Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has hired Canadian studio Digital Scapes to work alongside the Polish developer on the much-anticipated role-playing game. Digital Scapes worked with another Polish studio, Techland, on Dying Light's Be The Zombie PvP mode, but there is no word yet on how Digital Scapes is contributing to Cyberpunk 2077.According to PC Gamer, a press release from CD Projekt Red specifically called out Digital Scapes' history with "AAA multiplayer console and PC game development, development tool creation, asset production, and cloud computing."Digital Scapes boss Michal Nowakowsi said in the press release that the deal is for a long-term partnership related to "talent, experience, and technical knowledge."Cyberpunk 2077 features multiplayer support in some capacity, but the game is billed as a "true RPG and definitely not a multiplayer shooter."CD Projekt Red's Patrick Mills told Eurogamer in June that the studio was working on multiplayer functionality for Cyberpunk 2077 in an R&D sense. He teased that multiplayer may come after launch.According to Variety, Digital Scapes will be helping CD Projekt Red with "creating and optimising technological solutions" to help in Cyberpunk 2077's development.GameSpot has contacted both CD Projekt Red and Digital Scapes in an attempt to get further details on this new partnership.Cyberpunk 2077 places players in the role of V, a mercenary who can be augmented with all manner of cybernetic enhancements. The game is set in the futuristic dystopian metropolis Night City, and unlike the Witcher titles, it is played in first-person. You can watch 48 minutes of gameplay in the video embedded above.Info from Gamespot.com

Anyone who's played a Mario Party game in the past 20 years has a good idea of what to expect from Switch's Super Mario Party, but Nintendo's latest offers a few new modes that each add their own creative spin on the tried-and-true formula. In many ways, Super Mario Party feels smaller than previous games in the series, but added layers of strategy and clever, fun minigames help keep it lively and fresh.The fierce competitive nature of the series' earliest titles is back, as Super Mario Party ditches Mario Party 9 and 10's cooperative car mechanic and once again pits players against each other in a race for Stars. The overall goal in Super Mario Party is to earn five Gems, which you get after completing each of the game's five major offline modes: Mario Party, Partner Party, Challenge Road, River Survival, and Sound Stage.Mario Party mode features the series' classic formula of bite-sized games interspersed between rounds of board game hijinks. Your character is still placed on a board with three others where you'll all race after Toadette and her collection of Stars. The biggest change is the introduction of character dice blocks; while previous Mario Party games utilized virtual 10-sided dice, now every character has two dice blocks, one six-sided and the other unique to them, and you have to decide which one to use each turn. The six-sided die rolls a one through six, while each character die comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses.For example, Mario's has a number three on three of its sides, while the remaining three sides are one, five, and six. In comparison, the devilish gambler Wario has a special die where two of the sides cause him to lose two coins, but the other four sides are sixes. For the first time in a Mario Party game, your choice of character is more than just aesthetic, and figuring out the best time to use a specific dice block adds a level of strategy to what's typically been an act of randomness.Each of the game's four boards requires slight tweaks to your strategy for reaching the Star, but they're all small, and most don't take advantage of their unique makeups. Whomp's Domino Ruins, for example, features Whomps who will block your path down certain shortcuts. The board only has two Whomps, though, so you don't encounter them very often, and even when you do, the board is small enough that taking the long way around won't put you at much of a disadvantage. Super Mario Party's four boards don't feel distinct, so your strategy for each one won't be all that different. And since there are only four boards in total to pick from, Mario Party mode grows stale fairly quickly.There are a total of 80 minigames in Super Mario Party, putting it just behind Mario Party 6, 7, and 9 in terms of quantity. Of the 80 minigames, nearly half rely on the motion control or rumble features in the Switch's Joy-Cons. Don't fret; both the motion and rumble features work surprisingly well, and it makes for some of the most cleverly designed games in the Mario Party series. For example, in Fiddler on the Hoof, you and three others race horses, and making a pulling back motion with the Joy-Con to simulate whipping the reins increases your score if you move with the beat of the song that's playing. In Nut Cases, you and a partner need to outwit the other team by claiming the five boxes that have the most walnuts inside them. You get an idea as to a box's contents by picking it up and measuring the severity of your Joy-Con's vibration. As Super Mario Party only supports motion control with a single Joy-Con, you won't be able to play the game in handheld mode or with a Pro Controller.Partner Party mode is Super Mario Party's reimagining of Mario Party 6's Team Battle mode. The rules are similar to Mario Party mode, but there are more paths around the board, and you need to actually land on Toadette's spot to get a Star instead of just collecting it while passing by. The minor obstacles from Mario Party mode become trickier to get past in Partner Party because you need to remain mindful of both you and your partner. Paying to move Whomp out of the way might get you to the Star more quickly, but doing so could trap other players, including your teammate. There's the possibility of winning the next minigame and earning enough coin to buy an item to free them, but that's no guarantee. This type of consideration and amount of forethought simply doesn't exist in Mario Party mode.Two of the other major modes, River Survival and Sound Stage, are new to the Mario Party franchise. The former has you working together with three others to survive a trip down a dangerous river while playing Co-op minigames, while the latter is an energetic dance competition where you solely play Rhythm minigames. Both River Survival and Sound Stage offer fun, albeit brief, alternatives to the staple Mario Party formula. The Co-op and Rhythm minigames are also some of the best in the Mario Party series, especially the Rhythm ones like Fiddler on the Hoof, that have you actually standing up and moving around to match the groove of the game's characters. Both Co-op and Rhythm minigames lack the heated competition of other head-to-head minigames, but they do pump up a room.Super Mario Party's final major mode, Challenge Road, is the closest the game has to a single-player campaign, but it only opens up once you've unlocked all 80 minigames. The mode has you play through every single minigame with specific handicaps placed on you to make each one harder. For example, a racing minigame might challenge you to get first place without running into any of the track's hazards. This mode comes very close to giving Super Mario Party just the amount of challenge the game would need to increase its longevity, but unfortunately it buckles. If you fail at a challenge three times, the game asks you if you'd like to just skip it. You can always come back and beat the challenge later if you want, but the mode never punishes you for skipping any of the minigames. As long as you get to the end of the road, regardless if you skipped a dozen challenges to get there, you'll still earn one of the five Gems you need.Super Mario Party also has several smaller modes and features that aren't tied to earning the Super Star title. In Mariothon, you compete in five minigames where outlasting your opponents in time-based games earns you extra points on the tournament ladder. There's an online version of Mariothon too, and you can either play in a private lobby with your friends or compete on a worldwide stage and fight to climb up in the rankings. We had no connectivity issues when playing online, but the private lobby did load faster. Square Off is also a minigame-based tournament, but after each win, you're allowed to claim a territory space. Owning the pieces of territory on either side of another player's territory nets you their space too, and the game continues until every space is filled. The winner is whoever owns the most spaces at the end of the match. Both modes give you a goal to strive for while playing minigames, which creates extra levels of competition amongst a group of friends.The new Partner Party, River Survival, and Sound Stage modes add enjoyable alternatives to Mario Party mode--which at least returns to its competitive roots.There's also Toad's Rec Room, where you can play unique games that change based on how you position your Switch, and a Stickers room, where you can cover a wall in a mural of stickers you've collected. Both seem tacked on to Super Mario Party; the former to justify putting the game on a console that can be played on a horizontal plane, in kickstand mode, or in a dock, and the latter to give you a reason to go out and buy some Amiibos to scan and get special stickers that aren't earnable within the game. Although the option of changing perspectives in Toad's Rec Room--such as looking at a baseball field from a bird's eye, laid-back, or pitcher's view--is an interesting gimmick, none of the games are really made better by adjusting how you look at them. The Stickers room is not worth getting invested in at all.Everything about Super Mario Party feels smaller in comparison to previous titles in the series. Both Mario Party and Partner Party mode play on small boards, and certain modes, like Challenge Road, have clear tier points to make it easy to play through in small chunks. So it's all the more puzzling that you can't actually play Super Mario Party on the go in handheld mode. Given you need a seperate Joy-Con to perform the motion-based actions in the game, it makes sense, but it's still odd to see a game on Switch that actively prevents you from making use of the console's portability.Most of Super Mario Party's varied assortment of 80 minigames are fun, especially if you've got a full group of four players, as the NPCs aren't smart or skilled enough to pose much of a challenge until you unlock Master difficulty. The new Partner Party, River Survival, and Sound Stage modes add enjoyable alternatives to Mario Party mode--which at least returns to its competitive roots. And even if the unique character dice blocks don't shake up Super Mario Party's four boards enough to give Mario Party mode some longevity, they implement small moments of strategy into a series that has for too long solely relied on randomness to determine a winner.Editor's note: This was originally a review in progress. Now that the game has launched, we have updated and finalized this review to reflect our experience with the online functionality. Info from Gamespot.com

