The Humble Bundle has partnered with PlayStation for a sale on a bundle of indie titles along with bonuses. The Humble Indie PlayStation Bundle offers up to nine PS4 games, with some proceeds going to charity, for a limited time.At the lowest tier you can get Grim Fandango Remastered, The Bard's Tale Remastered, and InnerSpace. Those three games are available if you pay at least one dollar. The next level up unlocks if you pay more than the average, which as of time of writing is approximately $9. That tier includes Layers of Fear, Wasteland 2 Director's Cut, The Talos Principle, and Broken Age. Finally, the last tier unlocks at $15 or more, granting you Killing Floor 2 and Shadow Warrior.Those nine games are joined by the soundtracks for Grim Fandango and InnerSpace at the dollar level, and the Layers of Fear and Broken Age soundtracks at the more-than-average level. As always you can pay what you want and select how the money is distributed to Humble, charity, and developers.These discounts will be available through February 12 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET. Most of the games are individually priced at or more than the cost for all of them combined, so it's a good deal to get a lot of games you may have missed for cheap.Pay $1Grim Fandango RemasteredThe Bard's Tale RemasteredInnerSpacePay more than averageLayers of FearWasteland 2 Director's CutThe Talos PrincipleBroken AgePay $15Killing Floor 2Shadow WarriorInfo from Gamespot.com

Treyarch has revealed the full patch notes for the final January console update--titled 1.12--for Black Ops 4, which is now live. The update implements many changes in the console versions of the Call of Duty game, with Multiplayer, Blackout, and Zombies mode all being affected. Treyarch also wrote that additional content is "planned for later this week."Update 1.12 adds Blackjack's Gun Game, Hardcore Moshpit, Endurance Chaos Moshpit, Mercenary Capture Moshpit, and Safeguard to the featured playlist in Multiplayer. In Zombies, classic and loot weapons have been added--which include the MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45--and several bugs have been addressed.For Blackout, all three levels of armor are being nerfed, with level three armor no longer fully protecting you from explosives or melee attacks. The radius and effectiveness of concussion grenades has also been reduced, while the fuse time and damage of the cluster grenade has increased. The new Blackout gametype Ambush has also debuted on PS4 with the new update, and is scheduled to come to Xbox One and PC next week.Update 1.12 also adds the Barbarians special event--which was already live on PS4--to Xbox One and PC, allowing you to earn an additional 25 tiers of loot. Below, we've outlined the rest of the more minor changes coming in update 1.12. Again, these changes are only live on Xbox One and PS4, but come to PC next week.Black Ops 4 Update 1.12 Patch NotesMultiplayerFeatured Playlists Blackjack's Gun Game added as Featured Playlist.Limited-time free-for-all with new rotating weapon selection, including the KAP 45 full-auto pistol.Hardcore Moshpit added to Featured category (first-time addition).Endurance Chaos Moshpit, Mercenary Capture Moshpit, and Safeguard added to Featured category.Game Modes Heist Ghost Perk now properly works against the mode's auto-UAV sweep.Players can no longer spend cash on purchasing max ammo when they currently have max ammo.Resolved an issue that could lead to multiple purchases of an item if the player had the Specialist selection menu open during round transition.Specialists Prophet Resolved an issue where the Tempest could gain an extra charge if an enemy was killed by a player-owned Seeker or Scorestreak.Ajax Resolved an issue where grenade fuses could expire faster while the Ballistic Shield was in use.Ruin Resolved an issue where the Gravity Slam would not properly trigger if the player landed directly on another player.Perks Tracker Tracker's detection icon will no longer display after the player switches to a class without Tracker equipped.Gear Acoustic Sensor Resolved an issue where Acoustic Sensor could stop working if the player switched their class after spawning.Challenges Crash Landing Players should now properly gain progress toward this Challenge each time after earning a Gravity Slam Shutdown medal.Weapon Customization Mastercrafts applied to secondary weapons will now update in real time.Resolved an issue where a Gold Camo weapon could display a higher visual state when switched to after a new visual state was reached on a weapon with a Mastercraft applied.Resolved an issue where a dropped Diamond Camo weapon could display a higher visual state when picked up by another player.Resolved an issue where a teammate’s Gold Camo weapon would have a purple visual state in third-person when killed by an enemy with a Gold Camo weapon.Custom Games Sweeping and Constant Mini Map custom rules settings now function as intended.Team Deathmatch Round Score Limits greater than 500 are now available.Miscellaneous Grenade Equipment charge will no longer be lost if the player dies during the throwing animation.Players can no longer gain XP for killing teammates in Hardcore Search & Destroy and Hardcore Control.Closed an exploit that could briefly speed up a player’s movement when rapidly ADSing in and out.Removed custom reticles on ABR 223 and Paladin HB50 Mastercraft default optics, due to feedback on the reticles adversely affecting aiming during gameplay.BlackoutGameplay Tuning Armor Level 1 Armor damage protection reduced from 30% to 15%.Level 2 Armor damage protection reduced from 40% to 25%.Level 3 Armor damage protection reduced from 50% to 35%.Removed explosive damage resistance from Level 3 Armor.Removed melee weapon damage reduction from Level 3 Armor.Increased Armor Plates required to repair a single durability pip of Level 3 Armor from 1 to 2.Concussion Grenade Reduced status effect duration.Reduced area of effect radius.Reduced throw distance.Reduced opacity of the white flash when initially concussed.When concussed, players can now use Equipment, continue holding Equipment, perform melee attacks, and switch weapons.Reduced hip-fire spread while concussed.Cluster Grenade Increased time to detonate after impact.Reduced damage of mini-Cluster Grenade explosions.General Players can now aim down sights immediately after interacting with a door.Miscellaneous "Longest Shot" on the Scoreboard now properly matches the After Action Report.Zombies Ultimis character voiceovers now play as intended.ZombiesClassic and Loot Weapons MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45 weapons added to the Mystery Box on all maps.MP 40 and Grav camo progression now available in the Armory for all players.Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45 camo progression and customization now available in the Armory once unlocked in the Black Market.Stability Global Resolved a rare crash that could occur when players idled too long in a lobby.Resolved a crash that could occur during a 4-player splitscreen session as players were bleeding out.Dead of the Night Fixed a crash that could occur when the player disconnected while loading into the boss fight.Fixed a crash that could occur during the opening cinematic if the user quickly restarted a custom match just after leaving one.Miscellaneous Global Resolved an issue where Pack-a-Punch would be unusable for the rest of the match for all other players if a player disconnected while their weapon was still in the Pack-a-Punch machine.Resolved multiple pathing issues caused when throwing a Homunculus.Resolved inconsistencies in the armor gained between the Hellfire and the Hammer of Valhalla.Resolved an issue where, if the player struck an electric Catalyst zombie while disoriented by its electric wave, UI may disappear when being damaged by other zombies.Resolved an issue where the player could still have armor after being revived if the player triggered the Special Weapon, then immediately went down.Resolved an issue where players received an error when loading into an online Zombies match, which was followed by the match continuing without UI.Resolved a rare issue in high rounds where the Hammer of Valhalla's Lightning Bolt would stop damaging zombies.Resolved a rare issue where players were unable to use Perk Up after bleeding out.Resolved a rare issue where the Chakram's Whirlwind attack FX could persist after it was used.Blood of the Dead Resolved an issue where the Spectral Shield Key attack could persist while using an Elixir.Closed an exploit where players could access exploitable areas using the Ragnarok DG-5.Dead of the Night Limited the maximum damage that can be dealt to the boss by any attack to prevent several exploits.Resolved an issue where enemies could fall out of the map on spawn during the Wonder Weapon Crimson Nosferatu event.Resolved an issue where the Crimson Nosferatu bite could deal lower than intended damage or no damage to the player.Resolved an issue where Nosferatu affected by the Wonder Weapon’s charged shot could still target the player without attacking them.Resolved an issue where Alistair's Folly was not present in the Library and could not be obtained in the Mystery Box before the power was turned on.Resolved an issue where, if the player quit a Custom Mutations game that had the setting for all doors to be open, the player could hitch for an extended period of time and encounter an error message.Resolved an issue in Custom Mutations where the player could encounter a kill trigger in the Master Bedroom or Trophy Room if they had doors set to open and used Anywhere But Here!Resolved an issue where the player could encounter an error message in Custom Mutations with doors set to open and barricades set to off.Resolved an issue where Alistair’s Annihilator was slightly misaligned to the left.Classified Resolved a visual corruption that could occur when players were damaged by electric traps (Xbox One only).Resolved an issue where the camera was not aligned to the player during the teleporter transition if the player was coming from Groom Lake.Gauntlets Resolved an issue where Gauntlet mode was not available in Local play, even if connected to the Internet.Resolved an issue where the After Action Report in Local play would not show completed rounds.Rush Resolved an issue where collectible icons could spawn without glow FX.Tutorial Fixed a progression break that could occur if the player attempted to interact with the Fast Travel before interacting with the Pack-a-Punch pedestal.Info from Gamespot.com

