Over the next week, we will be posting features for what we've nominated to be the best games of 2020. Then, on December 17, we will crown one of the nominees as GameSpot's Best Game of 2020, so join us as we celebrate these 10 games on the road to the big announcement. Be sure to check out our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best Games of 2020 hub.Half-Life: Alyx is familiar. In comparison to previous installments in the franchise, it even looks a bit samey. You get guns, you fight terrifying headcrab-controlled zombies, mow down the militant Combine, solve puzzles, and try to liberate a world from a multi-dimensional alien takeover. On paper, it’s hard to pinpoint a hugely notable difference between Half-Life: Alyx and Half-Life 2, a 16-year-old game. Yet, Half-Life: Alyx is unlike anything I’ve ever played before. Yes, it’s a VR game, and the immersion that comes from that defines the experience. However, beyond the virtual reality is a video game so meticulously crafted and so spellbinding in its execution that the familiarity and simplicity becomes a stroke of brilliance.In the opening moments of the game you have time to interact and play with the world. Before you get your hands on any guns, one of the first things you can arm yourself with is a marker. Using my actual real-life hands and the Vive’s controllers, I picked up the marker and began drawing on a window with it. I could clean it off with an eraser or smudge it off with my fingers. This moment, seemingly inconsequential in the moment, actually served as the bedrock for what would come by rewiring my brain and opening my mind to possibilities that the game would execute on in the hours following.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

2020 is the year of consoles battling for supremacy, and China is another arena for the big three--Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo--to duke it out. The country, however, is a complicated place for gaming corporations to distribute their products officially due to its strict and opaque media regulations. Consoles were banned in the country until 2013, though they were available through unofficial channels even before then.But with the aid of native multimedia giant Tencent, Nintendo Switch gained a sales edge in China. Market tracker Niko Partners estimated that over 1.3 million Switch units sold this year through both formal and informal channels (via Bloomberg), a number bigger than the combined sales of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the same timeframe. In lifetime sales, Niko Partners reported that the Switch has sold almost 4 million units in China since the end of 2019, more than either of Xbox One's and PS4's lifetime sales in the country. The PS4 and Xbox One both launched in China in 2014.Bloomberg cited the popularity of certain Switch IP's and incorporation of widely-used apps in China as reasons for the console's current popularity. Tencent integrated Wechat functionality into the Switch, making payment systems and social functions familiar and easier-to-use. Two Switch titles also became immensely popular this year: Ring Fit Adventure and Animal Crossing.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

In 2020, when leaving the house and being with friends and loved ones has been harder than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, socially distanced game nights have become part of many people's social routine. The newly released Jackbox Party Pack 7, and the six earlier games in the series, are excellent games to play with friends--and doing so through Twitch just got a little easier.Twitch has announced the Jackbox Audience Kit, an extension for streams that makes it possible to join Jackbox games without needing to open a separate browser. This extension lets audiences join the game through the Twitch app, making it easier to join in on games.As long as the Twitch streamer has installed and enabled the extension, joining a game is a simple process of following the on-screen instructions.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Almost half a year after actor Ray Fisher spoke out against Warner Bros. and members of the Justice League production, WarnerMedia announced that its investigation into Fisher's allegations has completed."WarnerMedia’s investigation into the Justice League movie has concluded and remedial action has been taken," the company said in an official statement Friday night.WarnerMedia provided no information about what those actions are or will be, which reflects in the statement Fisher made on Twitter following the announcement.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

There are many, many weapons in Cyberpunk 2077. The most special of these are called Iconic weapons: unique, custom weapons that are a step above the ones you'll find on any old corpse. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but none is as distinctive and full of personality as Skippy, the talking smart pistol.Ostensibly based on Microsoft's Clippy, the pop-up paperclip that used to help us with Word documents, Skippy is an AI-operated smart pistol. A shot from a smart gun will automatically seek targets mid-air, which is as useful as it sounds. Normally, you need cyberware in your hands that will enable you to use smart weapons; however, a major advantage to Skippy is that it doesn't require cyberware to use.To find Skippy, head to a back alley in the Glen, southeast of Corpo Plaza. See the map in the image below to pinpoint the area.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

