The current NBA season may be suspended with no clear return date in sight, but that doesn't mean a champion can't be crowned in the virtual world. With COVID-19 putting a stop to the 2019-20 NBA season on March 12, 2K Sports has taken over the mantle by simulating the rest of the games in NBA 2K20.The regular season just wrapped up in-game (around the same time it would have if the season wasn't suspended), so now the Playoffs have begun with 2K simulating the first round of games. Results for the second round will be released on May 1, before the third round results are revealed on May 8, and finally the NBA Finals on May 15.Below are the final standings at the conclusion of NBA 2K20's simulated season, showing the 16 teams who qualified for the Playoffs.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

As the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has evolved into a renowned, critically-acclaimed mainline series entry with its expansion packs, the one caveat players frequently bring up to newcomers is that they'll have grind out the base game A Realm Reborn. It's often referred to as the least enjoyable part of FFXIV with some long strings of main quest filler and limitations from the time it was made. Square Enix had frequently teased a revamping of the base game, but it'll soon be on its way.In the latest Letter from the Producer livestream, director/producer Naoki Yoshida and community manager Toshio Murouchi went in-depth on the upcoming FFXIV 5.3 update, including the revisions made to A Realm Reborn. Main scenario quests from the start of the game up to the concluding quests from the 2.5 patch will be affected. According to Nova Crystallis, about 13% of the main quests have either been cut or truncated. Although it'll be shorter, experience points gained through these quests have been altered so that players will still reach the base game's level cap of level 50 by the end of it and be prepared to go into the first expansion pack, Heavensward.A slide from the Letter From The Producer livestream presentation.Another significant change is that flying mounts will be able to take to the skies in zones from A Realm Reborn (flying was restricted since these zones weren't designed with it in mind). However, you'll have to finish the main quest "The Ultimate Weapon," which is towards the end of the base game's questline. You will not need to collect aether currents to begin flying in these zones, unlike the expansions.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Mortal Kombat 11 is at its best when it subverts nostalgia for the series, giving way to a more modern MK game that constantly leaves you guessing with each match. Throughout its nearly 30-year run, the Mortal Kombat franchise has always been about swift, gory action that culminates in some showstopping finishers--which helped put fighting games on the map in the '90s. It's quite the legacy for arguably the most infamous fighting game series around, and no other entry better shows off how thrilling and grotesque fights can be than 2019's Mortal Kombat 11.Taking cues from its predecessors--Mortal Kombat X and the DC Comics fighting game Injustice 2--MK11 is an evolving game, and the game we have now isn't the game we had at launch. Celebrating its first year anniversary this month, MK11 shows that the series is firing on all cylinders with its competitive tournament scene and a suite of updates. These have improved current characters and introduced new ones, including the most recent guest appearance, '90s comics icon Spawn.While MK has had a reputation for sticking close to its gimmick of cartoon violence, MK11 features the most refined combat and in-depth customization to date, proving there's much more going on under the hood than some people think. Furthermore, it doesn't get enough credit for also being a highly approachable fighting game, giving newcomers plenty of tools and training options to ease into the mechanics. Mortal Kombat 11 is the most content-rich MK game to date, and it's fun to log back in after some extended time away to see what's new in the Towers of Time or how the latest additions like The Terminator or Nightwolf fit in.Shortly after the Final Kombat tournament in March, which shifted focus into an online-only event following the continued spread of COVID-19, we had the chance to talk with Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, along with president of Image Comics and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane about MK11. In addition to taking a look back at the release of the game, Boon expressed enthusiasm for MK11's future, which NetherRealm Studios will still be supporting for some time.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Sword and Shield's latest Gigantamax Raid event is wrapping up very soon. The event is scheduled to end at 4:59 PM PT / 7:59 PM ET on April 27, making this your last chance to more easily find Gigantamax versions of Charizard, Duraludon, Garbodor, and Copperajah.All four Pokemon are appearing in Max Raid dens in both Sword and Shield, but five-star instances of the raids are exclusive to certain versions. Five-star Copperajah and Duraludon are only spawning in Sword, while five-star Charizard and Garbodor are only available in Shield.Although the five-star raids are version-exclusive, you can join another player's raid via the Y-Comm feature, so you still have a chance to catch all four Gigantamax Pokemon regardless of which game you own. If you need some tips for battling them, be sure to check out our Sword and Shield Max Raid guide.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Respawn is extending Apex Legends Season 4: Assimilation by one more week in order to squeeze in one last limited-time event before Season 5 begins. The new event, Battle Armor, begins on April 28 and continues for 14 days.During the Battle Armor event, a new mode, also called Battle Armor, will be introduced into Apex Legends. Battle Armor takes place on World's Edge and sees everyone drop with a specific type of body armor and a P2020 pistol already equipped at the start of every match.Strap in for the Battle Armor Event! 🛡Drop in with your armor locked and prove you’ve got the skills to come out on top! Beginning April 28, the Battle Armor Event will run up until the start of Season 5, which kicks off May 12. Prepare for battle: https://t.co/ljXA9AuoSX pic.twitter.com/VslErwxSaj — Apex Legends (@PlayApex) April 24, 2020"The Battle Armor event is just one way we are going to start experimenting with the core gameplay of Apex Legends, and we're excited to introduce even more twists in Season 5 and beyond," Apex Legends design director Jason McCord wrote in a blog post.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