Bethesda has released another update for Fallout 76 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. As the developer previously detailed, this patch focuses primarily on implementing various balance adjustments and resolving a "large wave" of bugs and other issues still lingering in the online RPG.This time around, the patch weighs in at approximately 3.5 GB for PS4 and Xbox One, and 500 MB for PC. Among other changes, Bethesda has capped the carry weight limit to "1,500 pounds over the character's current maximum carry weight"--meaning if your carry weight limit is 210 pounds, your maximum will be 1,710."These limits exist primarily to keep servers from performing poorly, which can happen when we have too many items in the game world," Bethesda explained in its patch notes. "They also play [a] role in helping to regulate the in-game economy. We do recognize the desire to be able to own more of the cool items that we have in the game, and we are looking into a variety of solutions, including increasing the stash size."Additionally, "(Known)" and "(Owned)" tags have been added next to recipes, plans, and turrets your character has already learned or built. Vendors' recipe and plan inventories are also now no longer randomized, and some Vendors now stock additional plans for wall sets, power connectors, doors, generators, and water purifiers.Rounding out the update is a handful of balance changes for certain Perks and weapons, as well as a long list of bug fixes. You can read more about these changes in detail in the full patch notes below.Bethesda still has a lot more updates and new features planned for Fallout 76 this year, one of which is a Survival PvP mode. The mode is expected to launch in beta sometime in March and will remove the restrictions that currently govern PvP encounters in the game, making it a much tenser and more competitive experience.Fallout 76 Patch NotesTable of Contents [hide]Fallout 76 Patch NotesGeneralBalance ChangesC.A.M.P., Crafting, And WorkshopsDesign And GameplayPVPQuests And EventsBug FixesGeneralPerformance: Several additional improvements have been made to in-game performance.Stability: The Fallout 76 game client and servers have received additional stability improvements.Balance ChangesPerks: The damage bonuses provided by each rank of the Demolition Expert perk have been reduced from +20%/40%/60%/80%/100% to +20%/30%/40%/50%/60% to match other weapon perk damage bonuses.Perks: The condition loss bonuses provided by each rank of the White Knight and Licensed Plumber perks have been reduced from 30%/60%/90% to 20%/40%/60%, and their repair bonuses have also been reduced, to match the Power Patcher perk. Dev Note: In looking at the Demolition Expert, White Knight, and Licensed Plumber perks, we felt they have so far been overperforming in their current roles, and we wanted to bring them more in line with similar perks to help prevent them from feeling like mandatory picks.Weapons: The Explosive legendary mod’s damage bonus has been reduced from +100% to +20% of base weapon damage, with explosive radius damage.Weapons: The Two Shot legendary effect’s damage bonus has been reduced from +100% to +25% of base weapon damage. Dev Note: As mentioned in a previous Inside the Vault article, both the explosive mod and two shot weapons could result in dealing very high amounts of damage, and this was compounded if two shot and explosive were combined. We’ve decided to tone both of these damage bonuses back.Weapons: Flamers, Cryolators, plasma weapons, and laser weapons can no longer spawn with the Explosive legendary mod. Dev Note: The explosive mod causes weapons to fire bullets that are . . . explosive. The weapons listed above don’t fire bullets, so we’ve temporarily removed the ability for them to spawn with that mod applied so we can make adjustments.C.A.M.P., Crafting, And WorkshopsScrapping: Loose weapon and armor mods are now protected from autoscrapping when crafting. However, they can still be scrapped manually if a player wants to break them down into scrap components.Turrets: An “(Owned)” tag will now appear next to the names of Turrets a player has built in their C.A.M.P. or a workshop.Design And GameplayCarry Weight: Is now capped to an absolute limit of 1,500 pounds over the character’s current maximum carry weight. For example: If your carry weight limit is 210 pounds, then your maximum limit is 1,710 pounds.Characters will be unable to exceed this new weight limit moving forward.Characters who already exceed this limit will be unable to add any additional items or caps to their inventories until they have reduced their carry weight below the cap.Dev Note: These limits exist primarily to keep servers from performing poorly, which can happen when we have too many items in the game world. They also play role in helping to regulate the in-game economy. We do recognize the desire to be able to own more of the cool items that we have in the game, and we are looking into a variety of solutions, including increasing the stash size. We will be sure to talk more about this when they are ready.Cap Stashes: To help address cap exploits, caps stashes have been turned into containers, which allows them to properly reset and provide players with instanced loot.Plans and Recipes: When viewing a plan or recipe in a menu, a “(Known)” tag will now appear next to the names of recipes and plans the player has already learned.Vendors: Recipes and Plans in Vendor inventories are no longer randomized and can now be reliably sourced from those Vendors, with the exception of some minor Workshop and C.A.M.P. Plans. The appearance of many Plans and Recipes in Vendor inventories is based on player level and they will show up once the proper level has been reached.Additional structural Plans for wall sets, power connectors, doors, generators, and water purifiers have also been added to some Vendors.PVPHunter/Hunted: A server-wide message will now appear when a player joins the Hunter/Hunted queue. This message will only be displayed once per player to avoid spam.An additional server-wide message will be displayed when Hunter/Hunted is ready to begin in order to give other players a final chance to join.Quests And EventsBelly of the Beast: A new “Ultracite Power Armor” entry has been added to Taggerdy’s Terminal on the top floor of Fort Defiance, offering Ultracite Power Armor plans to those who read it.First Contact: A new miscellaneous objective will now appear upon reaching the Overseer's C.A.M.P. for the first time, prompting the player to place a C.A.M.P. of their own.Gauley Mine: A new miscellaneous objective will now appear at Gauley Mine to introduce players to Ore Deposits.Monster Mash: The amount of XP awarded per round during this event has been reduced from 350 to 100.Bug FixesART AND GRAPHICSLighting: Lighting no longer flickers throughout Arktos Pharma.Apparel: Fixed an issue that could cause a character’s legs to show through the Rose Dress while it is equipped.C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPSArtillery: Fixed an issue that could prevent Artillery from being placed in valid locations.Blueprints: Addressed an issue preventing players from placing a stored blueprint containing posts that were placed partially underground when the blueprint was originally saved.Budget: Scrapping a stored blueprint that contained wires will now correctly remove those wires from the C.A.M.P. budget.Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to duplicate their stored blueprints.Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to reduce their carry weight to a negative value.Foundations: Fixed an issue that could cause a “Cannot place item: Needs support” message to display when editing a partially floating foundation.Power Armor Station: Players can no longer view power armor they do not own when attempting to access a power armor station that’s occupied by another player.Scrapping: Ignition Cores crafted for the Earth Mover event are no longer automatically scrapped when using the Scrap All Junk option at a Workbench.Scrapping: Junk items that need to be manually scrapped are no longer automatically scrapped for components when attempting to craft.Stored Objects: Repeatedly attempting to place an Atomic Shop variant of an object the player had stored but does not own no longer prevents them from placing other variants.Structures: Fixed an issue that could prevent a C.A.M.P. or workshop structure from being edited when building levels had been merged or split several times. This fix is not retroactive and will not apply to structures built prior to today’s patch.Terminals: Powered terminals contained within a stored blueprint now work correctly when the blueprint is placed in a new locationCHALLENGESCollect Holotape Games: Nuka Tapper sub-challenge can now be completed by playing the Nuka-Tapper holotape game.Formal Wear Challenges: Pantsuits and Shortsuits now correctly count as formal wear when completing challenges.Gather Building Supplies: The “Scrap items to produce fertilizer” condition has been updated to "Collect Fertilizer" and can be completed by salvaging or crafting it using spoiled fruits, vegetables, and meat.Learn Cooking Recipes: This challenge will now recognize many additional cooking recipes when they are learned for the first time. Retroactive credit will not be awarded for recipes learned prior to today’s patch, but that is planned for a future update.ENEMIESA.I.: Fixed an issue in which some enemies could chase the player farther than intended and become frozen in place.Exploit: Addressed several XP exploits by adding a limit to the maximum amount of XP granted by a single kill.Looting: Fixed an issue that could prevent players from looting goo and ash piles after killing an enemy with a laser or plasma weapon.GENERALLoading: Fixed several issues that could cause characters’ body parts, equipped apparel, or armor to become temporarily invisible to other nearby players or teammates after loading into a world.Monorail Elevator: Fixed an issue that prevented the Monorail Elevator near the edge of Cranberry Bog from taking players to the top floor.Performance: The Scorched Earth event has received optimization improvements.Performance: On laptops with more than one graphics card, Fallout 76 will now default to using the dedicated graphics card rather than an integrated card.Performance: Launching the Traditional or Simplified Chinese game clients on Xbox One no longer causes a 6 second hitch when the launch video begins to play.ITEMSBobbleheads: Using multiple Explosive Bobbleheads no longer causes their effects to stack.Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to duplicate items using MODUS Vendors.Exploit: Addressed an exploit in which the Vampire legendary effect could restore health through unintended means.Magazines: Removed magazines from several locations where they were unintentionally guaranteed to spawn.Tomahawks: No longer become stuck in mid-air after striking a hostile creature or player.Magazines: Guns and Bullets #5 now correctly provides bonus components when scrapping weapons, but no longer specifies a 50% increase.Magazines: Tesla Science #6 now correctly grants bonus Rad Resistance.Rad-X: Consuming multiple Rad-X or Diluted Rad-X no longer causes their effects to stack.Health Bonuses: A player with very low health who unequips an item that provides bonus health will no longer be instantly killed if removing that item that would cause their health to drop to or below 0.Paper Bags: Fixed multiple issues in which transferring items into an empty paper bag as the bag was despawning caused those items to become lost.Pip-Boy: Fixed a rare issue that could cause a character’s Pip-Boy to go missing.Power Armor: Entering a suit of power armor no longer occasionally causes it to become invisible to nearby players.PERKSButcher’s Bounty: Searching a dead Tick with the Butcher’s Bounty perk equipped can now correctly produce additional Tick Blood.Cap Collector: Now requires players to search caps stashes, much like other perks that grant a search option for containers.Exploit: Addressed an exploit affecting the Curator perk.Fireproof: Flame attack damage reduction provided by the Fireproof perk now correctly applies to Molotov fire damage.Serendipity: A notification will now appear on-screen and sound effects will play whenever the Serendipity perk’s effects are triggered.Super Duper: Can no longer trigger when crafting quest items.Traveling Pharmacy: Now correctly applies its weight reduction effect to Radaway, Diluted Radaway, Stimpaks, Diluted Stimpaks, Bloodpacks, Glowing Bloodpacks, Disease Cures, and Antibiotics.PVPRespawn: Fixed an issue that could prevent a player who was killed in water from correctly ending PVP