I feel like it's been a really long time since I really heard much about Fortnite, the Battle Royale game that only a few short months ago was one of the hottest names in entertainment. Much of that is largely because the game is simply so ubiquitous now. To be sure, Epic Games is still raking in the cash from the popular shooter, and they may be about to bring in even more, because the game just announced that Deadpool is joining the fight.

The trailer for Fortnite's new Season 2 dropped today, and it included the revelation that Deadpool is part of the game's new season, though exactly what that means isn't entirely clear yet.

While Fortnite might have been a game that hadn't made as much noise in recent months, the inclusion of Deadpool in the game has certainly changed that. The internet is sort of freaking out, nobody more so that Deadpool co-creator himself Rob Liefeld.

Fortnite's structure is insidiously brilliant. The game itself, which pits up to 100 people on a large, but ever shrinking map, to kill each other until only one remains, is free-to-play. Anybody can download the game and join the fight right now. And all players are on an equal footing. While many multiplayer games reward consistent players with new abilities that will give them a permanent advantage over those less skilled or newer, Fortnite doesn't do that.

Instead, the game uses a Battle Pass system, which is something players purchase, and then, as they play, they unlock various cosmetic rewards, new skins, outfits and emotes (brief animations) that let players differentiate themselves. This is where Fortnite makes its money, to the tune of almost $2 billion last year. That was down from $2.5 billion in 2018.

While the game certainly isn't hurting for funds, there clearly has been a drop in players, and bringing Deadpool into the game seems designed to try to entice players to spend more time with the game, including those that may have put it down on a more permanent basis. It appears that plan might work out.

While Deadpool joining Fortnite has certainly succeeded in increasing interest in the game, those players will have to wait and see exactly what is needed to unlock the character. Normally something like the Deadpool skin would just be available to purchase with in-game currency, earned from playing the game, but instead Deadpool looks to be unlocked by executing secret challenges, and those challenges will be available over the course of the new season, so to get Deadpool, you'll need to keep coming back to Fortnite over the next few weeks.

Deadpool isn't the first time that a Marvel character has been part of Fortnite, Thanos made an appearance during a previous season of the game, and Star Wars also joined the game around the time The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters, so clearly Disney and Epic Games have an ongoing relationship.

Is the idea of playing as Deadpool in Fortnite enough to get you to return to the game, or maybe give it a try for the first time? Let us know in the comments.

Now that the Anthem VIP demo weekend has wrapped and we’ve all had a moment to decompress, it’s time to dig into what BioWare nailed, what needs some attention and what the game might look like down the road.

As a reminder, we’re talking about a demo for an online, multiplayer game, so all of the pros and cons discussed here should be taken with an appropriately-sized grain of salt. BioWare actually set the expectations a couple of days before the demo launched, letting everyone know that the build included in the demo was six weeks behind in bug fixes and boasting completely different balance in both combat and commerce from the launch version of the game. In other words, it’s entirely possible the things I didn’t like during my time with the demo may be changed when the game launches on Feb. 22. Heck, they might even alter something I liked by then so, again, nothing here should be considered set in stone.

As a final reminder, there’s still another demo for Anthem just over the horizon. While the VIP demo was limited to folks who pre-ordered the game or are members of EA or Origin Access, the next demo is going to be totally open to the public. You can actually download the demo client right now, just so you’re ready to roll first thing on Friday, Feb. 1, when the final demo goes live.

I actually plan on diving into this second demo just to see if any adjustments have been made following the VIP run. There were definitely some technical issues in need of attention (more on that later), so whether or not BioWare is able to tackle those concerns between demos could provide a glimpse into how things will run once the final version of Anthem goes live.

The Good

It’s always hard to get a full read on a game based on just a demo but, if there’s one thing I walked away from Anthem feeling pretty positive about, it’s the moment to moment gameplay out on the open map.

Anthem just feels right. From the flying to the shooting, the game is a joy to play. You know how everyone was praising Spider-Man last year for making you really feel like the web-slinging Marvel superhero? Well, the same can be said for Anthem, only you need to replace Spidey with Iron-Man. Heck, half of the people I ran into while exploring the missions and free roam areas had their Javelins decorated like either Iron-Man or War Machine, and that includes a Hulkbuster design for the Colossus Javelin.

I’m not going to get too deep into the controls, but BioWare clearly spent a lot of time making sure the game controlled well. Similar to how teams like Bungie and Infinity Ward have basically perfected the feel of first-person shooting, BioWare has absolutely nailed down explosive action from a third-person perspective. With a little practice, you’ll be moving from flight, to ground combat, back to flight like a mechanized murder ballerina, triggering some flashy and fun abilities along the way.

Those abilities are another strong suit for Anthem, with experimentation proving that some really fun synergies can be pulled off on the fly. And that works between classes, too, which probably explains why BioWare is stressing that Anthem will be more rewarding when played as a team.

And while this one is definitely a personal preference, I appreciate the fact that Anthem features plenty of creepy-crawlies. Human and robotic enemies are fine and all, but there’s something about finding yourself in a nest of massive bugs that look like they crawled out of Starship Troopers that really gets my gears turning. Game designers seem to get more creative with those types of enemies, too, so it’s nice to see the landscape crawling with hostile alien life.

Customization was another check in the “Good” column in Anthem, as the demo let players pretty much run wild with their own creativity. From a purely visual standpoint, players can swap out various components of their Javelin to create a more unique look. From there, you’ve got collectible vinyls to create different looks on your exoskeleton, all of which have half a dozen segments to customize with your colors of choice. You can even customize the material that portion of the Javelin is made of and, to top it all off, give it a more rugged appearance with some wear and tear.

On a more practical level, it looks like Anthem is going to offer quite a bit of loot to collect and, like all of the best loot-driven games, said gear is going to have a real impact on how you play the game. There were a bunch of guns available in the demo, and you could find more rare (and therefor more powerful) versions of that gear out in the wild. The same goes for your Javelin’s grenades, abilities, Ultimate and the like. While there are four classes to choose from, it looks like there will be plenty of room to make your version of, say, the Ranger play totally different from the Ranger crafted by a pal.

The Bad

As BioWare has already admitted, Anthem had something of a rocky VIP weekend on the technical side. On day one, plenty of folks simply had trouble getting logged into the game. From there, the most persistent issue was one that saw the game stuck on a perpetual loading screen. That issue actually plagued me through the entire weekend, which certainly put a damper on my initial experience. But again, this is an earlier build of a totally online game we’re talking about, so I’m not going to just start raving about “my concerns” just yet. The team is already working on the known issues, so hopefully they won’t even be a concern once the open demo rolls around.

But outside of the technical issues, I still left the VIP demo feeling a bit lukewarm.

For starters, the game forces you to explore the central hub from the first-person perspective at a pace that is so slow I was convinced I was doing something wrong. The vast majority of NPCs were not available for dialogue in the demo, so I couldn’t really get a good feel for the world in Anthem or the people who inhabit it. The few story beats on offer were intriguing but, again, it’s hard to care about a “super important mission” if I don’t fully understand why it’s important or why I should care.

My biggest gripe, though, was that even though this was a new setting with fresh enemies and all that jazz, I couldn’t help but feel like I’ve been here before. This might not be an issue for folks who don’t play the types of games I play, but I had a hard time feeling compelled to keep exploring beyond the basics of the demo due to the fact I’ve already kind of burned out on these types of games.

It feels kind of hacky just making a bunch of comparisons, but I would argue that it’s not exactly my fault if Anthem feels like an amalgam of so many other games that have come before it. Outside of the flying, exploring the map in Anthem feels almost identical to exploring the various regions of Monster Hunter World or Destiny 2. You run around collecting resources and shooting predictable bands of baddies, you occasionally take part in a live event to grab some fresh loot and you maybe drop into a cavern you hadn’t noticed before in order to do some exploring. The problem is that nothing here feels different from the games as service titles I’ve been plowing through for the past several years outside of the fact that dropping into another area occasionally comes with a lengthy load screen.

Also, Anthem does this weird thing where, if you decide to drop into a live event, it automatically teams you up with nearby players. Maybe there’s an option I missed but, otherwise, it was infuriating to get bored with an event and try to leave only to have the game tell me I was abandoning my team and cut to a load screen to drop me back into the fray.

And yes, I got a bit bored while playing Anthem, even though we’re only talking about a three-day demo. The frequent load freezes likely had a role in this, though, so I’m trying not to hold it against the game too strongly just yet. But while Anthem nails the moment to moment gameplay, it turns out I’ve simply become weary of that very specific gameplay. I’ve been doing this for years in games like Warframe and Diablo, and I’m not sure I’m looking forward to doing it all over again.

The Road Ahead

After spending a few days with Anthem, it’s clear that BioWare has put in the effort to make this a big, bombastic game that piles rewards onto the player and encourages everyone to team up with a bunch of friends and go exploring. Whether or not you’re ready for another game like that is obviously going to be up to you. I’ve seen plenty of people raving about how much fun they had in the VIP demo and I can absolutely understand why that is. For me, though, it felt like I was playing yet another looter shooter that, at least in the demo, didn’t have much “new” to offer.

I can’t help but feel from this limited experience that BioWare got caught up chasing the Destiny formula. The problem is that it took them like five years to build their own genre entry and, in that time, the market has become flooded with these types of games. Heck, The Division 2 is another game that falls squarely in this corner of the games market and it launches just a month after Anthem.

But that’s not to say I’m totally off the Anthem hype train. Outside of the technical glitches, the VIP demo hinted at a shooter that’s as big as it is deep, so hopefully that’s exactly what BioWare is able to deliver. The team has also teased more dynamic DLC, with stories that actually impact the game world rather than simply taking place within it. And outside of the campaign, it sounds like players have all sorts of live activities, seasonal events and the like to look forward to.

After playing the VIP demo, I have little doubt that Anthem is going to be a solid game. I’m just not sure it’s the type of game I feel like playing anymore.

According to Kingdom Hearts III head Tetsuya Nomura, the pre-launch leaks of Square Enix’s highly anticipated game may lead to changes in how Square Enix releases games in the future. According to Nomura...

The above comes from an interview between Nomura and Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu (via Kotaku), in regards to some copies of Kingdom Hearts III that leaked before the game’s actual launch. Nomura explained that only four copies were unaccounted for, but he considers that four copies too many. You can’t blame the guy for being so disappointed. That would hold true for a game that only spent a couple years in development, and Kingdom Hearts III was in the works for more than a decade.

When the copies of KH3 got out several weeks ago, Nomura hopped on the internet to encourage folks to avoid spoilers and, more importantly, not help spread them. He also noted that the game’s biggest surprises, including a secret movie, were post-launch downloads that could not even be seen after playing the leaked copies of the game.

So what’s the solution? According to Nomura, it might be to just avoid worldwide launches altogether. Doing a worldwide launch means there are oodles more moving parts in the process and more ways for copies of the game to turn up missing. Nomura’s thinking seems to be that, if a game launches in one region at a time, there’s less of a chance that folks will get their hands on the game before they should.

Of course, this seems like the exact opposite of what Nomura wants in one big regard. If he’s worried about folks getting spoiled on a game because of leaks, it stands to reason even more will get spoiled if a game launches in stages. Using Kingdom Hearts III as an example, if it launched in Japan first, spoilers from legitimate copies of the game would flood the internet long before the game launched in other territories.

But, again, I can’t really fault the guy for his concerns and frustration. His team poured an insane amount of time into making KH3, all while working with one of the most tight-lipped and influential media machines on the planet: Disney. Pile on fan expectations after all these years of waiting and it’s a wonder the guy isn’t on a one-man crusade against leakers in general.

As for how to get the game’s secret movie, Nomura offered a pretty big hint in the original interview. There are items in the game called “Lucky Marks,” which are everyday items that just so happen to look like Mickey Mouse. You’ll want to find as many of those as possible while adventuring through the worlds of Frozen, Tangled, Pirates of the Caribbean and beyond, and be sure to take a picture of them while you’re at it.

Ubisoft found itself at the center of a controversy over the inclusion of a rather linear and pointed storyline in its most recent DLC outing for Assassin's Creed. The issue came from a plot decision that was made by the company for the DLC that removed player agency, and now the director had to attempt to quell outrage by making a statement about the content.

In a thread over on the Ubisoft forums marked with [SPOILERS] because it reveals an outcome to the story relating to the protagonists Kassandra and Alexios, the community manager posted a message on behalf of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont stated...

So for context, what Dumont is referring to is that within the latest DLC outing, Kassandra or Alexios have a child with either the son or daughter of Darius, the first of the Assassins. Neither of the characters has a choice in having a child. Which is a problem for many players that took paths in the game that didn't lend themselves to such an outcome.

The characters of Kassandra and Alexios have access to many optional romances featured throughout the base game. In each case, same-sex romances are possible and so the player frustration comes largely from those who viewed their characters as gay, their own romantic choices were disregarded in Ubisoft's decision to force the characters into a relationship that some players may not have wanted them to be a part of.

Some gamers were okay with the idea that the main protagonists had to carry on the lineage of the Assassins in order for it to eventually make sense for the previous games to link up to the story involving Desmond being a descendant of the Assassins, but not everyone liked the concept of Kassandra getting pregnant, which created more controversy for Ubisoft.

However, Dumont says that the team has been reading the feedback and understand why people have become so passionate over the subject matter, stating...

So it doesn't sound like this particular story will be retconned, and your Kassandra or Alexios will be stuck with the kid. However, it doesn't mean that Ubisoft can't make it where maybe in a future DLC you can go back to an old flame that you romanced during Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's main campaign?

Obviously, there are going to have to be some concessions made when a game has an actual linear story but the developers decide to give players choices in how the story unfolds for the characters. In this particular case, it seems as if things kind of backfired for Ubisoft, but we'll see what happens in the upcoming third installment of DLC, in order to find out if the problems people had can be salvaged in any way.

The streaming market is a tough place to cut your teeth as a business. The options are plentiful and there's a definite fight over the quality of streams made available. But the one thing you probably didn't expect is that some of these businesses aren't just fighting with each other, but also grinding the market against video games... yes, video games.

This isn't hyperbole or someone trying to extrapolate some hidden meaning or message from an executive during an investor call for the quarterly earnings report. Nope, this comes directly from Netflix. Inside the company's shareholder report there's a section labeled as "Competition". It states that Netflix sees one particular game as a bigger threat its business than any other streaming competitor...

This comes after Netflix opened the section stating that it earns around 10% of all the television screen time across viewership in the United States. That's not an insignificant amount of market share for a streaming network that has no national coverage across terrestrial networks. The section also states that it reaches "less than that" from mobile screen time while competing against other mobile apps, services, and functionality on mobile handsets.

Netflix also honestly admits that it has less market percentage in other countries due to the "lower penetration" of its services within those regions, likely due to lack of infrastructure to help support the bandwidth and availability of the network.

But in the case of the U.S., network infrastructure isn't an issue so much as Fortnite is. It's a pretty obvious gut-wrenching blow to HBO from Netflix to say that a video game is providing more competition for the service than one of the most recognized premium cable channels available.

Keep in mind that HBO is no slouch in terms of providing noteworthy and mainstream content, such as Game of Thrones.