The soft reboot that was Assassin's Creed Origins introduced a new approach to the series' brand of stealth-action gameplay, along with an expansive and vibrant open world with many dynamic systems at work. In this year's follow-up, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, developer Ubisoft Quebec builds upon its predecessor's pillars, and in the process shows greater confidence in the series' new direction.Set in Ancient Greece, Odyssey predates the previous game by several centuries. During the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE, you take on the role of either Alexios or Kassandra, siblings and former Spartans-turned-mercenaries. In keeping with series tradition, Odyssey features parallel storylines, with the main narrative taking place in the distant past and the overarching plot set in the present day. After pivotal moments dealing with political intrigue and wartime conflict in Greece, you'll jump back to the modern day to continue the story of Layla Hassan, introduced in Origins, who's working to uncover the secrets of the first civilization. Throughout your travels in Ancient Greece you'll uncover lost tombs, engage in naval warfare on the high seas, and assassinate the key members of a shadowy conspiracy seeking control of the known world.In your trek through the Greek mainland and the islands of the Mediterranean sea, you come across diverse locales that showcase lush environments that pay tribute to the old gods, while rubbing shoulders with the many historical figures of the era looking to make their impression in Greek society. The amount of detail packed into each location is impressive, tied together by an active and dynamic ecosystem where local wildlife and civilians keep their territory. But as you dive further, you'll see the many hardships and realities of life in Ancient Greece firsthand, including the horrors of slavery and the ever-present war between the military-driven Spartans and the bureaucratic Athenian army.Featuring a map that's more than double the size of the previous game, Odyssey is built to be explored and has incidental content to reward your wanderlust. You get the sense that your actions will have a lasting impact wherever you go, and Odyssey offers up a wealth of content that fuels your growth at a steady pace. Though the issue of level-gating comes up occasionally, preventing you from actively exploring any region as you wish, you can take a break from the main story and dive into the breadth of side content at your leisure. Several side quests offer a surprising amount of depth and heart and feature some of Odyssey's more standout moments.Throughout the main story and in side-quests, you'll make several key decisions that affect the game's narrative and your character's journey. While many of the choices you make are largely inconsequential and result only in slightly different endings for quests, the fateful decisions that do matter can lead to drastic turns of events, with some storylines and characters meeting their end prematurely. In moments you'd least expect, you'll see the payoff for decisions made early on in the story, for better or worse. With nine different possible outcomes at the main story's conclusion, there's a surprisingly large amount of cause and effect that can make the narrative feel all your own.The different protagonists also offer up some of Odyssey's most endearing and entertaining moments. Despite the grim nature of the game, jokes and fun gags often break the tension, even during serious events. Though both Kassandra and Alexios share the same dialogue and story beats, their differing personalities, gender, and points of view offer unique flavor, making them stand apart--with some scenes and questlines feeling more appropriate with a particular character.The Photo Mode in Assassin's Creed Odyssey allows you to capture some of the game's most breathtaking views.Romancing side characters is also possible in Odyssey. While some of these scenes can be amusing, they're mostly just bizarre shows of affection that have no real purpose. These scenes almost always result in a shallow aside during the conversation, with the characters slinking off-screen before returning to the conversation without skipping a beat. Most often, these awkward romance opportunities appear immediately after (or during) otherwise harrowing events. Aside from seeing some additional scenes with certain characters, there's really no benefit to engaging in romance at all. The inclusion of these scenes feels cheap and can sully otherwise interesting conversations.As you unravel more of the world and advance in the main story, new gameplay mechanics and side opportunities will reveal themselves, adding even greater incentive to explore. When the conspiracy that threatens Greece makes itself known, you'll be able to keep track of the major players through a large interconnected web in the game's menu, showing their connections to other targets and how to find the intel to track them down. But in one of Odyssey's more involved quests, you'll encounter several mythological beasts hidden within the world, offering up some of the game's most inventive and memorable encounters, where brute force isn't always the answer.The world in Ancient Greece feels much more reactive compared to previous Assassin's Creed games, and you get the sense that your actions will have a lasting impact wherever you go. When you start causing too much trouble, you'll attract the attention of rival mercenaries looking to collect a bounty. Similar to Shadow of War's Nemesis system, though not as sophisticated, Odyssey presents a seemingly endless set of antagonists with their own backstories, strengths, and potential loot. If you find yourself with a bounty on your head, mercenaries are often quick to appear--leading to some annoying encounters where they arrive at the worst possible time, even during some story missions. If the heat from the encroaching mercenaries feels too much, you can lay low long enough for the bounty to clear, assassinate another wanted criminal, or pay off your own bounty in the game menu.With nine different possible outcomes at the main story's conclusion, there's a surprisingly large amount of cause and effect that can make the narrative feel all your own.One of Odyssey's more clever features is the new Exploration Mode. With this optional mode enabled, you're challenged to use your observation and deduction skills to find your next target, without the support of icons or waypoints. By engaging with quest-givers and friendly NPCs, you'll learn details about your surroundings and slowly piece together your next steps. Exploration Mode heightens the pride that comes from solving puzzles, and this makes each step of your investigations feel all the more rewarding.When it comes to combat, Odyssey keeps up with the recent trend to incorporate stat-based mechanics into its core gameplay. Compared to previous games, there's now a greater focus on allowing you to customize your character to approach the challenges ahead. You can also build your character to specialize in stealth, long-range, or melee combat, and you're able to respec at any time. If you want to build your character as a powerful Spartan warrior wielding a legendary spear and use your Spartan Kick to boot enemies off cliffs, you can, but you are also free to stick with the traditional Assassin archetype.This opens a lot of opportunities to experiment with special moves and gear, the latter of which can also be customized with special perks that offer unique bonuses. Odyssey no longer features the shields introduced in Origins, and as a result, combat flows at a brisker pace. By placing the emphasis more on dodging and parrying incoming blows from enemies, fighting feels more involved and dynamic. While there are times where Odyssey can run right into the awkwardness of its RPG mechanics clashing with the action gameplay--such as being unable to assassinate enemies outright due to being under-leveled--it makes up for it by giving players the options to avoid such clumsy engagements.Your ship, The Adrestia, can be upgraded to deal greater damage and move faster while out on the open waters.Naval combat and sailing make a return in Odyssey, opening up exploration on the high seas. As you build up resources and find new members to join your crew, you can customize and upgrade your ship, The Adrestia, to take on more daring challenges. Much like in Black Flag and Rogue, seafaring offers up some of the more exciting and visually pleasing moments of the game, finding lost sunken ruins in the oceans depths or facing off against increasingly aggressive rival ships. Over the course of your travels, you'll be able to recruit new lieutenants to add buffs to your ship, giving you more of a fighting chance against the sea's greater threats.The scope of Odyssey is enormous, and for the most part, it's presented well. But some of the new innovations that seek to fit within the scale of the world, however, feel somewhat lost in the grand scheme of the game. With the ongoing war between the Spartan and Athenian army, you can choose to take part in the conflict and dismantle a faction's influence in a region. In these Conquest battles, you'll pick a side and cripple an army's hold by assassinating their leaders and taking their resources--culminating in a large-scale battle against their forces.While this is a solid way of gaining resources and improving your standing with a faction, the mechanics and implementation into Odyssey's general systems make it feel half-baked at best and pointless at worst. In some of the more bizarre cases, the game and its narrative don't seem to take Conquest seriously, especially when the main story has you helping a particular faction, despite the side content in the area actively hurting them. This in turn can create a jarring and noticeable feeling of dissonance throughout your adventures. The game often struggles to make sense of the actual war gameplay within the context of its core narrative, which is disappointing.When looking at Odyssey in the bigger picture, it can often feel like too much game for its own good. There are numerous moments where the loop of exploring, completing missions, and traveling can slow the pace significantly. This is exacerbated by the expansive map, which can sometimes feel excessively big and a chore to travel through. There are also some notable bugs and hitches that crop up throughout, including those that prevent progress in missions to outright crash the game. Several times throughout my journey, progression was somewhat exhausting, which made some of the more impactful and exciting moments in the story feel like a drag.Despite this, Assassin's Creed Odyssey's ambition is admirable, which is reflected in its rich attention to detail for the era and its approach to handling the multi-faceted narrative with strong protagonists at the lead. While its large-scale campaign--clocking in at over 50 hours--can occasionally be tiresome, and some features don't quite make the impact they should, Odyssey makes great strides in its massive and dynamic world, and it's a joy to venture out and leave your mark on its ever-changing setting.Info from Gamespot.com