upon respawning.Stealth: Addressed an issue in which stealth damage bonuses could still be applied by a sneaking player’s attacks during PVP even that player was within their target’s direct line of sight.Wanted: Fixed an issue that could cause the bounty amount for a Wanted player to appear halved on the map when approaching that player in the game world.QUESTS AND EVENTSBreach and Clear: The Meteoric Sword now correctly has a slim chance to spawn in containers during the Breach and Clear event.Early Warnings: Quest progress will no longer become stuck when crafting Upgraded Motors and logging out after crafting Upgraded Motors will no longer reset the quest tracker to 0/5.Events: Fixed an issue that could allow a player to simultaneously join two different events.Events: Fast traveling after joining an event will now correctly remove the player from that event and will no longer prevent them from joining proximity event at their fast travel destination.Flavors of Mayhem: Rose will no longer occasionally play unrelated voiceover lines when attempting to turn in Flavors of Mayhem, and the player is no longer prevented from correctly completing the quest.Signal Strength: Fixed an issue that could prevent Rose’s introductory voiceover lines from playing when the player approaches Top of the World.Second Helpings: An area marker will now appear for the “Find Delbert Winters in Flatwoods" objective to better inform players about their options for proceeding through the quest.SURVIVALDiseases: The Rad Worms disease now correctly increases rad damage taken by 50%.SOUNDWeapons: Breath sound effects will now play correctly when activating the Hold Breath option while zoomed.USER INTERFACEDisplay: Fallout 76 will now better autodetect AMD 7900/8900 series and AMD Radeon R9 200 Series graphics cards.Field of View: Addressed an issue causing camera clipping near walls when using a very high Field of View setting.Hotkeys: Fallout 76 now better supports French AZERTY keyboard layouts and the game’s controls will adjust accordingly.Hotkeys: While using a French AZERTY keyboard, the “/” key can now be properly rebound in the controls menu.Loading Screens: Fixed an issue that could cause loading screens to appear cut off or black at different resolutions when entering a building’s interior.Map: Character levels no longer appear truncated on the map for players over level 100.Nameplates: Fixed an issue that prevented player nameplates from appearing while inside the nuke zone during the Scorched Earth event.Nameplates: Fixed an issue that prevented the crown icon from displaying next to legendary enemy nameplates.Social: On Xbox, after sending a friend request to another player a notification will now display to confirm that a friend request has been sent.Social: The “Invite to Team” option no longer appears for players who have already joined the team.Social: If an attempt to fast travel to a friend or teammate using the Social Menu fails due to nearby enemies the player will now be notified by an error message that states "You cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby".Trading: Decreased the wait time required between trades when making multiple trades with another player. If players attempt to make multiple trades too quickly, a new "Trade failed due to frequency, wait a moment and try again." error message will now display rather than the previous “Trade Failed on Server” message.Trading: Fixed an issue on PC that could cause the player’s cursor to appear on both sides of a trade menu at the same time.Tutorials: New players will now receive a tutorial message informing them of the Change Appearance option in the Main Menu.VATS: Now selects targets more consistently across different field of view (FOV) values. For example, VATS will no longer target enemies that are visible in peripheral vision at high FOV values, but would be off-screen at default FOV values. This fix will help prevent VATS from providing an advantage to players who use high FOV settings.VATS: Fixed an issue that could cause the VATS interface to rapidly flicker on and off.Voice Chat: Fixed an issue preventing the speaker icon from appearing to others while a player is speaking over voice chat.Workshop Previews: The player’s current Atom balance no longer appears truncated when viewing an Atomic Shop item in the workshop preview at 16:10 and 21:9 resolutions.Info from Gamespot.com

Gaming giant EA is removing FIFA Points, a form of virtual currency for the franchise's lucrative Ultimate Team mode, across all titles from the franchise in Belgium following the country's crackdown on loot boxes. In a blog post, EA said it came to the decision to remove FIFA Points following "discussions with the Belgian authorities."The FIFA Points will be removed from all FIFA games on console and PC by the end of January, EA said. While FIFA Points will no longer be purchasable for Ultimate Team, people can still of course play Ultimate Team; going forward, all extra content can only be unlocked through gameplay. This was always the case, as the FIFA Points were available as an option for players who wanted to unlock new content faster. The game's other in-game currency, coins, along with the transfer market, will remain up and running in the wake of this news.Gamers in Belgium will get to keep any unspent FIFA points, but, as mentioned, they will no longer be available to buy more. "We apologize to our players in Belgium for any inconvenience caused by this change," EA said.With all of its games, EA said its goal is to provide players with "choice, fairness, value, and fun."EA also pointed out that franchises like FIFA and others with loot box mechanics contain systems that display probability figures. EA removing loot boxes from FIFA might seem like the company is taking a stance against loot boxes, but that doesn't seem to be the case. EA said previously that loot boxes are not gambling, and the company doubled down on this in its new statement."While we are taking this action, we do not agree with Belgian authorities' interpretation of the law, and we will continue to seek more clarity on the matter as we go forward," EA said.On the investor side, EA said it doesn't expect the removal of loot boxes to having a "material" impact on the company's financial performance. That may be true because Belgium is a small country relative to other places; the potential worry for investors is that this announcement might lead to more widespread changes in other countries that EA operates in.Loot boxes and Ultimate Team are very big business for EA. Across all of its sports games, EA's Ultimate Team revenue came in at close to $1 billion in 2017, according to GI.biz.In 2018, Belgium's Gambling Commission announced that loot boxes constitute a game of chance, and were therefore subject to the country's gambling laws. Blizzard swiftly removed loot boxes from Overwatch in Belgium, but EA had taken longer to make the change.The conversation about loot boxes in video games is not ending anytime soon, so be sure to keep checking back with GameSpot for more. Info from Gamespot.com

The Lunatic Fringe is headed for the exit. Former WWE Champion Dean Ambrose will leave WWE once his current contract expires in April. The news was first reported by PWTorch, before the company commented on the manner."Dean Ambrose (Jonathan Good) will not be renewing his contract with WWE when it expires in April," WWE said in a statement. "We are grateful and appreciative of all that Dean has given to WWE and our fans. We wish him well and hope that one day Dean will return to WWE."The news comes as a surprise, given the last few months of Ambrose's career. After returning from injury, he briefly reunited with fellow The Shield members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. After Reigns took a leave of absence from the company to battle leukemia, Ambrose turned heel and became Intercontinental Champion, entering into a lengthy feud with Rollins.In recent weeks, Ambrose lost the title to Bobby Lashley, before being eliminated from the Royal Rumble match by NXT's Aleister Black. On this week's episode of Raw, he was attacked by Nia Jax."I'm going to assume that Nia simply tripped and fell into me, and was not trying to start some physical altercation with me, a man," he said in an interview after the exchange. "Because that's insane, right? So, I'm going to accept her, what I assume is an apology is what she was yelling at me from the ring as I was being escorted away by referees, like I would do something. Can you imagine? I'm going to accept her apology. And we're all good."Ambrose, who first made his name on the independent wrestling scene as Jon Moxley, first signed with the company in 2011 and began training in the Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory. He debuted on the main roster in 2012 as part of The Shield.As for what Ambrose does next, that's anyone's guess. With Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and All Elite Wrestling looking to bolster their rosters, though, it should be an interesting few months if he's looking to stay in professional wrestling.Info from Gamespot.com

Welcome to our first ever Review Q&A, where GameSpot reviewers and friends take a deep dive into our review process (and hopefully answer some of your biggest questions). First up: Kingdom Hearts 3! Reviewer Tamoor Hussain and superfan Lucy James talk about the 14-year wait for Kingdom Hearts 3, the hardest parts of the review, and how nostalgia factors in to it all. Make sure to let us know if you'd like to see more behind-the-scenes reviews features like this one and how we can make them even better--but first, enjoy!Tamoor Hussain is UK Editor and Global Head Of News for GameSpot. He reviewed Kingdom Hearts III, giving it an 8/10. On top of working at GameSpot, he’s got a side hustle as a full-time weeb. More importantly, he has been a lifelong fan of Kingdom Hearts since the series began.Lucy James is Senior Video Producer at GameSpot. She's a part-time weeb who cried in the audience of the Sony 2013 E3 press conference when Kingdom Hearts III was announced. She can and will explain the plot of the series to you if you ask nicely.Tam: When you walk away, you don't hear me say, "Pleaaaaaaaaaase, oh baby, don't go." Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight. It's hard to let it go….Lucy: Hi Tamoor. Thanks for that Simple And Clean intro. We both have a very storied history with Kingdom Hearts. We're probably the biggest fans on staff, and we've both been very excited to play III for… jeez, well over a decade now. I think my first question to you has to be: Just how the hell did you prepare to do this review?Tam: Like this:Lucy: Oh good grief.Tam: Okay so, let’s break that picture down. Left hand: Full-size Keyblade that lets the world know that I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan. Right hand, flipping the bird to the world to say, “Yeah, I love Kingdom Hearts and I don’t care what you think.” Up top: Sunglasses because I’m quite sensitive to light and the brightness was giving me a headache.Lucy: Fair. San Francisco was pretty sunny that day. I wore a leather jacket and remember deeply regretting it.Back to my question: what kind of mindset were you in when you tackled the review? When we played the game at a preview event back in June 2018, we both came out of it saying, "That's a game Kingdom Hearts fans will love, but I wonder how people unfamiliar with the series will react to it." We didn't say that in unison, though. That'd be weird.Tam: Honestly, I was very nervous. I remember when our all-powerful reviews editor Kallie asked me if I'd be up for it and I knew I wanted to do it. I wanted to take on that challenge, but a part of me did think about how stressful it'd be. Now, let's be clear, I was reviewing a game--hardly a thing to get upset about, but I was thinking about what that game represents and how much it means to fans. I feel okay saying this because I am a Kingdom Hearts fan, but Kingdom Hearts fans are INTENSE. Like, in my review I open by saying how hearing Dearly Beloved emotionally cripples me every time, and there's loads of people saying I'm not a fan and I don't have any experience with the series.But anyway, I started second-guessing myself, thinking, "Do you really know everything you need to know about Kingdom Hearts? Because if you get one thing wrong, you will hear about it." In the lead-up I thought it would be a good idea to refresh myself on everything, but that turned out to be a bad idea because then I started treating it like studying for an exam. I am not good in exams. I threw up in my GCSE maths exam and got sent out. Also I am not good at maths.Lucy: I was going to make a maths joke about 358/2 Days here, but thought better of it.Tam: Eventually I just stepped back and reminded myself that I love this series, I've played the games, I know the characters, I've followed the story, and all I needed to do was approach it in a genuine way. I focused on taking my experience as a reviewer that's critiqued and analysed many games and properly balancing that with my passion for the series.I hope that comes through in the review, which echoes what you said and what we discussed after the preview event. I think fans of the series will love it for sure, but one of the strengths of Kingdom Hearts as a series is there's always something to enjoy regardless of whether you're a long-time fan or not. Since publishing the review I've talked a lot of people who, for one reason or another, are considering playing the game. Many of them say they don't know Kingdom Hearts, but I tell them that the Disney worlds are still fantastic on their own, the combat is a lot of fun, and it's overall just a joyous game. Sure, it does get a bit tied up in its own mythos and has some rough patches, but as a whole it's still a fun and charming game.Tl;dr: It was daunting. You've got it now, how are you finding it?Lucy: I think daunting is the right word for it. I'll say that it wasn't an easy start. It honestly took me a couple of hours to get into the swing of it. The game starts with a pretty scrappy prologue, Kingdom Hearts 2.9 (I'm not joking), where it's dropping in story beats, and getting the player up to speed with the combat changes, etc. Honestly, I was pretty worried for a second, because the whole thing didn't feel very cohesive. I think while I was mid-music video (the second or third), I texted you "REALLY??????", because I genuinely thought it was going to be indicative of the rest of the game.I hit the Kingdom Hearts 3 title screen, and it just felt like everything… eased, and I'm really enjoying it now. Pretty familiar to the start of Kingdom Hearts II in that regard, really. I feel like because I did the History Of Kingdom Hearts recently, I'm as familiar as I can be with the intricacies of its story, and I'm starting to get these payoffs, and they're really hitting. I know in your review you called out the game for getting bogged down in its own lore--how intense is that stuff going to get?Tam: So one of the things I tried to do is to think about how the game would feel to people with various levels of familiarity. I think that was important to do because, like you, I know the story, so how “intense” it felt was different from someone who doesn’t know it. And also there’s sure to be plenty of people who are attracted to Disney that decide to play the game, with little to no prior experience, so I think that was an important consideration.The funny thing was, even with my familiarity it felt very intense at times. Like I said in my review, I think the problem is that it tries to do too much and resolve--or at least reference--every narrative thread or lingering question about a character, and that’s to its detriment. Thankfully, for the most part these moments are bookends to the Disney world and stories. You’ll arrive on a planet, have the Kingdom Hearts story, then play through a nice little Disney adventure, then have another Kingdom Hearts story. That made it way more manageable. However, the final third of the game is pure Kingdom Hearts bants and it is very overwhelming.I’m going to put my cards on the table here and say, in hindsight, I think Organization XIII is the worst part of the game. In previous games they’ve been likable characters--I know Axel is your guy--but, for me, in KH3 they dilute the story and there’s just far too many of them. They also enable the laziest kind of storytelling, where a character waffles on about nothing in particular while acting shady and mysterious. To me, that just says the character didn’t really serve any purpose in the story and is just there for the sake of being there. That’s particularly evident in this game, which tries to give fans of all of these lads and ladettes some time in the spotlight. Honestly, I didn’t need it--it just made the overall story worse.Lucy: I know that diehard fans will appreciate that though. To me, Kingdom Hearts 3 seems to be all about the story payoffs so far.Tam: I’m suddenly very aware of how negative that sounded and the fact that you’re very early, so I’m going to temper that by also saying there’s wonderful stuff throughout, even at the end. The story has some really nice moments too, so don’t feel discouraged by me being a grump.I’ll be honest, there are some games that I just needed to enjoy.So one of things I think about a lot, especially for a series as storied as this, is at a certain point people are so invested in something that they’re able to ignore a lot of the issues with the thing they love and have loved for years. When you’re reviewing a game, you don’t have that luxury. You’ve reviewed games before, so it can be difficult to switch that part of your brain off, but for something like Kingdom Hearts I imagine you might be able to--I certainly can with stuff like Metal Gear. I’ll be honest, there are some games that I just needed to enjoy, like MGS4, which is a flawed game in many respects, but I needed to love it, if you get what I mean.Lucy: Metal Gear is such a fantastic example of what you're talking about, because the highest of the highs totally outweigh the lowest of the lows, and that's what you end up remembering about those games. When I think of Kingdom Hearts 2, for example, I immediately think of a dozen incredible things I loved in that game: the music, the varied Disney worlds, fighting Sephiroth, battling Organization XIII, etc., before things like the slow opening or Atlantica's daft music mini-games even come into my mind. It's like a rising tide raises all (Gummi) ships.I know that you got through Kingdom Hearts 3 pretty quickly so that everything would be ready for the review embargo. Do you think you lost anything from the experience? And for someone who's been waiting just as long as I have, were you sad that you had to play it that way?Tam: I did have to get through it quite quickly, but I don’t think I lost anything from the experience because of that. In fact, I think it helped me push through rougher spots where, without a deadline, I probably would have walked away from it for a day or two.Whether I was sad about having to do that goes back to what I said earlier. This is one of those games that I also needed to enjoy, but since our wise and benevolent reviews editor Kallie asked if I wanted to review it, I had to pick between that and taking on the challenge of writing a review for it. In the end, I felt that it would be better and more beneficial for me to do the review. I didn’t mention it above but, at the same time as being nervous about the whole thing, the challenge of reviewing the game was also very appealing. I knew that it had to be on point, and since there would be a lot of people reading it, both internally as part of QA and externally by the general public, it was also an opportunity to kind of get a measure of how I’m doing as a reviewer--it doubled up as a reviewer exam, in a way.Lucy: So you're saying this review was your Mark of Mastery exam?Tam: Hahah, very good. Yeah--but did I pass like Riku or am I still an apprentice like Sora? That is the question! [Wise and benevolent editor's note: He passed.]So, yeah. I would have loved to have played at my own pace, but like I said, I don’t think I lost much by not doing so. Also, playing it for review meant I could play it early and make myself impervious to spoilers, which was big factor too. I do think that playing it in smaller chunks like you are is a good way to go about it. Like I said previously, each of the worlds are neatly contained--as with past entries--so it makes it easy to split up sessions. A Disney world a day keeps the Heartless at bay.One of the things I was thinking about for the review, but didn’t end up using as an angle in this exact way, is nostalgia. A lot of people came to Kingdom Hearts because of their love for Disney or Final Fantasy and their nostalgia for it. But over time that element of the series has shifted in different ways. For Final Fantasy, it’s completely dropped off, and for Disney, the emphasis is more on the modern era, for which the nostalgia isn’t as potent. How do you feel about that? Is that important to you? Or do you think Kingdom Hearts as a whole has distinguished itself enough to no longer rely on those elements?Lucy: That's an interesting point about nostalgia, and to be honest, I think it does still rely on it to an extent. Square has been really clever about the choice of Disney worlds, and I feel they've struck a good balance between older versus newer movies. I certainly feel less of an emotional connection to Frozen and Big Hero 6, y'know, but at the same time, flying around with Baymax is cool as heck, so I'm glad they're experimenting with new worlds. I'm also incredibly glad they've put new twists on returning worlds. Not just that they look better, or have a better layout, but in the case of a world like Olympus, it's a completely new side to that place that we haven't seen before.I think that's nice that it's come full circle--a game that could only exist because it's built on nostalgia now inspires its own.Kingdom Hearts has been around for so long now that my feelings of nostalgia are less about the Disney and Final Fantasy parts and more toward the little threads between the games. The menu sounds, movement, combat, in particular the music. Like said in your review, when you hear the opening bars of Dearly Beloved, it's like this gut punch that opens the nostalgia floodgates. I think that's nice that it's come full circle--a game that could only exist because it's built on nostalgia now inspires its own.With that all said, with everything riding on Kingdom Hearts 3, do you think it lived up to expectations? Was it worth the wait?Tam: It did live up to expectations for me. It gave me the same feelings that I had when I played the original on the PS2 and fell in love with it--and that’s quite an achievement if you ask me. Ultimately, the issues the game has are overshadowed by everything else. Though they can’t be discounted, they don’t get in the way to the point where they ruin the experience. I had a blast playing it, so, yeah, it was worth the wait for sure.I just hope that, now that the Dark Seeker Saga is complete, the wait until the next chapter of the Kingdom Hearts story isn’t as long. Info from Gamespot.com

Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the most anticipated games of the year. Fans have been waiting years for the release date of the third mainline entry in the series to arrive, and that moment is nearly here--it launches tomorrow, January 29.If you're not familiar with the series, you might enjoy our Kingdom Hearts story primer, or everything you need to know about Kingdom Hearts 3. One notable thing that's emerged in the last few days is that the game's epilogue will be added after launch to avoid spoilers being leaked. And if you want to know how long it will take to see that epilogue, you can find out by taking a look at Kingdom Hearts 3's campaign length estimate.We awarded the game an 8/10 in our Kingdom Hearts 3 review, while critics across the board seem pretty positive about this concluding chapter. Read on below for a selection of other reviews or check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic for more, or head over to CNET for thoughts from a series newcomer.GameSpot -- 8/10"What sticks with me is the exciting battle against elemental titans with Hercules, taking Rapunzel out into the unfamiliar wide world for the first time, snapping selfies with Winnie the Pooh, and going toe to toe with Davy Jones. In 2002, as Sora, I left Destiny Islands to travel across the universe and make new friends. In 2019 I brought old ones home, and I had so much fun doing it." -- Tamoor Hussain [Full review]CNET "Kingdom Hearts 3 sticks doggedly to what made Kingdom Hearts successful in the first place, for better or worse. It's both the poison and the antidote. It's more than happy to let you swim in its best bits of unpredictable, epic combat set pieces and then sit you down for an extended fireside chat about a Keyblade War with four antagonists that all share the same hair colour and only slightly varied haircuts." -- Jackson Ryan [Full review] CNET is GameSpot's sister site.IGN -- 8.7/10"I thoroughly enjoyed Square Enix's evolution of Kingdom Hearts' gameplay and fidelity to Disney's beloved animated movies. While the storytelling could use some punching up, Square has done a fantastic job of capturing the spirit of these worlds while giving us a massive toolbox for battles and exploration. Even as I watched the dust settle on the story I wanted to jump right back in to collect everything. But to see all of the events of the Kingdom Hearts games so far culminate is, frankly, weird. Having been given so much time to ruminate, its specific resolutions aren’t all that surprising, but only a marginal impact is lost as a result. I still loved seeing so many characters from throughout this series interact in new ways and rekindle old bonds. It's nice to see that, even so long after the very first game, Kingdom Hearts 3 is so full of heart." -- Jonathon Dornbush [Full review]Game Informer -- 9.5/10"While not perfect, Kingdom Hearts III is the game I’ve been waiting for. After finishing it, I was delighted by how satisfied I was with the journey. I traversed worlds with some of my favorite Disney characters, persevered through challenging boss battles, and saw a triumphant finale that only makes me more excited for the future. The series still has a lot of heart, and that’s what makes it so endearing." -- Kimberley Wallace [Full review]Polygon -- No score"Kingdom Hearts isn’t simple anymore; it isn’t just joy and bright colors and Disney heroes. Instead, the conclusion of this story is tangled up in so many conflicting threads, each one a heavy burden on its hero, whose smile now feels unnerving. Kingdom Hearts 3 is an example of what can go wrong when a series that once stood in contrast to its peers as a lighthearted alternative loses its way." -- Allegra Frank [Full review]GamesRadar -- 4/5"Whatever the flaws, there is nothing quite like Kingdom Hearts 3, and it's a wild, wonderful ride as a result. Name one other game where you can watch Elsa belt out Let It Go before hammering some monsters to death with a giant key. I'll wait." -- Rachel Weber [Full review]Info from Gamespot.com

Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit developer Quantic Dream recently raised money from Chinese internet company NetEase, at which time many wondered if it meant that the French studio would continue to make games only for PlayStation consoles. Now we know it won't.Quantic Dream boss Guillaume de Foundaumiere told GamesBeat that while the studio will continue to release games for PlayStation consoles, the exclusivity arrangement is seemingly over."We will continue to work on PlayStation, which is a platform we love and that we know very well, but we will also consider other platforms as we want to make our creations accessible to as many gamers as possible worldwide, regardless of the platform," he said. "This is definitely a shift for us after 12 years developing exclusively for PlayStation. We are confident we can make a smooth transition [to multi-platform development] while keeping the high level of quality that we target for our games."As for what Quantic Dream's next game will be, studio founder David Cage said it's "too early" to reveal anything. However, he did tease that the studio is working on a new game engine that will support multiple platforms. The engine is "even more impressive than anything we have done before," Cage said.He added: "We will keep working on projects that are ambitious and original, building on the genre we pioneered and that we will continue to develop, but we also want to explore new grounds."Also in the interview, Cage said Quantic Dream wants to become a "global, multi-franchise company" that retains its independence, and raising the money from NetEase will help it achieve that. "We want to keep developing original games in the genre we pioneered, but also expand our audience by being present on all platforms," he said.Quantic Dream raised an unspecified amount of money from NetEase. The company previously invested $100 million into Bungie to develop non-Destiny games. NetEase also invested $30 million in Second Dinner, a small team founded by Hearthstone developers who are making a Marvel game.Detroit: Become Human was released in May 2018 as a PlayStation 4-exclusive. It was generally well-received and it set sales records.Info from Gamespot.com

The latest patch for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has arrived, and it's a big one. Version 2.0.0 is available to download now, and the biggest piece of news is that it adds a new character: Piranha Plant. Everyone who registers their game by January 31 gets Piranha Plant for free, while the character will be available for everyone to buy at a later date. Here are instructions for how to register your copy of Smash Bros. Ultimate to get Piranha Plant for free.For more on Piranha Plant, check out the announcement trailer above and a second video below. "Ready your flowerpots for battle with this poisonous powerhouse starting today!" Nintendo said.Piranha Plant pipes up in #SmashBrosUltimate as a new playable fighter! Ready your flowerpots for battle with this poisonous powerhouse starting today! Piranha Plant is a free bonus for players who have registered Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and redeemed their code before 1/31. pic.twitter.com/qDDjHOJXbk — Nintendo Versus (@NintendoVS) January 30, 2019The new 2.0.0 patch makes a number of changes and improvements as well. Starting off, you can now play Spirit Board with up to four players; notably, you'll the battle if anyone is knocked out. The patch also adds more spirits to the in-game shop, including Partner Pikachu and Partner Eevee.Elsewhere, the patch makes balance changes to many fighters; almost all of the characters got buffed in some capacity in ways like power increases and vulnerability decreases. You can see a full breakdown of the character-specific changes here on Nintendo's website.Beyond Piranha Plant, Nintendo will release five other DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the first of whom will be the aforementioned Joker. Each fighter will be released individually alongside a new stage and multiple music tracks for $6, but players can get all five at a discounted price through the $25 Fighters Pass.Version 2.0.0 Patch NotesOffline You can now play Spirit Board with up to four players. Select the spirit you want to challenge on the Spirit Board, and then go to Party → Fighter to select the number of people who will play. When playing with multiple people, you will lose the battle if any player is KO'd.The following spirits will now appear in the Shop. Partner PikachuPartner EeveeDice BlockRiver SurvivalGolden Dash MushroomOnline We adjusted the calculation for Global Smash Power.General Added the DLC fighter Piranha Plant. Piranha Plant will become available for purchase as DLC at a later date.Pressing both jump buttons at the same time will now cause you to short hop.Fixed the issue where the KO score included your teammates' KOs when Team Attack was On.Game-balance adjustments.Various gameplay fixes.Specific fighter adjustments are detailed here.Info from Gamespot.com

The first official images from the upcoming J.R.R. Tolkien biopic have been released, showing off Nicholas Hoult as the acclaimed fantasy author. USA Today posted a series of images from the film, which focuses on a young Tolkien in the time leading up to his writing of the epic fantasy.Director Dome Karukoski told the site that the movie, which is called Tolkien, will cover the author's life as he considers and confronts his own imagination. "There's often fear with that, also, in how your imagination starts to play with you, especially the mind of a genius like Tolkien," he said. View this post on InstagramHere’s the first images from Tolkien! Can’t wait for you all to see this beautiful story #tolkienmovie @tolkienmovieA post shared by Nicholas Hoult (@nicholashoult) on Jan 25, 2019 at 9:37am PST Actor Harry Gilby will play Tolkien as a teenager in the film before Hoult assumes the role of Tolkien in his late 20s at the onset of his writing of the fantasy series. One major part of the film will be Tolkien's relationship with the woman he would eventually marry: Edith Bratt (Lily Collins). "She kept him very honest and took care of him throughout all the difficult strives in his life," Hoult told USA Today about Bratt. She also "also pushed him to create what he did create and gave him the foundation to be able to do that," Hoult said.Tolkien the movie will also touch on the orphan author's friendship with schoolmates and his time serving in World War I. A trailer hasn't been released yet, so these first images are all we have to go on for now in terms of visuals. Go to USA Today to see them all. You can also see them in Hoult's Instagram gallery above.We also learn in the story that Hoult is a big fan of Tolkien, having read The Hobbit on the set of his first big movie, About A Boy.Tolkien hits theatres on May 10. In addition to this film, another one is in the works that focuses on the relationship between Tolkien and Narnia writer C.S. Lewis, and how Tolkien helped convert Lewis to Christianity.Outside of these, Amazon is producing a Lord of the Rings prequel TV show, while a massive Lord of the Rings art exhibit is opening in New York City. A new Lord of the Rings video game is also in the work, and it's said to have an online focus.Info from Gamespot.com

