Amazon is running a sale on a nice selection of PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch games. But as usual for the internet megacorp, this isn't a standard sale with defined start and end dates like you'd find at Best Buy or GameStop. At Amazon, pricing is unpredictable and stock comes and goes seemingly at random. Which is to say that if you find a deal you like, the smart move is to hop on it before it's gone. Here's what Amazon has on sale right now.As usual, let's start with the biggest, newest games. Assassin's Creed Odyssey on PS4 is down to $40. In a slight price reduction, Red Dead Redemption 2 on Xbox One is on sale for $55. On both PS4 and Xbox One, you can grab Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for $48, Fallout 76 or SoulCalibur VI for $40, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider for $30. Nintendo Switch owners can join in on the savings by picking up Diablo III: Eternal Collection for $40.PS4 owners have a nice selection of console exclusives to choose from, including Game Awards Game of the Year winner God of War for $30, Detroit: Become Human for $35, and Persona 5 for $36. The PSVR boxing game Creed: Rise to Glory is down to $19 as well.Xbox One owners can pick up the open-world racer Forza Horizon 4 for just $35. Metal Gear Survive is available as an add-on item for $10 (meaning it ships with qualifying orders over $25). RPG-loving Switch owners can pre-order Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for $40 or grab a digital copy of Octopath Traveler for $50.You'll find many more games on sale listed below, or you can head to Amazon directly to hunt for more deals. Best of luck if you do, because Amazon can be a real jungle (ba-dum-tss).PS4Assassin's Creed Odyssey -- $40Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 -- $48Creed: Rise to Glory (PSVR) -- $19Detroit: Become Human -- $35Dragon Quest XI -- $40Dragon Quest Builders -- $17Fallout 76 -- $40Firewall Zero Hour & PSVR Aim Controller Bundle (PSVR) -- $60God of War -- $30God of War 3 Remastered -- $19Mega Man 11 -- $20Metal Gear Survive -- $10 (add-on item)Mutant Football League -- $20My Hero One's Justice -- $40Nier: Automata -- $25Persona 5 -- $36Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- $30SoulCalibur VI -- $40Spyro Reignited Trilogy -- $30Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection -- $20Xbox OneCall of Duty: Black Ops 4 -- $48Fallout 76 -- $40Forza Horizon 4 -- $35Mega Man 11 -- $20Metal Gear Survive -- $10 (add-on item)Mutant Football League -- $20My Hero One's Justice -- $40Red Dead Redemption 2 -- $55Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- $30SoulCalibur VI -- $40Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection -- $27World of Final Fantasy Maxima -- $30SwitchCave Story+ -- $20Civilization VI -- $50Code of Princess EX -- $27Dead Cells -- $27.50Diablo III: Eternal Collection -- $40Dragon Quest Builders -- $42The End is Nigh -- $20Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star -- $35Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (pre-order) -- $40Lego Harry Potter Collection -- $30Mutant Football League -- $20My Hero One's Justice -- $40Octopath Traveler (digital) -- $50Spyro Reignited Trilogy -- $30Xenoblade Chronicles 2 -- $49Info from Gamespot.com

Forza Horizon 4 has launched its first big expansion, Fortune Island. It's now available on PC or Xbox One and adds a new area of the northern British Isles with rocky mountain curves and dangerous weather patterns. The extreme weather has its beautiful side too, as you can witness the northern lights while driving through the area.This being a driving game, it also comes with new cars. The expansion will grant you 10 new cars in all, including the 2019 Lamborghini Urus, 2017 Ram Rebel TRX Concept, and the 2018 BMW M5. Fortune Island is an entirely separate area from the main game, and true to the name it includes clues to hunt down hidden treasures. This expansion is in addition to the steady stream of weekly content that has been adding new cars and season-specific events.Fortune Island can be purchased separately for $20, or as part of the expansion bundle for $35. If you're a Game Pass subscriber, you get a 10% discount off the standalone or expansion bundle, and the Game Pass itself entitles you to the base game. If you own the Ultimate Edition, of course, you already have the bundle at no additional cost."Everything you do in Horizon feels valuable, no matter how big or small--from the basic thrills of speeding a fast car down a gorgeous mountain highway to spending time tinkering with your favorite ride to manage seasonal road conditions to just hanging out with friends and strangers online and goofing off in friendly games," critic Edmond Tran wrote in GameSpot's Forza Horizon 4 review. "The charm of the Horizon series is as palpable as ever, a winning, all-inclusive recipe that celebrates the joy of driving above all else."Info from Gamespot.com

Ring of Honor World Champion Jay Lethal has quite the task ahead of him on Friday, December 14 when he defends his title against The Elite member Cody at the Final Battle PPV. It's been a crazy year for Lethal. He beat Dalton Castle for the ROH title and defended it at All In, where he, once again, channeled his old character Black Machismo, his version of Macho Man Randy Savage.What made Lethal's appearance at the gigantic wrestling event in Chicago so important was that not only did he step back into the role of Black Machismo, but he came to the ring accompanied by Lanny Poffo, Macho Man's brother. Although the Macho Man passed away in 2011, he still heard Lethal's spot-on impression of him, and the two spoke over the phone about it.Photo credit: Ring of Honor"The first time I spoke with [Macho Man Randy Savage], now I'm gonna be honest, I didn't believe it was him because I can do a pretty good Macho Man impression, and I'm sure other people could too," Lethal told GameSpot. "I'm sure that I know a couple people who can do one. So, when I was talking to him on the phone, deep down inside, I thought this could be somebody else playing a trick on me. Until Lanny actually confirmed that it was his brother. But he loved it. He