However, if Fortnite is giving Netflix a tougher time than Game of Thrones, it speaks volumes to how much penetration Epic Games has not just in terms of the gaming market, but in overall screen-time usage by the average American using any digital device with streaming or online capabilities. And keep in mind that if you have a system that can play Fortnite it can just as well run Netflix.

Epic Games is probably more than pleased with the fact that a completely mega-company like Netflix, which is well outside of the gaming market, credited some of its loss of viewership to the highly popular third-person shooter.

In fact, Netflix seemed more worried about Fortnite than some of its nearest competitors like Hulu, who it claimed was almost "non-existent in Canada". Ouch.

Netflix didn't resort to any euphemisms for its assessments of the competition, noting that YouTube's few minutes worth of downtime a few months back earned Netflix a huge spike in sign-ups. So it's not like Netflix spends the section gloating gaudily over its success while making it like no one else is a threat. The company was just honest in assessing that Fortnite, right now, is a much bigger threat for taking viewers away from its service than some other streaming services out there.

The countdown is officially on and Kingdom Hearts 3 is gearing up for release on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and leading up to the big day Square Enix dropped the official theme song for the JRPG. The best part about it is that you don't need any special pre-order bonuses or special editions to listen to the song ahead of the game's release. Give it a listen right now.

The theme song was posted up over on Proximity's YouTube channel, featuring Utada Hikaru teaming up with Skrillex for the "Face My Fears" song. The song clocks in at three minutes and 40 seconds. The pop-song starts off with a simple piano melody before escalating into a dubstep piece, featuring a lot of fast beats and a groovy tune that you can both sing along with and dance to as well.

If you aren't into the electronic breakbeat sound then you may not be the biggest fan of the song, but the people dropping into the comment section to listen to the song seem to enjoy it a great deal. There's a lot of praise for the way the song handles the lyrical transitions and most people are just happy that Skrillex is back with a brand new song. He was one of the first artists to really push dubstep into mainstream and at one point it was practically everywhere, including appearing in Sonic Generations trailers, and the music genre even managed to nab a spot as an actual weapon in the Saints Row games.

Others were just happy that they were able to finally listen to the full version of the theme song for the game as opposed to the shortened version of the song that has been used in a few of the trailers leading up to the release of Kingdom Hearts 3.

The game has been a real labor of love for the developers who are moving into the final stretch of the game's release.

Director Tetsuya Nomura has been leading the charge on the production of the game for the last half decade where he's also been juggling the production of Final Fantasy VII's remake as well. He put the latter game on the back burner while focusing on finishing up Kingdom Hearts 3, which is the biggest game that the studio has worked on, next to Final Fantasy XV.

Square Enix has gone all out in adding in as many different worlds from Disney's catalog of properties, including Tangled and Frozen joining other brand new worlds within the Kingdom Hearts franchise such as Big Hero 6 and Hercules. I'm a little shocked that Finding Nemo didn't make an appearance.

You can look to get your hands on the JRPG on January 29th for the Xbox One or the PS4. While you wait for the release date to arrive you can listen to the theme song a few dozen times to sate your anticipation for one of 2019's biggest releases.

The Resident Evil 2 remake finally shambles onto the scene next week and, when it arrives, players will once again be able to play as the most badass member of S.T.A.R.S.: A block of tofu.

The above tweet comes from the official Resident Evil account, where the developer has revealed that the upcoming remake will include the two additional scenarios included in the original Resident Evil 2. When you finish the game, you'll be able to unlock both "The 4th Survivor" and "The Tofu Survivor," which let you play as Hunk and Tofu, respectively.

Hunk, also known as the Grim Reaper, is an Umbrella operative who took on hordes of monsters with a limited supply of gear. The story is that Hunk was sent in to procure a sample of the G-Virus and then escape the city via helicopter. It was a fun and challenging mode that required rationing items (no near gear could be picked up) and racing the clock. The Tofu Survivor was a trek through the same mode, but your only item was a combat knife. Oh and, also, you were a giant chunk of tofu. That's probably worth mentioning, too.

In case that seems too silly even for Resident Evil standards, there's actually a good reason for "Tofu" existing. When games are in early development, placeholders are frequently used to represent assets that will later be designed, animated and the like. The original tofu model just happened to look like, well, a block of tofu. In reality, though, it was a white, blocky mass that was simply used to track things like hit detection within the game. According to Capcom lore from 1998, the team thought it was kind of humorous to watch the white chunk run around what was supposed to be a scary game, and so they decided to use the model in an unlockable new game mode.

In the original version, Tofu had floating gloves for hands, one of which held his knife. In the new version, the knife (as well as a flashlight) just kind of float in midair. But while his gloves are gone, he now wears the S.T.A.R.S. cap seen in the original mode's menu screen.

If you take a look at Tofu in the promotional image tweeted by Capcom, you can see a few other weapons on the ground nearby. I can make out a chaingun, chopsticks, another knife, a machine gun and, in the background, a rocket launcher. I don't know if this is to represent that Tofu is such a badass that he doesn't need all of those other weapons, or perhaps it's a teaser that the character will have the ability to equip more gear this time around.

Thankfully, we don't have very long to wait in order to get all of our answers. Resident Evil 2 launches for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC next Friday, Jan. 25. And for you vets in the audience, you can look forward to a slightly altered series of events taking place in the game, just to keep you on your toes. Also, in case you're not yet sold, there's already a demo available on all platforms.

Epic Games is constantly in the news for the success that is Fortnite, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. This time, however, the company is making headlines for how much money the Battle Royale-themed free-to-play shooter managed to rack up throughout 2018.

According to Deadline, Epic Games managed to generate $2.4 billion in revenue throughout 2018. This comes from a market report published by Nielsen Media's SuperData, which saw Fortnite top out the chart of free-to-play games throughout the year, followed by Dungeon Fighter Online from Nexon, a long-running multiplayer hack-and-slash beat-'em-up that was a very distant second. Nexon's title may be popular, but it was nearly $1 billion behind Fortnite, topping out at $1.5 billion in revenue. Obviously, that's no laughing matter, and nothing to scoff at in terms of the money generated.

Riot Games and Tencent literally tied with Nexon, as League of Legends also generated $1.4 billion, while Niantic Labs' Pokemon Go came in fourth place at $1.3 billion. Neowiz Games' first-person shooter Crossfire also tied with Pokemon Go at $1.3 billion, along with Tencent's Honour of Kings, a multiplayer online battle arena game.

Aniplex's Fate/Grand Order was seventh on the list with $1.2 billion, followed by Activision and King's Candy Crush Saga at $1.1 billion, and Mixi's Monster Strike hitting $1 billion even. Tencent rounded out the list with Super Cell's Clash Royale at $900 million.

This basically showcases just how much the Battle Royale genre is worth when done right, and apparently, Epic Games has done right with Fortnite, easily surpassing some of the other MOBA and free-to-play games that previously dominated the industry.

The article notes that the battle passes that Epic sells for Fortnite has regularly seen U.S. players purchasing said packs. In fact, there's a 34% attachment rate to the battle passes from U.S. players.

It was also noted that free-to-play games, in general, accounted for 80% of all of the digital game revenue across every major gaming platform, including home consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.

Out of the $87 billion that the gaming industry generated in 2018, $17.9 billion of that was generated from PC gaming, and obviously Fortnite played a significant role in that.

Despite all the money generated from the cash shop and battle passes, Epic Games isn't entirely in the clear with the free-to-play, third-person, build-and-shoot Battle Royale game. The company is currently being sued by a number of individuals for the dances featured in the game.

There's really no telling which side of the legal coin Epic will come out on, but the lawsuits keep stacking up, which could end up hurting the company, in the long run, depending on how things turn out.

However, for the time being, Epic seems to be in a pretty good place and moving in the right direction as far as business growth is concerned. The company is also attempting to compete with Valve by opening up the Epic Games Store, which had a lot of help as a launching pad thanks to Fortnite being tied into the launcher for the store, which is similar to how Steam got its start with Half-Life 2. The major difference is that Fortnite has become a heck of a lot bigger in a much shorter amount of time than Half-Life 2.

Announced only a month ago and due out in April, NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat 11 is looking more violent (and gory) than ever in today's "Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer."

You might recall that NetherRealm head Ed Boon walked onto the stage at The Game Awards in December to present the trophy for the best sports/racing game. Before he could read the names of the nominees, though, a reveal trailer for his team's upcoming Mortal Kombat 11 "accidentally" played instead. It was a fun moment, highlighting a battle between Scorpion, Raiden and...another Scorpion?

Anyway, in the weeks that followed, NetherRealm announced that a major reveal event for the latest Mortal Kombat would be hosted on Jan. 17, where folks would learn all sorts of new details about the game, beginning roster, modes, story and more. As you might have noticed, that's today!

While the event is ongoing as of this writing, we've already had an opportunity to take in some of the over-the-top MK violence being presented at the event, including the gameplay reveal trailer above. It's a rather gratuitous affair not intended for the faint of heart, but that's kind of par for the course in the Mortal Kombat universe.

The trailer opens with a bunch of walk-on animations, presumably some of what players will see at the beginning of fights. Scorpion and Raiden are once again in the mix, along with Baraka and Skarlet. What follows is a hell of a lot of stabbing, punching and bone-breaking, as well as scenes of things like Baraka biting a chunk of meat off of someone's arm, Scorpion cutting a fool in half (lengthwise) with his spear's chain and Skarlet impaling Scorpion with spears made out of his own blood. There are also a few teaser scenes from the game's campaign peppered throughout that make it sound like either time travel or dimension hopping will be in the mix.

This, of course, might explain why the Game Awards trailer boasted two different Scorpions. Heck, it's a gimmick that allowed Injustice 2 to make sense and would work just as well in the Mortal Kombat universe if that is indeed the route the team is taking.

Another thing they appear to be borrowing from the most recent Injustice game is character customization, which seems like a bang-up idea. The DC fighting game included an insane number of outfits and accessories for the cast and, after all these years, it should be no problem to deck out the Mortal Kombat crew in similarly diverse gear. It looks like more weapons might also be in the mix, but we'll just have to wait until a deeper dive into the game's structure is made available to find out more.

Speaking of which, if you're interested in even more Mortal Kontent, you might want to drop by the game's official YouTube page. NetherRealm is posting everything from today's show, which will likely add up to a ton of videos to plow through once everything is said and done.

As for the game itself, look for it on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and, somehow, the Switch on April 23.

Back in 2016 when Watch Dogs 2 came out, there was a tease for a special Ubisoft product within the game. Literally, there was an actual teaser stuffed within the game for another game. It was quite meta. However, according to a former creative director at Ubisoft, it appears the sci-fi game that was teased may never actually come out.

Alex Hutchinson broke the news by dropping a confidential E3 trailer for what would have been Pioneer, the sci-fi title that Ubisoft teased during a mission in Watch Dogs 2. The trailer was posted up on Hutchinson's Twitter account with the simple sentence "RIP Pioneer" and a crying face emoji.

The trailer embedded into the tweet is just barely a minute long, and it's from the original leak that was featured during a mission in Watch Dogs 2, where Marcus attempts to infiltrate the game publisher's servers and lifts an unreleased trailer from the company to see what they're working on.

The mission had a meta-element to it insofar that the trailer featured in Watch Dogs 2 was apparently a hint at a real game that Ubisoft was working on called Pioneer. The game appeared to be a space sci-fi game featuring different vehicles traveling throughout the solar system, and obviously encountering some hardships along the way that can result in the destruction of the ship.

The thing is, we never really knew much of anything about the actual gameplay. Visually the game had the bright colors and palette that we've seen in games like No Man's Sky, or Kerbal Space Program, or Star Control.

As far as mechanics are concerned, even though we got to see some cockpit views within the trailer, it didn't look like it was going to be much of a space combat sim like Elite: Dangerous.

According to Destructoid, the reason for the lack of information wasn't just part of some top-notch marketing ploy, it was because Ubisoft was already on the verge of canceling the game even during its initial reveal within Watch Dogs 2.

Now just because Hutchinson tweeted out that the game is canceled doesn't necessarily mean it's dead and gone for good. There's always the possibility that Hutchinson could be teasing fans, but that would only really work if he were still working at Ubisoft. He hasn't had anything to do with the company since heading up Far Cry 4 from back in 2014, which was half a decade ago. At the moment Hutchinson is working with the creative team at Typhoon Studios on the upcoming game Journey to the Savage Planet, which debuted during the 2018 Game Awards.

Of course, given that Ubisoft hasn't made any announcements about Pioneer in the last three years and since it was already reported that Ubisoft was already on the verge of pulling the plug back then, it doesn't seem too far a stretch that the game is no longer in development. It would be cool if we had some sort of gameplay trailer to really see what the game was like before it got canned.

In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, your character can be straight, gay, bi or asexual. That is, of course, until you reach a totally unavoidable "twist" at the end of the latest DLC, Shadow Heritage. We're going to get into some major spoiler territory here, so consider yourself warned.

The second chapter in the three-part, story-driven DLC collectively known as Legacy of the First Blade ends with your character having a baby. That might not seem all that shocking if you have been playing a straight character and actually wanted to settle down and have a rugrat to train, but pretty much everyone else playing the game will likely find that turn of events to be off-putting, if not completely insulting.

The concept of player choice is foundational in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, as players can first decide if they want to portray the male Alexios or the female Kassandra. While the major plot points for the campaign are pretty set in stone, players have agency over many in-game conversations and, of course, who they choose to woo. As noted above, you can choose to have romantic relations with characters based on whatever parameters you like, or you can choose to ignore that portion of the game entirely.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft forgot how important those choices were to the identity of the characters and the people playing them, and they managed to throw it all out the window in rather spectacular fashion.

Without getting too caught up in Assassin's Creed's lore, folks who played the game's first DLC were introduced to a possible love interest based on their own gender. If you were a male character, they were female. If you were female, they were male. That was somewhat harmless, until the end of the second DLC chapter rolls around and, no matter what options you pick, that character has a romantic relationship with your character and they go on to have a baby. Obviously, folks were upset.

The chapter ends with scenes of your character raising the child, being intimate with your forced lover and the like. It was supposed to be sweet and portray a rare period of calm and peace in the life of Alexios/Kassandra. Instead, it forced people into a very specific romantic encounter, regardless of their roleplaying up to that point. If you were playing a gay character, you presumably "took one for the team" in order to preserve your bloodline. If you were playing an asexual character, it looks like you were willing to ignore your identity in order to add one to the population.

For their part, Ubisoft has issued a statement over on Reddit admitting that they totally dropped the ball on this one. They seem to stand by their idea of the importance of continuing the assassin bloodline, but concede that their handling of the issue was poorly executed. And, again, plenty of fans are more than willing to agree.

While the deed is done, so to speak, Ubisoft has stated that players will no longer be tied to the whole "happy family" thing once the next DLC drops. It sounds like the option will be there for folks who wanted to settle down with the forced mate but, for everyone else, you should be able to ignore it completely. That raises some issues of its own but, hey, at least they're going to try to make adjustments, I guess.

Based on a series of reports from folks close to the matter, it looks like Electronic Arts' open-world Star Wars game has been completely canceled.

