Microsoft has announced the latest additions to its Free Play Days promotion, which drops games to the low, low price of $0 for a limited time. The latest Free Play Days titles are Microsoft's own shooter Gears 5 and the racing game F1 2020.Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate members can play both games at no extra cost now through midnight Pacific on Sunday, May 23, so it's a full weekend of free play. You can download the games from Xbox.com through the Free Play Days hub or by navigating to the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store on console to get started.It's a good time to jump into Gears 5, as the game's big Operation 7 update just recently arrived. It adds a new multiplayer map, Ephyra, along with new characters Ukkon and Hana. Gears 5 is also available on Xbox Game Pass. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Blizzard's Overwatch 2 "What's Next" stream has revealed a major gameplay change coming to its upcoming hero shooter. Rather than having standard matches played with six-player teams, Overwatch 2 will shift to 5v5 matches in PvP.The 5v5 structure will consist of one tank, two support, and two DPS players per team. That's a major change from the 6v6 matches of the original game. But with Overwatch and Overwatch 2's multiplayer being compatible with one another, Blizzard confirmed to GameSpot that this change will also be introduced to the original game. However, that change won't happen until Overwatch 2 releases, whenever that might be. Following the 5v5 announcement, the stream then went on to show new content, like the New York City hybrid map. It includes some landmarks like Grand Central Station.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

NBC has announced that the eighth and final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine will premiere on August 12 at 8 PM and 8:30 PM ET/PT. As stated in the release, that means the long-running, hit police sitcom will begin its last, abbreviated season by airing two episodes--and the remaining eight will air on subsequent Thursdays in those time slots.Until as recently as last week, it was only known that Brooklyn Nine-Nine would be back sometime in August. Considering the series was once extremely close to never getting past Season 5, following Fox's cancellation in May 2018, the show has enjoyed an unexpected renewal and rejuvenation on the new network. In a new trailer released by the show, the series insists it's "going out in a blaze of glory." Check it out below.Plotwise, not much is known about this final batch of episodes. Last year, it was announced that the season may feature a storyline about the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-creator Dan Goor had mentioned in interviews last year that he and the show's writing team "value[s] escapism, but at the same time, we don't want to be ignorant… there is a debate about what next year will look like." Most likely, Goor says, the show will explore more subtle ways of acknowledging the crisis rather than "toiling away in the depths."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Call of Duty's Season 3 Reloaded has arrived, bringing an '80s Action Heroes event that features John Rambo and John McClane. And with Die Hard's John McClane comes the movie's iconic Nakatomi Plaza to Warzone, which has a lootable vault of $100,000.Nakatomi Plaza has replaced the Broadcast Tower in Downtown, now serving as Verdansk's tallest building. There are also optional missions around the plaza that will help you get into a vault loaded with cash.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Publisher Devolver Digital and developer Team WIBY have announced a new game called Phantom Abyss. It is an asynchronous multiplayer game where players must navigate procedurally generated temples to obtain secret relics inside. It's a first person game that looks like a cross between Fall Guys and Indiana Jones.Players are armed with a whip to help themselves get through temples that are filled with traps, chasms, and guardians. Phantoms of other players who met their untimely end in the temples show up, and you can use them to your advantage to see how they died in order to avoid a similar fate. Players can watch up to 20 phantoms, including their own friends on Steam, that have attempted the same temple and also steal their whips as they inevitably fall.However, you only get one shot to clear the temple. Dying or settling for a lesser relic other than the one at the very end means you will never see this particular temple ever again.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword arrives on Switch in July, and as Nintendo revealed this week, the game is launching alongside an elaborate new Amiibo depicting Zelda with her trusty Loftwing. This figure is much more detailed than many of the previous ones the company has released, and it carries a much steeper price tag than usual as a result. The higher asking price normally wouldn't ruffle consumer feathers considering that Amiibo are often more appealing to core players and enthusiast collectors, but it's the functionality the figure offers that makes it feel like a particularly egregious money grab.As Nintendo explained, the Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo effectively allows you to quick travel between the surface world and the sky. Scan the figure while you're on the surface, and you can return to the sky from anywhere, even while exploring a dungeon. Scan the figure again while in the sky, and you'll return to the same point on the surface.As far as Amiibo functionality goes, this is an incredibly handy feature. Typically, the only way to return to the sky from the surface in the game is to interact with Loftwing statues, which are found in specific locations around the world. This means that if you need to head back to Skyloft--the floating island that Link and Zelda call home--to restock on supplies, for instance, you first need to hoof it to one of these statues to launch yourself into the air.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

