Two of the year's biggest games, Fallout 76 and Hitman 2, are currently marked down substantially on Amazon. Bethesda's open-world multiplayer RPG and the stealth game from Warner Bros. can be had for just $30 USD each right now on PS4 and Xbox One.Both games were also discounted nicely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but if you missed out on those deals, now you have another chance.Fallout 76 didn't get the best reviews. If you wanted to pick up the game but not at full price, now seems like a good time to do so. Hitman 2, meanwhile, was generally better-liked by critics. You can read GameSpot's reviews for each game below.Fallout 76 Review / Buy It On AmazonHitman 2 Review / Buy It On AmazonBethesda has pledged to support Fallout 76 with new updates in the weeks, months, and potentially years to come. Hitman 2, meanwhile, is getting more content down the road when new locations come to the game through the expansion pass. Info from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Go developer Niantic Labs began its life as a Google subsidiary, but the company spun out in 2015, and reached a new stratosphere of success with the launch of Pokemon Go in July 2016. The San Francisco-based developer is growing still, with a new report claiming the company is working to secure a $200 million round of funding.According to The Wall Street Journal's sources, the further $200 million would raise the company's total valuation to $3.9 billion. The latest round of funding is expected to be led by venture capital firm IVP, with more money coming from Samsung and aXiomatic Gaming.There is no word on what the rumoured round of $200 million in funding would go toward at Niantic, but the studio has a new Harry Potter game in the works, in addition to ongoing support for Pokemon Go. The WSJ report says Niantic could be working on games for "other franchises," but none were named.Niantic's new Harry Potter game, Wizards Unite, was initially expected to launch in 2018 but it was later delayed to 2019. Not much is known about the game, but it's said to use a similar augmented reality set-up that Niantic struck gold with for Pokemon Go.Pokemon Go is free, and it makes money through in-game microtransactions. While the game might not be as popular as it once was, it still makes a lot of money. In November, the game pulled in $80 million worldwide from its microtransactions on iOS and Android, according to a report from SensorTower.In other news, Pokemon Go's latest winter event kicks off this week. Among other things, it lets you earn bonuses, hatch Eggs more easily, and encounter Pokemon from the Sinnoh region. You can learn more about the event in our coverage here.Info from Gamespot.com

[UPDATE] The first footage of Kage in action has been posted on Twitter ahead of an official reveal. You can check out the gameplay below, and we'll have more details coming soon if indeed Capcom if making an announcement today.Sfv #kage #PS4sharehttps://t.co/4zD1rdvw2S pic.twitter.com/a6errQD8gv — Fuzzy (@fuz_buz) December 17, 2018The original story is below.It appears one of the Street Fighter V announcements coming at the Capcom Cup event today has leaked ahead of time. An image of a brand-new character named Kage has appeared online; you can check out the image below from Twitter user @DaFeetLee.EventHubs reports that Kage started appearing in Street Fighter V's character-select menu when you apply a new update that some people are getting already. An image of a darkened character appears in the character-select menu, and hovering over it reveals his name. Kage looks quite evil, with spiky black hair, red eyes, fangs, and horns.KAGE #PS4share pic.twitter.com/FKcDb1OH3K — DaFeetLee (@DaFeetLee) December 17, 2018The Capcom Cup 2018 professional gaming event is taking place right now, and you can follow along with the action here on Twitch.It is rumoured that there may be multiple new character announcements pegged for the end of the event, so keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.In other Street Fighter V news, the game recently introduced advertisements on loading screens and other places that are toggled on by default. You can turn them off, but some people are still unhappy about it.Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft has announced a really good deal on Xbox One hardware this holiday. Starting today, all Xbox One S and Xbox One X bundles are marked down by $100 in the US.That means you can get a new Xbox One S with a game for only $200, and a new Xbox One X with a game for only $400. It's the best deal on the console ever, and it matches some of the offers from Black Friday. Microsoft was previously offering $50 off every Xbox One bundle this holiday, but the deal has now been sweetened nicely to $100 off.With the $100 off deal, you can get an Xbox One S in bundles that come with games like Fortnite, Minecraft, NBA 2K19, Battlefield V, Forza Horizon 4, and PUBG.Of note, the Fortnite bundle comes with 2,000 V-Bucks to buy extra cosmetics with, along with the Eon cosmetic outfit right out of the box. The Battlefield V bundles come with the game's Deluxe Edition, which gets you copies of Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 1943, as well as a one-month subscription to EA Access.The Xbox One X has numerous bundles available going for $400. These include bundles that come with Battlefield V, Fallout 76, PUBG, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4, and others. It is difficult to buy an Xbox One and not get a free game.You can visit the Xbox website to see a full rundown of all the Xbox One S and Xbox One X bundles.This is an aggressive pricing promotion from Microsoft, and it'll be interesting to see if PlayStation follows with a PS4 deal of its own this holiday. Microsoft is in second place against Sony, and this price drop, though it is temporary, may help close the gap.Info from Gamespot.com