BioWare has announced that it's adding running to Fort Tarsis in Anthem. It's a change that's certainly going to be positively met by many of those who played Anthem's VIP demo, and the update is scheduled to be live at the game's launch.In an interview with GamesRadar, Anthem executive producer Mark Darrah said that the decision to have you walk through the fort was so that you would "feel a little bit underpowered," and understand "that strong difference" for a Freelancer outside their Javelin as opposed to in one. "We want it to feel like walking," he continued. "If you look at most video games, you're sprinting everywhere and we gave you a jet pack machine for when you're out in the world, and we really want it to feel like you're just a person walking around and now you are that person in Iron Man armor."BioWare general manager Casey Hudson added that "there was a run speed that was in [the game]. And then for some reason it was out of the game for when that particular build [the VIP demo build] was made." Hudson confirmed that sprint function is back in "the main game" so you should be able to sprint in Fort Tarsis when Anthem launches. However, it doesn't sound like the function will be available in the free February 1-3 demo.Anthem had a doozy of a VIP demo last weekend. Initially, it seemed as if the demo's servers were overloaded, but both EA and BioWare clarified that wasn't the case. Regardless, players still faced dropped games and never-ending loading screens. Eventually, even Origin shut down, and then the problem extended to other EA titles on additional platforms, including consoles. Whatever the issue, it was resolved by the end of the weekend, and all VIP invitees were given the chance to try all four Javelins--as opposed to just two--on the last day of the demo. BioWare also promised a second Javelin vinyl for everyone invited to the VIP demo. It will unlock in the main game come launch.Anthem is scheduled to launch on February 22 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. If you're an EA or Origin Access subscriber, then you can play the game a week early on Xbox One or PC.Info from Gamespot.com

Genesis Alpha One's ambitions are made clear from the moment you begin constructing the vessel meant to act as an ark for humanity's survival. You're alone in space, searching for a planet hospitable enough to act as a new home. But getting there is no easy task. You need to juggle the expansion of your ship, the maintenance of its existing modules and the living conditions of your growing crew of clones, and that's when you're not mining for new resources, fending off alien infestations, or tending to crew job assignments. The problem with Genesis Alpha One isn't that all of these systems buckle under the weight of their interconnectivity--it's that none of them are that engaging to interact with in the first place.Genesis Alpha One contains a mixture of strategic shipbuilding and the more personal exploration of your ship and surrounding planets through a first-person view. Your ship can be thought of as a moving command center; it's where you construct new modules to scan and scavenge resources from nearby debris, hangars for ships to explore nearby planets and biomes to sustain life onboard as you expand your crew of barely indistinguishable clones. When not making changes to your ship, you explore the hallways of your creation or join crews on missions to planets for resource scavenging.Each run in Genesis Alpha One rarely deviates from the same starting steps. You construct the bare minimum you need on your ship before getting the chance to jettison off into the great unknown--essentials like a Greenhouse for oxygen production, Quarters for your crew, a Tractor Beam for harvesting resources, and more are the fundamentals around which the rest of your ship is built. Although finding the exact module you want to add to your ship is made frustrating by the unclear menu headings (which I never got used to), actual construction is far easier. Modules click into place like Lego blocks, offering entrances and exits that need to be lined up to existing pieces of your ship or strategically placed for future ones. It's satisfying to go from a broad overview of your uniquely designed vessel and straight into the shoes of a member on board, giving you the freedom to roam around the intricately (or confusingly) laid-out hallways you just placed down. Genesis Alpha One features familiar elements from roguelikes, giving you modifiers to change how you start each run. You choose a template for your initial crew--based on a Corporation you select--which determines how many metals, elements, and oxygen-producing plants you begin with, as well as the number of crew members on board. You unlock new corporations as you play. To gain access to a corporation that specializes in mining ore, for example, you'll first need to have one lucrative mining run.These corporations and their advantages are then combined with a limited number of separate static upgrades, which you discover during your travels through the galaxy and that impact your playstyle more directly. You might choose to adorn your personal suit with upgrades to health and damage reduction but miss out on helpful indicators pointing you to special resources on your galaxy map, for instance. You're encouraged by the numerous locked upgrades--which appear in the menu--to search new areas of the large galaxy map during each run so that you can secure a more diverse set of upgrades to further modify your playthroughs. There are few that drastically change how a run might unfold, which leads to a sense of tedium setting in with each new attempt and its protracted start. The slight changes to your starting resources and crew do, however, give you more creative flexibility when deciding how to initially start the construction of your ship.Although building out your vessel is generally satisfying, you soon begin to realize how tedious your routines around the ship can become. Each module has a purpose, and without hands tending to them they remain ineffective. Salvaging resources from nearby debris requires workers on the Tractor Beam, for example, that you need to assign via a console that's only located in that specific room. The same goes for every other station around your ship, making your opening moments aboard a frantic dash between each room to get everything running. When you jump from one solar system to another, this process sometimes needs to be repeated. You'll need to rescan new debris around you--which requires you to hold a button for far too long--and manually assign the Tractor Beam again for salvaging, even if you previously assigned crew members to that job. It's baffling to have to go through these same motions every time you jump to a new solar system (which happens fairly regularly), especially when a centralized interface giving you access to all your ship's sub-systems would be far easier and more manageable.This is exacerbated by AI that makes your crew largely useless without your input. Unless they're assigned to a station, crew members will wander around the ship and not really do anything. They might engage with unwelcome alien stowaways but appear to ignore or forget about them completely when even slightly separated from them. An attacking pirate crew might be storming your hallways and causing mayhem, but your crew won't react until they've entered a room with them inside. As a captain, you're severely limited in the ways you're able to command your crew, save for ensuring that they're present at a console to carry out the menial tasks that rooms and their associated purposes require.That leaves a lot of additional work for you to do alone, which starts piling up to an unbearable degree. Should you find yourself fighting off an alien infestation, you're stuck dealing with eradicating the spreading alien eggs alone in the catacombs below each corridor. It's satisfying to set up your vessel in a way that establishes clear choke points or routes enemies into an area filled with turrets you've placed for defenses. But as your ship grows, your ability to actively react to a growing danger becomes nearly impossible. It's compounded by unclear ways to deal with mission-ending threats such as infestations and raiding pirates. It seems that once either is onboard there's little you can do to get rid of them for good. Pirates will continually spawn on your ship even after multiple jumps to new solar systems, while aliens will continually sprout new hives even after you've cleared them all out. If there's a way for you to triumph over these challenges after you've encountered them, Genesis Alpha One doesn't make it clear exactly how.Losing progress in a roguelike is meant to entice you to hop back in with new accessories to change your next run, but Genesis Alpha One doesn't have the mechanics in place to make these variations interesting enough to experiment with.The first-person action isn't that robust, either. You can craft numerous types of weapons--ranging from simple assault rifles and flamethrowers to more futuristic, slow-firing laser weaponry--but enemies rarely offer diverse-enough challenges for you to consider the strategic advantages of each. The actual mechanics of shooting are also not satisfying. You can't aim down a gun's sights; instead, you lock onto enemies with the press of a button, making skirmishes tedious and boring. Enemies don't recoil from your attacks convincingly, robbing the action of a punchy feeling. And, despite your abnormally high movement speed, there are no enemies that demand you use this in creative ways. Instead it's just easy enough to use that speed to back away from enemies that can hardly ever keep up, or are never accurate enough to pose a threat from afar.Losing progress in a roguelike is meant to entice you to hop back in with new accessories to change your next run, but Genesis Alpha One doesn't have the mechanics in place to make these variations interesting enough to experiment with. Instead, death just feels like a punch to the gut, and a reminder that all the tiring setup you endured in the previous run must be repeated for hours to feel anywhere close to where you left off.From tedious combat to the repetitive nature of exploring new solar systems, there's little in Genesis Alpha One to hold your attention. Expanding your ship as you traverse a vast universe is marginally rewarding when you get the chance to roam around the elaborate structures you've built. But the process of gathering resources to make this possible is arduous, while threats bringing your inevitable demise are either dull to fight against or spawned onto your ship in aggressively large numbers without any clear methods of success against them. Genesis Alpha One contains all the components for deep space adventure, but none of them are executed well enough to make it a voyage worth taking.Info from Gamespot.com

