be able to complete daily, weekly, and monthly challenges, and story expansions are scheduled to come to Anthem in the months following release.Info from Gamespot.com

With a few notable exceptions, posters for superhero movies tend to look of a certain type: a stern-looking hero, surrounded by explosions, maybe a villain head peering over the background. As if to respond to this trend, the latest posters for Captain Marvel put the focus much more closely on the hero herself, with bright pop art-inspired backgrounds and heavy contrast to make the colors stand out.The posters were shown off by Disney marketing head Asad Ayaz, who similarly got first dibs to debut the live-action Aladdin remake poster. This pair of posters shows Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, in both her Kree warrior helmet (complete with stylish mohawk) and the more recognizable superhero suit.This movie is a prequel of sorts, and will take place largely in the 1990s with a young Nick Fury. It aims to explain the origins of Captain Marvel, and where she's been all these years as the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and various other heroes have faced multiple world-ending threats without her.Our brand new posters for #CaptainMarvel, in theaters March 8 #CarolDanvers #HigherFurtherFaster pic.twitter.com/Jj3PI9izAd — Asad Ayaz (@asadayaz) February 8, 2019This will all set the stage for Avengers: Endgame, in which we expect Captain Marvel to play a large part. In a post-credits sequence in Infinity War, Nick Fury put out an emergency distress call to Captain Marvel just before he faded away along with half the population. That implied that calling her in was something of a desperate last resort, so her standalone movie will go a long way to explaining why she's a one-woman cavalry.Endgame will mark the end of the ten-year culmination of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, which have all been leading toward the events of Infinity War and the genocidal supervillain Thanos. More movies are already scheduled to come afterwards, like Spider-Man: Far From Home, but the world of the MCU is likely to be changed in some large ways, and Captain Marvel may take more of a leading role.We just got our first look at the new suits that will be used in Avengers Endgame, and it's shaping up to be the longest MCU movie yet. Before that final payoff to the Thanos arc, though, we need to see what Danvers is up to. Her movie will release on March 8.Info from Gamespot.com

Activision has announced that it is offering a refund for any customers who purchased Guitar Hero Live after December 2017. You only qualify for a refund if you bought Guitar Hero Live in the US.There hasn't been a specific statement regarding why Activision is offering the refund, just a blog post detailing how you can secure one. To qualify for a refund, you must have purchased Guitar Hero Live between December 1, 2017 and January 1, 2019. Activision will need confirmation of the purchase, such as a receipt or credit card statement, as well. If you fit these qualifications, then submit a Claim Form before May 1, and you'll be refunded your money. You can still submit the form if you have no confirmation of purchase, but then your refund isn't guaranteed. Releasing in October 2015, Guitar Hero Live introduced a new mode to the music game franchise, called Guitar Hero TV. In this mode, you'd play songs from the first-person perspective of the band's lead guitarist. Hitting your notes perfectly would earn you cheers from the crowd, while messing up one too many times would cause them to boo you off the stage. It's also the majority of Guitar Hero Live. The base game features 23 songs, while Guitar Hero TV includes over 200.That all changed on December 1, 2018--perhaps, not so coincidentally, a year after the cut off date for Activision's refund--when Guitar Hero TV's servers shut down, removing almost every single song from the game. Although a bit of a shock, the move was not completely unforeseen. Prior, in April 2016, Guitar Hero Live developer FreeStyle had major layoffs in response to the game's underperformance in terms of sales. Additionally, in January 2017, Ubisoft acquired FreeStyle Games away from Activision, which kept Guitar Hero Live with the Call of Duty publisher without the game's developer. Activision's decision to refund the game now might be intended to head off any potential lawsuits.Guitar Hero Live is still available for numerous platforms, all of which are eligible for refund. The game is available for PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4, PC, and several mobile and handheld devices.Info from Gamespot.com

Between the ongoing Lunar New Year and Shiny Meltan events, this week has certainly been a busy one for Pokemon Go players, and now yet another event is underway in the mobile game. This weekend only, Niantic is holding a special friendship event, which offers players extra bonuses for sending gifts and trading Pokemon.All weekend long, players' friendship levels will increase twice as quickly as normal. Moreover, the amount of Stardust you need in order to trade Pokemon with friends has been reduced by half, and the amount of Candy you'll receive for each trade is doubled.The friendship event runs from now until 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET on Monday, February 11. You can read more about it on the official Pokemon Go website. This is an especially good time to trade Pokemon in the game; not only has the Stardust requirement been reduced, but as part of the aforementioned Lunar New Year event, you have a much higher likelihood of receiving a Lucky Pokemon in trades.The Lunar New Year event is scheduled to run until February 13. Until then, Spoink and other Pokemon that correspond with the Chinese Zodiac, such as Electabuzz, Dratini, and Mareep, will appear much more frequently in the wild, and you'll have your first chance of encountering a Shiny Spoink.The Meltan event, meanwhile, is scheduled to end on March 4. Until then, you'll have a chance of finding a Shiny Meltan each time you open the Mystery Box. Additionally, the time you need to wait to open the Mystery Box again has been reduced by three days.Next week, Niantic is hosting this month's Community Day. The event takes place on Saturday, February 16 and features Swinub, a Ground/Ice Pokemon originally from Gold and Silver. On top of that, players will receive triple the normal amount of Stardust for catching Pokemon.Info from Gamespot.com