(Presented by Oculus) See who’s the fastest in the West. AustenMarie, Panser, Sohinki, and ChilledChaos duel it out in Dead and Buried to win $100K for charity in the third episode of the Change the Game VR Charity Challenge. Visit http://www.vrcharitychallenge.com for more info!Learn more about our two awesome charities:Stack Up Website: https://stackup.org/Take This Website: http://www.takethis.org/Info from Gamespot.com

The launch of Destiny 2's new expansion, The Black Armory, was a bit rocky. After players complained, Bungie dropped the character Power level requirements on its new Forge activities, but with the unlocking of the second of four forges, players discovered another bug where Black Armory weapon quests disappeared. And then there was the start of The Dawning, Destiny 2's holiday event, where server issues made it so players couldn't access the game for its first couple of hours.As Bungie noted in its latest blog post, it's working on fixes for some of its most recent bugs. Developers have figured out why having two weapon frames from Ada-1 at the same time can delete one, for instance, and they're dealing with that issue. Other troubles it's aware of include Dawning Triumphs not triggering correctly, new cosmetic items showing up as already claimed even though players haven't found them yet, and the One Thousand Voices Exotic weapon not dealing the correct amount of damage. We'll likely see fixes for those issues and more coming pretty soon.There's also a small update coming with the December 18 weekly reset that's going to fix a few other problems. The big change is the amping up of Prime Engrams for characters under Power level 600, to help speed up the grind for players trying to catch up to the new Black Armory endgame content. The update includes a few little fixes, too, like one that deals with an issue in which the forges don't drop rewards if you join them midway through a run.The post also notes that the next round of Iron Banner multiplayer matches starts on December 25 and runs until January 1, which is also the end of the Dawning event.Check out Bungie's blog for a full list of everything the developers are currently investigating in Destiny 2.Info from Gamespot.com

Nintendo has released a patch for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Switch entry in its star-studded brawler series. Patch 1.2.0 makes some adjustments to the difficulty of challengers that appear in the offline mode, but the more impactful tweaks are to its online offerings.First up, Quickplay will now keep the ruleset you prefer in mind a little more when searching for opponents. However, as noted by Nintendo in the patch notes, matchmaking could take a little more time because of this, and there's no guarantee that the match you get will use the ruleset.Nintendo has also improved the stability of the connection in Battle Arenas and, hopefully, this should improve the shaky connectivity issues many Smash players have reported since the game's launch. Take a look at the full patch notes below, courtesy of Nintendo.Offline GameplayAdjusted difficulty of approaching challengersOnline GameplayWhen matching in Quickplay, the Format setting of your Preferred Rules will be more highly prioritized. This may cause matchmaking to take more time, and there's still no guarantee that you'll find a match that has your exact Preferred Rules.Increased the stability of the synchronous connection within Battle Arenas.Note: Online features requite a Nintendo Switch Online MembershipMisc.Game balance adjustmentsVarious gameplay fixesSpecific Fighter Adjustments to Donkey Kong, Link, Kirby, Luigi, Ice Climbers, Young Link, Olimar, Villager, Greninja, Pac-Man, Duck Hunt, and Isabelle.In GameSpot's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate review, Edmond Tran awarded the game a 9/10, saying "an inconsistent online mode and situational downers don't stop Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from shining as a flexible multiplayer game that can be as freewheeling or as firm as you want it to be."Its entertaining single-player content helps keep the game rich with interesting things to do, as well as bolstering its spirit of loving homage to the games that have graced Nintendo consoles. Ultimate's diverse content is compelling, its strong mechanics are refined, and the encompassing collection is simply superb."Info from Gamespot.com