Ever since Bethesda announced its newest game in the Fallout series, it's been difficult to get a sense of what Fallout 76 is all about. While the concept of an online Fallout experience is enticing, it also comes into conflict with the series' typical brand of role-playing. Though Fallout 76 does lessen those traditionally single-player details to a noticeable degree, it offers up an alluring opportunity to explore uncharted, irradiated territory with other players online.With the pivot to multiplayer, Fallout 76 focuses a lot more on exploration and survival in West Virginia's Appalachia, with all its regional oddities and newfound horrors coming in large doses. Recently, we played three hours of the game ahead of the game's upcoming October beta, and spoke with developers from Bethesda Game Studios about the particular challenges of making a different kind of Fallout.Set only 25 years after the bombs dropped--making it the earliest game in the series' timeline--Fallout 76 gives itself plenty of distance from previous games to show off the freshly devastated wilderness. In traditional fashion, you leave the safe confines of the Vault to venture out into the wasteland--bringing with you a sense of determination, and also the naïveté that can come from living in somewhat comfortable isolation. After a quick introduction, you create your character, get accustomed to the new controls and systems, and venture out to the surface. However, what sets this game apart from the others is that you're one of many survivors. And once you're outside, it's every Vault Dweller for themselves.During the first hour, I got my bearings by taking a tour around the immediate area, even joining a group to take in all the sights. Fallout 76 has the familiar RPG mechanics and sense of exploration that the series is known for, but it also has more of an amusement park vibe--with several key attractions and locales clearly highlighted on the map, such as The Greenbrier Resort and the Top of the World ski-slope. While exploring Fallout's take on West Virginia, which is several times larger than the Commonwealth of Fallout 4, I got the feeling that I was sort of experiencing the greatest hits of all things Fallout. First came the familiar weapons and armor found from previous games, then came the feral ghouls, the Super Mutants, and references to the Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave.Still, the new location in West Virginia feels totally different from Fallout 4's Capital Wasteland and the Mojave from New Vegas, which quickly introduces its own brand of locales and strange monsters that reside there. Along with weird monsters like enlarged ticks, three-headed possums, and even Mole Men, there are other monsters that reference West Virginian urban legends. This includes the headless, hulking Grafton Monster and the enigmatic Mothman, the latter of which is revered by the hostile cabal of Scorched, heavily irradiated humans who eventually evolve into ghouls of sound mind.For the most part, combat and general movement handle similarly to Fallout 4. However, the new mechanics and survival systems at play felt somewhat overwhelming to get a handle during our introduction. In 76, much of the tutorial happens in a trial by fire scenario in the open world, where you'll have to follow the early moments of the quests closely in order to learn the new mechanics, all while fighting off enemies and scavenging resources. While I appreciated the quick pace at which players are whisked out of the vault, picking up some meager supplies along the way, I felt that the on-boarding process could be a bit more detailed--it made me feel mostly unprepared as I was scrambling to find any weapon I could get my hands on.With the new online focus, some returning mechanics have seen some changes. For instance, Fallout's iconic V.A.T.S.--allowing you to target enemies and fire off precisely-aimed shots--now operates in real-time. It acts more like a real-time lock-on--with your weapon's hit-rate adjusting depending on the enemy's movement or their surroundings. This style of V.A.T.S. definitely took some getting used to. Mostly to the fact that enemies move around often, and combined with the awkward focus of the V.A.T.S. camera, it was jarring to actually use it during a fight. Because of this, I mostly stuck with standard aiming and shooting, which felt more reliable during engagements. While you can upgrade V.A.T.S. with perks to make it more effective, it feels more like an option that should be used sparingly.Fallout 76's survival mechanics take many cues from Fallout 4's more challenging Survival mode. In addition to keeping your character well fed on a regular basis, you'll also have to avoid ailments and diseases--such as contracting the oddly named but still troubling Rad Worms. Some enemies and locations even carry specific diseases, which create added risks to watch out for when exploring. These illnesses range from diseases that sap your maximum health, action points, and the general damage resistances for your character, to even increasing your susceptibility to radiation.With a large emphasis on survival, nearly every item and resource you can get your hands on feels much more valuable. Nothing really lasts too long in Fallout 76--even the buffs from Bobbleheads and skill magazines only last a short time--so every tool you have will inevitably be discarded for something new. As you're scavenging through the open world, you'll find junk items, scraps, and crafting plans that can be turned into new gear and building materials for your constructions. Some of these materials can create bizarre weapons like the Heated Pitchfork or Ski-Sword--a single ski sharpened to form a blade. But over time, weapons and armor will eventually need to be repaired or broken down into materials for other items. Moreover, cooking and chem stations now have a greater importance, allowing you to prepare meals and craft support items.Character growth is still the core part of Fallout 76, and it offers an impressive amount of variety and flexibility. After leveling up, you can place points into the familiar categories of the SPECIAL system, each of which boost areas of your character's raw stats. Eventually, you'll acquire a pack of Perk Cards that can offer special buffs in their assigned categories. For example, the Gladiator perk card is a Strength card which increases damage with melee weapons, while Lead Belly can decrease the radiation from drinking contaminated water. The more points you have in a category, the more Perk Cards you can potentially slot in, giving you a whole suite of added buffs. At any time, you can swap out your set of Perk Cards to readjust your character, to better prepare for different challenges.In keeping with the game's focus on pioneering, the building mechanics from Fallout 4 also return. Now known as the C.A.M.P. system, you have in your possession a mobile construction device that allows you create a building at any time--provided that it doesn't overlap with existing structures. You have free rein to construct whatever you like, whether that be subtle safe-houses for you to stash supplies, or even larger mega-structures that house turrets and a dedicated place to relax. If you ever want to pack up and move elsewhere, you can save your structure as a blueprint and dismantle it. This can come in handy if your chosen spot becomes too popular with other players.The biggest point of contention with Fallout 76's online nature is its lack of NPCs and slimmed down story, now serve to highlight the focus on moment-to-moment engagements with enemies and other players. This lack of traditional interactions and storytelling felt more noticeable the deeper we dove into the world. While you're certainly free to play solo and avoid other players--and we definitely took the opportunity to strike out on our own, leading to those familiar moments of solitude and wanderlust, you'll always be a potential target within the online world.Having said that, I couldn't help but feel intrigued by the re-focus here. Lore and smaller doses of story are still in surprisingly ample supply, but told passively through the environment and journals scattered about. While there are no active NPC characters to find--with exception to roaming robots that can offer trades and intel--you'll eventually stumble across the bodies of long-dead survivors who have had a notable presence in the world. In their possession are special holotapes known Survivor Stories, detailing the last moments of their lives in the irradiated wilderness.These stories told some interesting tales for the characters in Appalachia, which had some poignant and heartfelt moments to them--which was reassuring given the fragmented nature of the storytelling in 76. Speaking with design director Emil Paglliarulo, he elaborated on their refocus to make Fallout more about engaging with others players."We started off with the premise where the only other people you see are the ones that came from the vault," he said. "We've also never had the opportunity to do a game that's set twenty-five years after the bombs fell, it's always been two-hundred something years after. Now, we have the stories of the people that survived the initial war, and we've never been able to tell those stories before. Of course without NPCs or no dialog trees--which was a huge adjustment for our quest designers, as they were used to doing it a certain way--and now the lore-heavy stuff comes from holo-tapes, which now has its own tab in the Pip-Boy. That's been really interesting for us. And what ended up happening is that we ended up having a much more lonely story than in Fallout 4. All of these people that you do [learn about] are dead