Twitch Prime members have no shortage of freebies to claim this month. On top of February's batch of free games, which will be available through the end of the month, one more title is now up for grabs for Amazon Prime members: Square Enix's popular MMO, Final Fantasy XIV.From now until May 3, Twitch Prime users can download the Final Fantasy XIV: Starter Edition on PC at no charge. The Starter Edition includes the base game, which allows users to play up through level 50, as well as a free 30-day subscription to the game.As with other Twitch Prime games, Final Fantasy XIV: Starter Edition will be yours to keep forever, but you'll need to subscribe in order to continue playing once the free 30-day period ends. To claim your free copy, simply click on the crown-shaped Prime Loot icon on Twitch's website. You can find additional details on Square Enix's website.Square Enix recently confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV's next expansion, Shadowbringers, will launch for PS4 and PC on July 2. The expansion will introduce a load of new content to the game, including new dungeons, environments, and classes, including the Gunbreaker. The expansion will also allow players to play as a Viera, the rabbit-like race Final Fantasy XII's Fran belonged to.Twitch Prime is one of the benefits you receive with an Amazon Prime membership. In addition to Final Fantasy XIV: Starter Edition, Twitch Prime users can grab five other free titles for PC right now: Pikuniku, Dear Esther: Landmark Edition, Downwell, The Flame in the Flood, and Draknek & Co Puzzle Collection. All five will be free to download until February 28.Info from Gamespot.com

If Apex Legends has one thing going for it, it's the feeling that the game is complete--something not all battle royale games can boast. The explosion of popularity in the genre means there are a lot of games that do last-player-standing competition pretty well, but with some kinks. Some existing shooters are adding battle royale modes to their offerings, fitting their existing gameplay into a new framework; other battle royale games are constantly struggling to work out bugs, kinks, and balancing issues; and still others started life as something else and managed to retrofit their ideas the battle royale mold, with some fitting better than others.Meanwhile, Apex Legends focuses on doing one thing extremely well. That thing is team competition in the BR genre; at launch, it only includes a team-based mode where 20 groups of three players square off against each other. Everything in Apex Legends works to further teamwork: that includes a number of improvements to issues that plague the whole genre, like cleaning up inventory management and increasing accessibility, and the addition of new ideas, like squad composition elements and special character abilities.Apex Legends excels by combining good ideas that have worked in shooters before. The battle royale ruleset is the same as in similar games, with very few changes: Teams skydive onto a huge island with nothing and scramble to gather up weapons and items to use against any other teams they encounter until only one team survives. While there are no titans or wall-running, it's still possible to see the bones of Titanfall 2 undergirding Apex, which reuses Titanfall's weapons and some of its fluid movement mechanics, like sliding and mantling. But the core of the formula here is the tight, three-player squad structure, which all the other pieces benefit.Another big change to the battle royale formula in Apex Legends is one extremely similar to what Blizzard brought to multiplayer FPS games in Overwatch. At the start of each match, each player chooses one of eight characters, each with specific abilities that serve specific roles. The defensive Gibraltar can drop a shield and call in an airstrike to drive another team back; the offensive Wraith can create portals between two locations and briefly disappear to avoid damage; the supportive Pathfinder uses grappling hooks and ziplines to help the team reach areas where they might have a tactical advantage.It all plays back into the focus on teamwork, since no character is especially powerful, and no abilities are useful all the time. You're not a lone wolf--instead, you have a specific role that complements teammates as you play, and that works to help find a new side of battle royale that hasn't been explored before.Moment-to-moment, though, what's remarkable about Apex Legends is that it just works. Battle royale is a bit of an obtuse genre with a lot of moving parts; in most games, you find weapons, gun attachments, armor, healing items, and more. You'll spend lots of time digging in menus to manage inventory. Apex streamlines all of that with user interface tweaks that make it possible to instantly identify what you need and ignore the things you don't. Ammo types are color-coded to the guns that use them. Attachments automatically join with guns they fit and swap to appropriate new guns when you pick them up, while things you can't use or don't improve your gear are brightly marked as such. It's an even more accessible version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's battle royale improvements with its Blackout mode, and the rest of the genre should adopt it.The best feature in Apex Legends is its extremely robust "ping" system, which lets you press a button to create a marker on your teammates' screens. The ping system is super