After numerous delays and production upsets related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mortal Kombat movie has a release date. Director Simon McQuoid's film will be available to watch on April 16, 2021.The news comes via producer Todd Garner, who released a new poster featuring the release date. He also promised that a first-look trailer would arrive "in the new year."Trailer in the new year. Sorry it took so long to get this out. pic.twitter.com/Jku86FYKo2 — Todd Garner (@Todd_Garner) December 14, 2020For a while, it seemed like Mortal Kombat would still be a cinema-only release, and while it will come to cinemas, it's also going to be on HBO Max from day one--as with all 2021 Warner Bros. releases.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Cyberpunk 2077 hasn't had the smoothest launch, and for some PC players the problem has been exacerbated by the game's issues with certain components. Right now, players AMD CPUs are having issues with performance--but there's a way to improve things.A Reddit thread has discovered a fault with the game, whereby it only recognizes physical cores on AMD chips, not logical cores. While Intel CPUs face no issue, AMD users can see enormous performance drops.Thankfully, all you'll need to do to rectify the issue is change a single line through a Hex Editor. PC Gamer has a great guide on how to do this, recommending freeware HxD as the editor to use.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Note: This guide contains spoilers for one of the story quests in Cyberpunk 2077. Read on at your own risk!The stakes get raised pretty significantly in Cyberpunk 2077 as you work through Act 2. After protagonist V acquires the biochip and finds Johnny Silverhand in their head, you set out on a journey to find out all you can about the chip and how you can get rid of it before it kills you. Your investigation goes down several avenues, including working with Goro Takemura, a former Arasaka bodyguard.You'll spend a lot of time with Takemura as you investigate Arasaka and try to get in touch with the corporate brass, without getting yourself killed in the process. But eventually, things take a turn and you're separated from Takemura at a key moment during the story mission Play It Safe. When the pair of you are attacked during a meeting in an apartment building, V falls through a collapsed floor, separating you from Takemura. At this point, you have a choice, although it's not immediately clear: run for your life, or return to Takemura and save him from being overwhelmed by enemies.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Fans of the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on SNES, rejoice--Donkey Kong Country 3 is joining the Nintendo Switch Online collection this month. The third game in the trilogy--which is not quite as beloved as the first two, but is still well-regarded--arrives on December 18, alongside four other games.Donkey Kong Country 3 features Dixie and Kiddy Kong, on a quest to rescue Donkey and Diddy. The game introduced overworld vehicles and some new moves, and it still looks great in 2020.There are three more SNES games and a NES game coming on December 18, too. The other SNES games are a bit more obscure, and you can check them out in the trailer below.The Ignition Factor is a game about fighting fires, Super Valis IV is a scrolling action game, and Tuff E Nuff is a fighting game. While these games are unlikely to stir up as much nostalgia as Donkey Kong, there's still bound to be some love for them among players. Nightshade on the NES is an interesting choice, too--it's an adventure game, developed by Australian Beam Software. The 1992 game was criticized for poor controls at the time, but it's an interesting curio, and definitely a title that few players have had a chance to experience. The NES/SNES library on Nintendo Switch Online now features over 90 games. Info from Gamespot.com