June is nearly upon us and that means a new lineup of series and movies on the Peacock streaming service. The library includes a ton of wrestling content, a collection of licensed shows, and a few Peacock original series.On the Originals front, UK-imported series We Are Lady Parts joins Girls5eva as another musical comedy on the service. We Are Lady Parts follows a Muslim female punk band called Lady Parts looking for a lead guitarist and some proper success. Other Peacock Originals include David Schwimmer's Intelligence Season 2, Trolls: Trollstopia Season 3, and Vanderpump Dogs, a spin-off of Vanderpump Rules, which follows Lisa Vanderpump's Dog Rescue center.Wrestling content includes WWE's 50 Greatest Tag Teams (episode 1), WWE The Day Of: The Mysterios Make History, WWE Untold: The Nexus, WWE The Ultimate Show: Ultimate Hell in a Cell, and more. A number of daily and weekly talk shows continue or join the network as well, including Brother from Another, Zerlina, the Mehdi Hasan Show, and the Amber Ruffin Show (every Friday).Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Bungie has announced the first (official) cross-play beta is coming to Destiny 2 on Wednesday, May 25. The event will last through Friday, May 27, and will be available for all Destiny 2 players to partake in. According to the official Bungie blog post, the limited time beta will feature a "unique Vanguard Strikes Cross Play Beta playlist," where players will be matched with PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and Stadia users alike as they fend off the incoming Darkness.This announcement comes just over a week since Bungie mistakenly launched cross play alongside the Season of the Splicer update, and subsequently had to patch in its removal. Bungie acknowledged the accident in its latest post, stating "even though this was caused by a bug, we saw players mingling between platforms, which was awesome! That said, we needed to smash that bug like a subscribe button to get our release back on track." Assuming everything is "back on track," the studio confirmed they intend to keep their original Season 15 launch date, which is set to arrive August 24.However, while the beta is open for all, it's important to note not all of the game's features will be open to those testing it out. To help ensure the beta process goes smoothly, only the unique Vanguard Strikes Cross Play Beta playlist will be available in cross-play mode. In addition, players will be unable to form a fireteam or send invites to friends. The silver lining? Bungie stated that as a "token of our appreciation for your time," all players who complete three Vanguard Strikes from the unique playlist during the beta will be rewarded an exclusive “Stars Crossed” emblem.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Quick: What's the cutest thing you've seen in the last year? That's right, it's Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda, stuffing his face with blue space cookies. Funko knows it, and wants you to give into temptation with its new Mandalorian collection.Funko's latest collection of Star Wars Funko Pop vinyl toys includes six standard figures, one "chase" figure, and three retailer-exclusive ones. The standard collection includes Grogu eating macarons; Mando himself--sans Mandalorian helmet--holding Grogu; Ahsoka Tano wielding dual white lightsabers; the robotic Dark Trooper; Boba Fett as he appears in The Mandalorian, and Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze without her helmet. Bo-Katan Kryze is also the "chase" figure, a variant figure inserted randomly throughout its production run. The variant is the same figure but wearing her helmet. The retailer-specific variants are Grogu with a butterfly available at GameStop, Grogu with a squid stuck to his face through Target, and Ahsoka Tano with her hood up through Amazon.These are far from the first Mandalorian Funko Pop vinyls the company has released; the previous wave of Mandalorian Funko Pops hit in January 2020, and some of the originals were among our favorite Mandalorian merch when the first season was still new. Baby Yoda was, of course, one of the best-selling Funko Pops of all time.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Outriders had a very successful launch. Square Enix announced today that the RPG-shooter game reached 3.5 million unique players globally over its first month (April 1-May 1).Square Enix said Outriders is expected to become the publisher's "next major franchise" thanks in part to its positive critical reception, suggesting a sequel is all but a sure thing. The game hasn't likely sold 3.5 million copies, as Outriders is also available on Xbox Game Pass, but it's still a huge number and indicative of the strength and appeal of the game.Citing its own internal data, Square Enix also said the average play time per user is more than 30 hours, while the game also achieved "extremely high engagement" for co-op.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

World War I shooter Isonzo is taking on quite the task: to authentically capture one of the most complicated wars in history, World War I. Recently, developer BlackMill Games shared new details about how it's working to realistically represent the towns, landscape, and feel of World War I's Italian front.In a new developer blog, the studio went in depth about its process in bringing as much historic detail as possible into a game. This includes visiting museums and locales in person so that the studio can learn from and process detail about how landscapes and towns would have looked during the war. The studio took photographs and videos of some of the surviving features of the combat-torn Italian landscape, like trenches. It also analyzed historical photographs from after the fighting to bring in accurate detail about towns that were nearly destroyed.Alongside these explanations, BlackMill also shared some work-in-progress renders of the game's environment to show how information translates into in-game reality. These screenshots depict some detailed ruins and landscapes that players will fight through.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