smart--aim it at a gun or a helmet and your character will identify that object's location to everyone else. You can ping in your menu to call for things you need, mark places you want to go, or identify spots other players have passed through. Most importantly, you can use pings to mark enemy locations. The system is so responsive and well-implemented in Apex Legends that it can fully replace talking to your team at all. In fact, the accuracy of a ping on-screen can often be better at helping you quickly convey information than talking.A revival system also helps you get more engaged with your team. If a teammate falls in battle and is knocked out of the match, you can recover their banner, an item that drops with their loot, and use it to respawn them into the game as if they just started. The system adds some intense, harrowing strategy to Apex that requires you to risk everything to save your squad; you can only call back dead teammates at specific, single-use Respawn Beacons on the map, but you're completely exposed while doing so. Pull off a clutch play, though, and you can bring your team back from the brink. The system provides a great incentive to stay in matches and keep talking to and aiding your team, instead of just leaving when you die to join another match.Like in Respawn's previous games, shooting here is hefty and satisfying, and Apex sports a wide variety of cool guns to learn and master. However, gunplay sometimes gets held back because lots guns carry strangely small magazines. Players have a lot of health, which gets increased greatly with the addition of armor, so it often takes a lot of shots to take people down. Ideally, you're always shooting someone with the help of a pal, but the small magazines have the effect of making you feel underpowered alone. In most matches I've played, shotguns get the most use from players because they have the highest likelihood of actually taking down an opponent, while many of the other guns spray bullets too much and leave you vulnerable as you reload and reload and reload.Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses.As a free-to-play game, Apex Legends includes both loot boxes and in-game items that can be purchased with real money, and loot boxes can also be earned by playing. Everything on offer is cosmetic, much like in Fortnite or Overwatch, so paying money isn't essential to playing the game and staying competitive, and you can largely ignore microtransactions if you aren't interested in paying.The one place Apex Legends' microtransactions can irritate is in trying to unlock new characters. At launch, six characters are available for free, with two that can be unlocked either with paid or earned currency. Neither is essential--they offer different abilities but not better or worse ones--but as an average player, it still took me around 17 hours of play to earn enough currency to buy one character (it'll be shorter if you get more kills and more wins). With Respawn adding more characters to the game in the future, it's fully possible trying to unlock new characters will become a slog that turns off casual players and those unwilling or unable to pay.Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses. Respawn's intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it's an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future.Info from Gamespot.com

Gigantic inhuman entities threatening mankind are something that we're all familiar with in the year 2019. Monster Hunter, Attack on Titan, Godzilla--there's something inherently compelling about the trope where desperate survivors pit themselves against incredible odds and incredibly large monsters at the end of the world. God Eater 3's narrative, much like its predecessors, leans heavily into this conceit and tells an enjoyable (if light) tale as icing on its frenzied action-RPG cake.Part of a series that has historically been for PlayStation portable devices, God Eater 3 is the first entry created with home consoles and PC as its primary platforms. Also significant is a new developer, Marvelous, a studio perhaps more well-known for its contribution to games with prodigious amounts of swimsuit DLC than the stuff of the monster-hunting variety. This tonal shift isn't as evident as you might think, though, especially since the series was already awash with anime tropes and aesthetic choices. God Eater 3 doesn't deliver any real twists and honestly, that's fine. The real friends that you make along the way in God Eater games aren't the ones with compelling backstories; they're the ones that help you kill Aragami with the sort of precision reserved for surgical procedures.Aragami are representative of the evil threatening the world--they're gigantic predators that devour everything in their wake as the world drowns under deadly ash storms. A nightmarish fusion of beast and mech, there's something brutal about their designs, which hammers home the divide between the alien and the organic world that you have to protect. You're the mostly-silent star in this particular story, doomed to take up the thankless job of Aragami eradication for people who have treated you like an expendable weapon since infancy. There's a predictable follow-up series of events: You're liberated, you recover from your trauma through the power of friendship, and then you meet a life-changing person who isn't quite who they appear to be. There are plenty of similarities between the core story of God Eater 3, the previous entries in the franchise, and whichever monster-fighting anime is currently trending on Crunchyroll, so while it's an entertaining tale, temper your expectations for crushing moral dilemmas.What will likely exceed your expectations, whether you're familiar with God Eater's particular brand of slaughter or not, is the combat. While it's easy to draw parallels with Monster Hunter, God Eater 3 is a fair bit closer to Devil May Cry's style of action. It's fast-paced and frenetic, reliant on chaining