said he didn't watch it on TV but he did watch some of the stuff, he pulled my stuff up on YouTube and he absolutely loved it."When it came to the All In PPV this past summer, Lethal and Lanny Poffo teamed up for Lethal's title defense against Flip Gordon. And Lanny was a huge fan of Lethal's work impersonating his late brother. "He loved it so much that at the All In pay-per-view, the days before Starrcast, big signing, there was so much to do," explained Lethal. "Well I had a signing with Lanny, we were at the same table and he told me, 'One of the things that I miss the most about my brother is, just sometimes at random times he would just yell at me. So if you could, just at random times throughout this signing just find a reason to yell at me I would love it.'"And of course, I thought it was hilarious and weird, but brotherly love is always something that's weird. I just think about the way that I interact with my brother it could be weird to other people. So I got a huge kick out of it. So of course every five minutes or so, if he was talking to a fan I would yell at him, 'Get back over here! We're trying to work!' He absolutely loved it. So I think he enjoys the impression more than anybody."You can see more of Lethal at Ring of Honor's Final Battle, which airs LIVE from New York City on Friday, December 14 at a new start time of 8 PM ET on PPV, free for HonorClub VIP, at a 50% discount for HonorClub Standard, and on FITE TV. Please visit ROHWrestling or the ROH App for more information. Also, the ROH World Champ has some sweet Pokemon Go tips for you to stay competitive. Info from Gamespot.com

Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina won't return for its second season until 2019, but the streaming service has a holiday surprise for fans of the witchy series. "A Midwinter's Tale," a special holiday-themed episode of the series arrives on December 13. Unfortunately, for those hoping for a nice and relaxing Christmas with the Spellman family, you're out of luck."Although people think that the holiday season is like, a fun time and all that, but for witches it is kind of a perilous time, because it's a time when they kind of need extra protection," Miranda Otto (Zelda) explained during a visit to the show's set. "They have to keep the yule log burning so to protect themselves from spirits that could come into the house."Of course, as Lucy Davis (Hilda) added, there's still some holiday joy to be found mixed in with the Sabrina creepiness fans have some to love. "It's really nice, because it's very--it's nice and warm, it's typical Sabrina stuff and some horror stuff, but you also learn a lot about Sabrina's mom," she said.While the episode promises some information about Sabrina's mother, along with the addition of The Haunting of Hill House alum McKenna Grace playing a young Sabrina, star Kiernan Shipka warned that the special might not have a lot of the answers you're looking for after the conclusion of Season 1."It's in so many ways, a standalone episode," Shipka explained. "It doesn't get too crazy on plot or this or that. It really just kind of focuses in on the characters, and it takes its time. It's super perfect for the holidays."There will be one lingering story that gets some serious attention in the special, though. You might remember that at the conclusion of Season 1, it was revealed that Zelda (Otto) kidnapped a baby. That's a plot that simply can't be ignored."For Zelda, the story is very much about the baby, and having a baby in the house, and her attachment to the baby," Otti teased. "And Zelda is particularly worried because of the baby in the house, and indeed someone does come to try to steal the baby."As for who's coming to take the baby, that's anyone's guess. When it comes to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, though, nothing is off the table--especially where evil is concerned.The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina winter special debuts on Netflix on Friday, December 14. Meanwhile, Season 2 of the series premieres on April 5.Info from Gamespot.com

The year may be winding down, but the video game discounts show no signs of following suit. A flurry of winter and holiday sales is now live, including a big one on PC games at GOG. Between now and January 3, you can save money on a wide assortment of titles, including some you can get for free. Let's dive in and look at the details.One game, Full Throttle Remastered, is free for everyone, with no strings attached, through December 15. If you spend even one cent during the sale, you'll also get a free copy of the turn-based strategy game Fantasy General. Spend $15, and they'll throw in Everspace for free--a $30 value.As for what you can spend that money on, you have plenty of choices. One good starting point would be the GameSpot Collection, where you'll find a list of discounted games that was hand-picked by our editors and producers.Another place to start would be on some of the best PC games of the year, including the roguelike Metroidvania-style Dead Cells, which is a one of GameSpot top games of the year in addition to being on sale for $20. Into the Breach, also a top game of the year, is a unique strategy game from the makers of FTL (which is also on sale), that's discounted to $10. Then there's The Messenger, which bears more than a little resemblance to the Ninja Gaiden NES games, is down to $14.Anyone who hasn't picked up the Witcher games yet can scoop up the entire series, DLC and all, for under $30. Speaking of that series, the RPG/card game Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, is also on sale for $24. Also priced to sell are the CRPGs Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire ($33) and Divinity: Original Sin II ($30), as are Darkest Dungeon ($7.50) and Anno 1404: Gold Edition ($9).Read on for more of our picks, or head to the site to find all 43 pages' worth of deals.Anno 1404: Gold Edition -- $9Cuphead -- $16Darkest Dungeon -- $7.50Day of the Tentacle Remastered -- $5.30Dead Cells -- $20Death's Gambit -- $10Divinity: Original Sin II -- $29.20Dragon's Age: Origins Ultimate Edition -- $5Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen -- $9Frostpunk -- $20FTL Advanced Edition -- $2.50Gorogoa -- $7.50Grim Dawn -- $9Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice -- $15Hollow Knight -- $10Into the Breach -- $10Kingdom Come Deliverance -- $36The Messenger -- $14Neverwinter Nights 2 Complete -- $10Pathfinder Kingmaker: Explorer Edition -- $30Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition -- $20Pillar's of Eternity II: Deadfire -- $33Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition -- $5Pyre -- $8Stardew Valley -- $11.20Stellaris -- $16Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales -- $24Torment: Tides of Numenara -- $15The Witcher Enhanced Edition -- $1.50The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition -- $3The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt GotY Edition -- $20The Witness -- $10XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack -- $10Info from Gamespot.com