This report comes to us from Kotaku who, as of the most recent update, has spoken to several unidentified sources confirming that the troubled Destiny-esque Star Wars game has officially been canned. This is only the latest development in the strange history of what's known as project "Orca" but, if nothing else, at least the good news is that it does not appear the cancellation of the game has resulted in the loss of any jobs.

To be clear, EA has not made an official announcement concerning the game's cancellation but, based on the fact that several sources are confirming it, it seems like a safe bet that a statement from the publisher is inbound.

Assuming this all holds up, that would mean that EA Vancouver was only working on the game for about a year. The game was originally slated to be a more linear experience and was going by the moniker "Ragtag." With Amy Hennig at the helm, that game was being developed by Visceral, a studio EA purchased following the success of the Dead Space series. Given Hennig's background and what little we knew about the project, it's no surprise that it was being described as something like Uncharted set in the Star Wars universe.

Unfortunately, EA decided that was no longer the game they were in the market for and decided to shutter Visceral and pass the project off to EA Vancouver. At the time, EA made comments that displayed a desire to see the project shift to a games as service model, similar to what we're seeing in titles like the upcoming Anthem and The Division 2. EA wanted a game players would keep coming back to (and presumably keep spending money on), and that's not something you can get out of a linear, campaign-driven game.

EA Vancouver received the game's assets and was put to work on retooling the project. Comments had it pegged as an open-world game where, playing as a scoundrel from the wrong side of the tracks of the Star Wars universe, players would explore various planets and pull of jobs for various entities within the popular galaxy far, far away. Unfortunately, things weren't moving as quickly as EA had hoped.

According to the initial report, EA wanted the open-world game to come out relatively soon and, after a year with EA Vancouver, it became clear that wasn't going to happen. So, in response, it appears they have simply pulled the plug. Battlefront II is still rolling out updates during its second year on the market and, late this year, Respawn's Jedi: Fallen Order is expected to launch, so it's not like EA is hurting for Star Wars games just yet. It sounds like efforts from the open-world game have now been shifted to a new game with a smaller scale, which they apparently hope to get out by late next year.

In the midst of one of his regular streams, popular Fortnite player Exotic Chaotic received a donation that seemed too good to be true. It was for $75,000, and it was apparently 100 percent legitimate. Watch an unedited clip of him discovering the gift below.

In the above video, Exotic Chaotic is in the middle of a Fortnite stream, dropping onto the map when he notices an animation pop up that lets him know he received a donation. It reads: "WTF!!!!! Dat Donation!," followed by the name KingMascot and a value of $75,000.

Exotic looks around at his various monitors, clearly confused, and then his hands leap to his mouth as the reality of the moment starts to settle in. "Is that r-," he shouts, presumably planning to finish with "-eal donation?"

From there, Exotic goes into a mad dash to check the chat feed and verify the payment is listed on his PayPal account. He shouts mostly detached statements of disbelief, which only leaves the people he is currently playing with in a state of confusion. It's actually kind of funny, as they clearly think Exotic is witnessing something new and exciting on the Fortnite map. Epic Games has become known for having live, random events occur in their popular battle royale game, so it makes sense that's what Exotic's teammates would assume.

As Exotic confirms his donation, he starts running around the room, celebrating. This goes on for a while, with the streamer occasionally asking the obvious question, "But why?"

As it turns out, the folks over at Kotaku have gotten to the bottom of the matter, and it's actually a pretty uplifting story of one friend helping another out. The $75,000 donation, which appears to be the highest single contribution in Twitch history, came from user and fellow Fortnite streamer KingMascot, a friend of Exotic's who apparently made a fortune by investing early in Bitcoin and then went on to trade stocks.

Apparently, KingMascot had been planning to make the mega-donation for a while, but it was something he actually had to work out with PayPal to get organized, presumably due to its sheer size. Once everything was given the green light, KingMascot decided to make his donation in early January, just after the holidays and perfectly timed to give Exotic and his family an amazing start to 2019.

Exotic, as it turns out, has a kid and a girlfriend who works full-time to, in his words, "support my career as a Fortnite streamer." He said he makes an alright living on his Twitch streaming, with earnings from tournaments to help supplement that figure. But life throws you curveballs sometimes. Exotic won $30,000 in Fortnite's recent Fall Skirmish, for instance, but he's a young guy with no credit and was apparently driving around in a clunker. As a result, a chunk of those earnings has gone toward getting him a new vehicle.

KingMascot, who has the means to "pay it forward," decided that he wanted to take the opportunity to help a fellow streamer out of a tight situation and give him some time to focus on growing his stream without worrying so much about making ends meet.

For his part, Exotic said he is very thankful and plans on making this contribution count by securing his son's future and repaying a girlfriend who believes in him.

It turns out that the Resident Evil 2 "1-Shot" demo isn't as limited as we initially thought. Folks have already figured out how to bypass the trial's 30-minute time limit while others are simply beating it really, really quickly. It turns out you only need about three minutes to beat the entire thing. Check it out.

The Resident Evil 2 demo launched last week, but with a couple of stipulations you don't usually see attached to these kinds of game trials. It's called the "1-Shot" demo because that's the max number of times a player will be able to experience it under normal circumstances. When you start playing the demo, a 30-minute clock starts running in the background. When the clock hits zero, your time with the demo is supposed to be over.

On launch day, most folks were clocking in at around 20-25 minutes to complete the demo. Once they jumped back in for another run, they found they only had five to 10 minutes left before the game simply ended with a message thanking them for playing. So, for someone simply trying to play the demo without rushing, you probably only got "one shot" to complete it.

But as it turns out, the demo's timer is attached to your profile, not the hardware. In other words, if you've got a few different profiles on your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, you could play the demo once per profile. You could theoretically keep doing this for as many profiles you feel like creating. On Steam, folks have also figured out how to finagle their client settings to reset the timer for the demo, but that seems like a much less appealing method of getting an extra run through the Raccoon City Police Department.

But what if I told you there was a way to play the demo 10 times on a single profile? Well, folks like YouTube user JPreemo have managed to do exactly that. All you have to do is absolutely master the chunk of story available in the demo and finish your run in less than three minutes.

That's a pretty impressive feat, considering how well you would need to have the map and interlocking mechanisms memorized in order to clear the RE2 demo in just 2:52. You'd also need to be pretty focused not to let the sound of approaching zombies distract you by accident. And in case you're wondering about JPreemo's decision to play the game in Japanese, folks in the comments of one of his other videos explain that speedrunners frequently play games in Japanese because the dialogue boxes move more quickly.

Of course, this is not the way the demo is "supposed" to be played. While some folks complain that having a time limit on a demo is odd, I think Capcom's goal here was to add an extra bit of tension to the proceedings. If you're taking things at a normal pace, the game goes out of its way to spook players. If you combine that with fear of running out of time, then I imagine the frights will be boosted quite nicely.

If you want to give the RE2 demo a shot, it'll be available on PS4, Xbox One and Steam through Jan. 31. The game itself launches on Jan. 25.

Way back in 2015, Microsoft released Halo 5 for the Xbox One. It doesn't seem like it but it was four years ago. 343 Industries is currently working on Halo: Infinite, which is a super secret project on the horizon, but while gamers have to wait for the upcoming shooter to release, Microsoft is tempting gamers to rekindle their love of the series with a free weekend for Halo 5.

Over on the official Halo Twitter account, it was announced that anyone who has an Xbox Live Gold account will be able to dive into Halo 5 over the weekend.... for free.

This is the sort of move we oftentimes see with a variety of Steam games; usually forgotten titles or AAA games that have fallen out of the spotlight. Alternatively, the free weekends are used for AA-tier games that are usually considered good but overlooked, like Vermintide or the DiRT series.

The free weekend for Halo 5 is available now and you will be able to play through the whole game and dive into the multiplayer up through Sunday. This is part of the Xbox Free Play Days, which I imagine will be a regular occurrence from here on as Microsoft attempts to lure gamers back into the Xbox fold.

It's funny, but the very first comment in the thread is someone asking for the release of Halo Reach on the Xbox One X with 4K support. So people aren't entirely focused on a free weekend so much as they are more software filling out the Xbox One's rather thin library, especially in comparison to the PlayStation 4.

It's no secret that Sony is absolutely stomping Microsoft when it comes to sales across both software and hardware. In fact, in the hardware department, Microsoft isn't even close, as Sony is getting close to reaching 100 million in PS4 sales, while Microsoft hasn't even hit a third of that.

Still, the company has been attempting to flesh out its software library with more content and evolve its current line-up of exclusives. Last year the head of the Xbox brand, Phil Spencer, took to the stage at E3 to announce a number of exclusives being in the works for the Xbox after acquiring several mid-tier and high-end game studios.

However, we won't see the fruition of those acquisitions come about until another three or four years. In the meantime, Microsoft has to find ways to get people playing on the Xbox One and subscribing to Xbox Live. Hosting free weekends for first-party, high-end games like Halo 5 isn't a bad way to about getting people interested in the brand again, even though Halo 5 is one of the more divisive entries in the long-running first-person shooter series given the way certain characters are underutilized and other characters aren't properly explored throughout the story.

Nevertheless, if you already have an Xbox Live Gold account and you haven't given the game a try yet, you can do so this weekend, right now, for free.

The release of Kingdom Hearts III is narrowing down and coming up a lot quicker than you may have been anticipating. It's now just weeks away from launching on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But even after it launches there's still going to be more to glean from the game's story with a post-launch title update.

The news was made available over on the official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account, where it was announced that following the launch of the game there will be a free update on January 29th rolling out with the release that brings the game up to version 1.01. This includes various data fixes and bugs that the team didn't catch during the lead up to going gold. There will also be a Memory Archive added, which features videos that you'll unlock throughout the playthrough of the game. You'll be able to access the Memory Archives from the main menu at any point once the update has finished. This ties into the post-launch Epilogue and a separate secret video.

The tweet is part of a longer chain of tweets from the account, which details how the content will be unlocked and added between January 29th as part of the title update for version 1.01 and January 31st.

So the way it works is that once the Memory Archive is active, on the following day, January 30th, the Epilogue video will be made available for those who complete the full game and view the original ending to the game. So this means that the ending-ending won't be spoiled and you'll only be able to experience it after beating the full game. This is a nice way to prevent spoilers, especially after the leaks that occurred for Kingdom Hearts III coming out of the tail end of 2018.

But it doesn't end there. The title update is also a hook for yet another special video set to be made available on January 31st. This secret video requires that gamers must have completed the entirety of the game, seen the main ending, and also played at a presumably high enough difficulty setting in order to unlock the secret video. This is apparently after the special Epilogue video since the requirement for unlocking the secret video is higher than unlocking the Epilogue video.

Both of these videos will then be available in the Memory Archive video gallery, which Square Enix notes will allow players to experience the entire Kingdom Hearts story from the entire series up that point. And so the Epilogue and secret video will compliment the other videos you unlock to apparently put closure on things? I suppose we'll find out when January 30th and January 31st arrive.

It's an interesting way of dealing with spoilers for a highly anticipated game. Usually diehard fans attempt to go on a social media lockdown to avoid having anything spoiled, which is what some gamers did with hotly anticipated games like Alan Wake when it first came out, or Naughty Dog's The Last of Us back when it first released. In this case, Square is getting proactive and actually preventing the actual true ending from being made available until a day after release, and only through an official title update, so even if someone does pirate it or play it on a cracked machine, they still won't be able to access the ending without a legitimate account.

You can look for Kingdom Hearts III to launch for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 starting January 25th in Japan and January 29th for the rest of the world.

The Resident Evil 2 demo has gone live on all platforms, giving players a shot at exploring Raccoon City before the game launches in a couple of weeks. And by "a shot," we mean "one."

As a matter of fact, the trial version of Resident Evil 2 is actually called the "1-Shot Demo" because that's about all you'll have time for if you want to see everything it has to offer. When you first start playing the demo, an internal timer clocking just 30 minutes will begin to count down. Once you hit that limit, you're done with the demo.

You actually get more than one shot if you manage to complete the demo in less than 30 minutes but, based on the buzz around social media, it looks like most players are wrapping things up in around 25. Those who have decided to jump back in after completing the demo the first time have learned that the game literally ends once the limit is reached, so maybe just take your time with the first run and get as much enjoyment out of the experience as you can manage. This is a horror game, after all, so it's meant to be taken at a more leisurely pace. Also, what good would sprinting through the demo be just to get partway through another run and have it end?

The only other piece of content included in the demo, according to Polygon, is a new cinematic trailer for the game that should give players a better idea of what they can expect once Resident Evil 2 launches on Jan. 25 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The trailer isn't included under that "1-Shot" umbrella, though, so feel free to watch it as many times as you like. It's also worth pointing out that the demo will only be available for a limited time, from Jan. 11-31.

When the full game launches, players will get to take on the role of Leon Kennedy, who arrives in Raccoon City for his first day on the police force only to discover the city has been overrun by undead monsters. The perspective jumps around a bit as the narrative unfolds, giving players a chance to take control of Ada Wong, Claire Redfield and other members of the Resident Evil cast.

Even long-time fans of the Resident Evil series will likely want to check out this Resident Evil 2 remake because it's a true "remake" in every sense of the word. It has been built from the ground up for modern platforms and, while the main story remains the same, the team at Capcom has changed things up a bit in order to keep even seasoned vets guessing from time to time. The game looks great, though, and is spooky as hell thanks to the renewed focus on tension and limited resources.

But thanks to the new demo, you don't have to take my word for it. Go try it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments below.

The Wild West of Red Dead Online is about to get a bit more competitive as Rockstar Games announces the arrival of Gun Rush, a new mode that pits 32 players against each other in a round of battle royale.

While Red Dead Online already had a mode that was kinda-sorta a battle royale showdown, Gun Rush implements several of the popular mode's standard features and makes the whole thing official. As noted above, Gun Rush will host 32 players either rolling solo or in a team, and the objective of the mode is to be the last hombre standing. Just like in Fortnite or PUBG, players will hit the map lacking any sort of equipment and have to scour the landscape for weapons and ammo. The map will also shrink over time, pushing remaining players closer and closer together.

It seems like every game on the planet is getting a battle royale mode these days, so it makes sense that Rockstar would want to jump on that particular bandwagon nice and early with Red Dead Online.

The update containing Gun Rush is live now, so feel free to drop into a round, see what you think and report back here in the comments below. Or, decidedly more helpful, feel free to share your thoughts with Rockstar directly. Red Dead Online is still in its infancy and the developer is on the lookout for plenty of feedback. One of the major complaints leveled against the mode so far is that there isn't a heck of a lot to keep players busy, but Rockstar argues that's because they plan to spend the next several months rolling out additional content, modes and ways to keep players occupied. That was a bit of a gamble, but also probably smart considering how many moving pieces they're talking about cramming into an online world.

Speaking of changes spurred on by player feedback, today's announcement from Rockstar includes a road map of what to expect in the not-too-distant future, including new races and Showdown modes, as well as clothing and emotes. Here's a rundown of some of the other changes the team hopes to introduce to Red Dead Online soon, according to their email.

Daily Challenges: Tackle new challenges each day covering every aspect of the game, from sharpshooting to evading the law.