With social distancing extended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Bandai Namco Entertainment is giving away Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 for free on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.This comes as the game company attempts to live up to its "more fun for everyone" slogan. As such, Pac-Man CE2 will be free to download across all three platforms until May 10 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 5 PM GMT. You can grab it from Microsoft, PlayStation, and Steam. Once downloaded, it's yours to keep even after the May 10 date lapses."With the help and cooperation from employees throughout our global organization, we have prepared and enacted remote working conditions within our offices across the globe," Bandai Namco said in a statement. "We would like to thank everyone for their individual contributions by staying home to help flatten the curve and keep everyone's livelihood safe and secure."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

New Releases highlights the top new game releases coming soon, and two of this week's picks were only just announced: Picross S4 and XCOM: Chimera Squad. Meanwhile, '80s movie buffs can get their nostalgia fix with Predator: Hunting Grounds, and '90s RPG players can revisit Trials of Mana. Nintendo Switch also gets its own port of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto.Picross S4 -- April 23Available on: SwitchThe latest in the nonogram series has nearly 500 puzzles to solve across standard, Mega, Color, and Clip Modes. What's more, you can unlock giant bonus puzzles if you link your saves from Picross S, S2, or S3--one for each game, to be exact. Sadly, the series still doesn't offer touchscreen controls, though.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

For almost six years, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods have delighted audiences and put on spectacular performances as the tag team The New Day. In modern-day wrestling, being on the same team for six years is a huge accomplishment, especially considering how quickly sports entertainment moves. Recently, the team beat The Miz and Jey Uso to reclaim the Smackdown Tag Team Championships--sort of. In reality, Big E beat The Miz and Jey Uso in a triple threat match for the titles. They are a team that has consistently been at the top of WWE, regardless of the situation they're in.However, when the New Day first formed and became a tag team, they needed to learn how to work together in the ring--and with an audience that wasn't very interested in the beginning. While they had all been involved in tag team action separately, they needed to figure out their own style as a trio, and the three did their research."We definitely watched a lot of stuff, and honestly, we watched the Young Bucks stuff," Big E told GameSpot. "Absolutely, Young Bucks. We watched the other contemporaries, the older teams. As a bigger guy, I watched Legion of Doom. I don't know if you look at my work like, 'Oh there's LOD. I see that influence.' One of our biggest things is we didn't necessarily want to be like, 'Oh, you know, Doom is great. We want to be like them.'Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If you want to become a streamer on Twitch or a content creator on YouTube, then a capture card is essential. These handy devices can help you record and stream PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and even PC gameplay, and if you want to create high-quality videos, you'll need a great capture card to do so. That's why we've tested several capture cards to figure out which ones will help you make the best videos and streams possible, whether you're on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, or anywhere in between.What to look for in a capture cardThere are a few key things to consider when shopping for a capture card. The first thing you need to ask yourself is whether you want a portable capture card or an internal capture card that you insert into your PC's motherboard. They both achieve the same results, though the internal capture cards don't need to take up any extra space to get their job done and are generally easier to use if you want to capture your own PC's feed. If you have a laptop, however, you'll need an external capture card. You may also want to take your capture card with you on the go, whether that's to events, on vacation, or a friend's house. Once you figure out what your needs are, the choice is even easier.Next, you should consider what the device is capable of capturing--this includes the max resolution, refresh rate, HDR, and more.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