high-octane and high-mobility combos without getting hit in order to efficiently dissect Aragami. You have no shortage of movement options, including a specific command for Dash abilities, and you can effortlessly switch between melee and ranged combat. The feeling of stabbing an Aragami's plated shins with your greatsword in close combat before flying away and firing a shotgun shell right into the exposed wound never really gets old.Another mechanic, which is now a staple of the God Eater series, is the ability for your weapon to consume the essence of the beasts you kill. In doing so, you get to enter Burst Mode, giving you better damage output, flashier combo moves, and increased range on your basic attacks. The effects vary depending on your weapon loadout, which offers an interesting level of strategy for you to consider from mission to mission. The most difficult bosses in the game have a similar mechanic of their own, where attack patterns can grow a host of other deadly variables, making your defensive strategy just as important as your damage output.Unfortunately, the game's difficulty curve is fairly stagnant until about the halfway mark, when it suddenly ramps up by increasing the number of baddies you need to take down at the same time. This can lead to an initial feeling of being underpowered for these tense stand-offs, where you'll have to rely on every ounce of your skills to not get nailed to the wall by twice as many deadly laser beams and teleporting death machines than what you're used to.It's not all smooth sailing when it comes to the nuts and bolts of God Eater 3, either, with a number of small annoyances. One particular gripe here is that the game binds multiple options to the same input, and most frustratingly, the button to loot will also be bound to another action (whether it be dashing or blocking, depending on the control scheme) which makes looting a pain. Flitting around the maps as quick as you please is fine and dandy until you want to pick up something useful, like crafting materials; you have a higher chance of careening face-first into a nearby enemy.Another issue is the presence of the various customization systems that the series has accumulated over the years. There are crafting systems, ability systems, what seems like well over 100 possible skills to use, and upgrades on top of those too. Fiddling with a million and one variables to make your character perform better is neat at first, but a mastery of those systems isn't at all necessary to do well in the game, meaning it's easy to ignore them.The rest of the time spent as a God-eating machine is an affair punctuated by expository cutscenes and managing your various AI companions on the fields of war. The AI perform well enough at their respective jobs of doing damage, chaining skills, and trying to keep you alive if necessary. If you're craving a little more of a human feel to those connections, then there's the option of taking on the fast and furious multiplayer Assault Missions where pile-driving Aragami into the ground with mates before the timer runs out is the name of the game. It's a welcome reprieve from the grind of the single-player mode and its buffet of relatively run-of-the-mill missions, so having it as an option is a refreshing change of pace for the series.God Eater 3 is a solid entry in the franchise that doesn't necessarily reinvent itself, but it doesn't have to. All the core things that make God Eater so enjoyable, from the lightning-fast combat to the anime stylings, have been given a new lick of paint and propped up enticingly next to additions like the well-tuned Assault Missions and creative enemies to make one delicious package. Some aspects of the game--like its difficulty curve and multitude of superfluous customization systems--miss the mark, but it's an enjoyable romp with plenty of raucous battles if you're hungry for an action RPG.Info from Gamespot.com

For a long time now, Take-Two has teased an upcoming game from one of 2K's "biggest and most beloved franchises," and it may soon be time that we find out what it is. As part of its earnings report, Take-Two reaffirmed that this unannounced game remains on track to release during the company's fiscal year 2020. More interestingly, Take-Two said 2K will have "more to share" on the game in the coming months.During the call, an analyst asked about the game, and CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company expects the game to "stay on track" following its previous delay. He added that the company has "very high expectations" for the game, whatever it may be.This unannounced game was previously scheduled to launch during fiscal year 2019, which runs April 2018 through March 2019. However, it was later delayed to fiscal year 2020, which covers April 2019 through March 2020, so that's when you can expect this new sequel from 2K.Take-Two CFO Lainie Goldstein said the company has modelled some marketing spend for the new game during the current fiscal year, so that suggests the title may be announced before April 2019.Speculation has suggested that the game may be Borderlands 3, or whatever the next title in the series ends up being called. Regardless, a new Borderlands is known to be in development. Another possibility is the new BioShock game that is reportedly in development. Back in April 2018, Kotaku reported that a top-secret new BioShock game was in the works at a studio in Novato, California.It's also possible that the delayed game is something else entirely, though it is expected to be a sequel given that Take-Two said it is an instalment in one of its "biggest franchises."In other Take-Two news, the company recently opened a new 2K studio in Silicon Valley that's headed up by Michael Condrey, who worked on Dead Space and multiple Call of Duty games.Info from Gamespot.com