Like every game in the series before it, Kingdom Hearts 3 begins by playing its theme, Dearly Beloved, over the title screen. Composed by acclaimed musician Yoko Shimomura, it perfectly captures the sentimentality at the heart of the series. The song is at once tender and melancholic, wistful and adventurous, somber and uplifting--a reminder of a history that'll leave longtime fans dewy-eyed. I wish I could properly convey the impact of hearing it, but the best I can do is to say that it is overwhelming.The only way to really understand the emotions Dearly Beloved stirs is to have connected with the franchise and its characters; to have followed their journeys over its 17-year history, for better or worse. The nostalgia for and investment in Kingdom Hearts as a franchise is incredibly powerful, so much so that it helped me push through the rougher patches in what is overall an enjoyable, if uneven, third entry in the core series. Kingdom Hearts 3 is preoccupied with fan service to a fault, and it also struggles to stay coherent under the weight of its own convoluted lore. But it's also everything fans love about the series: a thrilling action-RPG that celebrates Disney and Pixar, all the while ensuring themes of friendship, heroism, and pure-hearted goodness shine bright.At times, those themes can be difficult to discern, particularly when the game is intent on telling the grander story of Kingdom Hearts as opposed to the smaller tales centered around Disney's iconic characters or Sora’s innocent idealism. Given it's the concluding chapter in a massive story arc, it can't be faulted for having this fixation, but the execution is frustrating nonetheless. Kingdom Hearts 3 is bogged down in the finer details of its lore, so much so that--for all but the most clued-in fans--it can be difficult to get a sense of what our three main heroes are actually trying to accomplish.At its broadest, the story of Kingdom Hearts 3 involves Sora, Donald, and Goofy preparing for an upcoming war against the forces of darkness by gathering the Guardians of Light. This is oversimplification to its most extreme, but to delve into the finer details would require lengthy explanations of numerous confounding concepts and characters. It is undoubtedly messy, but for fans who have committed to playing all the games and been studious enough to join the dots along the way, it makes sense. For those that aren't as well-versed in Kingdom Hearts, the essentials of the story aren't laid out nearly as clear as they need to be.The bloated state of Kingdom Hearts’ lore is the result of numerous spin-offs and sequels that introduced new characters to explore back- and side-stories. Contained in their own games, these characters had the room to breathe, establish themselves, and have full narrative arcs. However, when united in one game, each is diminished in both characterization and impact. Kingdom Hearts 3 attempts to take all the disparate narrative threads from across its many games--and the characters tied up in them--and weave them together into one concluding story, and the result is incoherent to say the least. It doesn’t help that numerous characters look the same, or that some are time-travelling versions of themselves. Others, meanwhile, are reincarnations that have taken on a new form or exist inside the heart of yet another character. There are also a few that used to have one name, but now have another, but both names are used depending on who is talking about them. Before long all of these characters are elbow to elbow, vying for screen time and pulling the story in so many different directions that it becomes difficult to find its center again. The handful that are critical to the plot inevitably become lost among the many bit-parters that feel like they're in the game as fan service, instead of being meaningful to the story.If Kingdom Hearts 3 had stronger writing it may have been possible to highlight key details and figures for the player to latch onto; a chance to see through the crowd of faces and pick out the ones most important. However, the writing largely makes proceedings even harder to follow. The villains in particular--many of which are members of Organization XIII--spout inane lines that are purposefully vague. Presumably this was to build mystery, but it only serves to muddy motivations and further obscure the crux of the story. Otherwise, they're delivering cheesy dialogue that feels at odds with the sincere melodrama happening around them.At its core, Kingdom Hearts 3 is a heartfelt tale of enduring friendship, and the narrative is at its strongest when it narrows its focus to just thisThis is a shame because, at its core, Kingdom Hearts 3 is a heartfelt tale of enduring friendship, and the narrative is at its strongest when it narrows its focus to just this. Sora, the hero of the series, continues to be plucky and lovably naive. His greatest facets are his strength of heart, his ability to make friends with anyone, and his devotion to them--he is the archetypal wholesome good boy. Joining him once again is Donald Duck, stuffy and prone to outbursts but a trustworthy companion; and Goofy, slightly dimwitted but also the emotional anchor of the group.The endearing trio's adventures through the Disney and Pixar worlds featured in Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as the interactions they have with the characters within them, are a reminder that beneath the tortuous lore are smaller stories that resonate. By keeping the bigger Keyblade Wars story in the periphery and having minimal involvement from all those involved with it, these stories are clearer and more concise. The underlying themes of Kingdom Hearts harmonize with those of Disney's own properties so well that each new world Sora journeys to delivers an impactful moment of storytelling. In Toy Box, Sora helps Woody, Buzz, and the gang find their missing friends, as they also grapple with the idea that they live in a world where Andy doesn't exist. In Arendelle, he meets Anna, who is desperately trying to reconnect with her sister, Queen Elsa, and gets caught up in the family drama. In San Fransokyo, Sora assists Hiro and the Big Hero 6 team as they battle Microbots and find a forgotten friend. Admittedly, some of these stories retread old ground, but whether it's Tangled, Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie The Pooh, Monsters Inc., or Hercules, experiencing them again through the lens of Kingdom Hearts 3 still packs an emotional punch. It's hard not to get swept up by the exaggerated displays of heroics or earnest reminders that your friends exist in your heart.One of the strengths of Kingdom Hearts 3 is the care and attention it pays to bringing Disney's worlds to life, which, in turn, makes being in them all the more exciting. You get to wander around Andy's bedroom as a diminutive toy version of Sora, scaling his walls and jumping on his toys, before making a trip to the mall. There you visit various toy shops, leaping on top of display units and between shelves as you battle the enemy Heartless. Returning to Kingdom Hearts 2's Twilight Town comes with a wave of nostalgia, as you hang around in the square watching a Mickey Mouse movie projected on a wall or visit the mansion where Namine stood at the window all those years back. Venture to the Pirates of the Caribbean world and the game adopts a striking, realistic visual style, swapping Sora and friends from their usual vibrant visages to a muddier tone in line with the movies' color palette. It then gives you command of your own ship with Jack Sparrow at your side. 100 Acre Wood shifts to the warmer pastels of a storybook aesthetic, as you help Rabbit tend to his garden so that Pooh can get some honey. San Fransokyo makes great use of verticality and Sora's ability to effortlessly run up buildings and glide between rooftops. At night it transforms into a blinding neon cityscape, inviting you to fly between floating blimps and grind rails with Baymax flying in tow. Monsteropolis has you working with Sully and Mike to stop Randal seizing control of Monsters Inc., and all the while Boo adorably potters along next to you.Many of the worlds offer extra gameplay activities to engage with after the story within them is wrapped up. Toy Box puts you in a Final Fantasy XV parody where you're in a mech destroying enemies and chasing high scores. Traverse Town has a cooking mini-game which involves collecting ingredients from across the worlds and then bringing them to Ratatouille's Remy to make meals. Pirates of the Caribbean lets you sail the open sea in search of treasure and do battle with enemy ships, or defend Port Royale in a wave-based mini-game. The amount of gameplay variety in Kingdom Hearts 3 is impressive, and although the extras may be short-term distractions, for those who want to spend more time in their favourite worlds, they're a fun reason to make the return trip.Not all worlds maintain that high bar, however, as some feel either empty or lacking in what they offer. Arendelle's snow-covered terrain, for example, feels quite bland, and the main mission involves climbing a mountain multiple times. Port Royale is an entire location used primarily for an item hunt. Toy Box's mall is devoid of life beyond the toys and enemies--it would have been nice to have people around to make it feel more alive, instead of like an after-hours shopping center. The same can be said of San Fransokyo which, on ground level, feels eerily deserted for a metropolis.The bulk of Kingdom Hearts 3's gameplay, however, is in its sword-swinging, magic-conjuring combat, which feels fast, frenetic, and spectacular in its cinematic flourishes. Its combat mechanics are an evolution of Kingdom Hearts 2's, which themselves have been tweaked and refined in the various spin-off titles. The most noticeable change is in its fluidity; Sora moves between enemies quickly, delivering a barrage of attacks, seamlessly transitioning into casting Fira to set enemies ablaze or Cura to recover health. There's a pleasing forward momentum to all the battles, as you zip around dispatching enemies in quick succession.There are numerous layers on top of the basic combat mechanics which, while not adding a great deal of depth or strategic considerations, make for more exciting skirmishes. Keyblades now come in a number of flavours to match the Disney worlds they're unlocked from. As part of this, they also have Formchanges, which are exactly what they sound like. As you land attack buttons, a meter builds up, and you are eventually given the option to transform your Keyblade into more over-the-top forms, where more powerful attacks and abilities become available. The game shows creative flare in these transformations too; Wheel of Fate, unlocked in the Pirates world, becomes an oversized spear and then the mast of a ship with the flag attached. Happy Gear, found in Monsters Inc., transforms into a set of high-speed claws and then a pair of yo-yos. Hunny Spout morphs into a pair of twin pistols and then a launcher, both firing honey at enemies.The amount of gameplay variety in Kingdom Hearts 3 is impressive ... for those who want to spend more time in their favourite worlds, [mini-games] are a fun reason to make the return tripMagic works similarly, with repeated use of a spell eventually making a Grand Magic version available at no additional mana cost. Throughout, Donald and Goofy will call to Sora for a team-up attack. For the former this could be a salvo of colorful fireworks that damage everyone in your vicinity. For the latter you can leap into the sky and throw Goofy at an enemy, with his shield causing an explosion on impact. These are characters that have fought many battles side by side, so having these back and forths are a nice representation of the camaraderie between them and their growth across the series--not to mention they're eye-catching cinematic moments.Feeding into the Disney milieu further are attractions such as tea cups, water rafts, bumper cars, and a rollercoaster that can be summoned to dish out damage. Each one controls differently, either through timed button presses, using the analogue stick to guide their path, or becoming a first-person shooter to pinpoint specific enemies, injecting a different style of combat gameplay into the action at regular intervals. Other Disney characters such as Simba, Stitch, and Ariel can also be called into battle, functioning similarly to Final Fantasy's summons to unleash devastating special attacks. Their inclusion is welcome, in lieu of giving them their own worlds, as some have had in past games. Beyond that there's Flowmotion, which builds