The busy holiday shopping season is nearly upon us--Amazon's Prime Day begins October 13, with Black Friday coming in November before the holidays. Video games are expected to have a huge holiday at retail, and now NPD analyst Mat Piscatella has released his predictions.In a blog, Piscatella says he expects total spending on video games in the US to reach $13.4 billion in November and December, rising 24 percent compared to last year and setting a new holiday season record. Console hardware is expected to drive the growth, which makes sense given that the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles are slated for release in November and are expected to be very popular.Piscatella said the total amount of money spent on video games in the entirety of 2020 might surpass $50 billion, which would be a new all-time high for the US.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you're playing Fortnite on a recent Samsung tablet, you could soon find that the game is a much more fluid experience. From October 13, the Tab S7 and Tab S7+ will be able to run Fortnite at a boosted framerate, reaching up to 90FPS.This feature, which was previously exclusive to OnePlus devices, means that these phones will have the smoothest possible version of Fortnite. Of course, due to a current legal battle, Fortnite currently isn't available to download or update on many mobile devices--but Tab S7 owners can still jump in with players across PC and consoles.Fortnite has previously been playable at 60FPS on mobile devices. The Samsung Galaxy Store is currently the only mobile store that you can download Fortnite through. The Tab S7 and S7+ are Samsung's newest Tab devices, sporting a 120Hz screen and a powerful mobile chipset. Fortnite is also coming to Series X and PS5, where it will also likely get an FPS boost. The game is currently in the middle of its Marvel-themed Nexus Wars season, and from October 14 you'll be able to unlock a Daredevil costume. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you have Xbox Game Pass for PC, then there's a good chance there's some crossover between your Steam library and what's available at no additional charge through the subscription service. But now, a new browser extension has been created to help prevent this by showing you when a Steam game is available through Game Pass.Ali Güler has created a browser extension, Game Pass Info For Steam, that adds a notification to game pages when you're checking the Steam store through your browser. The extension, which is available for both Chrome and Firefox, adds a green bar if a game is available through Game Pass for PC, telling you when it was added to the service."Have you ever had the situation where you bought a game, only to later find out that it's already on Xbox Game Pass," Güler asks on the page. "It happened to me. Luckily it was only 10 bucks."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Burger King has released a new teaser that suggests that it's partnering with Sony for some kind of promotion, and people believe it may be connected to the PlayStation 5.The advertisement shows the Burger King himself opening a takeout bag, with a blue light shining in his eyes. A short sound can also be heard. The ad ends with the mascot walking away to reveal the date October 15, which is presumably when all will be revealed. "Do Whopper sandwiches normally do this?" the message asks.👀👂 https://t.co/t0M38a1ZSV — PlayStation (@PlayStation) October 12, 2020The ad does not mention PlayStation or PS5 at all, but the official PlayStation account quote-tweeted the video with the look and listen emojis. Given that tease, people are speculating that what we're hearing is the PS5 start-up sound, but that's only conjecture at this point.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Smite is getting new skins, and they're based on four of our favorite turtles. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming to the game in November as part of a new battle pass.Each turtle is a skin of an existing god, so the turtles themselves aren't being inducted into the godly pantheon, per se. Here's which god each character is being skinned onto.Leonardo (Osiris)Donatello (Sun Wukong)Raphael (Loki)Michelangelo (Mercury)The trailer, below, shows off both skins for each turtle, and is a real hit of nostalgia with its upbeat rendition of the old cartoon theme.The Osiris/Leonardo skin will be unlocked immediately, while the others can be unlocked by playing the game after purchasing the Battle Pass. These characters have new models, rigging, and animation, so they're more than simple reskins.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

For all the ups and downs I've had with various Star Wars media products over the past few decades, the formative space combat simulations of X-Wing and TIE Fighter on MS-DOS (or at least, my memory of them) have always been a fixed highlight. It's hard to go astray when you're focused on the minutiae of inherently cool sci-fi fantasy planes, as opposed to whatever's going on with Jedi lineages or space politics now.There have been a few arcade-style Star Wars space combat games that filled the 20-year period since the last flight simulator, and some of them were even good. But Star Wars: Squadrons is now making a welcome return to some of the simulator intricacies, while still retaining a large degree of the approachable spectacle of the arcade-style flight games. And the balance Squadrons has settled on works very well in creating an experience that makes you feel as if you're really an active participant in a Star War.The basic mechanics will be familiar if you've