The Simpsons, which is already one of the longest-running TV shows in history, will continue to get new episodes for the foreseeable future. Fox has officially renewed the show for Seasons 31 and 32. This will take the show up to an unthinkable 713 episodes.According to Deadline, Fox also signed deals with the cast members for Seasons 31 and 32, though terms were not disclosed. For its current 30th season, The Simpsons continues to be a ratings success. As of January 20, individual episodes were reaching an audience of 7.5 million viewers on average across all platforms. Fans might agree that the quality of the show has declined in recent years, but it's clear the show and wider franchise remains wildly popular.We've got some eeeeeexcellllent news... #TheSimpsons has been renewed for Seasons 31 and 32! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/UfijjrLZXa — The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) February 6, 2019The Simpsons' multi-decade run hasn't been without issues and controversy. Comedian Hari Kondabolu's 2017 documentary, The Problem With Apu, explores Apu as a character and focuses on him as a stereotype. Series creator Matt Groening responded to the controversy by saying "people love to pretend they're offended."Outside of the TV series, The Simpsons Movie was released in 2007 and there is talk about another one. There are also Simpsons theme park attractions and a multitude of merchandise like Duff beer.In other news, Disney is buying many of 20th Century Fox's assets, and that means the company will assume ownership of The Simpsons going forward.Info from Gamespot.com

The Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie continues to add to its cast. Singer Nick Jonas has confirmed that he's coming back to play Alex a second time in the sequel."Guess who's back... Let's go people!" Jonas wrote on Twitter, referencing his character's signature line from the first movie. "The Jumanji sequel is on the way and I couldn't be more excited to bring Alex back to the big screen," he said.Guess who’s back... Let’s go people! The #Jumanji sequel is on the way and I couldn’t be more excited to bring Alex back to the big screen 💪🏼 Full article is up at https://t.co/pRf3pD54WZ @jumanjimovie @KevinHart4real @TheRock @karengillan @jackblack pic.twitter.com/N2Ublm8ZVZ — Nick Jonas (@nickjonas) February 6, 2019The character Alex is a pilot who's been stuck in Jumanji for 20 years. Jonas is best known for his music career with the Jonas Brothers and then his solo career, and he was a standout success in the 2017 Jumanji movie.All of the other actors from the 2017 movie are coming back, including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan. The sequel is adding to its cast with a number of big names, including Awkwafina, Danny Glover, and Danny DeVito, while original director Jake Kasdan is also back to direct.Welcome to the Jungle was an enormous success, banking more than $962 million on its way to becoming the 43rd biggest movie in the history of film. The Jumanji franchise is based on the Chris Van Allsburg book, and it was first made into a movie in 1995 with Robin Williams in the lead role.Plot details are under wraps for the Jumanji sequel, but The Rock teased that Kasdan gave a "dynamite pitch" for the plot. The film hits theatres in December 2019.Info from Gamespot.com

The legendary private eye John Shaft is back. The latest reboot of the classic '70s Blaxploitation classic features three generations of Shaft--original star Richard Roundtree and the 2000 remake's Samuel L Jackson are joined by newcomer Jessie Usher. The first trailer has now been released.The trailer see Jackson's John Shaft meeting his son again after what seems to be a long time. Inevitably the pair soon find themselves involved in a dangerous, action-packed adventure, much to the disapproval of the youngest Shaft's mom, played by Regina Hall (Girls' Trip). Roundtree also appears, and he's just as badass as either of the younger Shafts; we'll ignore the fact that Roundtree is actually only six years older than Jackson, and plays his dad. Check the trailer out above.Shaft is directed by Tim Story, who previously helmed Ride Along and its sequel, Barbershop, and the 2005's Fantastic Four movie. It also stars Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Method Man (Luke Cage, Peppermind). It hits theaters on June 14.The first Shaft was released in 1971 and was a huge box office success. It was followed by two sequels--Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa--and helped create the popular wave of Blaxploitation movies over the next few years.Jackson will next be seen as Nick Fury in the upcoming Captain Marvel. The latest MCU movie arrives in March and a new trailer was released this week.Info from Gamespot.com

Assassin's Creed III: Remastered's release date has finally been announced, but so far it doesn't look like it's coming to Switch--despite those recent rumors. The game launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on March 29.Alongside Assassin's Creed III is a remastered edition ofAssassin's Creed III: Liberation--once a PS Vita exclusive--and the Tyranny of King Washington DLC series. Together, the collection features 4K HDR upgrades on PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, and PC, as well as "higher resolution textures, a new graphics engine and several other graphical enhancements." The collection can be bought standalone, but it's also included for no extra cost in the Assassin's Creed Odyssey season pass.Multiple retailer listings had suggested an Assassin's Creed collection was to launch for Nintendo Switch this month. Ubisoft's press release confirming Assassin's Creed III: Remastered's launch date for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, however, fails to mention a Switch version. GameSpot contacted Ubisoft for clarification on whether the remaster will come to Switch and was again told the publisher would not comment on rumors or speculation.Assassin's Creed III was first released for PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii U in 2012. We awarded the game an 8.5/10 in our Assassin's Creed III review; critic Kevin VanOrd said it "expands the series' gameplay in enjoyable and sensible ways."Info from Gamespot.com