Season 7 of Fortnite is now in full swing on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. Following the release of the 7.01 update, developer Epic Games has rolled out the second set of weekly challenges of the season, which range from playing sheet music on pianos to having a dance-off at an abandoned mansion.As usual, completing these missions will net you Battle Stars, which in turn will level your Battle Pass up and unlock the new Season 7 skins and rewards. Finishing all of the challenges from a given week has an added benefit as well, as it'll complete one of the new Snowfall challenges--this season's equivalent to the Hunting Party challenges from Season 6.Just as before, clearing a Snowfall challenge will reward you with a special loading screen that contains a clue pointing you to a free item hidden somewhere around the map. Last season, the item in question alternated each week between a free Battle Star (good for leveling your Battle Pass up by one tier) or a free Banner (which can be used as a profile icon), and it looks like Epic is continuing that trend in Season 7.If you complete two full weekly sets of Season 7 challenges, you'll unlock the loading screen below. It showcases Lynx--one of the new progressive skins you'll unlock by purchasing the Season 7 Battle Pass--sitting at a work station. This time, the clue to the free Banner is fairly easy to spot; it can be seen displayed on the screen in the upper right-hand corner of the image.The work station depicted in the loading screen is located inside a building in Frosty Flights, one of the new areas added to Fortnite's map this season. Head there at the start of the match, find the right building (we've denoted it on the map below), and the Banner will appear. Collect it as you would any other item, and you'll be able to use it as your profile icon after finishing the match.As with previous Snowfall and Hunting Party challenges, you won't be able to get this free Banner if you haven't first completed the required steps. The item won't appear on the map unless you've finished two weeks' sets of challenges and unlocked the aforementioned loading screen, so you can't simply go to the right area and expect to find it unless you've put in the necessary work.Epic is releasing a new set of challenges in Fortnite every week in Season 7. If you need help completing them, you can find tips in our complete Season 7 challenges roundup. You can also see our guides on where to find every free Battle Star and Banner so far this season below.Fortnite Season 7 Snowfall Challenge GuidesFortnite Secret Battle Star Location: Week 1 Snowfall Challenge GuideFortnite Secret Banner Location: Week 2 Snowfall Challenge GuideInfo from Gamespot.com

Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward was reportedly evacuated this morning following a bomb threat. Kotaku reports that police presented themselves at the studio and alerted staff to the threat, and employees evacuated without incident. Meanwhile, a large-scale extortion scam has threatened bombs across multiple financial institutions, according to Krebs On Security. The scam seeks a large ransom of bitcoin, and warns victims not to alert the police. The spam email claims to have a "mercenary" staking out the building in control of the bomb, who will only withdraw after having received payment. It's unclear if the threat at Infinity Ward was related to this spate of bomb threats.Activision did not respond immediately to a request for comment.Developing...Info from Gamespot.com

There's never a bad time to be a PC gamer, but right now is a particularly good time for anyone who likes saving money. Not only can you pick up a free copy of Full Throttle Remastered from GOG, but Humble is giving away copies of Lego The Hobbit just for signing up for its newsletter. If you're already signed up, perhaps from a similar previous promotion, you can just click a button and receive your free copy of Tolkien's fantasy novel adapted in a way he never could have anticipated. Get your copy here.The deal is live "while supplies last" between now and December 15 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. After clicking the link, your copy of Lego The Hobbit is delivered in the form of a Steam key you'll need to redeem by December 20. Just do that, and the game is yours to keep and play forever.Lego The Hobbit launched in 2014, several months before the final installment of Peter Jackson's trilogy hit theaters. As such, it only covers the events of the first two films, but that's plenty of content for a Lego action game.The game is "immediately charming," Carolyn Petit wrote in GameSpot's Lego The Hobbit review. "The title screen shows Bilbo puttering around in his cozy hobbit hole of Bag End, and the wizard Gandalf poking his head in the window... And from these quaint beginnings, Lego The Hobbit whisks you off on a journey across Middle-earth, getting all the visual details right to transport you to the world of Peter Jackson's films."It's not all good news, though. The game received a score of 5/10, mostly because, "Lego The Hobbit proves that having plenty of variety in terms of objectives and gameplay mechanics doesn't make much difference if none of those objectives and mechanics are much fun."But hey, it's free. If you want to give it a shot despite what the critics think, grab it before it goes back to full price.Info from Gamespot.com