Epic Games has addressed feedback for Fortnite's newly released Infinity Blade. This Mythic weapon has the privilege of being the first sword in the wildly popular battle royale title, but its arrival has impacted the game in a way many Fortnite fans haven't appreciated. Not only is it incredibly powerful, but most players are now entirely focused on getting it, which in turn disrupts the competitive nature of the game.Responding to the feedback on Reddit, Epic explained that Mythical items like the Infinity Blade, and the Infinity Gauntlet that turned players into Marvel villain Thanos, deliver a unique kind of interaction in the game."The presence of Mythic items in gameplay is to provide an interaction a step above the Legendary item functionality and something you'll continue to see," the studio said. "To us, that means changing the way the game is played for those who interact with that item. The addition of items in this tier provide new and flavorful ways to interact with the map and generally shake up normal play across default modes."Discussing the Infinity Blade specifically, Epic said it is planning to reduce the effectiveness of the weapon by stopping anyone who wields it from building structures and harvesting resources. "When designing the Infinity Blade the goal was to provide a weapon with inherent risk to balance out the great capability it provides--the ability to harvest/build removes a great deal of that risk," Epic explained. "By taking away the ability to harvest/build we hope to tune the Infinity Blade to where it feels risky to have, but still satisfying to wield."As of yet there's no word on when this change will be implemented, but Epic has promised to continue monitoring how the Blade functions in-game and make further adjustments as required. It has also said it plans to provide more information on its competitive philosophy as it relates to new items, updates, and seasons in Fortnite early next week.The Infinity Blade was introduced into Fortnite on December 13, the same day that Epic removed all entries in its Infinity Blade mobile game series from the Apple App Store.Fortnite is now in the second week of Season 7, which means there's new challenges to complete. While the majority of the new challenges are straightforward, there are a couple of tricky ones too. You can use our Fortnite Season 7 challenge guide to get help with them, as well as the challenges from week one.Info from Gamespot.com

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 developer Treyarch has rolled out Holiday events and promotions across the game. These include a seasonal makeover for Blackout, the game's battle royale mode, which has had environments spruced up with lighting and decorations. There's also snowballs in the game now and Supply Stashes are holiday themed too.Blackout players also have a new limited-time mode to check out called Close Quarters Frenzy. "Fight to outlast a faster Collapse using close-quarters weapons--shotguns, SMGs, pistols, and melee are your only means of survival," Treyarch said, describing the mode.In the Black Market, meanwhile, there's a large selection of new themed items to unlock. Since Activision has a timed exclusivity deal for Black Ops 4 with Sony, these items are currently only available on PS4, but will arrive on Xbox One and PC on December 20. In Zombies, meanwhile, there's the Winter Calling event, which gives players a unique set of challenges to complete, in exchange for special unlocks.Players on PS4, Xbox One, and PC will also get double experience points in multiplayer and Zombies, starting December 14 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT / 5 AM December 15 AEDT, and lasting throughout the weekend. If you're playing Blackout during this period you'll get double merits.Treyarch has also detailed various changes it has made to all versions of the game in the latest Black Ops 4 update. The patch notes are fairly lengthy, containing information on how its addressed various exploits, improved stability in multiplayer, mixed up playlists, and tweaked Operators. You can see the full patch notes here.Black Ops 4 takes some big departures from the traditional Call of Duty formula. Not only did it drop the single-player campaign in favour of a more robust multiplayer offering, but it also introduced the new Blackout mode in response to the popularity of the battle royale genre. In her review, Kallie Plagge gave Black Ops 4 an 8/10."Black Ops 4 isn't short on content, and its three main modes are substantial," she said. "Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don't hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own. Sure, there isn't a traditional single-player campaign, but with the depth and breadth of what is there, Black Ops 4 doesn't need it." Read GameSpot's full Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review for a deeper analysis of the game.Info from Gamespot.com