There have been some great gaming laptop deals over the past couple of months, and now, Newegg has a new one for a limited time. You can snag an Asus Tuf gaming laptop for $1,000, down from its original price of $1,300. This deal is valid for less than 12 hours, so you'll need to act fast. It boasts an RTX 2060 graphics card, a Ryzen 7 R7-3750H processor, and a 1080p 144Hz display, which makes it an excellent choice for PC shooter fans that want the freedom a laptop provides.The Asus Tuf laptop's specs are powerful enough to run all of today's most popular shooters at medium-to-high settings, from Fortnite and Valorant to Call of Duty: Warzone and Rainbow Six Siege. though you may want to lower your settings if you want to take full advantage of the 144Hz refresh rate. This means that the screen can display up to 144 frames per second, which makes it much easier to react to things happening on your screen, such as an enemy coming around a corner.Asus Tuf gaming laptop with RTX 2060 and 144Hz display$1,000 ($1,300)Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The upcoming Disney+ series following Rebel Alliance member Cassian Andor has two new actors joining the series. The show will be a prequel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, set five years before the 2016 movie.Both Genevieve O'Reilly and Denise Gough have signed on to appear on the series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They'll join Diego Luna who will reprise his role as Andor.O'Reilly has already appeared in the Star Wars universe multiple times. She's played Mon Mothma in 2005's Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One, and on the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. It's been confirmed she'll be playing Mothma once again for the Disney+ show.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Google has announced that it will broadcast a Stadia Connect event on Tuesday, April 28 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 4 PM GMT to highlight "a few new games" coming to the cloud gaming platform.It's time for another #StadiaConnect! Tune in this Tuesday 4/28 9AM PT / 6PM CET on YouTube to hear from the team and see a few new games coming to Stadia. pic.twitter.com/Fuao6QvHF3 — Stadia (@GoogleStadia) April 24, 2020The latest Stadia Connect event can be watched on the platform's official YouTube channel. Google did not go into detail about what it will show off during the upcoming livestream.This announcement follows the company giving away two months of Stadia Pro for free earlier this month. The only requirement to get two months of free Stadia Pro access is a Gmail account.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Shonen anime and manga have a tendency to feel larger than life--and not always in a good way. The biggest conventions of the genre include sweeping, near-endless stories, singular fight scenes that can last weeks or months, and rosters of characters so sprawling that learning who's who at any given moment can feel like a monumental task. But even so, there's a reason shonen series have maintained such a foothold in pop culture, even outside of niche anime fan communities. For as daunting and arcane as they can feel on the outside, once you're in, you're usually hooked for life. It's the getting in part that can be tricky.This is why it's critical to find the right gateway--and thankfully, we're here to give you just that. What if I told you there was a perfect, immediately accessible shonen masterpiece ready to be binge-read immediately with one measly little $2.99 a month subscription fee? What if I also told you that the series was complete, clocking in at a very modest (seriously, don't panic) 686 chapters--so there's no need to worry about loose ends never being wrapped up, hiatuses interrupting the flow, or even just maintaining a week-to-week reading schedule?Please, look no further than Kubo Tite's Bleach--one of the greatest and most criminally underrated shonen epics of all time.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The next update for the Square Enix MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV comes in the form of patch 5.3, subtitled Reflections in Crystal. It has been detailed by director/producer Naoki Yoshida and community manager Toshio Murouchi in the latest Letter From The Producer livestream, and like most FFXIV updates, it's going to be huge. The upcoming patch includes the anticipated major overhaul for the base game A Realm Reborn, new main quests that continue the FFXIV's story, new boss fights, and the next chapter in the Nier Automata crossover raid series YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse.This next wave of main story quests will conclude the Shadowbringers expansion's narrative arc and will have heavy story implications (as hinted by the revealed screenshots). A new instanced four-player dungeon, called The Heroes' Gauntlet, will be included--it will work with the Trust system, which lets you run it alongside NPCs from the story as AI companions to fill the necessary roles. There's going to be another trial boss fight tied to the main story as well, but it wasn't revealed as to not spoil the surprise.Key art for "Reflections in Crystal" in FFXIV patch 5.3.All players who have not completed the 24-player alliance raid series "The Crystal Tower" will be required to do so at some point before continuing the main story in the 5.3 update, and the game will notify players of this. Regardless, that raid series will be mandatory for those who look to finish the the base game for the first time when the patch hits since it's directly tied to the Shadowbringers narrative arc.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

With the April 23 update, Animal Crossing: New Horizons got a new special visitor: Jolly Redd, a fox who visits in his Treasure Trawler and sells art of questionable origin. You have to be careful when buying art from him, because sometimes, he sells forgeries. If you want to donate art to your museum, it has to be legitimate, so a keen eye for paintings, statues, and other art pieces is important. Plus, you don't want to waste your hard-earned bells on a fake!Below, we detail how to spot a real piece of art from a fake. As we continue to play and get visits from Jolly Redd, we'll update this guide with images so you can be absolutely sure what you're buying is legit.How To Buy Art From ReddThe first time Jolly Redd visits your island--which will happen the day after Blathers tells you he'd like to expand the museum to include an art wing--he will wander around your island and sell you a piece of art sight-unseen. This piece of art should be legitimate. After that, he will randomly come to visit your island like many of the other special visitors in the game, and you'll be able to enter his boat at the secret beach to the north of your island and inspect the art before you buy it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com