2K Sports has announced that this year's NBA 2K21 will have not one but three cover athletes, and they'll be announced through the very popular social media platform TikTok.That's right--NBA 2K has launched a TikTok channel. The three cover athletes will be announced over the course of three days: June 30, July 1, and July 2.NBA 2K's first post on TikTok shows NBA 2K20 cover star Anthony Davis hyping the upcoming announcements. The video already has more than 1 million views. Check it out below.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Warning: This post obviously contains massive spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2. If you're not finished yet, we recommend you turn back now.The Last of Us Part 2 is a story about obsession, anguish, trauma, and vengeance. It centers on the inability of some of its characters to let go of their pain, and the massive harm they do to themselves and others as a result.But even though the revenge aspect of The Last of Us Part 2 is pretty straightforward, its structure is anything but. The game uses multiple flashbacks to alter your perception of characters and events as they unfold. Which people know what information, and at what time, changes how The Last of Us 2 wants you to see and interpret its characters. Most of the twists in the story are flashbacks that work to change your perception of the characters when given new context.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

After Microsoft announced it was shutting down Mixer and moving to work more closely with Facebook Gaming, some wondered what impact this could have on the Xbox dashboard.Currently, the dashboard on Xbox One contains advertisements and links to Mixer streams. Some were wondering if Facebook Gaming streams will replace them in the carousel. That won't be the case, according to Xbox's Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb.FYI 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/bu64aqN5W4 — James Shields (@shieldsjames) June 24, 2020 Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

While Microsoft has yet to announce the price point for the Xbox Series X, it's expected to be an expensive console as most new machines are. To help the system reach the widest possible audience, Microsoft will be pushing its mobile phone-style Xbox All Access program for it.Under this program, people can get an Xbox Series X with no cost upfront and pay it off over the course of two years. This is a common business practice in the world of smartphones, but it's new for console. Microsoft has been trialling the program since the Xbox 360 days. However, the Xbox Series X launch will mark Microsoft's biggest push yet in that regard, Spencer said."Xbox All Access is going to be critical to both our launch for Xbox Series X as well as just the overall generation," Spencer said during a GameLab speech, as reported by GI.biz.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Hitman III was unveiled recently during the PS5 reveal event, and the first location, Dubai, has been shown off. We still don't know a lot about the upcoming game, beyond the fact that it will launch on January 21 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. But it seems likely that we'll know more very soon.Developer IO Interactive has announced a livestream for Thursday, June 25 at 4 PM CEST (7 AM PT), and Hitman III will be the focus. The stream will be hosted on the developer's Twitch channel.Tomorrow our monthly live stream is back with a focus on HITMAN 3. Join the discussion at 4pm CEST on Twitch: https://t.co/3n9GkTufKSSee ya online! #HITMAN3 pic.twitter.com/rLDYpYrWMY — IO Interactive (@IOInteractive) June 24, 2020This is the return of IO Interactive's monthly stream series, so it's likely (although not confirmed) that we'll get a peek at Hitman III once a month in the lead-up to its release. What will be shown off in this stream remains to be seen, though.IO Interactive went independent in 2017, and the future of the Hitman series briefly seemed to be in jeopardy. Thankfully, the series made a full comeback with Hitman 2, and is now continuing on further.If you don't want to watch the stream, stay tuned to GameSpot for any major updates that come out of it.GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All--a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer's hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.Info from Gamespot.com

2016's Warcraft movie from director Duncan Jones made more than $439 million globally to become the highest-grossing video game movie in history worldwide. Multiple sequels were planned, but they never came to be due to the movie's very poor performance in the US, where it made only $47 million.Jones has now shared more details on what he had planned for the Warcraft sequels.3 films.Part 2 would have been Go’el/Thrall as a young orc slave in Blackmoore’s gladiator camp. Here he meets & befriends a Tauren who tells him of another land to the west where his people come from, & where he might find allies & maybe a new home... — Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) June 21, 2020three, the gathering horde army and freeing of orcs around the Eastern kingdom before a dangerous trip across the sea to Kalimdor, & the founding of the 1st Azerothian city of Orgrimmar.Basically the trilogy was the fulfilling of Durotan’s promise to give his people a new home. — Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) June 21, 2020The first sequel would have focused on Go'el/Thrall as a young orc slave in Blackmore's gladiator camp, Jones said. He would have become friends with a Tauren who informs him about a new world. In the third movie, Jones planned to take the adventure to Kalimdor, with the story focusing on the founding of the iconic Warcraft location Orgrimmar.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