Law and Bounty Upgrades: Some changes are coming to the way the Law and Bounty systems work in Red Dead Online to reduce the enticements for griefing. Soon, players will get a bounty for committing crimes and will be incentivized to pay them off within an allotted time. Wait too long and bounty hunters from each of the states will track the player forcing them to either pay up or escape.

Parley Changes: We're making the Parley system easier to trigger so that you can avoid aggressive players more quickly. In addition, it will be easier to trigger Feuds, Posse Feuds and Leader Feuds to take on attacking players in structured competition.

Proximity-Based Player Blips: Player location blips will soon appear only over short distances, reducing the range at which you are visible to others, decreasing the likelihood of being targeted by another player across large areas. Down the line, we're also looking to introduce the ability to identify players who grief and kill indiscriminately with a progressively darkening blip that becomes more visible and at a longer range, so everyone in a session can identify potentially dangerous opponents at a glance and from a safe distance.

And according to Rockstar, that's just the tip of the ice berg for planned additions to Red Dead Redemption II's online mode. New story missions are in the works, which would be super swell considering the fact that the mode is currently limited to about eight. A "range of dynamic events" is also being planned, meaning players will more regularly stumble upon events they can take part in while riding the trails. Additional weapons are also planned to be introduced, which should help keep encounters more varied.

The list of nominees for the 2019 Writers Guild Awards for screenplay and video game writing have been announced, with the latter category including the likes of God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man.

The Writers Guild of America West announced its annual award nominees this week, including categories for Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Documentary Screenplay and Videogame Writing. That final category is of particular interest to us and includes five entries.

Spider-Man

God of War

Batman: The Enemy _Within: Episode 5_

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

First up is God of War, with Matt Sophos, Richard Zangrande Gaubert and Cory Barlog accompanied by a handful of other folks tied to the Santa Monica Studio game. Marvel's Spider-Man has Jon Paquette listed as story lead, accompanied by additional writers and contributors such as Benjamin Afrmann, Kelsey Beachum, Christos Gage, and Dan Slott.

Also earning a nod was Pillars of Eternity II's Deadfire expansion, as well as the fifth episode of Batman: The Enemy Within. There's also a nomination for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, with nearly 30 people listed for the potential honor. Assuming WGAW hands out trophies for these honors, can you imagine the plaque that would be needed to add all of those names if Assassin's Creed wins?

It'll be interesting to see which game and which type of writing catches the attention of the folks responsible for handing out these honors. Spider-Man and God of War have both received plenty of praise for their narrative, with Batman's fifth chapter proving an interesting exploration of character for fans of the Caped Crusader. Based on the nomination, it looks like Assassin's Creed could be the easy winner if volume is a factor.

If nothing else, it's cool to see games writing receive this type of recognition, earning nominations alongside the likes of Blackkklansman, A Star is Born, Roma and A Quiet Place. The medium requires a unique set of writing skills and, when done well, it can really raise the bar for games in general.

Concerning the category, the WGA's require that a nominee be a game published in the previous year or, in this case, between Dec. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31 2018. The game must also feature on-screen writing credits from nominees who are a part of the organization. Voting is done by Videogame Writers Caucus members within the organization or Writers Guild members who are actively involved in games writing.

Scanning through this past year's game launches, the only notable omission jumping to mind is Red Dead Redemption II, which has received high praise from fans and critics alike for its writing. Similar to Assassin's Creed, there were probably also a million writing folks on staff. It's not clear if Rockstar's latest did not meet the WGA's criteria or if the game simply was not nominated.

Either way, the list provided is definitely a strong one, and we'll be interested to learn which game ultimately takes home the prize.

Keeping in line with the developmental roadmap that was rolled out way back in the late summer of 2018, DICE has confirmed that one of the key villains of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Count Dooku, will be making his appearance in Star Wars: Battlefront II this month.

Now in the original roadmap from back in August, we knew that Count Dooku was on the way but we didn't know when he would be arriving in the action-oriented sci-fi shooter from DICE. However, Polygon managed to narrow down the release date of the content, pinning the release of Count Dooku down to January 23rd for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Dooku's arrival in the game will be followed immediately by a Battle Point Event set to take place that weekend between January 25th and January 27th. The event makes gamers able to acquire the heroes and villains in the game for half the amount of required Battle Points that it usually costs to get the characters.

The Battle Point event will only apply to certain modes and during certain eras. So if you play the maps where those heroes are discounted, you'll be able to take advantage of the Battle Points event.

Polygon also notes that the original voice of Count Dooku for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show, Corey Burton, will also be returning to voice the character for his appearance in Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The addition of Dooku comes shortly after DICE and Electronic Arts included Obi-Wan Kenobi to the game, decked out in his various battle garb. The character arrived at the end of November, while Obi-Wan's rumored movie was seemingly put on the shelf.

Now we don't get to see any of Count Dooku's moves in action, or whether or not he'll be retaining his wide-sweeping fencing art-style that he utilized throughout The Clone Wars television series (which has actually been revived by Disney), but we do know that he's coming soon. So expect more screenshots, trailers, and a solid rundown of the character over on the Star Wars: Battlefront II website.

Battlefront II initially got off to a rocky start due to the loot box controversy, which not only altered the way the game's monetary system was set-up, but it also ended up grabbing the attention of local and international gambling commissions and gambling regulators, creating a fierce debate over the legality of loot boxes.

Since then, DICE and Electronic Arts have been working overtime to pump out more content for Battlefront II, even moving some people over from Battlefield V to flesh out and stabilize the developmental roadmap for the Star Wars game.

Following the release of Count Dooku, General Grievious, and Obi-Wan, the roadmap notes that the Clone Trooper Coruscant Guard costumes will be available, along with Anakin Skywalker in February, followed by a brand new game mode. Gamers can also look forward to stepping into the role as the 501st unit, better known as "Vader's Fist". So the end of January and all throughout February will be jam-packed with new content.

Have you been planning on starting up a bustling business in the world of Japanese console modding and editing saved game editors for various consoles and PC games? Well, you might want to put that endeavor on hold because it's being reported that in light of a new amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, console modding and editing saved games isn't just frowned upon, it's actually against the law.

Siliconera is reporting that the Association of Copyright for Computer Software has picked up on the finalization of the amendment for the Competition Prevention Act, which they interpret as affecting the ability to modify saved games, as well as modify home consoles like the PS4 and Switch with third-party devices.

There are three major factors that are supposedly affected by the amendment, with the ACCS in Japan stating that the distribution of save game editors and programs being illegal, along with the distribution, selling or the auction of serial codes, product keys, or license activation mechanisms without the actual permission of the software maker.

Additionally, services that allow users to purchase hacking or editing tools or mechanisms to modify or hack game consoles are also supposedly illegal, according to the ACCS.

This amendment joins other legislative measures to prevent people from circumventing copyright mechanisms, such as digital rights management. In Japan, it's illegal to remove or develop software that bypasses DRM.

According to the ACCS interpretation of the law, this amendment would affect the sale of save game modifiers or cheat code devices that modify the hex data of the game, such as GameShark, Action Replay or Game Genie.

Not everyone is convinced that the law applies in the way that the ACCS is interpreting the law. There's a Reddit post stating that the law is a lot more broad than how the ACCS has narrowed down its definition, and therefore save game editors aren't as unlawful as some are making them out to be.

However, there have been some companies that have already stopped selling their saved game editors, such as Cyber Gadget, which claimed that editing saved games and playing games online was now illegal.

Another site called WestSide also halted the sell of their latest CDs featuring modified saved games.

So what does this mean for Japanese gamers? Well, keep in mind that enforcing this law would be a bit cumbersome. Unless the Japanese law enforcers plan on kicking down the doors of gamers and confiscating their saved game editors like the Tetragrammaton Clerics from Equilibrium arresting people for sense offenses.

The amendment of the law definitely makes sense for certain product manufacturers in Japan. For instance, following the Nintendo Switch being hacked in early 2018, the company has had to deal with Switch ISO distribution, homebrew software, and plenty of hacks in games like Splatoon 2 and ARMS. The amendment to the law would make it illegal for people to hack the Switch and use various tools that disrupt the multiplayer modes.

Of course, with a lot of vague and overly broad laws, a lot of times their effects are based on how they're enforced. While some stores might be getting rid of their tools that allow players to manipulate saved games, there are still plenty of the devices available on Amazon Japan and eBay. Then again, maybe it will take a while for it to spread throughout the market.

Trading Overwatch for Stranger Things, it looks like former Activision Blizzard Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann will be taking on that same job at his new home, Netflix.

According to a report from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Activision Blizzard gave Neumann the axe as of Dec. 31, 2018. The announcement claims that this is due to something "unrelated to the company's financial reporting or disclosure controls of procedures" or, according to a subsequent press release from the company, "violating his legal obligations."

In related news, Neflix announced it had hired Neumann to serve as its own CFO, which seems to indicate the firing from Activision Blizzard might be due to the hiring at Netflix, thereby breaking his employment contract with the former.

The USEC announcement goes on to state that Neumann was given time to make an argument that cause for termination did not exist or was not "otherwise justified" and, in the interim, Dennis Durkin would trade his chief corporate officer cap for the CFO gig with the company. It appears Durkin will be shifting into that new permanent role.

Speaking of Durkin, the announcement points out that he started his tenure with Activision Blizzard back in 2012 and, at the time, he served as CFO. He only became CCO in mid-2017, so it shouldn't take him too long to readjust to the familiar position.

In a statement from Blizzard, CEO Bobby Kotick said that the company is happy to have Durkin back in the CFO chair, citing his "exemplary character" and "impeccable judgment."

It's certainly been an interesting year for Activision Blizzard. Investors have been lukewarm concerning 2018-19, stocks dropped about 44 percent and reports keep rolling out about restructuring and finding ways to produce more games in less time. Heroes of the Storm looks to be the first casualty of this shift, as it was recently made clear that the game was going to see some development cutbacks.

As for Neumann, it's not like he's going to be jumping to super calm waters over at Netflix. A casual observer would think that the company is doing dandy, considering the fact that subscriptions are up and they keep churning out hit movies and shows. But creating all of that original content and licensing shows like Friends for buckets of bucks has proven to be a tricky balancing act. Netflix's most recent reports are showing it to be a profitable business, but keeping that positive momentum going forward will be a big part of Neumann's job. No pressure, right?

There's clearly a bit of drama brewing under the surface of all of this but, in the end, hopefully everything works out well for both Activision Blizzard and Netflix. Otherwise, our weekends could get a lot less interesting.

It looks like 2019 is going to be packed with major game launches, but 10 titles have us especially excited for the months ahead.

Scrolling through the expected release schedule for 2019, there are quite a few highly-anticipated games slated to launch over the next 12 months. While we've been following the development of some of those games for years now, others only appeared on our radar as recently as last month. Either way, it looks like there are going to be a heck of a lot of games to play throughout the next year.

Following are our top 10 most anticipated games of 2019, though it's limited to games with pretty concrete launch windows. Hideo Kojima has hinted that Death Stranding will launch this year, for instance, but that's nowhere near firm enough to be included in our list. The same goes for games like The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima and Metroid Prime 4. But even if those games don't drop in the next 12 months, there's plenty to keep us busy throughout 2019. Here are our top picks.

Resident Evil 2

For the past decade, the Resident Evil series had been on a steady decline. Many consider Resident Evil 4 to be the series' peak, with the next two mainline games and several spinoffs never reaching the heights of Leon Kennedy's adventure in Spain. Then, in 2017, Capcom caught the world totally off guard with Resident Evil VII, a game that did away with much of the over-the-top action in favor of some good old-fashioned horror. Now the developer has taken that same philosophy (and spiffy new game engine) and plugged it into another series favorite, Resident Evil 2. Boasting new controls and other quality-of-life tweaks, Capcom looks to have recaptured lightning in a bottle by modernizing a horror classic. We got to play about an hour of this remake at E3 2018 and left convinced that this new version of Resident Evil 2 is going to scare the crap out of a new generation of gamers come Jan. 25.

Animal Crossing

Announced during the September 2018 Nintendo Direct, a new Animal Crossing game is coming to the Nintendo Switch. And while that might not be everybody's cup of tea, there's a rather sizeable community of players who eat, sleep and breath these games and you better believe they're going to be lining up on launch day to build their dream community alongside money-grubbing woodland creatures. The Animal Crossing series is positively packed with charm and an insane number of activities to steal away countless hours of your day, making it a perfect addition to the Switch library. This one almost didn't make the list since we haven't actually seen the game in action yet, but Nintendo doesn't typically mess around when it comes to major launches. If they say Tom Nook will be squeezing us for loan payments this year, then that's a pretty safe bet and one worth getting excited for.

Anthem

Set to launch on Feb. 22, Anthem is the latest offering from BioWare that looks to combine the studio's skills in world, character and story creation with the ever-popular "games as service" model. If they manage to nail that formula, then Anthem could be the gaming world's next long-running obsession. The easiest comparison is Destiny, as Anthem boasts a similar sci-fi theme, a focus on cooperative play and big, open maps for players to explore while completing quests and taking part in random activities. It's understandable that Mass Effect Andromeda has folks feeling a bit wary when it comes to banking on BioWare at the moment, but everything we've seen so far from Anthem has us ready to give the game a fighting chance to absolutely wow us.

The Division 2

Another game designed to keep players coming back week after week, The Division 2 takes its story to Washington, D.C., where the fight to restore order in a country ravaged by terrorism and war continues. Many folks who took the time to dig into The Division found a rewarding game with a lot of clever ideas at play and some decent late-game hooks that kept them invested in its modern world-gone-to-hell setting. The Division 2, then, looks like a quintessential sequel, building on all of those open-world systems that worked well the first time around while refining the rough edges. The first game was a super-solid skeleton, so we expect to find plenty more meat on those bones when The Division 2 launches on March 15.

DOOM Eternal

If you played the 2016 DOOM reboot, then you probably don't need us to tell you why you should be bubbling with anticipation for DOOM Eternal, a follow-up from id Software due out later this year. The first game took all of the demon-slaying action we love from the original series and introduced new timing mechanics that made its fast-as-hell shooting action feel more methodical and infinitely more rewarding. In DOOM Eternal, hell finally comes to Earth and we are 100 percent ready to pick up a shotgun and fight off the invasion. Oh, and apparently you can jump into another player's game and go on a rampage as a demon, which sounds like a heck of a great twist for id to throw into the mix.

Kingdom Hearts III

Hard to believe but, come Jan. 29, Kingdom Hearts III will finally arrive. This game has been in development for what feels like forever but, based on the insane number of trailers we've seen up to this point, it looks like the wait will have been worth it. Sora, Donald, and Goofy will once again journey to worlds themed after all sorts of Disney movies where they'll battle the Heartless, Organization XIII and...You know what? The story is so insane that it barely matters at this point. So long as we get to run around Andy's bedroom from Toy Story and call on Stitch to rough up hordes of baddies, we'll be happy.

Mortal Kombat 11

One of the games revealed during The Game Awards about a month ago, the latest entry in the Mortal Kombat series is actually set to take the fighting community by storm come April 23. The only thing better than looking forward to a game is only having to look forward to it for a few months before it actually gets released. Our hype for Mortal Kombat is primarily fueled by NetherRealm's latest hit, Injustice 2. This studio knows how to make an amazing fighting game, they've figured out how to tell an entertaining story within said fighting game, and Injustice 2 introduced a metric ton of new ideas and modes that gave even solo players plenty of reasons to keep coming back for more. Since NetherRealm is likely to carry over those best ideas to this latest Mortal Kombat, fighting fans should be very excited for what's to come.