Two Legendary Pokemon are returning to Pokemon Go for a very limited time. Niantic is bringing Ho-Oh and Lugia, the cover monsters from Pokemon Gold and Silver versions, back to the mobile game as part of a special Raid weekend event, which kicks off this Friday, December 14, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET.All through the weekend, players will be able to encounter the two Johto Legendaries once again as Raid Battles at Gyms. Moreover, Niantic says that Shiny variants of the two Pokemon will also have a chance of appearing. The Legendaries will be available until Monday, December 17, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET.Ho-Oh and Lugia aren't the only Legendaries appearing again in Pokemon Go. As part of December's Field Research, players have another chance to capture Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Raikou, Entei, or Suicune. Each time they achieve a Research Breakthrough this month, they'll be rewarded with another encounter with one of the six aforementioned Legendaries.Meanwhile, Pokemon Go's latest Gen 4 Legendary, Cresselia, is set to leave the game soon. The Legendary Psychic Pokemon will only appear in Raid Battles until December 18, making this your last opportunity to capture one if you haven't already.Niantic recently rolled out a new update for Pokemon Go, introducing the newly announced PvP Trainer Battle system to the game. Now, all Pokemon Go users who have reached at least level 10 can challenge other players directly to three-on-three Pokemon battles. You can learn more about the new feature in our Pokemon Go PvP guide.Info from Gamespot.com

The idea of what the Super Smash Bros. games are, and what they can be, has been different things during the series' 20-year history. What began as an accessible multiplayer game also became a highly competitive one-on-one game. But it's also been noted for having a comprehensive single-player adventure, as well as becoming a sort of virtual museum catalog, exhibiting knowledge and audiovisual artifacts from the histories of its increasingly diverse crossover cast. Ultimate embraces all these aspects, and each has been notably refined, added to, and improved for the better. Everyone, and basically everything, from previous games is here--all existing characters, nearly all existing stages, along with the flexibility to play and enjoy those things in different ways. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a comprehensive, considered, and charming package that builds on an already strong and enduring fighting system.If you've ever spent time with a Smash game, then you likely have a good idea of how Ultimate works. Competing players deal damage to their opponents in order to more easily knock them off the stage. The controls remain relatively approachable for a competitive combat game; three different buttons in tandem with basic directional movements are all you need to access a character's variety of attacks and special abilities. There are a large variety of items and power-ups to mix things up (if you want to) and interesting, dynamic stages to fight on (also if you want to). You can find complexities past this, of course--once you quickly experience the breadth of a character's skillset, it allows you to begin thinking about the nuances of a fight (again, if you want to). Thinking about optimal positioning, figuring out what attacks can easily combo off of another, working out what the best move for each situation is, and playing mind games with your human opponents can quickly become considerations, and the allure of Smash as a fighting game is how easy it is to reach that stage.Complexity also comes with the wide variety of techniques afforded by Ultimate's staggeringly large roster of over 70 characters. Smash's continuing accessibility is a fortunate trait in this regard, because once you understand the basic idea of how to control a character, many of the barriers to trying out a completely new one are gone. Every fighter who has appeared in the previous four Smash games is here, along with some brand-new ones, and the presence of so many diverse and unorthodox styles to both wield and compete against is just as attractive as the presence of the characters themselves. In fact, it's still astounding that a game featuring characters from Mario Bros, Sonic The Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, and Street Fighter all interacting with each other actually exists.On a more technical level, Ultimate makes a number of under-the-hood alterations that, at this early stage, seem like positive changes that make Smash feel noticeably faster and more exciting to both watch and play. Characters take more damage in one-on-one fights; continuous dodging is punished with increased vulnerability; fighters can perform any ground-based attack, including smash moves, immediately out of a running state; and short-hop aerial attacks (previously a moderately demanding technique) can be easily performed by pressing two buttons simultaneously. Refinements like these might go unnoticed by most, but they help define Ultimate's core gameplay as a tangible evolution of the series' core mechanics.A number of Ultimate's more superficial changes also help Smash's general quality-of-life experience, too. Some make it a more readable game--additions to the UI communicate previously hidden elements like meter charges and Villager's captured items, a simple radar helps keep track of characters off-screen, and a slow motion, zoom-in visual effect when critical hits connect make these moments more exciting to watch. Other changes help streamline the core multiplayer experience and add compelling options. Match rules can now be pre-defined with a swath of modifiers and saved for quick selection later. Stage selection occurs before character selection, so you can make more informed decisions on which fighter to use.On top of a built-in tournament bracket mode, Ultimate also features a number of additional Smash styles. Super Sudden Death returns, as does Custom Smash, which allows you to create matches with wacky modifiers. Squad Strike is