already, and it's almost like a weird ghost story. We didn't expect that."Whether you want to play solo or within a group, player interaction is a big part of the game. Encountering another person after rounding the corner or reaching the end of a dungeon creates some genuinely tense feelings--not knowing what intentions the other player in front of you has. To communicate with others, Fallout 76 features a variety of in-game emotes to use and proximity based voice-chat. During our session, however, we used Xbox Live's party chat client to stay in constant communication with our group--which won't be the case for most players online.When playing in groups, communication is important, and the emotes and proximity chat are a great way to get your point across. This is especially vital when grouping up for some of the more active quests that task you with overcoming some bizarre obstacles, such as finding the keys to an armory in a makeshift town built out of a destroyed aircraft, or finding out a mob of "unruly golfer feral ghouls" at a ritzy resort that's still maintained by protectotrons. This can lead to some humorous and equally tense moments where players are scrambling to rely on their team's special skills to progress further.Once you reach level 5, Fallout 76's PvP systems open up. When you encounter another player that's over level 5, you can fire your weapon at them to let them know of your intentions. If they return fire, then you'll both engage in a duel, with the loser dropping their current haul of junk items--no caps or gear is lost after a defeat. When shooting at a player that hasn't engaged in response, all damage will be cut in half, which gives them enough time to react. It's possible to kill another player who is not into the idea of fighting, and appropriately enough, this backhanded approach will mark you as a murderer, painting a massive target on your back for all players in the world to see.Our group of level 5 explorers tried to take down a level-58 player in power armor in similar fashion, but it didn't go over well at all as he easily decimated the group with a high-powered Tesla Rifle. While damage calculations scale for enemies, allowing low-level players to potentially take out monsters several levels ahead of them, it does not for PvP engagements. However, if you wish to avoid PvP, or if a player is bugging you too much, you can block them or fast-travel to safety fairly easily. So far, the system in place is a thoughtful way to overcome the potential harassment that can often spring up with this type of game.To cap off our hands-on time, the developers launched a nuke, which obliterates specific areas of the map. We all had front row seats to the explosion, and then proceeded to jump into the ensuing fallout--with its heavy radiation promptly killing us off one-by-one. As one of the larger end-game goals in Fallout 76, activating a nuke can lead to new events in the irradiated areas, revealing rare materials and dangerous enemies to fight. It also highlights the more dynamic nature of Fallout 76, with many of its narrative touches informed by the player's decisions in the world.The scale of Fallout 76 seemed impressive based on the first few hours. The location of West Virginia--and all its oddities--was exciting to dive into, which felt refreshing after coming off of Fallout 4's Commonwealth. However, much like previous Fallout games, there were a number of odd bugs and large frame-rate dips that occurred throughout. This was especially noticeable during larger fire fights against large groups of enemies, which brought overall performance down to a slog. The developers we spoke to, however, assured us that the performance will be improved in time for its November 14 launch.76 certainly isn't like other Fallout games. After our three hours, I got the impression that Bethesda is taking a risky approach with the series in regards to its lore and its core gameplay. With its heavy focus on survival gameplay and the online experience, I suspect that this largely experimental take on Fallout will become a rather polarizing entry. Though the mechanics were somewhat overwhelming to get a handle of, I can't deny that I enjoyed exploring the large map and engaging in the mysterious, post-apocalyptic take on West Virginia. Fallout 76 looks like it can flourish in the long-term, and I'm interested in what can come about after many hours in its off-kilter and ever-changing setting.Info from Gamespot.com

We have known for a while now that Bethesda's Fallout 76, like many games today, will feature a microtransaction system. Bethesda was quick to clarify that you won't be able to spend real money on Perk Cards to unlock more abilities, with the microtransaction system instead limited to cosmetics. Now, Bethesda has shared more details on how microtransactions work in Fallout 76.The microtransaction currency in Fallout 76 is called Atoms, Bethesda boss Pete Hines told Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb. These Atoms can be spent on things like new outfits and skins. You can earn these Atoms in the game by completing tasks, or you can buy them outright with real money. Bethesda hasn't said yet provided any specifics on Atom pricing, however.Whatever the case, Hines suggested Bethesda will be generous with Atoms, telling Major Nelson that Fallout 76 will "throw them at you all the time.""Atoms are thing that we use and hand out as you play the game--quite honestly we throw them at you all the time," he explained. "You get them as little rewards leaving the Vault or the first time you kill a creature or the first time you pick fruits or vegetables from somewhere. It's a little challenge reward. Atoms are used in our shop to buy cosmetics things. So you know, new outfits or skins or things like that. [Things to customise] your character to look unique from everybody else."Everyone who pre-orders Fallout 76 on Xbox One gets 500 Atoms right away, but how much value this really offers won't be clear until Bethesda reveals the cost of in-game items. Microsoft's partnership with Bethesda goes further, as the company is also releasing a 1 TB Xbox One X bundle that comes with a copy of Fallout 76.It appears Bethesda is following the model of games like Overwatch and Fortnite in that it will only allow players to spend real money on cosmetics, not items or abilities that actually affect the game.After Bethesda announced that perks in Fallout 76 are acquired and represented through Perk Cards, many wondered if players would be able to buy these with real money. Thankfully, as mentioned above, Bethesda will not allow players to spend real money to acquire new perks.For lots more on Fallout 76, you can check out the video embedded above and GameSpot's recent coverage in the stories linked below. The game launches on November 14 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with a beta scheduled to begin first on Xbox One on October 23.Fallout 76 Hands-On Preview: A Very Different Type Of Post-Apocalyptic RPGFallout 76: How Mods Work And When They're ComingFallout 76 Beta: Here's When It Starts On PC, PS4, And Xbox OneFallout 76 Features The US Government's Secret Bunker, Project Greek IslandFallout 76: Here's The Main ThemeHere's What A Nuke Going Off In Fallout 76 Looks LikeInfo from Gamespot.com

Fallout 76, like previous games in Bethesda's franchise, will feature mods, but how will they work with the game's new always-online, multiplayer focus? We chatted with Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines recently, and he told us that mods in Fallout 76 will only run on private servers."Mod support is going to be tied to work that we're also doing on private servers, and letting people do private servers. Mods will be a thing that run on private servers," he said.Hines said it's unlikely Bethesda will ever allow mods to run on Fallout 76's 24-player public servers. Mods are user-created modifications that are capable of doing pretty much anything people can think up, so it makes sense that Bethesda wants to restrict them to private servers to help ensure a semblance of fairness. "I don't foresee a universe in which we allow players to come in [to Fallout 76's public servers] with their own unique and different mods. If you want to run mods, they'll have to be done on a private server," Hines explained. "You'll be deciding what sort of mods you're including and running, and everyone playing on that server is playing with those mods."Mods aren't coming to Fallout 76 at launch, however. Hines cautioned that mods may not be supported in Fallout 76 until November 2019 at the soonest. "It's going to be a lot of work. But mods and private servers are definitely coming," Hines said.Mods in Bethesda games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim have been and continue to exceptionally popular and helping contribute to the longevity of those games and others across the industry. Those games, however, are exclusively single-player experiences, whereas Fallout 76 is always-online.Fallout 4 and Skyrim initially only supported mods on PC, but they later came to PS4 and Xbox One, albeit with some limitations. It remains to be seen if Fallout 76 mods will launch first on PC. GameSpot recently had the opportunity to play three hours of Fallout 76. For lots more, check out our deep-dive written preview and video coverage in the embed above. You can also check out some recent news stories and videos through the links below.Fallout 76 Beta: Here's When It Starts On PC, PS4, And Xbox OneFallout 76 Features The US Government's Secret Bunker, Project Greek IslandFallout 76: Here's The Main ThemeHere's What A Nuke Going Off In Fallout 76 Looks LikeInfo from Gamespot.com

