While we still don't know exactly when the Playdate handheld releases, we now know when you can preorder Panic's charming little system. Playdate preorders will go live on the official site at the links below on July 29 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. The Playdate costs $179 or $199 for a bundle with a protective case.Unlike some recent hardware (Nintendo Switch OLED, PS5, Xbox Series X, etc.), the Playdate won't sell out immediately. Panic has confirmed that roughly 20,000 Playdate units will be available to ship in the first wave in late 2021. Ordering early will definitely help you get the handheld sooner, but Panic will keep preorders live and send out additional orders in 2022. You'll have to pay for the handheld immediately, but you can cancel before the Playdate ships for a full refund. Each customer can order two Playdate consoles. Preorder Playdate $179 If you just want the handheld, you can preorder the Playdate for $179. It comes with a USB-C charging cable. Shipping costs haven't been revealed, but they will likely vary by region. See at Playdate Preorder Playdate Bundle $199 For $199, you can get the Playdate with a protective case that wraps around the device to keep it safe while not in use. The flip cover allows you to keep it connected even while playing, too. The cover will also be sold separately for $29. See at Playdate The Playdate was initially revealed back in 2019. The console features brand-new indie games designed exclusively for the Playdate. It has a 2.7-inch display, 4GB of flash storage, and 16MB of RAM. Along with a D-pad and two face buttons, the Playdate has a tiny crank on the side that is used as a control as well.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Developer Codemasters revealed a new racing game, Grid Legends, during EA Play Live 2021. The announcement trailer for Grid Legends showcases a mixture of live-action actors and cinematic gameplay--for the next game in the Grid series, Codemasters is going all in on delivering a compelling story-driven campaign."The Grid series has always been about delivering gameplay excellence," senior game designer Becky Crossdale said. "And with Grid Legends, you are still getting that same immersive racing experience that you know and love. But this time, we're taking things up a notch and we're adding another layer on top of that--we're really proud of this new Story mode."Codemasters is using Extended Reality (xR) for Grid Legends' story mode--it's similar to what was used to create the diverse locations for Disney's The Mandalorian.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Respawn released the cinematic trailer for Apex Legends Season 10: Emergence during EA Play Live 2021. Following the reveal, game director Chad Grenier took the stage to detail what players can expect to see in Emergence, including the passive, tactical, and ultimate abilities for Seer, the new playable character."Similar to Bloodhound, Seer is all about tracking enemies but in a different way and has a very unique kit," Grenier said. "So while you're aiming down the sights, you'll have a heartbeat sensor that will give you a hint as to where an enemy might be."Change is constant in the Apex Games; are you watching closely? 🦋Pay attention or pay the price when Apex Legends: Emergence launches August 3. pic.twitter.com/8p1hVQ5TuW — Apex Legends (@PlayApex) July 22, 2021"If you think you've located them, you can use your tactical [ability], which sends out some of those drones out of your chest and will actually reveal and track the enemy's location. The ultimate [ability] is really powerful, especially in certain gameplay situations. You can send out hundreds of microdrones and create a sphere around an area that you choose and all enemies that are moving quickly through that space are tracked."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Tim Burton-inspired adventure Lost in Random--the latest game in the EA Originals line--is going to be available very soon. It releases on September 10, as revealed at EA Play Live, and you'll travel to six different realms based on the sides of a die to uncover the dark secret behind Random.The Protagonist, named Even, sets out on a mission to save her sister, Odd, with the help of a living, breathing die who she names Dicey. Dicey's abilities let him help Even in her journey, altering time and their world, and you'll need to use his powers when you face off against the game's spooky enemies. Naturally, it's not going to be too frightening, as the game is clearly going for Nightmare Before Christmas-level scares, but developer Zoink seems to have nailed the atmosphere.You'll be making use of cards in combat as you progress through Lost in Random, setting traps or summoning weapons that you can use to deal massive damage, and you'll also be able to summon shields and healing spells. One even turns Dicey into a literal timebomb, though he seems to be just fine after using it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The dodgeball game Knockout City is getting a new season of content soon, all centered around the idea of watching flicks on the big screen. Season 2: Fight at the Movies starts on July 27.The new season debuted during the EA Play Live presentation on July 22, with a trailer cheekily poking fun at every crappy movie trailer you've ever seen. The trailer showed off the new Holowood Drive-in map, which cycles through various environments like the Cathedral of Horror and the Bridge of Love.Season 2 will also bring new equipment, the Soda Ball. The sticky soda can splatter on another player's screen to obscure their vision temporarily. The announcement promised new playlists and new movie-themed cosmetic rewards to earn, but you can continue to play for free up to rank 25. Velen Studios had previously outlined some of these additions in its 2021 content roadmap.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