a personal favorite, which allows you to play 3v3 or 5v5 tag-team battles (think King of Fighters), and Smashdown is a great, engaging mode that makes the most of the game's large roster by disqualifying characters that have already been used as a series of matches continues, challenging your ability to do well with characters who you might not be familiar with.The most significant addition to Ultimate, however, lies in its single-player content. Ultimate once again features a Classic Mode where each individual fighter has their own unique ladder of opponents to defeat, but the bigger deal is World of Light, Ultimate's surprisingly substantial RPG-style campaign. It's a convoluted setup--beginning as Kirby, you go on a long journey throughout a huge world map to rescue Smash's other fighters (who have incidentally been cloned in large numbers) from the big bad's control. Along the way, you'll do battles with Spirits, characters hailing from other video games that, while not directly engaging in combat, have taken control of clones, altered them in their images, and unleashed them on you.Though there is some light puzzling, the world is naturally filled with hundreds upon hundreds of fights--there are over 1200 Spirit characters, and the vast majority have their own unique battle stages that use the game's match variables to represent their essence. The Goomba Spirit, for example, will put you up against an army of tiny Donkey Kongs. Meanwhile, the Excitebike Spirit might throw three Warios at you who only use their Side+B motorbike attacks.It may seem like a tenuous idea at first, but these fights are incredibly entertaining. It's hard not to appreciate the creativity of using Smash's assets to represent a thousand different characters. Zero Suit Samus might stand in for a battle with The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater by donning a silver-palette costume and fighting you in a flower-filled Final Destination, but she also stands in for the spirit of Alexandra Roivas from Eternal Darkness by using a black-palette costume and fighting you in the haunted Luigi's Mansion stage, with a modifier that makes the screen occasionally flip upside down (Eternal Darkness was a GameCube horror game whose signature feature were "Sanity Effects", which skewed the game in spooky ways to represent the character's loosening grip on reality). If I knew the character, I often found myself thinking about how clever their Spirit battle was.Defeating a Spirit will add it to your collection, and Spirits also act as World of Light's RPG system. There are two types of Spirit: Primary and Support. Primary Spirits have their own power number and can be leveled up through various means to help make your actual fighter stronger. Primary Spirits also have one of four associated classes, which determine combat effectiveness in a rock-scissors-paper-style system. These are both major considerations to take into account before a battle, and making sure you're not going into a fight at a massive disadvantage adds a nice dimension to the amusing unpredictability of this mode. What you also need to take into account are the modifiers that might be enabled on each stage, which is where Support Spirits come in. They can be attached to Primary Spirits in a limited quantity and can mitigate the effect of things like poisonous floors, pitch-black stages, or reversed controls, or they can simply buff certain attacks.There are a few Spirit fights that can be frustrating, however. Stages that are a 1v4 pile-on are downright annoying, despite how well-equipped you might be, as are stages where you compete against powerful assist trophies. On the flip side, once you find yourself towards the end of the campaign, there are certain loadouts that can trivialize most stages, earning you victory in less than a second. Regardless, there's a compulsive quality to collecting Spirits, and not just because they might make you stronger. It's exciting to see which obscure character you run into next, feel validated for recognizing them, and see how the game interprets them in a Spirit battle. There's also just a superficial joy to collecting, say, the complete Elite Beat Agents cast (Osu! Takatae! Ouendan characters are here too), even though these trophies lack the frills of previous Smash games.Some hubs in the World of Light map are also themed around certain games and bundle related Spirits together to great effect--Dracula's Castle from Castlevania, which changes the map into a 2D side-scroller, and the globe from Street Fighter II, complete with the iconic airplane noises, are personal standouts. Despite the dramatic overtones of World of Spirit's setup, the homages you find within it feel like a nice commemoration of the games and characters without feeling like a pandering nostalgia play. One of the most rewarding homages of all, however, lies in Ultimate's huge library of video game music. Over 800 tracks, which include originals as well as fantastic new arrangements, can all be set as stage soundtracks as well enjoyed through the game's music player.There is one significant struggle that Ultimate comes up against, however, which lies in the nature of the console itself. Playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the Switch's handheld mode is simply not a great experience. In situations where there are more than two characters on screen, the view of the action often becomes too wide, making the fighters too small to see properly, and it can be difficult to tell what you or your opponent is doing. The game's penchant for flashy special effects and busy, colorful stages doesn't help things at all, and unless you're playing a one-on-one match, you'll likely suffer some blameless losses. This is a situational disadvantage and may not affect all players, but it puts a damper on the idea of Smash on the go.The need to unlock characters also has the potential to be an initial annoyance, especially if your goal is to jump straight into multiplayer and start learning one of the six brand-new characters. In my time with the game, I split my attention between playing World of Light (where rescuing characters unlocks them everywhere) and multiplayer matches, where