If FIFA 19 on PS4 and Xbox One is a 40-piece orchestra with all the bells and whistles you can think of, then FIFA 19 on Nintendo Switch is the tribute band. The Switch version of EA's footballing behemoth purports to have all the same qualities--the Champions League! Ultimate Team! Career Mode!--but under the surface, each of its many facets lacks the depth and longevity from other versions. On the pitch the Switch port feels relatively smooth, if a little dated, but it's hard to shake off the feeling you're playing an inferior and incomplete version of this year's biggest soccer sim.Some improvements from the PS4 and Xbox One editions carry over to the Switch port, such as timed finishing and the new Kick Off house rules options like No Rules and Survival Mode. Others, such as game plans--or any kind of tactical tweaks or player instructions--do not make the cut.Once you get on the pitch, things feel satisfying--sometimes. Passing still feels imprecise, even with the world's best players, but shooting and dribbling feel almost as good as what's available on other platforms. But this port also seems to pull from older versions of FIFA--many cutscenes and environmental cues like those read out by stadium announcers are from as far back as FIFA 10.Additional problems crop up when you want to play a friend with one Joy-Con each. It works, but not particularly well. As with FIFA 18 on Switch, fewer buttons and sticks means there's no way to use finesse shots, threaded through balls, knuckle shots, manual defending, skill moves, or driven passes. Double-tapping the right bumper allows you to knock the ball ahead of you in a similar fashion to the right stick when playing with traditional controls, but similar workarounds don't exist for the other missing functions. Playing with one Joy-Con is possible but often ends up feeling like more hassle than it's worth. You are, at least, able to matchmake with friends when playing online, which was missing from last year's Switch port.The Champions League license and standalone mode do form a part of the Switch version, complete with Derek Rae's Aberdeen-Atlantic commentary and UEFA's operatic anthem. Night games look impressive on Switch, even if the atmospheres don't quite live up to the sights and sounds of the PS4 and Xbox One editions, in part due to lower resolution. The standalone mode is essentially a stripped-down version of Career Mode, which itself is even more bare-bones on Switch than it is on home consoles this year. On Switch, neither mode contains the dynamic cutscenes or interactive transfer negotiations found on other platforms. Here, FIFA 19 really does feel very similar to 18, just with updated licenses.Ultimate Team has a similar story in this version. FUT is easily FIFA's biggest and most popular mode, thanks in large part to EA's Squad Building Challenges, in-form cards, and more live services that keep things fresh. All those are present and correct on Switch, but the mode is lacking in ways to actually use your squad. Division Rivals, FUT's new sub-mode for this year on PS4 and Xbox One, is nowhere to be found, meaning you have to make do with standard old Online Seasons matches. Squad Battles, the primary method of play for offline players in FUT, is also absent--the more miserly Single Player Seasons are your best bet here. To make matters worse, you still need a constant internet connection to access even Ultimate Team's single-player sections, so playing FUT on the go isn't an option unless you tether your Switch to your phone signal. Oh, and the FIFA 19 companion app is not compatible with Switch versions of the game, so you're out of luck there, too.All that's left is to lament the ongoing absence of The Journey, which of all FIFA's modes appears the best fit for Switch--a deep, offline story playable in small chunks--and yet it's omitted entirely from the port. And that sums up the Switch version of FIFA 19: a playable, competent game of football encased in a package of outdated modes and lacking the controls and features you really want.Info from Gamespot.com

While there have been many, many attempts to translate the tabletop roleplaying experience to the PC and console, more often than not it hasn't quite worked out. One of the biggest struggles in transitioning a traditional tabletop RPG into the quicker, imminently more binge-able video game form is incorporating a complex ruleset faithfully. Hypothetically speaking, with the right combo of spells and skills, a tabletop campaign can get utterly bizarre, with players collaborating to do things like using effectively unlimited ammunition to shoot through a mountain. These kinds of solutions are impossible in video games, where destructible environments and the difficulty of coding different possibilities necessarily limits the ways you can interact with the game. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a partial exception to that rule, but it often fumbles with the execution.Just about everything has been wholesale imported from the Pathfinder tabletop games; nearly all the mechanics, spells, skills, etc. make their way in, and so does a massive chunk of the lore and mythology. That's all well and good, particularly because Kingmaker offers plenty of options to help customize the difficulty and effectively put you in the role of Game Master. There are more than a dozen options for adjusting everything from damage scaling for foes--a handicap that makes you more resistant to harm in tougher fights--to how the AI will manage your (eventual) kingdom.Given that this is a hefty choose-your-own-everything adventure, your character is a blank slate. You can pick from many of the basic races--as well as the godlike aasimar--and a fair few of the basic classes, skills and abilities from the tabletop edition. Your companions are initially pulled from a crowd of heroes you meet in the game's opening, but it expands soon after with any number of additional friends and allies to bring along the way. For the most part, these serve as means to an end. Your allies are as much a part of the experience as your own character is, both in terms of party composition and roleplaying in the narrative.This is reinforced by one of the few concessions the tabletop game doesn't make, but the game does: party-wide skill checks. Passing obstacles in the tabletop Pathfinder, for instance, can often separate the party, as those that don't have a skill like acrobatics won't be able to maneuver through a thicket. Instead, in Kingmaker, the party completes these tasks as a team. It behooves you, then, to really spread out your abilities and party to maximize coverage of options over making sure everyone has the same basic setup with slightly different modifications down the line.Such concessions transition well into group cohesion in combat, as well. With such a diverse set of specializations, party management is exceptionally important--especially because of the intense base difficulty. By default, Kingmaker follows the rules of tabletop perhaps too closely; it's a system where simple combat with a few foes can take 30 minutes to an hour (or more), all compressed into a few seconds on-screen. That can be taxing as it requires tremendous familiarity with each classes' traits as well as the acuity to know how to pull them together.Were everyone sitting around the table, each would have a couple minutes to look over their spells, consider all manner of responses, and then execute the plan on their next turn. In Kingmaker, though, combat largely happens in real time. Sure, you have a pause button and can quickly look over your characters to devise tactics mid-battle, but this absolutely grinds combat down and really hits the pacing of the game in the worst way.Perhaps a bit more troubling is the fact that within Pathfinder's ruleset, many monsters and creatures require very specific tools to kill. Swarms of small creatures like rats, for instance, can't be effectively fought with a sword and shield. Sometimes Kingmaker warns you, but other times it simply expects you to know how to handle the problem. Rust monsters, skeletons, ghosts, and so on all have specific tools that you need to understand and be able to use with relative ease. That's made easier by having a diverse party, but then you have to take far more time aside to learn the ins and outs of your band of characters than a traditional tabletop player.This tension--between what Kingmaker is trying to be and what that looks like in practice--is at the heart of many of its missteps. With more than a dozen references and resources to draw upon, quite a few things have slipped through the cracks, causing issues of balance throughout. There’s the distinct impression that Pathfinder’s convoluted rulesets have led to oversights in how damage gets calculated by the game in this or that room, or whether you’ll face a much higher spell failure chance when squaring against a boss.There have patches since release, and many of the adjustments definitely work. A slightly modified Story Mode (the name of one of the difficulty presets) is a solid entry point for many. Still, the rules and procedures can be labyrinthine--and that's even with tooltips that explain proper nouns and the requisite in-game encyclopedia to explain everything else.For those willing to take on the challenge, however, what lies beneath the brusque exterior is a welcome return to involved roleplaying. The voice acting is spotty, and writing can be a bit cliché at times, but the game doesn't shy away from its subtitle. In relatively short order, you earn your barony and have the ability to build it out however you choose--hiring advisers and upgrading facilities to help you along the adventure. Kingmaker’s campaign cuts much closer to long-term tabletop campaigns and gives you a stable home base from which to plan your next outing. And, not to belabor the point, but most of your mini-adventures will definitely require prep.These outings also constitute the bulk of your questing play and a good chunk of the ongoing narrative--an interconnected web of relationships and allegiances that lends itself to plenty of political intrigue and exciting adventures. Unearthing the mysteries of not only your “employers” but also the shifting factions of the Stolen Lands and how that plays into the world at large is definitely an extraordinary and rewarding endeavor.For those willing to take on the challenge, what lies beneath the brusque exterior is a welcome return to involved roleplaying.The interaction between the ruling bit of play and the rest of it is great. Having each of these systems--roleplaying, combat, adventuring, and what's essentially SimCity-lite--feed into and influence one another yields an experience that is as broad as it is deep. Your level of investment and engagement with each is largely up to you, but each of them matters and will require attentiveness to get the best results. But the opportunities it yields are exceptional. Having your roleplaying choices and character story and alignment all play into how you rule and who accompanies you on your trek is amazing. Working towards getting a well-crafted set of gear for your party after carefully maneuvering through hours of quests and adventures, all for the glory of besting a big bad using all the skills and abilities you've given your team, are high points of the adventure.All-told, Kingmaker isn't a stellar outing, hampered by a litany of small issues, balancing, and the gargantuan knowledge base you'll need to play most effectively. But, for those with the patience, the rewards are well worth the investment.Info from Gamespot.com