The Outer Worlds

Another game only just revealed during The Game Awards in December, The Outer Worlds is what Obsidian had quietly cooking for a couple of years now, but they decided to hold off on revealing the game until they were close to launch. Without throwing too much flak at Bethesda, The Outer Worlds looks like what players were hoping the next Fallout game would be; which makes a lot of sense seeing as how these folks made Fallout: New Vegas. It's been a while since we've played a solid first-person RPG with a sense of humor, so we're definitely interested in seeing what The Outer Worlds has to offer.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

We've seen Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in action a few times at this point and the game just keeps looking better and better. Rather than make another Dark Souls game or even a highly-requested follow-up to Bloodborne, the team at FromSoftware has instead decided to evolve its methodical combat formula once again, this time putting a heavier emphasis on lightning-fast action and less walking around with a shield raised high out of fear. Set in medieval Japan, Sekiro boasts that trademark FromSoftware look, complete with a menacing atmosphere and wild enemy designs that are sure to make for some exciting encounters. At this point, FromSoftware simply being attached to a game is enough to pique our interest, so it's even more exciting that Sekiro also looks like an absolute riot.

Crackdown 3

Launching in February, Crackdown 3 has been in development for about as long as the Xbox One has been on the market. The game was revealed with features that were clearly designed to show off the power of Microsoft's console though, over time, we've come to realize that things like a persistent environment simply aren't likely to make the final cut. And you know what? We're cool with that. The Crackdown series has always been about big, bold action and allowing players to go on a power trip on an extreme scale, and we're hopeful Sumo Digital and Co. have managed to deliver exactly that.

PUBG Corporation suffered somewhat of a slump throughout 2018 starting back in the first quarter of the year. The game began losing a lot of steam on Steam (pun intended) as Epic Games' Fortnite became a worldwide phenomenon. The slump has been rectified, though, and the game is now seeing a lot of new life on Steam after climbing its concurrent player base back up to the top.

Eurogamer is reporting that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has managed to climb its concurrent players back up to 1.1 million after being stuck in the 900,000 range throughout most of 2018. As noted in the article, November, 2018 saw the lowest concurrent player count at just 895,650.

So why the spike in the concurrent count of players? Vikendi.

PUBG Corporation recently released the snow-filled map on PC and mobile devices, giving gamers a whole new range of sandbox goodies to mess around with, shoot through, blow up, and drive around. This includes the new maze garden, an abandoned launch site, a park, and a ski resort. The new biome also comes with brand new weather conditions, where players will have to contend with visibility-affecting variables such as snowstorms and fog.

Apparently, the extra map, along with the new Christmas-themed weapons and outfits, was enough to reignite the passion gamers had for the game, and get them to dive back into the zaniness of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

It's a nice counter to Epic Games' unleashing the latest season of Fortnite, which included the ability to craft your own play spaces and have them featured in the Risky Reels lot where the drive-in theater used to be located.

While the current 1.1 million number for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is less than half of their maximum peak (which was 3.2 million) it's a sign of changing times for PUBG Corporation as they reel in the bad vibes and attempt to retrieve the goodwill of the community. All throughout 2018 the game saw a bleed-off of its player base due to a number of factors, including constant optimization issues, a widespread issue of dealing with hackers, and the fact that a lot of players had issues with lag due to the servers mixing in people from the Americas, China, and Russia, creating a pretty hostile environment filled with rubberbanding.

Some of the complaints seemed to have lessened as the mobile version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds popped up, but one look at the Steam page and you'll note that some gamers are still having problems with getting into games and having a solid experience.

So while PUBG Corporation may still have issues on its hands, it's showing that with new content and attempting to continually address the optimization problems, the development studio is working towards fixing some of the major issues.

I'm also pretty sure that having Kong Island's Jordan Vogt-Roberts directing that awesome live-action trailer helped a lot with putting the game back onto the radar of some people who may have written it off a while back. Apart from the Steam player count going on the rise, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is also available on the PS4 and Xbox One as well.

After a standout year for indie darling Celeste, the game's director has taken to Twitter to announce that some special levels will soon be added to the tough but rewarding platformer.

The above tweet comes from Celeste creator Matt Thorson, namesake of the extremely tiny Matt Makes Games development studio. And by tiny, I mean he's basically the whole damn studio. He works with a handful of super talented folks but otherwise, it's just him and a computer, churning out hits like Towerfall and Celeste.

Earlier this December, Thorson announced that Celeste had sold more than 500,000 copies throughout the year. He noted that the team never expected to sell that many copies, while I'd argue that at least 500,000 more people need to go out and add the game to their collection. I only just finally started playing it this week and, let me tell you, it's a platforming dream. More on that later.

For now, what's important is that Thorson has confirmed that some "farewell" levels have been in development for Celeste, which he expects to have ready sometime early in 2019. He notes that these are going to offer some extremely difficult challenges for dedicated players to tackle, which should serve as a nice sendoff for the game.

Also worth noting is the fact that Thorson is now teasing his next game. There's no telling what it might be but, just like the new Celeste levels, we can expect an official announcement sometime in the New Year.

As noted above, I finally found the time to begin Celeste this holiday season and, unsurprisingly, the game is living up to the immense hype. I was already a huge fan of Towerfall, which I've poured an untold number of hours into with friends. Celeste uses a similar art style, so it'll be interesting to see if Thorson's new game goes that same route or introduces something totally different. Celeste also builds on the mechanics of Towerfall, combining the multiplayer brawler's jump and dash with fresh abilities, like grabbing onto and climbing up walls. Oh, and the soundtrack? Killer.

Celeste was a Game of the Year contender at The Game Awards 2018, going toe-to-toe with games like God of War and Red Dead II. It's awesome to see this kind of game get the recognition it deserves, going so far as to win in the categories of Independent Game and Games for Impact while earning a nomination for Score/Soundtrack.

In other words, now might be a good time to grab Celeste if you haven't played it yet. You should have plenty of time to make it through the game's campaign before these new levels drop and, as added encouragement, the game wisely implements all kinds of customization options to make the platforming as simple or as complicated as you like.

You get a loot box! And you get a loot box! Everyone gets a loot box! Actually, if you're playing Overwatch, everyone gets five loot boxes. Happy holidays from Blizzard, indeed.

For those of you still grinding away at Overwatch, dreaming of the day you'll be called up to join the pros (or maybe you just like playing the game from time to time because it's fun), Blizzard has decided to fill your holiday stocking with plenty of loot. You don't have a heck of a lot of time to claim your gratis goodies but, thankfully, the process to earn your sweet rewards is hella simple.

The next time you log into Overwatch between now and Jan. 2, Gameinformer is reporting that you'll earn yourself five loot boxes just for showing up. Once you see the message announcing the gifts have arrived, all you have to do is head into your inventory, open them up and see what Sombra Claus has delivered.

As you might have guessed, the five free loot boxes everyone who plays the game receives are themed after the ongoing Winter Wonderland event. Even if you aren't too keen on the wintry wares, it's hard to argue with five bundles of skins, sprays and the like.

Along with the sprays and skins, you can also expect to uncover things like emotes and victory lines. The skins include everything from Krampus Junkrat and Suger Plum Fairy Mercy to Figure Skater Symmetra and Scrooge McCree.

And once you've decked your halls with a bunch of sweet new gear, it's time to jump into a more festive take on Blizzard's insanely popular hero shooter. Two special game modes are available throughout the Winter Wonderland event, including Yeti Hunter and Mei's Snowball Offensive. In Yeti Hunter, one player takes on the role of a souped-up Winston while five other players hit the map as Mei, who also has a new trap ability. The Winston player is supposed to hunt down steaks to charge up a special ability, making this a fun and frantic asymmetrical tussle.

In Mei's Snowball Offensive, players can fire massive, one-hit snowballs to take out their opponents. If you miss your shot, though, you'll be extremely vulnerable the only way to refill your ammo is to find the nearest pile of fresh powder.

Also helping make Overwatch more festive for the next few days are redesigned maps. A holiday theme has been added to Blizzard World, Black Forest, King's Row and Hanamura, so be sure to get in some matches to check out all of the snow and twinkling lights.

Now that the gift-giving is out of the way, it's time for everyone to sit around and patiently wait for season two of Overwatch League to kick into high gear.

Cliff Bleszinski had previously said he was done the video game industry, but now we know where he'll be trying his hand next. The man behind Gears of Water recently revealed he's producing on Broadway.

Even Cliff Bleszinski noted how crazy it was after making a tweet about over on his official Twitter account. He proudly declared that he was co-producing a Broadway show called HadesTown. After pointing to the Broadway show on Spotify, he later clarifies how he got into the whole stage show business far and away from gaming, stating that it was his niece who was a Broadway nerd that first introduced him to it. Following that thread, Bleszinski decided to get into the production aspects of it. He also points out that while he states that he's co-producing the show, he's actually more of an investor, since he joined the production team as an investor not as a producer, but he's still technically co-producing the show.

He's definitely right that a lot of people in the gaming news are definitely going "WTF?".

It was just earlier in the year that Boss Key Productions was still working on video games, specifically a hipster Battle Royale game called Radical Heights, where instead of having fatigues and military vehicles at your disposal, you rode around on bikes, and donned skater clothes while taking down opponents in a colorful and vibrant battle arena.

Despite the popularity of Radical Heights with some, the game just didn't do well enough to justify keeping the doors open at Boss Key Productions, the outfit that Cliff Bleszinski opened up to work on games independently and away from the strict structures of AAA publishers.

The company's first project was LawBreakers, a multiplatform first-person shooter that was themed around anti-gravity combat. It didn't fare quite so well on the market, especially as it faced stiff competition from other combat arena shooters such as Unreal Tournament and Quake Champions, as well as Blizzard's own Overwatch.

The closure of Boss Key Productions came just a short year after the launch of LawBreakers, which launched in the middle of August for the PlayStation 4 and PC.

After Boss Key Productions closed up shop, Cliff Bleszinski sent out tweets stating that he would be leaving gaming for good. He declared himself done with the world of development, and it appears he's sticking to his word. The creator of Jazz Jackrabbit and Gears of War is now testing his mettle in the world of Broadway, and we'll see how this all pays off as his investment into HadesTown begins to ramp up. Previews for the show begin on March 22nd, 2019 next year. After that, we'll find out if Bleszinski has what it takes to break a leg on Broadway.

A lot of companies don't like when people use words, phrases, expressions, or forms of communications that they deem inappropriate, uncouth, or hateful. Trying to deter people from using such language has always been difficult, but one company seems to have found a way to deter gamers in particular from communicating in ways they find displeasing.

Over on the Overwatch Contenders website, which tracks the eSports league and competitive community for Overwatch, there's a short post about Blizzard's ambitious new plan to curb the way people communicate through the chat streams in Twitch. The post is only a few paragraphs long and it gets right to the point right at the start. It notes that for those watching the Overwatch Path to Pro ecosystem, there will be a new trial program instituted by the Contenders to help with chat moderation. This will be accomplished by forcing users to link their Battle.net accounts with their Twitch.tv accounts if they want to participate in the Twitch chat streams.

The program is currently being put through a trial right now, starting with the quarterfinal matches during the Season 3 2018 season, which begins on today, and it will be tested up through January 12th, 2019. This will be utilized first through the Path to Pro viewership communities, and if all goes well then there are plans to expand the program outward to attach it to more of Blizzard's products.

You can actually hop into testing the new link system right now by heading on over to the Twitch.tv settings page, and then clicking on the "Connections" tab. Once you log into the system, you'll then have the option to link your Twitch.tv profile with your Battle.net account.

This will then ensure that everything you do on Twitch, can then be monitored by Blizzard through your Battle.net profile.

This new system has received a lot of mixed reactions from the community. Some people have praised Blizzard for this new step, claiming that it will help clean up the "toxic" Twitch community once and for all, while others claim that this is corporate overstep, especially if the expected logical step in punishment is that some sort of action will be applied to your Battle.net account for infractions made during Twitch chat.

This in itself has caused a lot of debate within the community. Some people feel that if you're using language that tries to skirt the filters on Twitch or spamming emotes, or being unruly within the community, then having Blizzard block you from playing Overwatch in multiplayer for a short period of time, or preventing you from accessing games like StarCraft or World of Warcraft is an adequate punishment. Others don't like the idea that a company could potentially restrict you from accessing products you paid for based on what you said or your behavior on an entirely different platform.

Obviously, for people who don't quite like the measure, the best thing to do is avoid linking the Battle.net account with the Twitch account. For those who feel they don't have anything to worry about, you can link both accounts together and enjoy the benefit of being able to easily connect your online social media profiles and video game profiles together.

From indie darlings to AAA masterpieces, 2018 played host to plenty of standout games. But which one deserves the title of "Game of the Year?" Well, that all depends on how you look at it.

For some, picking a GOTY is as simple as looking back over the past 12 months and deciding which game stole the most hours from their life. For others, it's a complex process involving research, bar graphs and lists comparing the pros and cons of each title. Other, potentially saner people, simply play the games they want to play and don't worry about deciding which one was arguably "the best." But where's the fun in that?

Picking a Game of the Year is admittedly a strange process, frequently requiring bizarre mental gymnastics in order to find a way to compare games that have practically nothing in common. Games like Celeste and Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance, exist on opposite ends of just about every spectrum, but both are considered by many to be solid contenders for the 2018 title.

As for me, picking this year's top game was a piece of cake. I just sat back, took a deep breath and went with my gut. Or my heart. Or my head. Or...

My Gut: Red Dead Redemption 2

Looking back over 2018, the best game of the year was undoubtedly Red Dead Redemption 2. In the coming years, if you were to look up the definition for "AAA masterpiece," you'd likely find a picture of Rockstar Games' latest epic. All you have to do is look at the game being played for five minutes to know that it's something special.

Red Dead 2 was made by a staff of thousands and that (decidedly problematic) labor shows in every square inch of the game. The soundtrack is top-notch, the performances are stellar and Rockstar's Wild West romp is the best-looking game of this generation.

And while it's easy to paint the game as a classic with broad strokes, that level of quality can be seen right down to the finest of details. Whether you're in the midst of an epic shootout atop a speeding train, riding your horse across a prairie while the sun sets at your back or slowly making your way through a snowy forest to track deer, Red Dead Redemption 2 feels like a living, breathing world overflowing with awe-inspiring detail.

A technical marvel of intricate, interlocking systems, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute behemoth deserving of high praise.

My Heart: God of War

Okay, sure, Red Dead 2 features a mind-bogglingly detailed world that's easy on the eyes, but have you heard anyone talk about how "great" that game is without also running through a laundry list of caveats that make you question if they actually like the game at all?

Red Dead 2's parts are far greater than its sum, which is not something you can say about the true Game of the Year, God of War. Santa Monica Studios' massive reboot also boasts some killer graphics, great performances, a beautiful soundtrack, and an engaging story, but it goes the extra mile to earn its praise by actually being fun to play.