There are many ways in Cyberpunk 2077 to deck out your V and improve their capabilities. Along with a massive arsenal of guns, including a talking gun that fancies the songs of Rhianna, there is also an extensive array of cybernetic upgrades for you to acquire. Given the scope of the game's Cyberware system, we wanted to single out some of the best upgrades in the game that you should invest in.Along with breaking down some of the most powerful upgrades, we also explain where to find them in the game. We also highlight some notable upgrades that you might be better avoiding in order to save time and your hard-earned eddies.Night City's Best CyberwareReinforced Tendons (Double Jump): Biomechanical connective tissue supporting leg muscles.These leg upgrades will allow V to perform a double jump, a video game staple across many different action games and platformers. If your character is particularly agile, this upgrade is a must if you want to reach some of the harder reach areas around Night City, or just want to put some extra finesse into different combat encounters.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Cyberpunk 2077 is a huge game, and part of what makes the size of Night City compelling is the number of options you'll have to go through many of its missions. When working your way through the territory of gangs, corps, or other enemies, you can go in guns blazing, pick a stealthier approach, or even often talk your way out of conflicts altogether. Having more options allows you to tune Cyberpunk 2077 to your playstyle.Apart from the character attributes you choose to invest in, one of the biggest ways you'll unlock new paths for yourself is through your cyberware. These are the cybernetic augmentations you can install in your body, enhancing your strength, vision, hacking capabilities, and more. But there's one piece of cyberware you should absolutely get, even if you ignore all the others--it'll change the way you play Cyberpunk 2077 and open up a whole lot of possibilities, from how you approach missions to how you get around the world.That piece of cyberware is the Reinforced Tendons upgrade for your legs, and it unlocks an extremely useful ability: double jump.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

When Justice League hit theaters in 2017, it didn't do very well. In fact, it kind of bombed. Now, though, it seems that the movie may get a second chance, and not just on WarnerMedia's HBO Max streaming service, but to theaters, too.Talking to EW this week, Snyder elaborated on the work he's doing on the re-shot, re-cut Justice League."This movie is so insane and epic and is probably rated R," he said. "That's one thing I think will happen, that it will be an R-rated version for sure. We haven't heard from the MPAA, but that's my gut."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Another Galarian Pokemon is making its debut in Pokemon Go very soon. Galarian Mr. Mime and its evolution, Mr. Rime, will arrive in the mobile game next weekend as part of a Special Research story event--but you'll need to have a ticket to participate in it.The event kicks off on December 19 at 10 AM local time and runs until 8 PM local time the following day, while tickets run for $8 USD. Those who do purchase a ticket will get access to an exclusive Special Research questline that will lead to encounters with a handful of Ice and sound-based Pokemon including Alolan Vulpix, Jigglypuff, Jynx, Snorunt, and the aforementioned Galarian Mr. Mime. Niantic also says you'll be able to earn enough Mr. Mime Candy through the questline to evolve it into Mr. Rime.Get ready to tap your fingers and feet—Galarian Mr. Mime is making its first appearance in Pokémon GO! 🕺The Dancing Pokémon and its Evolution, Mr. Rime will soon be coming to the world of Pokémon GO in a ticketed Special Research story event. https://t.co/oVWUJ5xL7U pic.twitter.com/uXjtGdZoZm — Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) December 11, 2020 Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

It has only been a few days since Cyberpunk 2077 released, and Steam has already broken a record for the most concurrent users ever. As of December 13, the new record is more than 24 million players, with CD Projekt Red's RPG playing an enormous role in making this possible. And it did it all despite another PC platform also accounting for many Cyberpunk sales. To be precise, 24,776,635 people were on Steam concurrently on December 12, with about a quarter of those users active in a game. This was actually broken since the story was first published. More than 24.8 million people were online the morning of December 13. It has only dipped by about 1.5 million people since then. Since the pandemic began, Steam's concurrent numbers have steadily increased, albeit with a brief dip in the summer--hopefully those absent players were still practicing social distancing.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Cyberpunk 2077 released in a pretty rough state last week, and that is especially true on last-gen consoles. PS4 players have run into issues with full-on crashes as well as crawling frame rates and very low-quality textures and character models. These issues appear to be so severe that Sony is actually letting those who bought a digital copy receive a refund.As spotted by VGC, Reddit users on the Cyberpunk page have reported receiving full refunds for digital versions of the game, even if they went past the two-hour maximum playtime that is typically enforced. There is no quick and easy way to do this, with you still needing to call PlayStation's customer service. One user said Sony is itself complaining to CD Projekt Red about the game's issues.Unfortunately, it might be harder to get a refund if you aren't in the United States, as not every region has its own customer support hotline. Not everyone who called said they were offered the refund, either. Going through the typical refund request channel is unlikely to work as this is intended for refunds when you haven't downloaded or started the game yet. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com