As part of EA Play Live, EA and developer Ripple Effect announced Battlefield Portal for Battlefield 2042, and it sounds like one of the more exciting new additions to Battlefield in years.Battlefield Portal is a new "community-driven platform" that lets players create their own Battlefield fantasy. It features fan-favorite maps from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3, in addition to the seven maps from Battlefield 2042 at launch. Using what's described as a "powerful creation suite," players can create their own gametypes and play around with various settings. They can even use a logic editor to more specifically tune things. Progress and XP is shared between Portal and the game's other modes, All-Out Warfare and Hazard Zone.Weapons, vehicles, and equipment from each of the games is available in Battlefield Portal. So you can have World War II soldiers doing battle against enemies from Battlefield 2042's near future. You could have a knives vs. defibrillators battle, if that's what you want.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

After weeks of rumors about a potential revival of the Dead Space series, we've finally learned of what's next for the survival horror franchise, and it is indeed a full remake of the original game. Announced during the EA Play 2021 live stream, the Dead Space remake--releasing on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S--will take us back to the USG Ishimura, focusing on Issac Clarke's harrowing descent into a decaying space station filled with mutated monsters known as necromorphs.Developed by EA Motive, the same team behind Star Wars: Squadrons and Battlefront II's story campaign, the short teaser showcased the familiar, derelict halls of the ruined spaceship, with a lone necromorph in the distance readying for an attack. The remake is being made with the Frostbite engine, which is the same tech used for the Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront games. According to the press release, the remake will be offering "improvements to gameplay, while staying true to the original." In the teaser revealed during the show, we saw some callbacks to environmental details from the original game, with the words "Cut off their limbs" written in blood on the station's halls. We also got to see a final tease of the protagonist Issac Clarke, who restores his health at one of the ship's workstations.In an official press release, EA Motive senior producer Phillippe Ducharme stated that this revisit will modernize the original game for current-generation platforms, with the hope to reinvigorate the series for new and returning players alike.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Battlefield 2042 will have an open beta ahead of launch, and now DICE has shared a few more details about it. The open beta will be released sometime in September.EA Play subscribers who preorder the game will get early access to the beta, but DICE did not say how much sooner they'll be let in than everyone else. Additionally, EA Play members can play the full game early, starting on October 15 (the public release is October 22).According to the Battlefield Bulletin, the Battlefield 2042 open beta will become available for pre-loading starting on September 3. Early access to the beta, for people who pre-order, will begin on September. Everyone else can then jump in starting on September 6. The beta will then wrap up on September 11. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Battlefield 2042 is taking DICE's storied first-person shooter back to the future. As it turns out, though, it's also looking to the past, with a multiplayer mode that mixes aspects of 2042 with some of the series's biggest titles: Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3. The new mode is called Battlefield Portal, and it looks like it'll provide a whole lot more than nostalgia.Developer Ripple Effect Studios, formerly DICE LA, provided us with an early look at Battlefield Portal before its announcement at EA Play 2021, which gave a rundown of its impressive capabilities. First and foremost, it brings a mess of elements from previous Battlefield games into the Battlefield 2042 sandbox. Those are chiefly six remastered maps: Battle of the Bulge and El Alamein from Battlefield 1942, Arica Harbor and Valparaiso from Bad Company 2, and Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals from Battlefield 3. All the maps have been amped-up graphically to fit with 2042's version of the Frostbite Engine, as well as altered in some cases to accommodate the 128-player matches possible in Battlefield 2042's PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S versions.But Portal goes beyond just allowing you to jump into older Battlefield maps. It also brings back the factions, roles, and classes of those past Battlefield games, plus more than 40 vehicles and 40 weapons from the lot. And once Ripple Effect had decided to bring back those classic Battlefield elements, it started to think about what else it could do with them all.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

With the reveal of Battlefield 2042's Portal mode, which allows you to build custom game modes in the upcoming shooter, there's a natural question that comes to mind: Can you create a battle royale mode? It's a reasonable question given that 2042 lacks such a mode but is providing an impressive slate of tools for players to create their own fun in Portal. However, at least at launch, the necessary levers won't be in place to facilitate such a creation."You can do a lot with the Logic to create new experiences. There are going to be some limitations at launch," Ripple Effect senior design director Justin Wiebe told GameSpot ahead of Portal's reveal at EA Play Live. "So for example, we don't have a spatial editor. So creating something like a battle royale, there are kind of two main components that would need to be there. The first is a very robust matchmaking system. As you know, when you get kicked out, you need to throw people in a pool, rematch, make them in. That's not something we're going to support for the builders to be able to create or manage at launch."Perhaps more critically, one of the central mechanics in a battle royale game--an increasingly shrinking playspace--can't be created in Portal using the tools that will be available at launch.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