Rather than let players run loose in a massive world that takes 37 minutes to ride across to deliver a deer carcass to their camp (only to discover the meat has gone bad), God of War instead boasts a more guided trek through a semi-open world that rewards exploration and is positively packed with things to see, puzzles to solve and Norse monsters to beat the stuffing out of. More importantly, the game is a well-paced joy to play that takes you on a memorable, emotional, exhilarating adventure you won't soon forget. And when it's over, it's over. No DLC, online pass or "games as service" nonsense. God of War is a top-to-bottom stellar game and that's all there is to it.

My Head: Fortnite

That's all well and good, but what are the real criteria for determining the Game of the Year? Is it the game that had the biggest staff? Is it the game that cost the most money to develop? Does the GOTY need the best graphics, an orchestral soundtrack and a story that "really makes you think?"

Shouldn't the Game of the Year be the one that fundamentally changed the landscape of the industry? Or what about the game that goes beyond the boundaries of that industry in order to become a pop culture phenomenon and a household name? Ask a random stranger on the street to talk about Red Dead 2 or God of War and there's a good chance they'll just offer a blank stare in return. Ask that same person about Fortnite and they'll likely break out a (currently litigious) dance, talk about how they saw Ninja on a recent episode of Ellen or complain about how their kids won't shut up about it.

Of course, none of that would matter if Fortnite itself wasn't an elegant, fun and lovingly crafted game that has 100 percent earned its spot at the front of the pack. Epic Games took a good formula, bolted on a boatload of simple, yet brilliant, ideas and turned a lighthearted battle royale into a global phenomenon that's a hell of a lot of fun to play. More importantly, the team is making constant adjustments to the game and piling on more and more unique twists that make Fortnite worth coming back to week after week.

If the Game of the Year is the one that has had the biggest impact (both in and out of the industry) and will likely still be talked about and played years from now, then Fortnite is the clear winner for 2018.

Angel On My Shoulder: Monster Hunter World

Then again, maybe the game of the year is the one that takes you completely by surprise, sinks its hooks in deep and keeps you glued to the television into the wee hours of the morning. Shouldn't growth count for something?

Few series have evolved quite like Monster Hunter, which stormed onto the scene early in the year and caught pretty much everyone completely off guard. The series has always had a cult following, but World catapulted Monster Hunter into the limelight by making a notoriously niche series far more welcoming to average players.

Capcom wisely ditched some of Monster Hunter's more frustrating components and bolted on more intuitive gameplay, open maps and features that negate some of the unnecessary grind. The result is a game that more players than ever can enjoy, and that's exactly why the game was so successful in finding a massive audience this time around. Frequent updates and seasonal events have kept players returning to World, making it an unquestionable darling of 2018. It's an impressive leap forward for the series worthy of all the recognition it can get.

Devil On My Shoulder: Earth Defense Force 5

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about the best "game" of 2018. What's with all this talk of artistic merit, engaging narratives and stunning performances?

You know what video games are good for? Turning off your brain, escaping the real world and blowing shit up for an hour or two.

Red Dead 2 features realistic buildings, but I can't chuck sticks of dynamite through a window and watch the place explode. How's that for "unparalleled realism?" And you're telling me that Kratos, the freaking god of war, spends his latest adventure battling mythological creatures worrying about whether or not he's being a good father?

You know what game doesn't mess around with any of that junk? Earth Defense Force 5. That game knows exactly what it is and it doesn't try to be anything different. You want a thousand different kinds of guns to shoot? It's got them! You want to go toe-to-toe with giant ants, frog people, flying saucers and kaiju? EDF 5 has 100-plus levels of it! Is that skyscraper blocking your view? Three grenades and it's rubble, pal!

"But the story in Red Dead 2 is actually an allegory for how the world is---" Shut up with that nonsense! You know what the story in EDF5 is? Giant monsters are attacking and you need to kill them. The end.

Earth Defense Force 5 is goofy as hell and packed with the kind of over-the-top action that made video games a hit in the first place. If anything deserves to be called the Game of the Year, it's the game where you can drive a tank and fire round after round into spiders the size of an SUV.

Sometimes games have really awesome concepts with a neat little hook or story concept. It's enough to lure in gamers and get them interested. However, some games fail to deliver on what they seem to promise or come up short on the kind of content that gamers were expecting from the outing.

Sometimes you see what the developers were trying to accomplish, and it's just frustrating that they didn't quite stick the landing. Other times, you see the promise of something seemingly completely squandered. Here are gaming's biggest missed opportunities of 2018.

Immortal Unchained

Imagine a futuristic game set in an alternate dimension where you gain access to melee weapons and awesome high-tech military guns where you face off against monsters and other-worldly beasts. Sounds pretty intense, eh? Well, that's the general premise for Immortal Unchained, another one of those Soulsborne games that tries to focus on hard-as-nails gameplay and a grimy environment where the story unfolds based on exploration and player-driven investigation. The only problem is that Immortal Unchained didn't quite manage to fulfill it's entire potential.

The biggest drawback was that the environments became more of a chore to traverse than a joy to explore, and worse yet, the enemy AI didn't quite stack up to the sci-fi Gothic aesthetic that the game was rocking. There were also complaints about some of the weapons feeling the same after a while. It's a real shame because, with a bit more polish on the enemy behavior, better implementation of the checkpoints within the environmental, and slightly more refined gunplay mechanics, and Immortal Unchained could have easily become a sleeper hit for the ages.

Extinction

This is another one of those games where the scope and potential didn't quite match up with the actual gameplay and execution. Extinction is a third-person hack-and-slash title from Maximum Games and Iron Galaxy. It sports sandbox-style gameplay where players take on the role of a lone legend warrior intent on saving the last bastion of humanity from an onslaught of giant, destructive ogres. Imagine a Western take on the popular Attack on Titan.

The setup was sound, the gameplay hook seemed neat enough, insofar that players would have to hack away at the ogre's armor using different kinds of attacks to eventually build up enough energy to slice off the head of the giant beasts. The problem is that the gameplay loop became repetitive extremely quickly, the ogres didn't prove to be very challenging, and despite their size being quite impressive, there didn't feel like a whole lot was at stake as they crushed and demolished everything in their wake. Higher stakes, better AI, and a few more gameplay loops could have saved Extinction from the middling-to-low scores.

Onrush

Here's a game that kind of came out of nowhere. It's the spiritual successor to the now defunct Evolution Studios' MotorStorm franchise that first appeared on the PlayStation 3. The hook for this game is that you don't race for laps, you race to destroy the opposing team on the track, or to knock them out via checkpoint elimination. This means you have to utilize tag-team moves with your teammates, and crush, jump, shunt, and bump your way to victory. The concept is totally radical for a racing game, but it kind of comes up short in a few key areas.

One of the biggest complaints for the game was that it did not have a traditional lap-based racing mode to rely on, which meant that gamers always had to stay within the racing carnage in order to enjoy the game. For players that failed to stay in the mix were fresh out of luck, and found themselves stuck in the back of the pack and eventually out of the race. It also had a rather lackluster single-player component and was similar to Gran Turismo Sport in many ways, which didn't win over a whole lot of gamers. This obviously wasn't enough to keep the attention of a substantial audience, making it another one of those games that had a slick concept but didn't quite deliver on all of its potential.

Just Cause 4

I didn't think it was possible but Avalanche Studios managed to make the Just Cause series both better and worse with each outing. The series has one of the most uneven standards of quality in all of gaming. The latest outing for the game makes some awesome improvements, such as dynamic weather storms, improved vehicle handling, all new physics-based gadgets, and tons of ways to cause explosions. Sounds like an awesome experience, right?

Well, much like Just Cause 3, Just Cause 4 launched a with a ton of issues out of the gate, something one would have expected Avalanche Studios to have addressed after suffering the same fate with Just Cause 3. A good first impression can only be made once, and Avalanche missed the boat on that one. The structure of the missions also changed, focusing less on destruction and more on other mission parameters, and the story is less airy than the previous three games, making it yet another grim-dark action game. It's not entirely beyond redemption, but there's a lot of missed potential with this one.

Darksiders III

I liked the Darksiders franchise. It's a stark departure from every other third-person game out there due to its mixture of other-worldly fantasy with a completely comic-book inspired take on Armageddon. The first two games had similar themes but were starkly different in how they were executed, and the third game attempts to deliver its own take on the franchise, but seems to come up short of what it could have been. The game moves at a rapid clip, and there's no downtime or slog-fests, which is a definite upgrade over Darksiders II. There's also fewer annoying puzzles and more platforming.

However, the game feels somewhat half designed. The gameplay loops are kind of simple, and they don't really scale in the same epic fashion as the original Darksiders. And despite getting rid of the annoying looting from the second game, there isn't much else in the way of actual gameplay depth to replace it. And while Fury's whip is pretty cool and she has some interesting abilities, she doesn't get to ride a horse, which diminishes some of the fun-factors and gameplay variance in Darksiders III, leaving the game feeling like it could have been far more ambitious than what it was.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Eidos Montreal decided to take a crack at Tomb Raider after Crystal Dynamics pumped out the previous two games. The third and final outing of Lara Croft's origin story fell kind of flat, though. While the graphics showed moderate improvements and hints at the traditional Lara reared its head near the end of the game, the biggest problem was that there were a lot of steps taken backward with Shadow of the Tomb Raider as well, including the areas being less expansive than Rise of the Tomb Raider, which felt like a truly large and massive open world.

While the gunplay was more limited in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it wasn't really replaced with anything exciting, and the climbing was still only par for the course with the rest of the series. The underwater segments had potential but were implemented in a disjointed way that hobbled the overall gameplay pace, and that's not to mention the underwhelming story that seemed anti-climatic for Lara's ascension into legend-hood. There was a lot of potential there, it just didn't seem to get utilized in the right way.

Battlefield V

It was obvious that this game would be here, right? Why wouldn't it? It's DICE's most ambitious Battlefield yet and yet at the same time it's the studio's biggest failing in terms of community feedback and reactions. Running on the latest iteration of the Frostbite, the game sports the most advanced graphics that DICE has produced to date, with all new features, such as the Battle Royale mode and a completely new set of War Stories.

The problem is that Battlefield V launched with a lot of balancing issues, and when DICE tried to balance the game for new players they just made it worse. Then there was the whole player-customization that made it difficult for players to tell who was an enemy and who was a teammate. And finally, there was the War Stories. DICE had an opportunity to tell actual stories based on real events, but opted for fictional stories based on real events, which didn't sit well with a lot of war veterans nor core gamers, and the game's sales seem to have suffered for it. The crazy part about it is that the real events that the War Stories were based on were actually more intense, and even more over-the-top than the fictional stories DICE included in the game. It was a huge missed opportunity to not only give gamers some awesome gameplay, but also cover some of the more obscure stories from World War II in the process.

Talk about a brand new Xbox has only picked up in recent times. A lot of gamers are under the impression that Microsoft will be announcing a new console soon to join the ever-growing family of game consoles. However, before we get a new console, there are reports going around that we could be seeing a new webcam for the system first.

Over on Thurrott, the outlet is reporting that a couple of sources close to Microsoft revealed to them that the firm is working on a new 4K-capable webcam for Windows 10 PCs and the Xbox One. These webcams are supposed to be released at some point in 2019.

Thurrott believes that the new webcam could be attached to the release of the new Surface Hub 2. The USB-C camera is supposed to make it where you can mount it easily or attach it to a device and use multiple cameras for video recording.

Obviously, the most pressing question most people probably have is: What about the Kinect 2.0?

Thurrott brings out the salient point that the camera is likely going to be a replacement for the Kinect 2.0, and offer Xbox owners a way to record video messages, or video chat, or take profile pictures from the comfort of their couch. What we don't know is what happens to the Kinect for those who already have one equipped.

The device wasn't very well-received, thanks to its attachment to a lot of the spying protocols that had become public at the time, due to leaks from people like Edward Snowden. It was revealed that various government spying programs were making use of private webcam data, and that the Kinect was part of one of those programs. Microsoft denied being part of those programs, however.

The privacy concerns could have been overcome if maybe there was some sort of additional functionality or features attached to it that made the gameplay experience more dynamic. It could have garnered a much longer shelf life. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't really do anything with the Kinect.

There were a few games that made use of it, like Kinect Sports Rivals, the Xbox Fitness app, and Fantasia: Music Evolved, but there wasn't much else that really warranted its use.

Eventually, Microsoft phased out the inclusion of the device with the core package, and then stopped supporting it altogether. Years later, Microsoft seems to be trying its hand at a webcam device once more. One must wonder if it will just be for video chats and social connectivity or will Microsoft attempt to do something more with the webcam functionality? We've seen games like Star Citizen make use of webcams in neat ways with the FOIP, so that's a possibility.

However, given that Microsoft seems more intent on building out a software library than hardware peripherals, it's likely that the webcam will simply be a basic device that shares interconnectivity between Windows 10 devices and the Xbox One family of systems.

The webcam is supposed to be released at some point in 2019, which means that it will likely be announced at some point in early 2019.

A Game of the Year contender and indie darling, Celeste headlines the first Games with Gold roster of 2019. And if you're into racing, raiding, or shooting, you'll want to check out the rest of what's coming to Xbox beginning January 1.

With the holidays set to kick off, the January Games with Gold lineup has been posted a little earlier than normal over on the Major Nelson blog. The New Year is nearly two weeks away, but it's never too early to get excited for a collection of free games.

Okay, yes, you have to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber to add these games to your digital collection in January. But when this first month's list of games alone normally sells for $105, the "it's not 'free' if it costs $60" argument is kind of a moot point.

And speaking of games, January's list is pretty-dang solid. The Xbox One games next month include Celeste and WRC 6. A blast from the past, the Xbox 360 offerings include Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Far Cry 2. Just as a reminder, those Xbox 360 games are backwards compatible so, if you have an Xbox One, you can snag all four games throughout January.

First up is Celeste, which will be available for Xbox One from January 1-31. If you feel like that game's name has been popping up quite a bit lately, that's because it's finding its way to oodles of Game of the Year lists and was even part of the short list for the top honor during this year's rendition of The Game Awards. Coming from Matt Makes Games, it's certainly a noteworthy feat for when your miniscule team's game can go toe-to-toe with the likes of God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Next up on the Xbox One list is WRC 6, which will be available from Jan. 16 to Feb. 15. This comprehensive racer boasts 14 official rallies as well as official drivers and teams, with 12 stages that were built from the ground up to perfectly mirror their real-world counterparts. If you've gotta go fast, it's worth checking out.

Hopping over to the Xbox 360 list, a couple of super-solid games are being offered for Microsoft's last-gen console. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a fantastic environmental puzzle game that can be played solo, but really shines when you're raiding tombs with a friend. Seriously, it's a blast.

And then there's Far Cry 2, the game that pretty much catapulted the series into popularity. If you want to see where many of today's open-world games drew some inspiration from, it's definitely worth diving back into this big, violent jungle for another adventure.

And that'll do it for this month's Games with Gold. Feel free to share your thoughts about the lineup in the comments below.

EA and DICE have decided to show off a whole bunch of concept art for Star Wars Battlefront II, offering a peek behind the curtain into the game's early development. Whether you're a fan of the game's art or just interested in how these kinds of projects move from idea to game, there's a lot to be gleaned from the details provided.