The NES and SNES Classic consoles will end production in the Americas soon, Nintendo has confirmed. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Nintendo of America president reggie Fils-Aime stated no more of the mini-consoles will be produced, and that those already on store shelves will be the last ones sold."We've been clear that, at least from an Americas perspective, these products are going to be available through the holiday season and once they sell out, they're gone," the executive said. "And that’s it."It's unclear what this means for the two devices in other territories, since Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Europe, and Nintendo of Japan do not always necessarily operate together. It's also worth noting that Nintendo did discontinue the NES Classic once before, only to bring it back into production this year.Elsewhere in the interview, Fils-Aime claims Nintendo currently has no plans to make Classic versions of other consoles, such as the Nintendo 64. Responding to a question to that effect, he stated: "We've said that the current systems are the extent of our classic program." Finally, Fils-Aime said he’d "absolutely love" Red Dead Redemption 2 on Nintendo Switch, but explained it's probably unlikely to happen.The SNES and NES Classic were hugely successful, and Sony followed suit this year with the PlayStation Classic. We didn't think Sony's attempt was as good as Nintendo's two efforts, however--read our thoughts on that mini-console in our PlayStation Classic review.Info from Gamespot.com

Star Wars Battlefront II is now available in the EA Access vault, publisher EA has announced. That means EA / Origin Access members can play the game at no extra cost for as long as they’re subscribed.The full game is included in the Vault version, though paid DLC is sold separately. Otherwise, you can play both the single-player campaign and the extensive multiplayer portion to your heart’s content.Battlefront II’s launch was marred with microtransaction controversy after some fans labeled the game as "pay-to-win." Developer DICE has since revamped the game’s progression system and continued to add more content.We awarded the shooter a 6/10 at launch. Critic Alessandro Fillari wrote: “While its main narrative feels unresolved, and the general loop of the multiplayer carries a number of issues, Battlefront II still manages to evoke that same sense of joy and excitement found in the core of what the series is all about.” Read more in our full Star Wars Battlefront II review.EA Access members can play a number of games for no extra cost, in addition to receiving discounts and free trials for other EA titles. The service costs $5 / £4 per month or $30 / £20 per year, and is exclusive to Xbox One and PC.Info from Gamespot.com

Shooter fans, if you've been holding off for a discount before picking up this year's Call of Duty, now is probably the time to pull the trigger (please excuse the pun). As part of Best Buy's Nick of Time sale, which runs through December 17, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is down to $30 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Better yet, Amazon is matching the price on most platforms. We probably don't have to tell you that getting one of the biggest games of the year for half off just two months after it launched is a remarkable deal.This discount arrives during a string of massive sales that seem to represent one final push to sell as many video games as possible in the lead-up to Christmas. You can find other killer deals at GameStop, PlayStation Store, GOG, and other retailers.Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is this year's installment in the annual franchise. Developed by Treyarch, it comes with the traditional multiplayer and Zombies modes, but no single-player campaign. Instead, it has Blackout, a battle royale mode similar to PUBG and Fortnite that finds around 100 players dropping onto an island as a deadly storm shrinks the playing area, pushing everyone together. The last person or team standing wins the round.PS4Buy Black Ops 4 from Amazon -- $30Buy Black Ops 4 from Best Buy -- $30Xbox OneBuy Black Ops 4 from Amazon -- $40Buy Black Ops 4 from Best Buy -- $30PCBuy Black Ops 4 from Amazon -- $30Buy Black Ops 4 from Best Buy -- $30In GameSpot's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review, critic Kallie Plagge wrote, "Black Ops 4 isn't short on content, and its three main modes are substantial. Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don't hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own." Info from Gamespot.com