Editor's note: This review has been updated to reflect the state of Battle for Azeroth after its first major content update which includes the Uldir Raid and Warfronts. This information can be found near the end of the review -- October 8, 2018Teldrassil has been burned to the ground. Sylvanas Windrunner steps over the corpses of slain rangers and civilians alike who were impetuous enough to get in her way, only to seal the fate of more innocents in fire and blood as her lithe frame is backlit by an inferno of destruction. The tone of your introduction to Battle for Azeroth is as clear as day: The Horde is evil, and this is no longer a fight about old territories or grievances. This is wartime, and nothing is sacrosanct. Well, apart from the planet that we reside on, the right of foisting faction politics upon new civilizations, and the art of constant, grave misunderstandings.World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth swoops in on a plaguebat right where the previous expansion, Legion, leaves off. Everyone is ecstatic about sending the Legion back into the realm that spawned them, and people are getting on with their lives. However, in the closing moments of the last expansion, we saw the introduction of a new resource for Anduin and Sylvanas to butt heads over: azerite. This is key to the central narrative that unfolds; no one really knows what azerite does, but Sargeras left it behind and everyone's convinced that it should be harnessed for destruction. Battle for Azeroth's pre-patch content painted the Horde as warmongering and the Alliance as the bulwark against the violence, and to that end, this new resource is just another symbol for the two to take a moral stance on--a dance of power around yet another weapon that has power beyond our reckoning.That dance of power is crucial to the initial motivations of both factions and plays out neatly in the narrative that guides you to the expansion's new zones--it's the reason that your various leaders send you out on reconnaissance missions that bring you to those areas. That said, you pivot almost immediately from the big picture concerns of your faction's war effort to the wants and needs of relative strangers. Those familiar with the World of Warcraft canon will have some insight into the motivations of the new allied races you meet--the Kul Tirans and the Zandalari. Both new allies have their own power struggles to contend with before they display any interest in assisting either the Horde or the Alliance, and predictably, this spawns the cycle of fetch quests, reputation gains, and achievements required in order to gain their trust.The ebb and flow of questing in the zones feels very much like the experience in Legion. It took me around 25 hours to get from level 110 to level 120 on one character, which feels like it keeps pace with solo leveling from the last expansion. Regardless of whether you're Horde or Alliance, you'll get to cherry pick which one of three distinct zones you want to start in. The Horde get down and dirty with the Zandalari trolls, investigating everything from political intrigue to the wrath of blood magic. The Alliance deal with fan-favorite Jaina Proudmoore and the legacy of resentment that her father's death left behind (did we mention the pirates?). In either regard, all these zones have their own self-contained stories for you to see to fruition that indirectly speak to powers beyond our comprehension, meaning while they're equal parts comedic and captivating; they most certainly do not stray from the World of Warcraft formula.The fact that these condensed stories are so engaging actually works against the impact of the wider expansion's narrative. After spending hours in the desert with the vulpera and the sethrak, and dealing with everything from shepherding cubs to thwarting the plans of long-sleeping god puppets, it's hard to take orders from Sylvanas' right hand. Your faction's leaders seem so far removed from the daily bloodletting and the weariness of dangerous diplomatic relations that doing their bidding starts to feel like a chore. The inhabitants of these new zones are so colorful and so full of life that you feel incentivized to do the myriad of side quests that they tantalizingly offer up to you. It's all too easy to put the main story quests on hold to just spend a couple more minutes in eerie Nazmir, or to risk scurvy in the Tiragarde Sound.This lack of a coherent, meaningful connection to the overarching azerite panic that serves as Battle for Azeroth's main narrative tension can be frustrating. We're still waiting on plenty of content, so nothing truly definitive really happens to tip either faction's hand after Sylvanas' initial massacre. In the meantime, you passively hoard power and skills without really knowing what good they'll do you later on. For example, you'll power up azerite armor in place of artifact weapons in this expansion, but your armor automatically levels up as you quest, and the selections you make as to quality-of-life skills don't feel as impactful as before. You also don't have to do anything special to get your hands on this armor, which in turn cheapens the gearing experience as you're leveling. The same could be said to some extent about raising your professions; gone are the days of having to sit by a campfire to grind out every godforsaken recipe before you could learn the latest dishes. You can crack into Battle for Azeroth's crafting right away, even if you're a complete novice, which is convenient. But it's hard not to be nostalgic for the days where the trek of profession leveling brought some sense of real achievement.Once you get to 120, it's a bit of a coin toss as to what you should do while you're waiting for the next batch of content--you're probably best served by doing world quests and improving your reputation in order to unlock the Allied Races. There are other things to cut your teeth on, but the narrative doesn't instill in you a pressing desire to do (or to know) more. At this point in time, Battle for Azeroth offers War Mode and Island Expeditions as tidbits to tide you over until its next patch.War Mode basically paints a giant bullseye on your chest, slaps you on the back and says "Venture forth, you poor sod." This mode grants you an experience bonus, but the price you pay is drawing the attention of players from the opposing faction. If you're someone with bad memories of Alliance players performing drive-bys on you as your friends scramble to get into Shadowfang Keep, then you may want to stay away from this mode. You may luck out if you're on a server that isn't particularly bloodthirsty, but even those who embrace the chaos will find that it is too much of a double-edged sword; doing well in War Mode ups the ante by letting others know that you're a threat to be put down. If the hounds of war don't sniff you out immediately, then the game's intervention definitely speeds up the process.Island Expeditions offer their own brand of excitement. While the name suggests that you'll be relaxing on a beach somewhere and enjoying mojitos with Genn Greymane, the reality is the exact opposite. You can participate in Expeditions with AI or other players, and the focus is to undertake a mad dash for azerite within a territory where randomness controls the obstacles that you face: everything from regular to elite mobs, enemy NPCs and players, and the main affair, picking up a whole heap of azerite. While the first few expeditions can feel like a fresh change of pace, the cyclical nature of the activity means it starts to grow old fairly quickly. There are various difficulties of expeditions which offer better rewards with each tier along with tougher enemies, but it feels a like a bandage slapped over the Mythic+-shaped content hole in our hearts.This expansion wields its central conceit of a dying world with a lack of finesse; something is Badly Wrong but not so wrong that it can't wait for you to gallivant around collecting battle pets for a century before you deal with it. That said, the expansion is rivetingly effective at telling tales about underdogs, witches, family curses and pirate fraternities in ways that make you care. It's in the strength of these segments that cause you to see the cracks in the other aspect of the game--even though we know there's going to be a lot more content made available as the expansion gets patched over time. In the wake of the latest Warbringers visual, it's certain that we'll have some Old God-flavored questions answered sooner rather than later, and a host of new things for the factions to unite over that aren't the giant sword splitting the very realm into pieces.As with previous expansions, Blizzard was saving its endgame content for a few weeks after its release. Battle For Azeroth is no exception, and the content roll-outs since Day One have included two major highlights: the new Warfronts assault mode and the release of the Uldir raid.The latter is the first in a long string of encounters that will contextualize some of the conflict we’ve faced in the various leveling zones leading up to the maximum level cap. This latest titan mishap is available across the standard difficulties--Normal, Heroic, and Mythic. Additionally, the first two wings are currently available as part of LFR (Looking For Raid) for those who are wanting to be eased into the idea of confronting yet another cosmic mistake by the powers that be. The last wing is due to release on LFR soon, which will bring the horror of this expansion’s token Old God threat, G’thuun, to those who have been playing more casually.Raids have been refined according to World of Warcraft’s tried and tested formula--a sprinkle of cutscene here, a monologue there, five packs of trash mobs, and boss fights that have faint echoes of enemies that you’ve already put to rest. Each raid brings its own environmental narrative that’s intrinsically tied to the wider world, and Uldir is no exception. An abandoned titan facility is the backdrop for you and other adventurers to probe the depths of the corruption that is G’thuun and its hold over the Zandalari.Once again, trying to tame the unfathomable power of one’s enemies sets the scene for destruction; an ancient horror has its seals broken and is in danger of consuming the world. We’ve seen this before, but that doesn’t mean that it’s less enjoyable in its most recent iteration. Getting to the level required to queue for it in LFR is made easier by scaling world quests and the ability to farm Heroic dungeons, which is a nice nod to Blizzard’s recent focus on making end-game content more accessible for all.The Warfronts are also another good example of how Battle for Azeroth has tried to ensure that the stuff that gets your heart racing isn’t locked behind an impassable item level cap and limited availability gear drops. Taking the “battle” part of the expansion