the constant drip-feed of "New Challenger" unlock opportunities (which you can easily retry if you fail) came regularly. I naturally earned the entire roster in roughly 10 hours of playtime, but your mileage may vary.Your mileage may also vary in Ultimate's online mode, where the experience of competing against others was inconsistent during the 200+ matches we played. Ultimate matches you with players from your region, but continues to use peer-to-peer style connectivity, which means the quality of the experience relies primarily on the strength of each player's internet connection. A bad connection from any player can result in a noticeable input delay, stuttering, and even freezing as the game tries to deal with latency issues. Things have the greatest potential to go bad during four-player matches, where there's a greater chance of finding a weak link.There's some blame to be put on the console itself--the Switch only has the capabilities for wifi networking. You can invest in an optional USB LAN adapter to make sure your own connection is stable, but because of the peer-to-peer nature, I found that the experience was just as inconsistent. You can get lucky--I would regularly enjoy sessions filled with smooth matches--but regardless, laggy matches aren't exactly a rare occurrence. It's also worth noting that you're required to have a paid subscription to Nintendo's Switch Online service to be able to play online at all, so the sub-optimal performance of the mode is disappointing.Network performance aside, Ultimate's online mode does have an interesting way to cater to the large variety of ways to play Smash Bros. You can create public or private arenas for friends and strangers, which serve as personal rooms to dictate specific rulesets, but the primary mode is Quick Play, where you're matched against people of a similar skill level to you. Quick Play features an option where you can set your preferred ruleset--things like the number of players, item availability, win conditions--and it will try to match you up with someone with similar preferences. However, Ultimate also prioritizes getting you into a match in under a minute, which is great, but sometimes means that you might find yourself playing a completely different style of match.In my experience, I found that there were enough people who wanted to play with my ruleset (one-on-one, three stock, six minutes, no items, Omega stages only) and I would find myself in these kinds of matches, or at least a very close approximation, the majority of the time. Getting thrown into the occasional four-player free-for-all felt like a nice, refreshing change of pace to me, but depending on how flexible you are as a player, this can be a turn-off. But like so much of Ultimate, its multitude of options and styles of play doesn't necessarily mean that all of them will suit every player.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

Over the summer, the DC Universe experienced a dramatic influx of, well, evil Batmen--which are exactly what they sound like--care of the massive Dark Nights: Metal crossover event helmed by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo. Spiraling out of the extremely comic book-y Dark Multiverse--a brand new parallel to the regular and antimatter DC multiverses already in play--the evil Batmen were alternate reality representations of Bruce Wayne's worst nightmares, fused with different members of the Justice League. They had over-the-top codenames like the Red Death, an evil Bruce who siphoned the Speed Force from Barry Allen, or The Dawnbreaker, the Batman and Green Lantern combo with a half-torn face and an endless supply of battery-charging willpower, but were mostly support characters for the ringleader of entourage: The Batman Who Laughs, a fusion of Batman and The Joker.Don't worry if that all sounds like a lot to take in--the events of Metal were as full bore on the superhero absurdity as any crossover event could be--but the concept itself is actually fairly simple. The Dark Multiverse represents a limitless amount of nightmare scenarios, and The Batman Who Laughs represents one of the very worst, a reality in which Bruce killed The Joker and then became The Joker, thanks to a toxic chemical that exists deep within Joker's heart. Basically, whoever does Joker in is "infected" and transformed into the next Joker and so on and so on. Even Batman. All of which is to say The Batman Who Laughs is simultaneously The Joker and Batman, making him, arguably, the most dangerous thing to ever exist in the DC Universe--because, well, these are the things that happen in superhero comics.Now, after his introduction in Metal, The Batman Who Laughs has been given his very own breakout solo series--and he's not alone. Another evil, alternate Batman has been introduced to the mix--one that didn't make it into Metal but is no less horrifying. The Grim Knight, a Batman who uses guns, sort of like a Punisher hybrid, has entered the fray here in The Batman Who Laughs #1 and things are just getting even more chaotic now that they've both got Bruce--real Bruce, our Bruce--in their sights.The question then becomes: is there a risk of going too dark with broken Batmen, when you're introducing hybrids like this into the mix? Not according to Snyder and artist Jock, who explained plainly in an interview with GameSpot that they're not concerned about going too far."I'm of the mindset that there shouldn't be anything you're afraid to do, as long as the story supports it emotionally," Snyder said. "We're never trying to do anything just because it's salacious or sensational. Here, when you see violence, it's not meant to be like 'oh yay!' It's meant to really terrorize Bruce. It's meant to have a real impact.""Exactly," Jock added. "There's a sort of internal barometer we use for these things. We don't want to be introducing things or doing things for the wrong reasons."The reasons, in the case of The Batman Who Laughs #1, are to show all the ways in which a character like Batman can be thoroughly and irreparably broken when his moral codes and ethical compass are stripped away. Snyder assured there's nothing celebratory about The Grim Knight and his arsenal of deadly