Over on the Battlefront II blog, a recent post is offering visitors a look at about a dozen large pieces of concept art for the game. As noted in the post, these pieces of art are basically where the game's design began. Artists came up with concepts for the various locations, enemies, machines, etc. that would populate Battlefront II, which helped guide design decisions and the final look of the game moving forward.

It can be easy to forget that these big AAA games are the result of an untold number of hours being put in by large teams of dedicated men and women. We play a game, have fun, and then move on to the next game without giving much thought to how these things are actually made.

That's what makes DICE's recent visual tour so appealing. As noted in the post, players only get to see how all of that work comes together in the end. The original designs, which are some of the earliest steps in the process, are frequently unsung heroes of game development.

The blog post notes that these pieces of concept art can be considered the "first draft" of the game. For Battlefront II, it's explained that the goal was not to just try and match the look and feel of the Star Wars films but to figure out how to tell parts of the story with visuals alone. Take the image below as an example, titled "First Order forces on Jakku." In this image, we see a couple of First Order troopers hiding in the shadows, waiting to get the drop on the playable characters in the background. Those characters are standing in the middle of a sun-drenched crash site that has been converted to a camp or outpost of sorts. This one image alone sets the mood for a visit to Jakku in Battlefront II. It tells the design team that the world should be harsh and sunny, but maybe disarmingly subdued. The player needs to know that, at any moment, the First Order could show up and ruin their time in the sun.

The blog post actually serves as a condensed yet comprehensive guide for how concept art is utilized in game development, moving from rough pencil drawings to the various types of artwork necessary to build the game world in a project like Battlefront II. The image below, for instance, is "A birds-eye view of the space dock in Mos Eisley." This kind of art helps give the team a better idea of the exact layout and scale of a location, which comes in handy with everything from final design to creating a flow for gameplay through the level.

Battlefront II is in the midst of its second year of continued content drops, all free of charge. The game may have had a rocky start, but it's certainly evolved well over the past 12 months. And thanks to artwork like this, we get a better understanding of how that evolution first began, back before things like since-removed microtransactions or flawed reward loops were part of the conversation. So in a way, this also serves as a nice reminder that, separate of the business end of things, games are the result of a lot of talented people trying to work together to make something they're passionate about.

Even though the Xbox One and PS4 are still hitting their stride, and the Nintendo Switch is pulling in mean numbers on the marketplace, there's already talk about what the next set of consoles will feature and what sort of game tech and specs gamers can look forward to when the consoles do launch. In this case, rumors are flying regarding multiple SKUs launching for the next generation Xbox.

Windows Central is reporting that there are two codenames for the two SKUs that will launch as part of the next line-up of Xbox home consoles. These consoles are tentatively being called "Anaconda" and "Lockhart."

So, the consoles will come in two different SKU types, one is a cost-effective unit that will be a next-gen successor to the Xbox One S console codenamed Lockhart. It's also being referred to as an S2 class console (the '2' representing the second generation of the Xbox One S). It will be slightly cheaper than the other beefier console, which is codenamed Anaconda. The Anaconda is being classified as the X2, which relates to being the second generation of the Xbox One X, which is the beefy 4K UHD successor to the Xbox One S. According to the report, the Anaconda will be the lead development platform, which will offer developer kits to the studios working on games for the system.

The Lockhart will be equivalent in power to the Xbox One X, which is already a highly powerful and very under-utilized system. However, the Lockhart will supposedly have "refinements" made under the hood to likely cut costs somewhere. The Anaconda will move in the opposite direction, featuring cutting-edge technology to reduce load times and increase performance efficiency. I really hope this isn't true because it means anyone purchasing the Anaconda is going to be shortchanged, since all games made for the new Xbox will be designed for the lowest common denominator first and then (sometimes) scaled upward. But, ultimately it means that developers still have to design low and then scale certain features up, and this could really work against a lot of potential scope and scale in games if Microsoft wants to maintain a 4K output standard, which is a resource intensive benchmark.

The better option would be to make the Lockhart fit in line with the other rumored discless console. For those of you who don't know, Windows Central also goes over the rumor that there will be one final Xbox SKU released for the current generation that will be discless, and release in 2019. The rumors of the discless Xbox center around the system being an all-digital system that will supposedly come in at a lower price tag than the disc-based system. And, given that digital distribution has topped retail sales in annual revenue, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, it's not surprising that Microsoft would target a digital-only market for the next system.

Having the Lochart and Anaconda maintain similar specs would be the better option, and then removing the discs-drive to lower the price would be the preferable trade-off. This way, no one loses any performance overhead and there are no worries about the Lockhart holding back the potential of the Anaconda.

Anyway, what do you think of the rumors about a two-SKU launch? This would be a similar approach to what Microsoft used when launching the Xbox 360 with the Arcade and the Pro systems back in 2005, when one came with a hard drive and the other didn't. Is it a smart move or would it potentially fracture the consumer market?

Fortnite is full of dances folks will likely recognize from pop culture and, as it turns out, some of the folks who created those dances aren't too happy about that fact and are seeking legal action. The most recent lawsuit has been filed by Alfonso Ribeiro, famously known as Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But just to throw another wrinkle into the situation, it's now being questioned whether Ribeiro himself was even the originator of what has become known as "The Carlton Dance."

According to a report from Polygon, Ribeiro is suing Fortnite's parent company, Epic, over inclusion of the "Fresh" emote. If you happened to pick up that emote, you likely noticed that it bears a striking resemblance to the goofy dance Carlton Banks used to perform on Fresh Prince. Like, super striking.

That's not exactly uncommon in Fortnite or many other games, where emotes resembling known dances have become a big part of the in-game community. The question is whether or not that's actually legal.

This isn't the first time Epic has been called out for including a famous dance, as rapper 2 Milly, also known as Terrance Ferguson, recently sued the company over his own dance, Milly Rock. In the case of Ribeiro's claim, it's noted that there's an additional concern about the process of taking these particular dances and then making money off of them by selling them as emotes. According to the claim, these actions by Epic are "exploiting African-American talent" when they appropriate these dances and movements.

While it's likely many other celebrities can claim Epic is appropriating their dance, the real murky issue is whether or not it is actually illegal. Unlike some other forms of entertainment, you can't simply break out a dance and claim it as your property. That's not an attempt to minimalize the situation, just a statement that ownership of dance moves has always been a tricky business. According to the initial report, you first need to copyright a dance before you can claim ownership of it, which is likely itself a rather complicated process. It's noted that Ribeiro is currently in the process of copyrighting his dance so, again, it's unclear if that fact will have an impact on his lawsuit.

Also unclear is whether or not Ribeiro's dance can even be called his own. In a recent clip revealed by TMZ, Ribeiro explains how he came up with the dance. In his own words, he "stole it" from Courteney Cox and Eddie Murphy. The former breaks out a similar dance in the Bruce Springsteen music video for "Dancing in the Dark," while the latter used a similar dance as his "white guy dance." Both are close to what has been called "The Carlton Dance," but neither is identical. Ribeiro explained that he took a little from each, put in a bit of his own stuff and, boom, he's got the dance. As his lawyers stated following the revelation of the clip, Ribeiro was not using the term "stolen" in the legal sense of the word. If all of this is a bit confusing, just be glad that you're not the judge who has to eventually make a determination on the matter.

If nothing else, at least this whole situation is bringing the use of these types of emotes into the limelight. They're in all sorts of games, usually because they're something the community will recognize and enjoy and, yes, pay a couple of bucks for. But that's where the dilemma lies. If someone is making money off of the dance, should the person who created it not receive compensation or, bare minimum, a say in whether or not their dance can be used? Whether or not 2 Milly and/or Ribeiro win their cases, it's possible they will at least lead to developers putting some additional consideration into what emotes are created for their game and whether or not they can (or should) be grabbed from pop culture so freely.

A couple of posters for next year's Sonic the Hedgehog movie were unveiled this week, leading members of Sonic Team (the folks behind the games) to share their thoughts on the design. We still haven't gotten a crystal clear look at the character but, based on the two posters available at this time, everyone seems to be bracing for the worst.

The first Sonic movie poster features the speedy critter in silhouette. We can't see all of his features or even his face but, from what we can make out, the design is taking a decidedly different spin on what fans have come to know from the games. His head has some odd proportions, his hands and feet are small and his body has some serious muscle tone.

To make matters worse, a second unconfirmed poster featuring a bizarre shot of Sonic's speed trail as seen from between his lounging legs has also been revealed and the angle of the legs is all wrong if we're to assume they are attached to the same body.

So for now, all we've got to go on is a weird crotch shot and a shadowy body that looks very little like the character of Sonic that most of us know. Over on the SonicJPNews Twitter feed, though, members of the game development team have started offering their take on what we've seen so far. Hopeful optimism is probably the kindest way to describe the tone of these comments so far.

First up is Mazin-san, who notes that newbies to the company used to have to wear a Sonic suit that was apparently a bit disturbing. His best estimation is that the new Sonic looks a lot like that same suit.

Moving on to Naka-san, he comments on an edited image that's been making the rounds recently. Some folks supposedly lightened the silhouette poster to reveal what Sonic really looks like, but that image has since been proven inaccurate. Naka is happy to learn that fact, though he still isn't convinced that the movie version of Sonic will be "cool."

I consider myself a pretty decently versed Sonic fan, but Ohshima-san's take on the character design drops some knowledge about the character I didn't even know; specifically that Sonic is apparently some sort of fairy. Though there may be something being lost in this translation.

Ohshima's take is that the original design of Sonic should have been fine for the movie and that they really didn't need to try to make the character look more realistic. As he notes, when the character of Mickey Mouse pops up in more realistic universes, he still looks like the cartoon version of the character and not a weird, more realistically proportioned version of a muscular mouse. And then there's Kanemaru-san's take, which is probably the most level-headed reaction imaginable.

Kanemaru's view is pretty admirable, stating simply that he did the best work he could when the character was in his hands and, after that, he tries not to stress on the interpretation of others.

The Fortnite Winter Royale million-dollar tournament is up and running however, thanks to a couple of the game's most recent updates, players are super unhappy with how the competition is shaping up.

One of Fortnite's strongest selling points is the fact that the game is constantly changing. From new modes and in-game items to map alterations and more, every week brings something fresh and exciting to Epic's 100-player battle royale. As it turns out, that's not exactly a good thing when you're trying to run a massive tournament that's got a million bucks in prize money on the line, especially if those updates greatly unbalance the proceedings.

As we recently reported, Epic has been hosting various qualifying rounds for Fortnite, with players earning the highest scores being invited to join the closing rounds of the Winter Royale tournament. The issue players are coming up against are the recently implemented planes and, even more recently, the Infinity Blade.

I'll start with the slightly less game-ruining inclusion of planes. In a standard round of Fornite, the planes seem like fun twists on the standard gameplay. They allow players to get around the map more quickly, have front-mounted machine guns and can even transport teammates in squad-based modes. Since there aren't a lot of weapons available that can harm a plane at high altitude, tournament participants have learned that they can just hop into one of the vehicles and fly around the map in order to stay in the match longer. While they're goofing off in the clouds, the rest of the tournament participants are struggling for survival below. There's even footage over on Eurogamer of a group of planes circling the shrinking combat zone, with none of them actually firing at each other in a sort of unofficial truce in order to guarantee they all last until the closing moments of the round.

While that's certainly not in the spirit of Fortnite, you can't blame players for taking advantage of every opportunity presented to them when a million dollars are on the line. Still, it's an issue that probably should have been anticipated and is making for some super boring Esports competitions.

Even worse, though, is the Infinity Blade, which went live just this week. There's only one Infinity Blade available on the map, and it grants the player who wields it an insane advantage including higher health, higher armor, health recharge for kills, the ability to leap into the air and do massive damage. The Infinity Blade can also slice through structures like butter, which is a huge leg up on the competition in the late stages of the match.

This is exactly the kind of goofy limited item Fortnite fans usually get a kick out of, but only when it's available as part of a special event like what was done with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet earlier this year. The Infinity Blade is available in the standard mode, though, which means it's fair game for the Winter Royale tournament.

It's possible Epic will patch both the planes and the Infinity Blade out of standard modes in Fortnite for the remainder of the tournament, but then they'd probably have to scrap all of the competitions so far, as some players have already taken losses with these items in play.

If you can't wait for the end of January to get your hands on Kingdom Hearts III, and you absolutely need to play the game early, there's a way to do so, if you're willing. It will certainly require more than just a trip to the local retailer, though, and gamers not keen on spending more than their budget allows will probably want to pass.

According to Attractions Magazine, Disney and Square Enix have teamed up together to offer gamers an opportunity to play Kingdom Hearts III early, and all you have to do is go to Walt Disney World. A location is being set up at the Disney Springs shopping location that will include a demo of the new game

The availability of the demo will persist at the resort from December 14th, 2018 all the way through January 31st, 2019. So you will be able to play the game early ahead of everyone weeks before the game officially launches in Japan on January 25th and for the rest of the world of January 29th in 2019.

The article doesn't exactly say what the demo will contain or what worlds you'll be able to visit in Kingdom Hearts III. For those of you who don't know, the hook for the game is that the lead character, Sora, along with Goofy and Donald Duck, travel to different worlds from both the Square Enix universe and the Disney universe.

It seems like a really odd crossover, but it combines the outlandish flair of JRPGs that Square Enix helped popularize throughout the 1990s, the early aughts, and into this latest generation, while also giving gamers an opportunity to explore the various worlds of Disney properties, including classic franchises like Tron and Fantasia, as well as more modern classics like the highly popular Frozen and Big Hero 6.

The upcoming game also adds a number of other worlds to the stable, including other popular and recent movies that have graced Disney's publishing label, such as Tangled and some of the locations from Toy Story as well as hints at interactions with Wreck-It Ralph content.

A few other worlds that gamers can expect to see make an appearance in Kingdom Hearts III is Hercules as well as the world of Winnie The Pooh, which probably isn't something you would have expected to see in the JRPG.

The game has been in development for more than half a decade, and a lot of gamers are excited about the upcoming entry in the long-running series.

Creative director Tetsuya Nomura also opted to change up the way the game plays, so if you happen to visit the Disney Springs between December and January, and you get an opportunity to play-test the demo, you'll be able to check out the new and improved combat system, as well as some of the other cool features added to the game. There's certainly a more cinematic element to the presentation of the gameplay, so for people who enjoy that kind of content in their role-playing experiences, it will be there in spades.

Additionally, there will be digital kiosks setup where those attending will be able to pre-order the game after checking out the demo.

It's hard to believe, but the DOOM series has been opening the gates of hell for 25 years and, to celebrate, Bethesda Softworks has put together a rather rad montage full of demon-slaying action.

Doom first launched on the PC back in 1993, with the original game going on to grace so many consoles that it became something of a running joke. While that torch has been more or less picked up by Skyrim (you can now play it with Alexa!), the original Doom has Bethesda's fantasy epic beat in terms of appearances. From the PlayStation to the Sega Saturn, the Xbox to the PlayStation 3, the original Doom has even been made playable on Apple watches. At this point, I'm pretty sure you could even play the game on one of those fancy graphing calculators we all had to buy for geometry class.