It must be tough iterating on an established formula, especially in racing games. Across the spectrum of styles within the genre, from Need For Speed Underground to Gran Turismo and Forza Horizon somewhere in between, I've loved but also felt burnout to some degree. Rally racing is one area I hadn't experienced much until Dirt 4, but having known about where the series has come from, Dirt 5 noticeably takes a turn in a different direction.I got hands-on with a preview build of Dirt 5 on PC, which features four tracks for brief circuit races with a handful of cars to select. One track mixes street and off-road racing, two are purely muddy off-road endeavors, and one is a hectic drifting loop with sprint cars. It's quite a small piece of the game, but it's immediately clear that--based on the demo--the emphasis is no longer on keenly following a co-driver's course instructions in a time attack. The game is trying to tap into the excitement of head-to-head competitive racing with a bit of attitude.The experience is reminiscent of Forza Horizon 4 in that it controls in a manner that bridges the gap between arcade and sim (by default, all driving assists like traction control were set to low). But similarities are also found in the courses' environmental stylings. For example, the Ultracross event-type on the Norway track is laid with equal parts pavement and dirt, and features dynamic weather patterns--all of which remind me of the Horizon 4's races and changing seasons. Over the course of the race, the sun began to and ultimately finished setting, leading the race to continue in an enjoyably chaotic nighttime snowstorm. The rapid snowfall emphasized a sense of speed and reinforced that my sloppy driving and tendency to trade paint with other racers wouldn't be met with dire consequences.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Project Cars 3 was only just announced earlier this month, and as it turns out we won't have to wait long at all to play it on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The third game in the series will release on August 28, 2020.The game, which will have more cars than previous entries in the series, is offering car upgrades, customization, and personalization options that were not in Project Cars 1 or 2. New tracks have also been added, including the Brazilian Grand Prix track Interlagos, as well as a new track in Tuscany.This game will also boast a more robust campaign mode, which will, according to the press release, "entice players on a driver’s journey from weekend warrior to racing legend."Bandai Namco also revealed several new screenshots, showing off some of the game's car models. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Jenny Slate has played Missy, a young Black girl (and the love interest of protagonist Andrew) on Big Mouth since Season 1 of the hit Netflix animated show, but that's set to change. The actor has announced that after the upcoming Season 4, she will no longer voice the character, and that the part will be recast by a Black actor.In a statement on Instagram, Slate admits that while she was initially able to justify the casting to herself, she has since come to understand that she is taking a role that should have been given to a Black actor. "At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissable for me to play Missy because her mom is Jewish and White--as am I," the actor wrote. "But Missy is also Black, and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people."Slate goes on to acknowledge that by taking role, she was "engaging in an act of erasure of Black people," and that stepping away from the role "is one step in a life-long process of uncovering the racism in my actions." View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jenny Slate (@jennyslate) on Jun 24, 2020 at 1:00pm PDT"To anyone that I've hurt: I am so very sorry," the post concludes. "Black voices must be heard. Black Lives Matter."Co-creator and actor Nick Kroll also posted a statement to Twitter about the decision, cosigned by fellow creators Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett. They state that they "wholeheartedly agree" with Slate's decision, stating "We sincerely apologize for and regret our original decision to cast a white actor to voice a biracial character."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The iconic animated TV show South Park is now available to stream on HBO Max, but there are five episodes in particular that are not on the streaming platform due to their controversial nature.The episodes "Super Best Friends," "Cartoon Wars" Parts 1 and 2, and "200" and "201" were not released on HBO Max because of their depiction of the Prophet Muhammed, according to The Hollywood Reporter.These are the same five episodes that were removed from Hulu when the show was streaming there. The episodes also got cut from rotation on broadcast TV re-runs.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Editor's note: You may have seen our spoiler-free The Last of Us Part II review, originally published on June 12, 2020. Due to a strict embargo, we were limited in what aspects of the game we could touch on in that review. While I critiqued the game in full for that embargo, there may be some parts of the review that could use more explanation. Now that the embargo has lifted and the game is now available, I've expanded on my thoughts here; this review has the same arguments and score as the first one and is simply more detailed in my analysis. Note that this review contains spoilers, including one major character death.The Last of Us Part II begins with serious tonal whiplash. One moment, Ellie and her close friend Dina are becoming more than friends in a basement filled with weed plants and Naughty Dog porn puns; the next, Joel is being savagely beaten to death with a golf club. It's the first of many, many gruesome deaths. Some happen whether you want them to or not, in intimate cutscenes that are hard to watch, while others happen just because an NPC got in between you and your objective and killing them was the easiest thing to do. Either way, that brief glimpse of happiness at the beginning is left very much in the dust.But while the scale and severity of death and loss in this game is incredibly high, The Last of Us Part II is more a character study than a musing on the nature of violence. On that front, the story of Ellie, her playable foil Abby, and their quests for revenge and redemption is a gripping and harrowing one, and I found myself deeply emotionally entangled with each woman and her strengths and flaws. The bloodshed is very much a part of that story, but it's far from the most effective one, and it's where the game stumbles a bit.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Nintendo has shared a brand-new trailer for the Nintendo Switch exclusive Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise. The trailer welcomes you to Le Carré, the humble Louisiana town in which the game takes place. But things aren't as they same, as evidenced by the back half of the trailer.Things start well enough, with the video describing the various attractions located within Le Carré. This includes a bowling alley, diner, hotel, and more. The vibe reads like an infomercial, with a narrator delivering the information in an upbeat tone as to belie the dark and sinister activities that happen behind the scenes. About halfway through, the trailer takes a decidedly creepier turn, showing the myriad disturbances you will encounter while combing through the cozy rural town.Deadly Premonition 2, initially revealed in September 2019, is a sequel and prequel to the 2010 cult-classic horror-mystery title Deadly Premonition. In April, Nintendo and director Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro announced that the pre-sequel will come to the Nintendo Switch as an exclusive title on July 10 for $50. Check out our Deadly Premonition 2 pre-order guide to learn about the bonuses you can get before it comes out.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Minecraft's Nether Update is now live. It adds four new biomes to the Nether within Minecraft: Soulsand Valley, Crimson Forest, Warped Forest, and Basalt Deltas, each with new enemies and unique spawn rates.Content for the update was detailed in a blog post on the official Minecraft site, including a list of new materials, enemies, and environments."Discover Netherite, a powerful new material that makes diamond look like cobblestone. Beware the Piglins as you either trade blows or strike a deal," the post reads. "Avoid the hideous Hoglins, or hunt them for a snouty snack. Explore the Nether Wastes, search the Soulsand Valleys, traverse the Basalt Deltas, or venture into the Crimson and Warped Forests."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