weapons or The Batman Who Laughs and his rictus grin--these are cautionary tales."I had the idea for the toxin in Joker's heart back when I was working on Batman, but it was kind of a back pocket thing at that point," Snyder said. "It didn't really come up again until Metal. This whole story is really centered around the idea of happiness and laughter--there's a moment in issue two where Bruce monologues about how some cultures have the belief that happiness lives in the heart, and then he talks about his memory of his parents being killed and how that memory lives in his heart, how he can remember his father's hand coming over his ribs, protecting his heart. So when The Batman Who Laughs confronts Bruce, he explains that he remembers that night too--but he understands the memory differently. He tells Bruce that that's what he's always been to Gotham, just a weak old man's hand trying to protect a heart from a bullet. That mentality is what makes him so scary to me--he doesn't have any of Bruce's weak spots, he's so deeply nihilistic, he truly believes there's nothing that matters except winning."Meanwhile, the heat-packing Grim Knight breaks Batman from a different angle. Rather than nihilism, he takes his brutality with a relentless efficiency. "He's like the Punisher, but he's not broke," Snyder laughed. "He's got all of Bruce Wayne's resources so he can just remotely tamper with your car's GPS and you'd be dead in an accident without ever knowing who did it. We wanted to show how absolutely terrifying that would be."The Batman Who Laughs #1 is on sale now, continuing for six issues from DC Comics.Info from Gamespot.com

Jordan Peele was already a big name before he made the acclaimed Get Out, for which he won an Oscar, but he's entered a new stratosphere of fame now with projects like Candyman (which he's producing), the new Twilight Zone that he's writing and narrating, and his next original movie, Us.The first poster for the movie has now arrived, and it's mysterious. It shows a red robe-wearing figure with a glove clasping gold scissors. What does it all mean? Probably something, but for now it's too soon to say. The poster also confirms the release date for Us, which is March 15, 2019.A new nightmare from the mind of Academy Award winner @JordanPeele, #UsMovie opens in theaters March 15. pic.twitter.com/X0soARSTSh — Us (@UsMovie) December 13, 2018Us stars Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke as a mother and father who bring their children to a beach house with the aim of unplugging and taking some time off to relax and unwind. Of course, things do not go to plan."As night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited," reads a line from the movie's description.Are you looking forward to Us? Let us know in the comments below!The new Twilight Zone TV show will air on CBS All Access. GameSpot is owned by CBS Interactive.Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft isn't ready yet to talk specifics about Halo Infinite, but now one of the developers has offered a tease about what to expect in terms of Master Chief's look.Halo Infinite's narrative experience director Dan Chosich appeared on the latest 343 Social Stream for a deep-dive on how Infinite's E3 trailer came to be, and one segment of the broadcast was focused on Master Chief's new look.At around 53 minutes in this video, Chosich and community manager Brian Jarrard discuss and show off Chief's new look. Chosich says the version of Master Chief 343 created for Halo Infinite is the "coolest" ever, spanning both Bungie and 343 titles."It is by far the coolest Master Chief we have ever done, or that anybody's ever really done," Chosich said.The new Master Chief design took inspiration from his look in Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 5, but he'll look "a little different" in Infinite, Chosich explained. From what we've seen so far, Master Chief's Halo Infinite design looks pretty similar to his previous appearance, but Chosich teased that his final character model has yet to be revealed.Skip to 53 minutes in the Mixer video to see the segment on Master Chief's new look. The segment includes a number of close-ups and 360-degree shots of his new helmet.The entire video is well worth a watch, as it goes into ridiculous depth on how 343 planned and executed on creating the Halo Infinite reveal trailer. Over the course of about an hour, Chosich brings up 114 slides about different parts of the trailer.There are other segments dedicated to how 343 designed the Space Rhino, along with some cool behind-the-scenes looks at work-in-progress versions of the trailer. Another slide goes over the "experiential escalation" of the Halo Infinite trailer. The trailer opened in a mysterious fashion, and it was only at the end that it was confirmed that it was for the new Halo game. This was all by design, and the chart above shows what 343 wanted you to think and feel and each stage of the trailer.What you won't see, however, is any gameplay. The trailer itself was only for the Slipspace Engine, not the game itself. Jarrad said he understands people want to see gameplay, but it's not time yet.Jarrard also spoke briefly about 343's plan to release Halo Infinite early in "flighting" tests, where people will get to try the game before it's done to give feedback to 343. The studio conducted public testing periods for Halo: The Master Chief Collection's latest updates, and Jarrard said you can expect something similar with Halo Infinite.There is an intriguing rumour that claims Microsoft is planning to launch the game in two parts--first the single-player in 2019, with multiplayer coming in 2020. Microsoft hasn't made any official announcements regarding release plans, however.Halo Infinite places more of an emphasis on Master Chief, which is good to hear after Halo 5 controversially strayed away from him. It's also apparently a very big game, as Halo franchise manager Frank O'Connor said the game will have "capacious" missions/levels.No release date has been announced for Halo Infinite, but it's one of our most anticipated upcoming Xbox One games for sure.Info from Gamespot.com