There are few authors whose work has been as consistently and successfully adapted as Stephen King. The huge success of 2017's It proved that movies of King's work are as popular as ever, and the It sequel is due later this year. Ahead of that, we have a new version of his classic 1983 book Pet Sematary, and the latest trailer has now released.While the first trailer was more interested in establishing a spooky mood, this one sets up the plot. We see the Creed family moving into a new house near some old woods and hearing stories about local kids who buried their dead pets in a makeshift cemetery (with a misspelt sign). A tragedy occurs and soon the family find themselves involved in some very dark supernatural events. Be warned--the trailer gives away some important plot developments. Check it out above.Pet Sematary stars Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), John Lithgow (The Crown, Dexter), and Amy Seimetz (Alien: Covenant, Stranger Things). It's directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, who previously helmed the acclaimed 2014 indie horror Starry Eyes, and it hits theaters on April 5, 2019. The first adaptation of Pet Sematary was released in 1989.In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clarke spoke about what drew him to the project. "[It's] more than a horror movie," he said. "I was like, 'Where's the horror? I'm disturbed.' That was it for me, I found it insanely disturbing. [King] reaches inside you in some way, he always does. There is great intellect and great subconscious and subtext and thought and reason behind it."It: Chapter Two, meanwhile, is set to arrive in September. The movie is set 30 years after the first film, and it follows the adult versions of the kids in the original. It's directed by Andy Muschietti once more, who marked the end of shooting last year with this behind-the-scenes image.Info from Gamespot.com

In recent years, AMD has been in a position to react to Nvidia in the graphics card landscape. The RX Vega 64, which launched in August 2017, was an answer to the high-end GTX 1080 that first hit the market in May 2016. This time around, AMD's schedule isn't as far behind; the new Radeon VII is AMD's answer to Nvidia's RTX 2080 that came out in September 2018. And just like RX Vega, Radeon VII isn't here to blow Nvidia's lineup out of the water, rather, it's a viable option to compete with the newest generation of GeForce cards.AMD isn't rolling out fancy new graphics technologies like Nvidia did with RTX's real-time ray tracing or AI-powered supersampling (aka DLSS) for gaming, as those technologies are specifically tuned for Nvidia's Turing GPU architecture. But what AMD does offer is a significant improvement over its previous generation with a more efficient version of the Vega architecture, a ton of video memory (VRAM), and improved video encoding for content creators. In this review, however, we'll be measuring performance in eight graphically demanding PC games to see how it stacks against other cards. At $700 USD, the Radeon VII shares the same suggested retail price as the RTX 2080. And as you'll see from our tests below, while AMD's new card stays competitive, its raw performance doesn't quite justify the price point.A closer look at the Radeon VII card and its sleek silver aluminum shroud with a triple-fan cooling system. See the card from all angles in the gallery below.Table of Contents [hide]Technical DetailsSpecs and MethodologyBenchmark ResultsAssassin's Creed OdysseyShadow of the Tomb RaiderForza Horizon 4Final Fantasy XVMiddle-earth: Shadow of WarDeus Ex: Mankind DividedGrand Theft Auto VMetro: Last LightTemperaturesVerdictTechnical DetailsRadeon VII is the first consumer-level video card built with the 7nm manufacturing process, which allowed AMD to create the smallest GPU die yet. The shrunken die translates to better efficiency; higher clock speeds, more room for memory on the GPU, and better performance per watt. You can see this in the tech specs alone: Radeon VII sports base GPU clock of 1400MHz and boost clock of 1750MHz, while Vega 64 runs a base and boost clock of 1274MHz and 1546MHz, respectively. When it comes to VRAM, Radeon VII boasts 16GB of HBM2 since it's able to fit two additional stacks, resulting in memory bandwidth of 1TB/s as opposed to Vega 64's 8GB of HBM2 and 483 GB/s memory bandwidth.A closer look at the GPU die in the new Radeon VII video card (right) compared to the RX Vega 64 (left).When using RX Vega 64 as a comparison, Radeon VII looks a lot more efficient by offering better clock speeds and memory configuration with a smaller die. But its 300-watt TDP indicates that we're still working with a power-hungry card, especially considering the RTX 2080's 215-watt TDP (225-watt for Founders Edition).Specs and MethodologyFor the purposes of testing the new AMD Radeon VII card, we used a high-end test bench equipped with the following specs:CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K CPU (6-core/12-thread, 3.7 GHz)Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus X HeroCPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 liquid CPU coolerMemory: 16GB (8GBx2) HyperX Fury DDR4-2400MHz dual-channel RAMStorage: 1TB Samsung 970 EVO m.2 NVMe SSDPSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850-watt 80+ Gold PSUOS: Windows 10 64-bit Home EditionTo paint a clearer picture of where the Radeon VII stands against other high-end options, we tested five video cards in total for this this review:Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (Founders Edition)Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (Founders Edition)Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Founders Edition)AMD Radeon VII (Reference Card)AMD RX Vega 64 (Reference Card)Note: At the time of testing, we used the latest