seriously, it builds upon the concept previously introduced by Island Expeditions by giving the Alliance and the Horde more opportunities to give each other the beat down. Warfronts are territorial skirmishes which draw inspiration from Warcraft III, and they’re predicated on the back-and-forth nature of the conflict between the game’s factions.They’re not nearly as self-contained as the Expeditions can feel, and they have less reliance on RNG. It’s all about playing the (relatively) long strategy game; the factions will wrestle over a particular region, and the victor will win not only the land in question but also the chance to take down rare mobs for rewards. However, with great power comes a lot of people trying to take it from you. The challenging faction is given the chance to win stolen territory back over the course of a week after doing some initial war prep in the form of gathering supplies and bolstering military efforts. Players then contribute to the land grab by queuing into a Warfront instance to take on enemy bosses and more in an attempt to destabilize the controlling faction.The cyclical nature of Warfronts is a manufactured push and pull that translates faction politics to the PvE sphere. The fact that no one faction can consecutively gain control of an area is heartening; some servers have a population imbalance between Alliance and Horde, and it would be unfair to penalize them for it by making it a game of sheer numbers and contributions. That being said, those who don’t have the patience to wait out this affair will have to look elsewhere for end-game entertainment. In general, the additions so far to Battle for Azeroth have clearly taken both veteran and new players into account, but whether they will provide any real longevity or narrative closure still remains to be seen. It’s early days yet in the shelf life of a World of Warcraft expansion.Battle for Azeroth features the exciting culmination of the intimate character storylines for some of the franchise's most famous heroes and villains, the Allied Races themselves are so well-crafted that it's almost worth it for lore aficionados alone, and visually, World of Warcraft looks the best that it has been in a long time. But the expansion feels like it sometimes relies too heavily on the days when both factions were at each other's throats--the conflict now feels too manufactured to truly incite the war both leaders appear to be gunning for. It's clear that Battle for Azeroth tries very hard to balance the needs of new players with those of long-time fans, and as was the case in Legion, it demonstrates that the line between refinement and oversimplification can feel very thin. It's an overall good addition to World of Warcraft's current state, but it's a gamble as to whether its upcoming content will make it truly special.Info from Gamespot.com

Fox made a trip to New York Comic-Con, and like most studios hosting a panel, those in attendance got to check out exclusive clips for its upcoming movies. At an AMC theater outside of Madison Square Garden, con-goers got to watch a continuous scene from Dark Phoenix, where the X-Men have to leave Earth.While viewers weren't told specifically when the scene takes place within the context of the movie, it was pretty clear it happens early on. The X-Men--Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Storm and Quicksilver, led by Mystique--take the Blackbird into space in order to save some stranded astronauts in the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was active in the real world from 1992-2011. During the rescue mission, something goes awry and Jean almost dies. However, everyone survives and both the astronauts and X-Men are welcomed back to Earth as heroes.Viewers were warned that the effects weren't finalized and neither was the sound, but it didn't really matter. It still looked pretty great for an early look. The most exciting parts of the scene were seeing everyone work together as a team, primarily both Quicksilver and Nightcrawler, two characters that have grown into a larger role in the newest X-Men film. There's something wonderfully satisfying about seeing Nightcrawler "bamf" in space or watching Quicksilver work from his perspective where everyone else is in slow motion comparatively. The scene hits on the things we loved about previous film in a nice, little showcase.It was a basic sequence that was layered with a whole lot more to add to the event plot twists that we've seen in the trailer. There is tension growing between Professor X and, well, everyone else. Xavier wants a world where the X-Men are celebrated as heroes, not hated and hunted. That means the X-Men have to go on missions to save the common man, and sometimes, these missions are called in from the President on an "X-Phone." Yes, a phone with a giant "X" on it. However, Mystique has a problem with this, thinking it's just stroking Xavier's ego, as Jean's life was almost lost in space.Xavier means well, but you can start seeing a rift in the group, which is a nice addition to this movie, as they're not just up against "the biggest supervillain threat they've ever faced." Yes, there will more than likely be some of that coming by way of Dark Phoenix, but at least that isn't the only real problem this team has to face.However fun the scene may have seemed, there is still some skepticism about the entirety of the film, as the last film in the series, X-Men Apocalypse, was heavier on the pop and flash rather than telling a compelling and interesting story. It's hard to constantly try and raise the bar when every movie almost ends with the villain destroying the planet. And that could likely happen with Dark Phoenix, but the layering of the team splitting up as well as the villain being someone on the team could very well ground this film a bit more and tug at the emotional heartstrings of the audience.We'll find out more about Dark Phoenix in upcoming months before its theatrical release on June 7, 2019. Info from Gamespot.com

During New York Comic-Con, Fox gave fans an early look at the 2019 movie Dark Phoenix, the newest installment of the X-Men franchise. In the 14 minutes of footage shown, the audience got to see the moment that changed Jean Grey from an everyday member of the X-Men to what will eventually become Dark Phoenix.Warning: There are spoilers for the 2019 film ahead.During the footage which was shown at a Fox Showcase at an AMC theater, the X-Men are on a mission to go into space in the Blackbird to save some stranded astronauts in a faulty space shuttle. Mystique leads a team consisting of Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Beast, and Quicksilver, and very quickly, the team realizes it is a race against the clock as what looks like either a cosmic cloud or slow-moving solar flare is headed to the shuttle, and it will burn up everyone inside.The team goes to work, each with their own objective. Cyclops blasts the ship to stop it from spinning, Storm uses her powers to create ice to patch up holes in the ship, and Nightcrawler takes Quicksilver and Jean into the ship, where Jean uses her powers to try and hold it together. Nightcrawler and Quicksilver save everyone but they couldn't get back to Jean, who is being hit with the space fire.Meanwhile, another branch of this flare is headed towards the Blackbird, and Jean uses her powers to pull it towards herself. She's engulfed in this cosmic fire, and it seemingly kills her. After the unidentified cosmic force dissipates, Nightcrawler brings her back to the ship, and eventually, she wakes up, but there is an orange glow in her eyes. Something has changed inside her, but at this time, the viewer isn't sure just what.Obviously, it's going to take a bit more than that for Jean to completely transform into the Dark Phoenix, but this scene was the start of it all. As we gathered from the second trailer, Jean goes on a search to fix whatever has happened to her, after Professor X and Beast can't figure it out. This will eventually lead her to Genosha, where she finds Magneto. From there, we're not entirely sure where the film leads, but you can find out for yourself when Dark Phoenix comes to theaters on June 7, 2019.Make sure to check out our impressions of the footage Fox showed during New York Comic-Con for Dark Phoenix.Info from Gamespot.com

Sony's Venom may not technically be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that didn't stop it from borrowing some pages of the MCU playbook. With its double post credits sequences, it paved the way for a surprising reveal, a sequel, and some hype for another Spider-adjacent movie entirely. So technically there is a Spider-Man reference in Venom? Does this count? Obvious spoilers ahead--please consider yourself warned!The first and most consequential of Venom's credits stingers features a rather abrupt jump to Eddie being escorted into a supermax prison by a guard, apparently on assignment for his newly resumed journalistic career. The actual angle of the piece and the outlet that commissioned it are never revealed, but that doesn't stop the guard from running down a list of intimidating Silence of the Lambs style rules Eddie has to follow upon conducting his interview, as if he's Clarice Starling about to meet Hannibal Lecter for the first time. Venom itself stays hidden and mostly quiet as Eddie approaches the cell, and we see a man painting the word "welcome" in blood on the walls of his cage, which happens to be a lone box in the middle of an otherwise empty room. He's the only prisoner kept here, we can assume for the safety of the other inmates.As the camera focuses on his face, he's revealed to be played by Woody Harrelson, sitting in a white jumpsuit, done up with an almost cartoonish red wig. He never formally introduces himself but begins to speak as Eddie approaches, warning that when he "gets out of here, there's going to be carnage" before the scene cuts to black.Though he's never formally named, it's pretty obvious that Harrelson is set to play Cletus Kasady in whatever Venom sequel might be in the works, the serial killing mass murderer who eventually comes into possession of his very own symbiote named--wait for it--Carnage.In the comics, Carnage is actually one of the Venom symbiote's many offspring, created during a brief stint in which Eddie was incarcerated and kept in a cell next to Kasady, where it eventually bonded to him without Eddie's knowledge. Thanks to Kasady's major homicidal streak and psychopathic tendencies, and some comic book science involving the symbiote bonding to Kasady's blood directly (don't worry about it), Carnage became a massive and powerful threat almost immediately.Physically, Carnage looks similar to Venom, except it's blood red in color