Blizzard's MOBA Heroes of the Storm is undergoing some big changes. The developer announced today that it is moving some developers on the game to other projects, while the game's major competitive tournaments are coming to an end.In a blog post, Blizzard's J. Allen Brack and Ray Gresko said the developer is making the "tough choice" to move developers from Heroes of the Storm to other projects."We need to take some of our talented developers and bring their skills to other projects," Blizzard said. "As a result, we've made the difficult decision to shift some developers from Heroes of the Storm to other teams, and we're excited to see the passion, knowledge, and experience that they'll bring to those projects."Brack and Gresko added that this is nothing new for Blizzard. As part of its ongoing evaluation of its own development processes, it regularly makes "hard decisions" like this that can pay dividends down the road."We now have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in the company’s history," they said, adding that games like World of Warcraft and Overwatch "would not exist" were in not for Blizzard's decision to scale back other projects.Even though Blizzard is scaling back development on Heroes of the Storm, the game will still be "actively" supported with more heroes, special events, and "other" new content. However, Blizzard acknowledged that updates might be slower than in the past. The overall goal is for the game to be available over the "long-term" but Blizzard didn't put any specific dates on how long it plans to support the game.Another part of the announcement was around Heroes of the Storm competitive tournaments. Blizzard is shutting down the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm tournament series; they won't be back in 2019."This was another very difficult decision for us to make," Brack and Gresko said. "The love that the community has for these programs is deeply felt by everyone who works on them, but we ultimately feel this is the right decision versus moving forward in a way that would not meet the standards that players and fans have come to expect."It is unclear if there were any layoffs at Blizzard related to these changes with Heroes of the Storm. We spoke with a Blizzard representative, but they said Blizzard does not discuss personnel-related matters. You can read a quick Q&A with Blizzard below.An in-depth report from Kotaku claims Blizzard management is trying to cut costs and ship more games. Some said they believe that Blizzard's culture is changing. Blizzard founder and CEO Mike Morhaime left the company in October.Heroes of thee Storm was released in 2015. The free-to-play multiplayer game features characters from across Blizzard's suite of series. A 2.0 edition of the game came out in 2017, containing a number of changes. GameSpot's Heroes of the Storm review scored the game a 9/10, with writer Tyler Hicks saying the game is a "must-play" for MOBA players and Blizzard enthusiasts.GameSpot: What led to this decision?Blizzard: With more live games and unannounced projects than ever before, we're at a point where we need to focus more of our resources in areas that could benefit greatly from the additional support. As a result, we made the difficult decision to transition some of the extremely talented developers from Heroes to other teams at Blizzard. We’ve had to make decisions like this in the past, and it’s never easy, but it’s one of the factors that’s enabled us to continue developing games that our players love.GameSpot: How many people are working on Heroes?Blizzard: We generally don't disclose specifics about team size. However, the Heroes team will continue to have a smaller but dedicated development team that will continue supporting the game with new content.GameSpot: When you say you’ll actively support the game with new content, how will that compare to before this change?Blizzard: Heroes players can continue to look forward to new content in the future, including new heroes and themed events, but at a different cadence. We'll be sharing more specifics in the future, so keep an eye out for updates from the Heroes team.GameSpot: Were there any layoffs related to this shift?Blizzard: While we don't publicly discuss personnel-related matters, this change was made at a time when we have more live games and unannounced projects than ever before, and we felt we needed to focus more of our resources in areas that could benefit greatly from the additional support.Info from Gamespot.com

The holidays are just around the corner, and in keeping with the spirit of giving, developer IO Interactive has a lot of free content in store for Hitman 2 this month. Every week in December, the studio will roll out something new to do in the game, from another Escalation Contract to a new Elusive Target and more.Beginning today, December 13, players can take on The Aelwin Augment, the second Escalation Contract to hit the game thus far. This one takes Agent 47 to the Isle of Sgail and "is sure to be a memorable visit," IO teases. You can watch us try out hand at the Contract in the video above.Following that, IO will release a "holiday surprise" in Hitman 2 next week, on December 18. The developer didn't share any further details about what the "surprise" will entail, but it notes the event will only be available for a limited time.Later that same week will see the arrival of the game's second Elusive Target, after Sean Bean: The Revolutionary. He'll be available in Santa Fortuna for 10 days beginning December 21. Finally, rounding out the month is another new Escalation Contract, The Turms Infatuation, which is scheduled to arrive on December 27. You can read more about this month's free Hitman 2 content on IO's website.Hitman 2 is available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. GameSpot awarded it an 8/10 in our Hitman 2 review. Critic Edmond Tran wrote, "The addition of other minor mechanical changes--like concussive weapons, a picture-in-picture enemy activity alert, and visible security camera sightlines--help to improve Hitman 2 overall as a dense and accessible stealth assassination game. But the new locations are the real stars, impressive and inventive sandboxes ripe for picking apart with exciting experiments."Info from Gamespot.com