WarnerMedia and iHeartMedia announced a new partnership recently to co-produce "a slate of companion podcasts for HBO Max's upcoming catalog of original and legacy shows."According to a press release from WarnerMedia, the first two projects will tie in with Search Party--a darkly humorous thriller series starring Alia Shawkat--and Raised by Wolves, an as yet unseen Ridley Scott directed and produced sci-fi drama about two androids trying to raise humans on "a mysterious new planet."This move continues the podcast groundwork HBO laid this past year with series like Chernobyl, Watchmen, and McMillions. But where those three podcasts were non-fiction and heavily tied to the show's they supported, it's not yet clear what genre the iHeartMedia collaborations will fit into, aside from the clue in their description as "standalone productions."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

For five seasons, Game of Thrones was an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy novel series. But by Season 6, the series has caught up with the books, so--for better or worse--the series' showrunners finished the story themselves, with some guidance from Martin. But that doesn't mean fans won't eventually get another installment of the books. Martin has been working on the next volume, titled The Winds of Winter, for several years, and has now provided a new update on its progress, saying he is making progress and that it could be finished in 2021.In a new post on his blog, Martin explained that the COVID-19 pandemic has given him time to work on the book. "The enforced isolation has helped me write," he said. "I am spending long hours every day on The Winds of Winter, and making steady progress. I finished a new chapter yesterday, another one three days ago, another one the previous week."However, Martin was careful to explain that fans wouldn't be able to read the book anytime soon. "This does not mean that the book will be finished tomorrow or published next week," he stated. "It’s going to be a huge book, and I still have a long way to go."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com