For Honor's patch 2.29 update is out now, and it adds a new hero in the form of Kyoshin, a spiritual samurai who is a master of fighting with a concealed blade, and utilizes katana, scabbard, and otherworldly powers to cut down foes.Kyoshin is rated as a hard-difficulty character with a counter-attack focused fighting style. A special stance, Kaze Stance, will allow players to block attacks and then follow-up with quick combos, all while utilizing a variety of unblockable and undodgeable mix-up attacks. Kyoshin's fighting style is a bit different from other For Honor heroes, using not only a blade but also its scabbard, which makes for some fancy-looking combos.But the new hero isn't the only thing coming in For Honor's latest update. Some slight UI changes are coming, as well as a number of bug fixes for maps and various heroes.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Australian actress Anna Torv, who starred on Netflix's Mindhunter, has been cast as Tess in HBO's upcoming The Last of Us TV show, according to Variety.Torv is no stranger to the world of video games, as she voiced the main character in 2007's Heavenly Sword video game, reprising the role in the 2014 animated movie. In The Last of Us the video game, Tess was voiced and performed by Annie Wersching.Torv joins a cast that includes Pedro Pascal (Joel), Bella Ramsey (Ellie), Gabriel Luna (Tommy), Merle Dandridge (Marlene), and Nico Parker (Sarah).Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

As is the case with most villains, Sauron is probably not dead--and scientists have discovered a new underwater volcano resembling the omnipresent Eye of Sauron, indicating he's always watching and his power is always around.In a report for The Conversation, Museums Victoria's senior curator of marine invertebrates Tim O'Hara said the underwater volcano was "revealed by multibean sonar 3,100 meters below" the RV Investigator research vessel. The oval formation, known as a caldera, is approximately 4mi by 3mi across. It has a rim that's a little over a tenth of a mile high, as well as a tenth of a mile high cone-shaped peak at the center where the actual "pupil" is housed.In essence, a caldera is a collapsed volcano. The molten magma travels upwards and, because of the empty chambers this creates, the volcano's dome surface caves in on itself. This causes a large crater where a small peaks often tends to form while the volcano continues to spew hot magma.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The newest arrival to the Disney+ streaming service, Behind the Attraction, looks at the complicated and long history of creating Disney's most iconic rides and experiences at its theme parks around the world. From creator Brian Volk-Weiss (The Toys That Made Us), the series strikes a familiarly snarky tone as it tackles some of the most beloved rides Disney has ever come up with. Still, there are some episodes that may have you scratching your head--and there's a reason for that.While the first batch of episodes from Season 1 of Behind the Attraction dig into the past of rides like Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion, and Star Tours, there are some curious choices made along the way, including the Disneyland hotel and--perhaps most puzzling of all--an episode titled "Trains, Trams, and Monorails," which is all about the history of transportation around Disney's parks.Speaking to GameSpot, Volk-Weiss admitted that particular episode was his personal passion project on the series. "There were three pots," he explained. "The first pot was there's got to be attractions that are like, 'Why wouldn't that be in Season 1? How could they do this without a Space Mountain episode?' Then there was another group that was things that you may not [have expected]. I think a lot of people wouldn't have done Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in Season 1... And then the third one, which was only one episode, is what a British guy called my joker [card]. And that is basically me saying, 'Please let me make this episode. Please let me make this episode.' And that was 'Trains, Trams and Monorails.'"Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Hollywood screenwriter David Goyer has shared a story about one of the worst notes he received from a studio executive for one of his movies. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Goyer said he received a bewildering note from the studio for the Superman movie Man of Steel.The studio told Goyer he needed to change the ending to Man of Steel and make it so the pod that Superman uses to help save the day doesn't get destroyed. The studio executives said this had to change because, if the pod was destroyed, how would Superman return to Krypton? The only thing is... Krypton was already destroyed."One note I got was on Man of Steel, where the ending involves Superman utilizing the pod that he arrived in as a child in order to bring down General Zod's ship," Goyer said. "The note we got from the studio said, 'You have to change that.' We asked why. They said, 'Because if Superman uses that pod and it's destroyed while saving the city, how is he ever going to get back home to Krypton?' There was just this long pause and we said, 'Krypton blew up. You saw 30 minutes of it!'"Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com