GeForce driver version 418.81 for Nvidia cards and the pre-release Radeon Software version 18.50.15.02 for AMD cards.The RTX 2080 was included since it's the most direct competitor (and in the same price tier as the Radeon VII), and we brought in the GTX 2080 Ti to see how wide the gap is between AMD's new top-end GPU and Nvidia's best consumer-level card. Also included is nvidia's previous generation powerhouse in the GTX 1080 Ti that still stands strong. And of course AMD's previous flagship card, RX Vega 64, was tested alongside Radeon VII to see just how much of a generational bump the new card has to offer.For measuring performance, we chose eight games featuring comprehensive in-game benchmark tools that are representative of the more graphically demanding side of PC gaming. Since we're working with high-end video cards, resolutions of 4K and 1440p were tested while using the highest quality settings available in each game. The results can be seen below.Benchmark ResultsAssassin's Creed OdysseyUbisoft knows how to make a beautiful open world using the latest advanced graphics options that push your hardware, evident with Assassin's Creed Odyssey. To get our results, we used the built-in benchmark test that does a fly-by of the expansive landscape of Ancient Greece. We also used the "Ultra High" graphics preset which includes maxed out character detail, volumetric clouds, environmental quality, temporal anti-aliasing (TAA), and so much more.At 4K, the Radeon VII performs nearly identically to the RTX 2080 with both cards getting an average of 40 FPS and 41 FPS, respectively. However, AMD's new card trails behind at 1440p with the RTX 2080 managing a seven-frame (or 11.7%) advantage. This also means the Radeon VII performs on par with the GTX 1080 Ti at 1440p, though it does offer a slight bump in 4K. Compared to the RX Vega 64, the Radeon VII offers a 25% and 33.3% performance boost in 4K and 1440p, respectively.Shadow of the Tomb RaiderShadow of the Tomb Raider is another visual showcase with robust graphics options and a built-in benchmark tool that takes you through vast, detailed environments. Using the "Highest" graphics preset, we have visual effects like volumetric lighting, HBAO+, tessellation, and great-looking shadows along with TAA to help clean up image quality.The Radeon VII gets averages of 44 FPS in 4K and 81 FPS in 1440p; this comes close to matching the RTX 2080 in average FPS, as Nvidia's card leads by a handful of frames (6% in 4K and 7% in 1440p). This also means that the Radeon VII beats out the GTX 1080 Ti by just a hair, and outperforms Vega 64 by 25.7% in 4K and 26.6% in 1440p.Forza Horizon 4The Forza Horizon series has always had beautiful landscapes in open worlds for you to whip around and race your custom-tuned cars. Horizon 4 is the best example of that, and thankfully it comes with an in-game benchmark that takes you through a full race with crowds, weather effects, and scenic views.The Radeon VII has some trouble keeping up in 4K as the RTX 2080 overtakes it by 15.7% and GTX 1080 Ti by 13.7%. The gap closes in 1440p since both aforementioned Nvidia cards only lead by 5% each. But between AMD generations, the Radeon VII zooms past the RX Vega 64 by 24.4% in 4K and 19.4% in 1440p.Final Fantasy XVSquare Enix offers the Final Fantasy XV benchmark tool for free, so those who don't have the game can still see how well their system performs in one of the best-looking RPGs to date. The test itself is lengthy and takes you across Eos in the Regalia, through a few battles, and to a campsite where Ignis cooks up a tasty dish. However, the test itself doesn't give you FPS results or a performance breakdown and instead spits out a total score. A general rule of thumb for this test is to divide the score by 100 to get a rough estimate of the average FPS.AMD cards don't do particularly well in Final Fantasy XV, evident in the fact that the Radeon VII lags behind the RTX 2080 by 42% at 4K and 45.6% at 1440p. It doesn't come all that close to the GTX 1080 Ti either. Radeon VII does offer a 16.2% and 18.6% bump over the Vega 64 at 4K and 1440p, respectively.Middle-earth: Shadow of War2017's Middle-earth: Shadow of War offers a variety of graphics options that let you crank up things like ambient occlusion and tessellation; the game also comes with a good benchmark tool that showcases several effects and large crowds in a short camera fly-by. We used the Ultra quality preset and TAA for antialiasing.Here, the Radeon VII edges out the GTX 1080 Ti ever-so-slightly by one FPS in both resolutions, but gets beaten by the RTX 2080 by 9.6% in 4K and 11.9% in 1440p. As for improvement over last generation, the Radeon VII offers a boost of 23.8% in 4K and 21.7% in 1440p.Deus Ex: Mankind DividedDeus Ex: Mankind Divided is a resource-heavy game with all its eye candy cranked up. It offers a ton of options like tessellation, high-quality ambient occlusion, cloth physics, contact hardening shadows and a whole lot more. The in-game benchmark sequence takes you through a marketplace in Golem City where character models, lighting, and shadows come into play, and it gave us our results here.This is one game where the Radeon VII performs identically to the RTX 2080 in both 4K and 1440p, which means it gets a slight lead on the GTX 1080 Ti by just a few FPS. Compared to its predecessor, the Radeon VII shows a 30% and 23.2% improvement in 4K and 1440p, respectively.Grand Theft Auto VGrand Theft Auto V doesn't have any presets in the graphics options, so we tinkered with the settings ourselves. We set everything to Very High, used PCSS soft shadows, applied 4x MSAA along with FXAA. Despite being an older game, GTA V can still push high-end systems when running 4K resolution. The in-game benchmark tool runs five different sequences, each with their own average FPS, so took the average of all those sequences for the final result.At 4K, the Radeon VII almost keeps up with the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080 