The end of the year is almost upon us, and Google has released its annual "Year in Search" data to provide a look back at the trends that defined 2018. In the realm of video games, at least, it's not terribly surprising which ones made the list.The top video game search term of 2018 was Fortnite, which exploded in popularity this year. Rounding out the rest of the top five were Red Dead Redemption 2, Fallout 76, Far Cry 5, and God of War. Expanding to the top ten includes a handful of other popular games, along with some surprising inclusions like Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Zombs Royale, the browser-based game.Fortnite's popularity actually transcended the video games category, and was the most popular gif search as well. Presumably lots of people wanted to learn how to floss this year.This is all according to the US data, whereas the global search data contains fewer and mostly broader categories. That list includes search queries like actors, movies, and bands, along with celebrities who have passed away in the last year like comics legend Stan Lee. Last year's global data also had a category for consumer tech, which showed the Switch beating Xbox One X.Info from Gamespot.com

Rockstar has launched its online store for Red Dead Online, the multiplayer mode in Red Dead Redemption 2. Now that you can purchase gold bars, the studio is thanking anyone who has toyed with the online mode early by gifting them some free gold bars. A separate reward awaits players who pre-ordered or bought the Special and Ultimate Editions.Anyone who has played the Red Dead Online beta through Thursday, December 20 will get 15 gold bars, or a little more than $5 worth of in-game currency. Those gifts will be rolling out as early as today for some users, and all of them will be delivered by Monday, December 24.In addition, players who pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption 2, and who bought the Special or Ultimate Editions, will get some extra RDO$ deposited into their accounts. Special Edition owners will get $100, while Ultimate Edition owners will get $1,000. Any pre-orders will get $100, and for Special and Ultimate Editions that stacks on top of their other rewards.Rockstar previously gifted 15 gold bars as a make-good for some bugs and balance issues with the initial launch experience. Between the two, you could have racked up 30 gold bars. That initial apology came paired with a patch to rebalance the game, which is still in a beta period. Rockstar set expectations by launching in beta a month after the single-player game launched, which was altogether similar to how it treated the launch of Grand Theft Auto Online. That game also had some rough patches near the beginning but has been an ongoing success in the years since.Info from Gamespot.com

Discord has announced that in 2019, the launcher will offer 90 percent of the revenue share made off of game sales to developers. That deal undercuts every offer on other major online PC game stores."We noticed a change happening in the game industry. We talked to a lot of developers, and many of them feel that current stores are not earning their 30% of the usual 70/30 revenue share," the company said on its blog. "Because of this, we now see developers creating their own stores and launchers to distribute their games instead of focusing on what’s really important --making great games and cultivating amazing communities."So, we asked ourselves a few more questions. Why does it cost 30% to distribute games? Is this the only reason developers are building their own stores and launchers to distribute games? Turns out, it does not cost 30% to distribute games in 2018. After doing some research, we discovered that we can build amazing developer tools, run them, and give developers the majority of the revenue share."Steam is one of those stores that is taking 20-30 percent from developers on a tiered earning structure. Discord's announcement comes in the same month that Epic undercut Steam with the reveal that its store would only take 12 percent of a game's revenue share and have no tiers to the profit-sharing. Certain PC games are also being offered exclusively through Epic's store--like Hades and Journey, and Discord has a 90-day exclusivity on some titles through the "First on Discord" program as well. For the first time in a while, Steam has some serious competition.In 2019, Discord said it plans to "extend access to the Discord store and our extremely efficient game patcher by releasing a self-serve game publishing platform." Everyone from AAA developers to smaller indie devs will be able to publish games on Discord's store and retain 90% of revenue, with the remaining 10% covering Discord's operating costs. Discord has said it will also "explore lowering it by optimizing our tech and making things more efficient."Discord has cited Nitro's growing success as the reason for why Discord doesn't need to compete with developers for revenue. Nitro is a Netflix-like service for PC games, offering players a library of 60+ titles for $10 USD. Although the service mostly offers indie games, such as Inside and Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, there are triple-A titles like Metro: Last Light Redux and Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition as well. Discord has plans of adding more games to the service in the coming months.Discord did not provide a specific date for when its store will start offering developers 90 percent of their game's revenue share.Info from Gamespot.com