a sense of speed by encouraging you to dash into objects in the environment to swing around, or at walls to parkour along. It can be tricky to get a handle of, but once you're able to work these moves into the flow of combat, you build a sense of prowess over the battlefield.Watching battles unfold, you'd be forgiven for thinking that combat is a complicated dance of fingers across buttons, but everything is actually achieved with one or two taps. Kingdom Hearts 3 is simple to play, which works in its favour. It prioritizes spectacle above all else and delivers tremendously. Instead of having to focus too much on what you're pressing and when, you can enjoy the madness unfolding on screen. This is a game that shows off and wows you with dazzling lights, explosive sounds, and high-octane action, and you don't want to miss a second of it. That's not to say it's completely devoid of strategic considerations, but you'll need to play on the harder Proud difficulty level if you want the game to challenge you. Otherwise--barring a few end game bosses--the enemies are pushovers.Another feature that makes its return from Kingdom Hearts of old is the Gummi Ship. Sora and his crew are able to pilot a spaceship as they travel to new worlds, at which point the game becomes a shoot-em-up of sorts. While Gummi Ship segments in the past were on-rails, this time you have full freedom to fly where you please, using wormholes and boost pads to explore quicker. Space is littered with treasures to find, but you'll often have to battle enemies to acquire them. The shooting in the Gummi Ship, while serviceable, isn't satisfying. The combination of lackluster visual and auditory feedback makes it hard to tell whether you're actually doing any damage, and for the most part I found myself absentmindedly holding the fire button down and waiting for things to explode. It is possible to create your own ships and outfit them with more weapons and augmented support abilities, but the fundamental shooting remains unchanged and uninteresting.As the game reaches its conclusion, the balance shifts heavily in favour of non-Disney worlds, where the main story of Kingdom Hearts can play out and resolve itself. Many of the environments this happens in are striking, from a pristine white city to strange modular arenas that can be turned upside down at the whim of an enemy. But in these locales the game trades the heart and whimsy of the worlds up until that point for heavy-handed storytelling that inevitably culminates in battles that are impressive set-pieces but feel cheap and spammy to play. With the finish line in sight, the game disrupts the pace with one arduous boss fight after another--not challenging in any way, just more of slog. The payoff, meanwhile, isn't entirely worth it, as Kingdom Hearts 3 wraps up its story in an incredibly unfulfilling way.But the story of Keyblade wars, time-travelling villains, body-hopping also-rans, and world-ending darkness isn't what I'll remember about Kingdom Hearts 3 or the series as a whole. What sticks with me is the exciting battle against elemental titans with Hercules, taking Rapunzel out into the unfamiliar wide world for the first time, snapping selfies with Winnie the Pooh, and going toe to toe with Davy Jones. In 2002, as Sora, I left Destiny Islands to travel across the universe and make new friends. In 2019 I brought old ones home, and I had so much fun doing it. Info from Gamespot.com

The Hong Kong Massacre aims to replicate the experience of a gun-kata-action scene, where characters shoot while diving through the air, performing acrobatic feats as they blow each other's brains out. It's an extremely violent riff on the twin-stick shooter, one clearly inspired by Hotline Miami and Max Payne. You play as a former detective in 1992 Hong Kong, seeking retribution against the Triad for murdering someone close to you. The exact specifics are unclear, but that doesn't matter too much--the plot elements are kept to a minimum, as the game focuses most of its energy into frenetic and satisfying action.At the start of each mission you equip one of four guns--a pistol, SMG, rifle or shotgun--and are then unleashed in a top-down level to kill everyone inside it. Because of the zoomed-out view you can see into rooms and scope out opponents well before they know you're there. The rules of engagement are established quickly: one shot from any gun is all it takes to kill either you or your enemies (until later levels where some enemies get body armor and can withstand two shots), and you also need to collect new guns from the enemies you kill, lest you run out of ammo. If you go into a dive, you cannot be hit until the dive is over. Your enemies can dive too, and the same rules apply for them.The one major advantage you have over the bad guys is your ability to slow time. This is how the game lets you fight at the speed and fury of the action cinema choreography it is paying homage to, and it makes you feel like a badass. In almost every situation, the best way to excel is to enter slow motion, dive into a position where you have a line of sight, and fire at your enemies. Often this will mean shooting through a window, or a door, or the paper-thin shoji screens that are used to separate rooms in just about every building you enter. In its wildest moments, The Hong Kong Massacre turns into a wonderfully violent ballet of shattered glass, splayed bodies, and bullets from a variety of guns all firing at once in slow motion.The meter and cooldown for your slow motion ability is extremely generous, as it takes quite a while to drain and fully recharges within about two seconds. So as long as you plan to be in cover by the time it runs out you can use slow motion almost continuously. The star rating system for each level encourages you to try not using slow motion at all, though. Complete a level without it and you'll be awarded a star that can be spent on weapon upgrades--but not only does this make things considerably harder, it would make some levels all but impossible to complete. If you're playing on PS4 with a controller, your aiming reticule moves slowly, which is important for lining up long shots and maintaining some sense of tension and realism amidst all the madness, but it also means that completing the more difficult missions at full speed would be extraordinarily difficult.Even with these abilities, The Hong Kong Massacre can still be extremely hard. Your enemies are not the smartest, but when there's so many of them and it only takes a single bullet to kill you, you'll likely die an awful lot. There are plenty of mistakes you can make and traps you can fall into, too. Every now and then a dive won't go as planned, and you'll slide up against a door jamb instead of leaping through the door, for instance, or end up surrounded by gunfire. It's quite tricky to pay attention to both your person and your aiming reticule, and often I wasn't sure exactly when a dive animation had ended.Each failure requires a restart of the whole level, and even though the absolute longest one will ultimately take less than three minutes to finish once you've got a handle on the situation, there will likely be many, many failed attempts on the way there. But there's a certain pleasure in how you begin to memorize the layout, the patterns of the bad guys (which can change slightly), and weigh up the pros and cons of the different strategies and approaches you've tried thus far. And when you're in the zone, completing levels back to back with very few deaths, you'll really feel like an action hero.Five boss fights change up the level format and see you and your opponent both moving down parallel hallways, taking shots whenever there's an opening through a window (bosses take multiple shots to kill), and every now and then you'll need to take out an enemy on your side to collect their gun. At the end of each boss stage, you'll both end up in a more open area where you'll need to finish them off, and they work well enough as a change of pace. Some levels also make you dive between rooftops, which is satisfying and fun as you fire at enemies while making an almost-impossible sideways leap.But there's a lot of repetition across the campaign, too. The level designs aren't distinctive; while layouts and aesthetics change, the basic building blocks never do. Even as you shoot your way through a police station, you'll still notice that they're using shoji screens to separate some rooms. After a while, it becomes clear that the game is, essentially, the same few seconds of gameplay over and over. The four-weapon selection also feels slightly hamstrung by the general uselessness of the shotgun, unless you pump all the points you earn from completing levels into upgrading it (for my money it's better to focus on the SMG and pistols).The game's strangest oversight is its lousy leaderboards. While you can see your top time for every level from the menu, there is no friends leaderboard, nor does the game show you where you sit on the global total. In fact, only the top 99 are shown for each level, and even if you've made that list you need to scroll to find yourself. This removes some incentive to replay levels and try for a faster time.The Hong Kong Massacre is a game with a specific goal--to capture the feeling of an over-the-top John Woo-style slow-motion diving kill shot, and it succeeds. The game's faults are washed away whenever you leap out of the way of a bullet and quickly take out the person who fired it. It's a game that sticks with you when you're not playing it, as you think through different approaches to the room you died in last time. You'll fail frequently, and the repetition can wear you down, but it's hard to resist the temptation of bursting through a window and perfectly lining up three kill shots.Info from Gamespot.com

Monster Hunter World launched one year ago this month, and Capcom is celebrating the occasion with a special in-game anniversary event. The Appreciation Fest is now underway on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, bringing a new assortment of gear to craft, Event Quests to undertake, and more.The Appreciation Fest runs until February 21. Throughout the event, the Gathering Hub will be decorated with balloons, confetti, and other party favors. All facilities will also offer discounts on in-game items and services, and a special appreciation platter will be available.Capcom says "almost all" past Event Quests will return during the Appreciation Fest, giving you another opportunity to obtain special gear you may have missed out on. Additionally, there will be new quests featuring even larger and more fearsome versions of monsters, such as the Greatest Jagras, which apparently can offer a huge surplus of jewels as rewards. You can find the full Event Quest schedule on the Monster Hunter World website.Capcom is also offering daily login bonuses and new limited bounties to complete during the Appreciation Fest. These will get you Appreciation Tickets, which you can use to craft the Gala Suit for your hunter and the Star and Star α gear for your Palico. The Handler and Poogie will also have festive new outfits during the event.You can find more details about the Appreciation Fest here. There is plenty more new content on the way to Monster Hunter World this year. On February 8, The Witcher 3's Geralt of Rivia will arrive in the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game as a free update (with a PC release set to follow later). Capcom will also release a big Iceborne expansion for the game this fall, which will introduce new monsters, locales, gear, and much more content.Info from Gamespot.com