ever played any kind of flight game. You pitch your fighter up and down, you bank it left and right. You fly forward, not backward, and you can twirl until you feel sick. You maneuver your crosshairs onto an enemy and then fire lasers or missiles at them. You're locked to a first-person cockpit view of the action, but all of Squadron's missions are in space, which means maintaining altitude isn't something you have to worry about, and instead, you get the wonderful freedom of being able to fly along any axis--rolling your ship and flying upside down is a hoot. It feels like you could feasibly finish the Squadrons campaign relying mostly on those principles if you wanted to, especially on lower difficulty levels, and that's great. But Squadrons digs a little deeper with the ability to reroute power on your ship, a system that brings a nice layer of complexity in the advantages that it can open up for you and the considerations that come with that.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Square Enix has revealed when Final Fantasy XIV's next big content update will drop. During its latest Letter from the Producer broadcast, the publisher confirmed that Patch 5.4, titled Futures Rewritten, will arrive in early December, and it'll introduce a wealth of additional content for the Shadowbringers expansion.Among other things, Patch 5.4 will add new main story quests. As Square Enix describes, "Following the grand conclusion of the Shadowbringers story in Patch 5.3, players will set out on a new adventure" in the December update. The patch will also introduce the third installment in the Eden raid series, as well as the next chapter in the Sorrow of Werlyt questline.Beyond that, Patch 5.4 will also bring the dreaded Emerald Weapon to Final Fantasy XIV. Players will be able to challenge it in both normal and extreme difficulties. There will also be a new dungeon, Matoya's Relict, which is going to be part of the new main story questline. On top of that, the patch will introduce a new Unreal trial and a new Explorer mode that lets you venture around dungeons to take screenshots without have to worry about dealing with enemies.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

In years past, Xbox FanFest has given the biggest Xbox players a chance to celebrate the latest Xbox games and play together in-person, but the ongoing pandemic has made that impossible. However, Microsoft is moving Xbox FanFest entirely online with a series of global events, giving you the chance to participate in meet-and-greets, win prizes, and more. In order to participate, you'll need to register, and we'll run you through the steps to do so.With the Xbox Series X and Series S just weeks away, it should make for a very exciting rest of 2020, so you won't want to miss out.How To Register For Xbox FanFestIn order to register for Xbox FanFest, you must have an Xbox profile and be at least 18 years old. It's eligible to anyone worldwide, though activities and communications are going to only be in English.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The upcoming Monster Hunter movie has drawn some worried looks from fans for not appearing to have much in common with its source material, but in a new featurette, director Paul W.S. Anderson sat down with the games' creators to show them how the film is striving for accuracy. This includes pulling a few monsters directly out of the games.Game director Kaname Fujioka and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto were both involved in the process, and Anderson said the Diablos monster was one of the first they started dialing in. As you can see in the comparison shots, the design is very similar to the one in Monster Hunter World, with the same tusks on either side of the mouth and enormous teeth in the middle. The horns have been somewhat straightened out, but it's a relatively minor difference.The Rathalos was given a similar treatment, and it looks like it will serve as one of the biggest enemies Milla Jovovich's character faces in the movie. Despite an early teaser focusing heavily on machine guns, the movie will feature traditional Monster Hunter weapons, too. Jovovich will be using dual blades to match what she uses when she plays the game, and Tony Jaa's character uses an enormous sword and a bow.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Guilty Gear Strive, the latest entry in Arc System Works' acclaimed fighting franchise, aims to take things a step further with improved animations and new fighting mechanics. It's coming to PS4, PS5, and PC, and you'll be able to get your hands on it in 2021.Releasing for all three platforms on April 9, 2021 (or three days earlier for the Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition) Guilty Gear Strive looks to be a good starting point for newcomers without sacrificing the series' famous depth. Among Arc System Works fighters, it's arguably the most "hardcore," with Dragon Ball FighterZ appealing to less-experienced players due to its auto-combo system and streamlined mechanics--not that there isn't plenty of depth in that game, too.Guilty Gear Strive doesn't ditch the 2D art of its predecessors, but it does give the art a ton of detail that make it look like you're watching a climactic anime battle. There are 3D elements to the characters, as well, letting them portray more emotion and adding a new sense of weight to the fights.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Animaniacs was such a singular thing during its first run that it's hard not to worry about the upcoming reboot, which is coming to Hulu on November 20. But if the first clip, shown at this year's virtual New York Comic-Con event, is anything to go by, we're in for a good time.