and tends to fight with a bunch of gooey tentacle-like appendages in addition to its standard issue symbiote shape-shifting and brute strength. Unlike Brock, however, Kasady was never interested in trying to reign in Carnage's murderous, cannibalistic side, meaning Carnage basically just gets to cut a swath of destruction and terror wherever it wants, whenever it wants. We can't be sure based on this scene alone just how the Carnage symbiote will come into play or how Kasady will bond with it. The movie universe hasn't dealt with the symbiotes reproducing so far, so it's likely that the family connection between the two will be changed. And given that Brock himself isn't actively incarcerated, there will probably be some other way for Kasady to come in contact with his symbiote--a rogue Life Foundation experiment, maybe? Some sort of Riot fragment that survived the crash? Alternatively, there's a slight possibility that the movie will posit Kasady already having Carnage inside him (hence the high security prison set up and the "there will be carnage" line) with the intent of building out that backstory somewhere down the line. Really anything is possible at this point.In an interview with GameSpot, Venom director Ruben Fleischer elaborated on the scene and the casting choice of Woody Harrelson, with whom he has worked in the past."We tried at the end of our movie to lay the groundwork for a potential sequel, or a further story. And there's a character that's beloved by all Venom fans that does not appear in the body of our film that I think fans will be really excited to see," Fleischer said. "I found somebody who I have a relationship with and love working with. And I love all the characters that he's played. So to imagine him being an iconic adversary to Venom in the future is really exciting."The only thing we can be sure of is that, should Venom be greenlit for a part two, Carnage fans will definitely have something to write home about. Enter Spider-ManVenom's second post credits segment was actually, technically, not a post credits scene at all, but a promotional clip for an entirely different movie: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which is set for release this December. Heralded by a bright "Meanwhile, in another universe" title card, the clip featured the animated Miles Morales running from an unknown, masked enemy wearing a makeshift spider-style costume before winding up at the grave of the late Peter Parker.He's then met by a very much alive Peter Parker, who he accidentally knocks out, prompting a Weekend At Bernie's style series of mishaps around New York in which Miles drags the very unconscious Peter around the city. The clip was previously showcased in part at San Diego Comic-Con this year.Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse has no direct connection with either Venom or the MCU that we know of yet, and even if it did, it certainly doesn't impact the significance of this particular clip. Instead it's set to build its own multiverse populated by some fan favorite Spider-Man comics characters, hence the "Spider-Verse" title. So, no real hidden meanings or major clues for the future of Sony's superhero line on this one, just a little teaser for another movie headed to theaters this winter. Info from Gamespot.com

The cast and crew of Daredevil Season 3 took over the Hulu Main Stage at New York Comic-Con to share some brand info about just where the Devil of Hell's Kitchen is headed--and more importantly--who he's going to be up against.Wilson Bethal's role in this season has been one of "the worst kept secrets in Marvel history," executive producer Jeff Loeb laughed. Officially, he's playing FBI Agent #2, also known as "Dex," but fans put two-and-two together some time ago and guessed a Bullseye reveal was fast approaching. Still, despite the very loud whisperings, Daredevil’s cast and crew were under strict orders to never confirm nor deny any major reveal. “We were so crazy about it we even took the dart board out of the writer’s room,” said showrunner Erik Oleson, “just in case someone accidentally took a picture and someone on the internet thought it was a clue.”But now the cat is officially out of the bag, care of the NYCC panel and this brand-new trailer. Bethel was able to say out loud for the first time that he was “extremely honored to tell the story of how Benjamin Poindexter becomes Bullseye,” which immediately prompted Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox, to jump out of his seat on stage and draw the target logo on Bethel’s forehead.The panel gave some clues as to just how this incarnation of Bullseye would come to life, linking his evolution from troubled FBI agent to the plot involving Wilson Fisk’s return and eventual parole. Bethel and Vincent D’onofrio (Fisk) touched upon their supportive offescreen relationship while speaking to their characters toxic one on screen. “It’s the beginning of a very weird relationship,” Bethel said.The footage shown during the panel insinuated a troubled history for Poindexter that Fisk will be manipulating to his advantage, whispering that no one else understands him. It's worthwhile to note that in the comics, Benjamin Poindexter is actually just an alias used by Bullseye who has never officially been given a civilian alter ego--so this season really has an open runway as far as its story is concerned.Daredevil Season 3 lands on Netflix on October 12. Info from Gamespot.com

The final stand to save Gotham City has begun. The fifth and final season of Gotham won't premiere until 2019, but the cast and executive producer John Stephens took part in their final New York Comic Con panel to give the first look at the new episodes and share some news about what this show's version of the "No Man's Land" comic book story arc will look like.That arc will include a new character played by Shane West, who was previously announced for the series. Stephens finally confirmed that West will play Bane, pulled directly from the comics. In fact, there will be one showdown between Bane and Alfred that will see the butler's back get broken.In a short sizzle reel that included new footage, the future of Gotham looked bleak. After Jeremiah (Cameron Monaghan) blew up the bridges to the city, essentially cutting off the outside world, Gotham has descended into something resembling The Purge--except, it's everyday life.In the new Gotham, the city has been divided up into pieces controlled by various villains, with a small green zone right in the center of town that Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and the GCPD are keeping safe. The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) has taken over City Hall, Poison Ivy (Peyton List) ruling Central Park, and the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) making the Gotham Public Library his own domain.Additionally, Penguin has naturally found a way to make himself a vital piece of Gotham's underworld. He's essentially a war profiteer, controlling the city's ammunition. If anyone wants bullets, they're forced to go to him. Barbara (Erin Richards), meanwhile, has enforced a man-free zone of Gotham and will suffer a major loss early in the season. Our guess is it's Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) that will bite the bullet, propelling Babs on one final tear through Gotham City.As for Selina (Camren Bicondova), who was shot and potentially paralyzed in the Season 4 finale, the new episodes will find her suicidal as she copes with her injuries. "We find her in a place where we've never seen her before," Bicondova said. "We find her in a place of despair… The Selina we've known for the past four seasons goes completely out the window."With so much bad happening on Gotham--including even more new villains, like a Harley Quinn-esque girlfriend for Jeremiah--the need for a Batman continues to grow and fans are finally going to get that. Mazouz confirmed during the panel that, "Bruce is going to become Batman," in the final season. Of course, you're going to have to wait for that as it won't be happening until late in the season. More specifically, it'll be in the series finale when the series jumped 10 years into the future.As for when Gotham will premiere, a date was not announced. However, the final ten episodes will air sometime in early 2019 on Fox.Info from Gamespot.com

New York Comic-Con has almost come to an end, but Sunday offered up a few more panels for TV series, movies, and more. The YouTube Premium series Cobra Kai, held a panel to discuss what's coming down the line for Season 2 of the series.On the stage, stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, and screenwriters Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg discussed the first season of the series, while in the midst of shooting Season 2. They also revealed that there is a whole new--yet familiar set--coming to Season 2. A clip was shown at the event, and Heald provided setup for it. In it, the younger members of the cast give a tour of the Miyagi Dojo, a major set piece for the second season. Viewers saw Miyagi's garden at the end of Season 1, and now Mr. Miyagi's old home has been turned into a dojo. Obviously, this set piece will be the place where LaRusso trains his new students. It is completely empty inside, but the backyard is a place of serenity and peace, featuring trees, green grass, and a pond with water feature.We learned that the next season Cobra Kai will debut sometime in the summer of 2019, and it will consist--like Season 1--of 10 episodes. However, the runtime for those episodes may be a bit longer, as Hurwitz explained the show "will be digging deeper on everybody." Season 2 will expand a bit more on the younger generation we saw in the first season, but it will continue to have the same balance between the kids, Johnny, and Daniel.Going into this new season, the writing team had a good idea of where they wanted to take the story. "We have multiple seasons planned out," explained Heald, who also stated they had so much planned for different character arcs for Season 1 that they simply couldn't pack it in. However, this show isn't just trying to rekindle the love of Karate Kid with those who grew up with it. "It was important that a newer generation falls in love with this the same way we did," Hurwitz stated.There were plenty of questions for the cast and creators, particularly revolving around whether or not Daniel and Johnny will be fighting in Season 2. There wasn't a direct answer, but it did seem like both men would be involved in fight sequences in the next season, but it wasn't clear if it will be against each other.Find out more about Season 2 of Cobra Kai when it hits YouTube Premium next spring.Info from Gamespot.com