A new Amiibo figure is releasing alongside The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD on July 16, and you can secure your order for it now. The Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo is up for preorder now at Best Buy, costing more than the average Amiibo at $25. We expect it may sell out fast, so if you're planning to buy the new Zelda Amiibo, you may want to lock in your order now. [Update: Best Buy's listing now says "Coming Soon," so the Amiibo appears to have temporarily sold out. We suggest keeping an eye on the listing today in case it comes back into stock.]Curiously, Nintendo has locked an in-game feature behind the purchase of this Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo. In Skyward Sword HD, you'll be able to use this Amiibo to return to the skies from anywhere on the surface, even inside dungeons. Scanning the Amiibo again while in the sky will allow you to return to the same surface location. Normally, this action can only be performed at designated save points. The Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo is the only figure that will be compatible with Skyward Sword HD; you won't be able to use any previously purchased Zelda Amiibo with the game. Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo $25 As of right now, the only listing for the Zelda & Loftwing Amiibo (Skyward Sword HD) is at Best Buy. When other retailer links are available, we'll include them here. See at Best Buy Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The Ethereum Foundation announced recently that the mining model that the cryptocurrency relies on to generate new Ether will soon change from "proof-of-work" to "proof-of-stake," which the foundation says will cut the energy used by the coin by "at least 99.95%." While that might not mean much to non-crypto heads, it does suggest that the use of high-end GPUs to mine Ether might be curtailed by this change. And that could result in a decline in the demand for graphics cards, meaning that it'll be easier for your average PC player to find and buy one.As the blog post announcing this change states, the current "proof-of-work" model results in gigawatts of energy being used by crypto chains. However, if Ethereum switches to the "proof-of-stake" model instead--which offsets the work of verifying transactions onto the Ethereum network itself--the amount of energy consumption involved will apparently decrease by a factor of "at least" 1000. Ethereum will switch over to proof-of-stake "as soon as possible," which will be an event known as "The Merge.""Ethereum’s power-hungry days are numbered, and I hope that’s true for the rest of the industry too," a portion of the blog post reads, reflecting the oft-repeated criticism that cryptocurrency requires immense (and wasteful) amounts of power. However, Bitcoin does not rely on GPUs to crunch numbers, instead using application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) on special-purpose mining rigs to grind out new coins.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you're a console gamer buying a TV today, the one thing you should be looking out for is HDMI 2.1 support. It offers bandwidth that allows for 4K and 120fps, which isn't possible on TVs with an older HDMI standard. That's what makes today's deal on a 75-inch LG UN8500 so enticing, with Best Buy discounting the massive TV to just $900 (a savings of $230). LG 75-inch UN8500 Series 4K UHD Smart TV $900 (was $1,130) The LG UN8500 manages to maintain a more affordable price by not including the company's well-known OLED panels. Instead, it uses a panel that uses a proprietary LG panel type that is nearly identical to an IPS panel, meaning you can bet on great color reproduction and fantastic viewing angles. The UN8500 also supports all the modern HDR codecs, including Dolby Vision. Its display might not get bright enough to make HDR content truly shine, but if you're coming from a set that didn't have it at all, the difference should be quite noticeable.The stars of the set are the two HDMI 2.1 ports at the back, which are perfect if you're just picked up an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5. This will allow you to take full advantage of games that run at 4K and 120fps, with the large 75-inch display really letting you get engrossed in your favorite titles. The only disadvantage is that, despite a firmware update, the UN8500 doesn't support variable refresh rate, but it's possible this could be patched in the future. See at Best Buy If you're looking for a new display to use with your PS5 or Xbox Series X, check out our guide to the best TVs for gaming on the market, or the best monitors for gaming if space is a concern.. Additionally, you can read up on all the differences between panels like OLED, VA, and IPS, so that you can make the best purchasing decision for your needs.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The developer behind Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan has teased the next game in the anthology, House of Ashes, and it's shaping up to be pretty spooky. Based on the brief trailer, House of Ashes is aiming for a bit of an Indiana Jones/Uncharted vibe, only with less pithy quips and a lot more screams.The first part of the trailer shows two people in body armor descending into a dusty underground labyrinth that seems to be part of an archeological dig. The second part follows a soldier as he discovers the mangled corpse of one of his comrades, only to apparently fall victim to the same monster himself. As with all of Supermassive's games, it's unclear if this monster is a legitimate threat to the characters or just a figment of their broken psyches, but you'll have to play to find out.The Dark Pictures Anthology is Supermassive's ongoing series of shorter-form games. As the title implies, though each entry in the series shares genre tropes and themes, they are not necessarily part of the same fictional universe. As with Supermassive's previous games, it's likely that House of Ashes will feature choice and consequence mechanics, and will focus on replayability. Supermassive and publisher Bandai Namco have both stated that the series will have at least eight games.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com