😲 @Hulu did it. They- they actually did it. Check out our @NY_Comic_Con exclusive clip! #Animaniacs #NYCC pic.twitter.com/U0Z9cb15Ir — The Animaniacs (@TheAnimaniacs) October 11, 2020This first clip picks up right where the show left off and, appropriately, parodies something from the '90s that's in the middle of a revival, Jurassic Park. Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler gape in awe at the re-animated Animaniacs, commenting on the siblings' vectored lines while Stephen Spielberg explains that he re-animated the Warner Brothers (And the Warner Sister).Spielberg was apparently quite involved in getting the remake going. The cast discussed the casting decisions during the panel, explaining that Spielberg said, "If we do this, it's with Tress, Jess, Maurice and Rob," and not with Peter Dinklage as the Brain and Russel Brand as Pinky or something like that. Spielberg went to every pitch himself, they explained. If anything should inspire confidence that Animaniacs is more than just a cash-grab rehash, that might be it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The first season of Stargirl ended with a bang as the JSA took down the majority of the Injustice Society, but the final moments of the season hinted at the villains we'll see the team tangling with in future episodes. Showrunner and Stargirl creator Geoff Johns talked about those villains at at a New York Comic-Con 2020 virtual panel for the show to give us an idea of what's to come. Spoilers for the end of Season 1 follow.After Stargirl/Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) and her friends took down Icicle (Neil Jackson), Brainwave (Christopher James Baker), Dragon King (Nelson Lee) and left Sportsmaster (Neil Hopkins), Tigress (Joy Osmanski), Solomon Grundy, and the Gambler (Eric Goins) in the wind, the Dragon King's daughter Cindy was all that was left of the ISA at the end of season 1. But in the final moments, a shadowy figure appears in the ISA headquarters while Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy) digs an ominous-looking gem out of storage. These are Season 2's big bads: The Shade and Eclipso. We don't know much yet about how they'll figure into future episodes, but Geoff Johns is excited to say the least."[Eclipso] is so terrifying; I've always loved the character and you guys probably did a little bit of research," Johns said to the Stargirl cast members also attending the panel. "But he's a very different antagonist or villain than the ISA."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Amazon's big-budget Lord of the Rings TV has resumed production in New Zealand, and the team is making good progress, it seems. Director JA Bayona posted to his Instagram story recently, sharing a photo of himself and various emojis pertaining to a fantasy show like Lord of the Rings. The news here is Bayona has now completed "more than half" of the weeks of shooting on the show."This is my face of having completed more than half the weeks of shooting. More tomorrow!" he said.Bayona, who previously directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was announced as the director of the first two episodes in the series, but whether or not his role has expanded due to COVID-19 is unclear. Whatever the case, the production is surely behind schedule given the impact of the virus. That being said, New Zealand just recently lifted all restrictions for Auckland, which is one of the sites where the Lord of the Rings show is being filmed.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

New Releases highlights some of the hottest video games launching each week, and this episode as a double-dose of trilogies: Torchlight 3 and Cook Serve Delicious 3 both launch soon. You can also drive a mini RC car in Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit or pilot a hover car in Cloudpunk. Finally, hockey fans can get their fix with NHL 21.Torchlight 3 -- October 13Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PCOnce called Torchlight Frontiers, Torchlight 3 is leaving early access for its full release. You can choose from four different classes and explore randomly generated dungeons, where you'll battle bad guys and collect all sorts of loot. Look for a Switch version later this year, too.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is coming to PS5 on launch day, and it's looking like a strong candidate for a day one purchase for anyone looking for something more family friendly than Demon's Souls. A new trailer released over the weekend shows that the game, which spins off from the LittleBigPlanet series, is looking pretty good, even without any level-building.This is the "story trailer," so we get a glimpse at Sackboy's personality, as well as some of the cutscenes you'll encounter throughout the game. The visual style replicates the feeling of a hand-crafted world (much like Media Molecule's Tearaway), and the authenticity of the fuzz on Sackboy's body is an indication of the level of realism the PS5 is capable of.In the trailer we get a look at some new gameplay elements, as Sackboy dodges between obstacles, rolls through a level in a ball, and teleports around one level. You can check it out yourself in the video below.Th game's two-to-four player multiplayer is shown off in the trailer, too, as multiple players work together to traverse puzzles and platforming challenges towards the end. This has always been a big part of the LittleBigPlanet franchise, so it's good to see multiplayer back here.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com