Ti, only trailing by a few FPS. However, the gap slightly widens at 1440p with the AMD card behind the 1080 Ti by 11.2% and 2080 by 9%. Radeon VII does make a significant jump of 48.5% at 4K and 38.1% at 1440p compared to last gen's Vega 64.Metro: Last LightWhile Metro: Last Light is the oldest game of the bunch, it can still stress powerful PCs when you throw supersampling into the mix at high resolutions. The game's benchmark tool takes you through a slow motion fly-by of the game's final fight sequence that has special effects and many character models all at once.The Radeon VII trails both the RTX 2080 and GTX 1080 Ti by 14.7% at 4K but closes the gap slightly in 1440p just behind the 1080 Ti by 8.8% and the 2080 by 11.8%. When put against the Vega 64, the Radeon VII pulls ahead by 30.8% at 4K and 28.3% at 1440p.TemperaturesOf all five cards in our review, the Radeon VII unfortunately takes the cake when it comes to load temperature. When accounting for Radeon VII's high TDP, it would be expected for it to run hot, but with a whopping peak load temperature of 104 C, it surpasses every other card by a longshot. Thankfully, this didn't result in any functional issues, but those who want to run a cool system should take note. Radeon VII's cooling solution may not the best for keeping temperatures down, but its fans stay fairly quiet.Video CardIdle Temp (Celsius)Load Temp (Celsius)Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti31 C78 CNvidia RTX 208030 C75 CNvidia GTX 1080 Ti36 C85 CAMD Radeon VII34 C104 CAMD RX Vega 6437 C84 CLoad temperature measurements were obtained via CPUID HWMonitor when performing the Assassin's Creed Odyssey benchmark.VerdictThe scope of our tests intended to cover how the card handles graphically demanding games relative to AMD's previous generation and the competition. It's fair to say that the Radeon VII isn't a slouch, as it puts up in-game performance numbers close to the RTX 2080.Those who want to stay within the AMD ecosystem should be happy to know that the Radeon VII can handle games in 4K at high settings with playable framerates, which shows significant improvement over RX Vega 64. If you have your eyes set on 4K display or high refresh rate 1440p FreeSync monitor, Radeon VII is of course the best option from AMD. Also keep in mind that future AMD drivers may help with optimizations or improved performance, but that's something we have to see develop software matures.However, the bummer is that at the Radeon VII costs $700, the same as the RTX 2080. So, it's tough to make a compelling case for Radeon VII given the performance metrics, efficiency, and price point of your other option. You can't help but wonder why one would choose to go with AMD's current offering when Nvidia is paving the way for new tech like real-time ray tracing and DLSS, both of which look like promising features as more games adopt them. In addition, support for Nvidia hardware using adaptive sync (or FreeSync) continues to grow, further sweetening the deal for those strictly looking for the best value in a GPU for PC gaming.If anything, Radeon VII gives AMD an avenue to challenge Nvidia in the high-end graphics card space, and it's a necessary competitor, especially if AMD decides to be more flexible and offer aggressive pricing in the future.Info from Gamespot.com

We're now in Fortnite Season 7, Week 10, which means there isn't long left until the season comes to a close and a new one begins. While that's sure to include an exciting upheaval on the island following this week's new patch, it also means that time is running out to get the Battle Pass rewards for Season 7. But before you start wrapping up challenges from previous weeks, let's get the latest batch completed.As always, challenges are split into two categories, with one set available to all players and a second set exclusively for those that have spent money on a Battle Pass. Completing said challenges will reward you with Battle Stars, which in turn level up your free or paid Battle Pass and unlock cosmetic rewards. Easy peasy.In the free section for Week 10, players will need to place a Mounted Turret or a Damage Trap in three different matches for five Battle Stars. After that it's on to search seven chests at Lazy Links or Dusty Divot for five Battle Stars, and then three Assault Rife eliminations for 10 Battle Stars.For those with a paid Battle Pass, challenges involve doing 200 points of damage with Scoped Weapons for five Battle Stars, getting a score of five or more at the Shooting Gallery east of Wailing Woods (this is part one of a three-part challenge), visiting four Expedition Outposts in a single match, and hitting three opponents with a Chiller Grenade or Boogie Bomb in different matches.FreePlace a Mounted Turret or a Damage Trap in different matches (3) -- 5 Battle StarsSearch Chests at Lazy Links or Dusty Divot (7) -- 5 Battle StarsAssault Rifle eliminations (3) -- 10 Battle StarsBattle PassDeal damage with Scoped Weapons to opponents (200) -- 5 Battle StarsGet a score of 5 or more at the Shooting Gallery east of Wailing Woods (1) -- 1 Battle StarVisit Expedition Outposts in a single match (4) -- 10 Battle StarsHit an opponent with a Chiller Grenade or Boogie Bomb in different matches (3) -- 10 Battle StarsIt seems the preparations for Fortnite Season 8 have already begun. Players have noticed that earthquakes are occurring in-game, with tremors shaking the island mid-match. Dataminers previous discovered audio files labeled as "small," "med," and "lrg," indicating that these tremors are going to get worse. Presumably this will in turn lead to the type of map-changing event that we've seen kick off the past few seasons.Season 7 of Fortnite is scheduled to come to a close on February 28, according to Epic's website. That's your deadline on completing challenges from previous weeks, but you can get tips and guides from our complete Season 7 challenges roundup to speed things up. Info from Gamespot.com