To celebrate 25 years of action, Bethesda put together the above video that pretty much runs through all of the hits. It's got shotguns and chainsaws aplenty, as well as a rocking soundtrack and so, so many gibs. There are also several nice nods to the community peppered throughout, including cosplayers, artists, claymation videos based on the series and more. This isn't so much a trailer for the series' next game as it is a celebration of all the insane action that's come before.

Depending on how you count, there are about eight entries in the main Doom line, with a handful of spinoffs including everything from a Doom RPG to last year's Doom VFR, which put players in the boots of a demon-slaying soldier for the first time.

And, as noted before, Bethesda is far from being done with the series at this point. Doom Eternal was announced during E3 2018, apparently due out sometime in 2019. Bethesda promises that the series is finally bringing hell to earth, which garnered a very excited reaction from series fans across social media. Given how good the kinda-sorta reboot was a few years back, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how the team decides to continue evolving the series.

It's easy to forget at this point just how influential Doom has been, as a series. While Wolfenstein 3D got the FPS train running a couple years before Doom, I think it's fair to say that the trip to hell is what really cemented the genre as an industry staple. We would have likely never gotten series like Call of Duty or Battlefield had Doom not helped pave the way a quarter-century ago. The game was also a huge focal point for early discussions about violence in the medium which, again, helped pave the way for better regulations within the industry and a better understanding that video games had outgrown their "just for kids" label.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a technical marvel that frequently crumbles under its own weight. Thankfully, Red Dead Online's more streamlined approach to the Wild West addresses many of the main game's biggest issues. There's a bit of a trade-off but, when I start feeling like the campaign is getting in my way of having fun, a trip online offers the cure for what ails me.

Let me paint a picture for you; one that I'd wager just about anyone who has played Red Dead Redemption 2 for a few hours can relate to.

I had a deer and two ducks strapped to my horse and I was riding into Valentine to sell the meat for a couple of bucks. I was running low on bullets and supplies, so I figured I might as well stroll down the road and do some shopping, too.

Heading past one of the local saloons, I saw a fight break out in which one fellow beat the stuffing out of another and then left his victim lying in the muddy street. I didn't pay the scene much attention, opting instead to head into the gun store and buy some rounds for my revolver. When I headed back outside, I discovered that the man's body had become something of a roadblock. There was a horse-drawn cart on either side of him, a couple of horses and several people standing around, apparently unable to navigate the admittedly narrow street because this fellow's unconscious body was in the way.

Being an honorable cowboy in the mood to perform a good deed, I decided to pick up the fight victim and simply move him out of the way. The moment I hoisted his limp frame onto my shoulder, though, the nearby folks started screaming and calling for the sheriff. I immediately dropped the body, but not before there was a warrant on my head for having the audacity to pick up the guy in the first place. Even crazier, the situation escalated immediately, with the local lawmen opening fire on me before I had time to process what was going on.

I managed to make it back to my horse and start hightailing it out of town, but I was soon overtaken and shot dead in a nearby field.

I respawned at a cost of what little money I had in my pocket and a bounty that was far greater than I was able to pay. When I whistled for my horse, I discovered the animals I planned on selling were gone. Worse, because I respawned in the region where I had a price on my head, I noticed a red dot already moving across the map, representing the bounty hunters that were out for my blood.

I went into Valentine to conduct some super basic business and Red Dead Redemption 2 responded by kicking me in the crotch.

The problem is that I have many, many similar stories, some far more involved than the ordeal above and coming at a far greater cost to my time and in-game resources. Once, when trying to hunt in the snow-covered hills, I was attacked by three separate packs of wolves in quick succession. I died and lost all of my pelts. I'll occasionally ride into camp to save my game and call it a night and the game will instead automatically begin a mission to progress the story whether I wanted it to or not.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is composed of many, many interlocking systems and it's been my experience that those systems frequently trip over themselves and lead to unfavorable circumstances. It's frustrating when all I want to do is fish and a game screams into my face, "No! I have decided you will do this other thing instead."

I usually appreciate emergent storytelling in my games and have seen many of my colleagues talk about similar situations to the one outlined above as a selling point to Red Dead Redemption 2, but I'm finding it more and more frustrating to have a game throw so many roadblocks in the way of my having fun.

Which is exactly why I find myself logging into Red Dead Online more and more frequently rather than continuing the main game's campaign. I'm enjoying the campaign's narrative and there are plenty of awe-inspiring moments peppered throughout, but for every evening that I turn off RDR2 feeling like I had a good time and made some progress, there are twice as many nights when I turn off the game feeling the mental equivalent of multiple stubbed toes.

In Red Dead Online, those issues are alleviated by fewer systems being constantly at play and far more forgiving consequences for my actions. There are fewer NPCs in the online world and random encounters are practically non-existent. I've been attacked by wildlife twice in all of my hours of playing online and never feel like a minor infraction results in a cascade of grossly disproportionate consequences.

In Red Dead Online, I'm free to experiment within the game world and just have some good old-fashioned fun without constantly being punished for not coloring within the lines. And sure, plenty of players will pop up and shoot me for no good reason, but I respawn instantly, nearby and, most importantly, at no cost. Hell, I can hunt down the person who shot me and return the favor without earning a bounty or completely derailing whatever activity I was originally engaged in.

There's also the added bonus that playing online negates the overwhelming sense of loneliness I frequently experienced the further I got into the RDR2 campaign. I appreciate that the mood of the game is quiet, solemn and frequently solitary, but that can get downright depressing when you settle in for a few hours.

I'm the kind of guy who likes to play MMOs solo. I spent a lot of time in games like Lord of the Rings Online or Final Fantasy XIV, but I almost never joined a group to tackle the bigger missions and raids. I appreciate the fact that I could play with others if I wanted to, but I was even more appreciative of the fact that these types of games never force those interactions. Red Dead Online strikes a similar balance. I prefer to play solo, but knowing that other players are on the map is enough to make me think, "Oh, good, I'm not utterly alone in this world." I don't frequently want to play with these other people, but seeing their pink blips move across the map offers an odd sort of comfort.

At this point, I'm not sure if I'll ever finish the campaign in Red Dead Redemption 2. Every time I jump in and think, "Alright, it's time to push forward and see how this story unfolds," the game finds new and frequently frustrating ways to totally disrupt my plans. I no longer enjoy that many obstacles being thrown in my path, which is making it harder and harder to want to dive back in. That's frustrating, since I genuinely enjoy knocking about in the game world. Thankfully, Red Dead Online is letting me do exactly that, but in a way that seems to have far more respect for my limited time.

The 2018 iteration of The Game Awards aired Thursday night, Dec. 7, with 31 awards announced throughout a night filled with music, touching speeches and oodles of game trailers. It was a packed show that lasted nearly three hours, but we've gathered all of the award winners into one convenient location for you.

After Red Dead Redemption 2 seemed to be sweeping the show, Kratos stormed onto the scene with a surprise twist of fate, earning the evening's top spot as the Game of the Year. This will likely spur on a number of thinkpieces in the coming week but, for now, let's get through the rundown of all of this year's winners.

The Game Awards 2018 Winners

Game of the year: God of War

Best game direction: God of War

Best narrative: Red Dead Redemption 2

Best performance: Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2

Best score/music: Red Dead Redemption 2

Best audio: Red Dead Redemption 2

Best art direction: Return of the Obra Dinn

Best ongoing game: Fortnite

Best multiplayer game: Fortnite

Best independent game: Celeste

Best action/adventure game: God of War

Best action game: Dead Cells

Best roleplaying game: Monster Hunter World

Best sports/racing game: Forza Horizon 4

Best fighting game: Dragon Ball FighterZ

Best family game: Overcooked 2

Best strategy game: Into the Breach

Best mobile game: Florence

Best VR game: Astro Bot: Rescue Mission

Best debut indie game: The Messenger

Games for impact award: Celeste

Industry Icon: Greg Thomas of Visual Concepts

Content Creator of the year: Tyler "Ninja" Blevins

eSports player of the year: SonicFox

Best esports team: Cloud9

Best esports game: Overwatch

Best esports event: League of Legends World Championship

Best esports host: Shockz

Best esports coach: Reapered

Best esports moment: C9 comeback win in triple OT vs Faze

Best student game: Combat 2018

The first surprise of the night came when Monster Hunter World took home the prize for the best roleplaying game of 2018. Don't get me wrong, I adore MHW, but many would argue it's not exactly an RPG and, more importantly, it was up against the Nintendo Switch darling, Octopath Traveler. Other big moments from the night included an excited and clearly terrified speech from the fursuit-wearing eSports player of the year, SonicFox, a genuinely touching acceptance speech from the team behind the best independent game, Celeste, and a really nice retrospective on the career of this year's Industry Icon, Greg Thomas.

Music was also a big part of the night, with an orchestra providing a soundtrack to the proceedings and a couple of live performances for music from games like Devil May Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption and more. Oh, and a Muppet had a chat with Ninja, so that was pretty fun.

On top of all of that, the show was absolutely packed with trailers including known quantities like the new season of Fortnite, a Crash Team Racing remaster and the heavily teased post-apocalyptic Far Cry, as well as a whole bunch of surprises including the Switch exclusive Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and a whole bunch of indie games that look absolutely fantastic. And then Nintendo goes and announces that Joker, from Persona 5, will be the first DLC character in Smash Bros. Ultimate. If you missed any of the trailers, we've also gathered them into a single post for your viewing convenience.

All told, this was probably the best year for The Game Awards yet. They still need to make some adjustments but, as a celebration of gaming, it's getting the job done.

Movie director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, best known for Kong: Skull Island, has made no secret of his love for video games, particularly Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series, which kind of stands out on its own as a unique storytelling and gameplay experience. Well, Jordan decided to take his directorial skills and apply them to a video game, specifically, Player-Unknown's Battlegrounds.

The live-action trailer for the game clocks at close to two and a half minutes. It was uploaded over on the official YouTube channel for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

The trailer starts with a guy in a junkyard, and then switches over to a husky fellow who parachutes down, heads into a trailer and grabs a frying pan with a bullseye on it off a wall filled with guns. A pretty cool CQC fight ensues until he's forced to make a dynamic exit out the back of the trailer. There's another fight scene, followed by the main character teaming up with a young woman as they take down a group of enemies in a cornfield. All the meanwhile the guy in the junkyard is doing tai chi and reading Sun Tzu's The Art of War. After it looks like the main guy and girl get outnumbered, the hipster takes out all the bad guys by lending them a hand.

There are a couple of moments in the trailer that really standout and you can tell Jordan was paying an homage to popular film culture. For instance, before the shootout in the cornfield, the side-view fight-scene is a direct reference to Park Chan-wook's 2005 masterpiece, Oldboy. In the movie there was a long, tracking shot fight sequence that gave us a wide-angle side-view of all the action, just like in the PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds trailer.

There's also some hints and nods towards Raiden's swordplay from Metal Gear Solid, and some Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino-inspired characters running around chasing the guy and the girl around the map.

Also, the school girl costume is an obvious nod to Kinji Fukasaku's original Battle Royale, which came out back in 2000, and was the movie that inspired the wave of Battle Royale modes and games being released today. It was also the original inspiration for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which went on to become a phenomenon and sell 30 million copies within one year, spawning multiple clones and imitators, and even convincing Epic Games to get in on the dig with the Battle Royale mode in Fortnite, which went on to make the company billions of dollars within a short span of time and help setup the foundation for the new Epic Game Store.

It's amazing how that chain of events unfolded, and it's also pretty cool to see Jordan Vogt-Roberts showing his love for video games and cinema by combining them together for the promotion of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is set to launch on the PS4 starting December 7th. The game is already available right now on PC and Xbox One.

There's a lot of history and a lot of lore tucked away inside of Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2. Some of it is kind of outlandish, which keeps in fitting with Rockstar's oftentimes satirical take on open-world gaming, but sometimes there's an element of truth and actual history to it, like one side-quest in Red Dead 2 that's based on an actual serial killer.

There's a Twitter Moment that recounts a story about one of the side-quests in the game being based on an actual bit of history involving a serial killer. Twitter user Mike Stuchbery put the moment together, which outlines how a family of killers who lived in Kansas from 1871 and 1873 are mirrored in Red Dead Redemption 2 as a historical Easter Egg.

There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven't reached that point in the game, maybe you should turn back now. For everyone else interested, read on.

So if you visit the Aberdeen Pig Farm near Pleasance, you'll come upon a fellow named Bray Aberdeen and his wife, Tammy. However, it turns out that Bray and Tammy are also brother and sister. Yeah, it's one of those relationships.

If you decide to go upstairs, it's explained that there might be a roll of hay you can use as a bed after dinner and drinks. However, the drinks are spiked and you'll end up passing out only to wake up in a mass grave. You can either go back in and kill the Aberdeens or flee from the farm.

In real life, apparently, not everyone had the pleasure of escaping from the mass grave like you can in Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2. Instead, the real-life story involves a group named the Benders, who were a German family who lived in Kansas during the 1870s, operating a nearby guesthouse as well. It was noted that the son and daughter, John Jr., and Kate, were supposedly a little closer than what a brother and sister should be.

Many folks apparently went missing around those parts, especially those who paid a visit to the guesthouse. Years later, in 1873, investigators finally went out to the Benders' abode, only to find that all those missing people were no longer missing, as they were firmly packed into the dirt floor... or at least, their blood was.

According to the story, the skulls of the victim were crushed and their throats had been slit. Some of the belongings of the missing individuals were recovered from the guesthouse, but historians believe that the more expensive belongings were pawned off or sold in larger towns.

The story was that vigilantes came from far and wide to hunt down the Benders, but they were unable to find them. They did, however, manage to recover eight bodies from the property.

It's a pretty frightening tale, and back then you didn't have cell phones or text messages to call of help while trapped out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily gamers don't have to relive those experiences in real-life, but get an opportunity to vicariously experience similar stories in Rockstar's open-world Western. Red Dead Redemption 2 is available right now for the Xbox One and PS4.

It looks like a new Batman game could be in the works and, based on a recent tweet from Warner Bros. Games Montreal's Valerie Vezina, the Caped Crusader might be going toe-to-toe with The Court of Owls. Check it out below.

Warner Bros. Montreal assistant producer Valerie Vezina took to Twitter recently to tease her team's current project. In the tweet, Double V is seen wearing a shirt boasting an owl design. Since her studio has long been rumored to be working on a new Batman game, it didn't take long for folks to connect the dots leading to one of the Dark Knight's more recent and yet super beloved villainous organizations, The Court of Owls.

The Tweet has the name of the game "redacted," but folks were quick to jump on the "OMG, Batman versus The Court" bandwagon. Given the studio's history and what seems to be a pretty straightforward tease, we can't blame them.

For starters, Warner Bros. Games Montreal made Batman: Arkham Origins. It filled the gap between Rocksteady Games' releases in the series and showed that the team knows how to handle a decent Batman story. Also, back in 2015, we know that the studio started staffing up for two unannounced games set within the DC Comics universe. That's where the rumors began that one of those games was a new Batman: Arkham game, especially since the series was still successful and Rocksteady had reportedly moved on to a new project, though apparently not the Superman game they were rumored to be working on.

Combine all of that with Vezina's tweet and you don't have to step too far into the realm of conspiracy theories to come to the conclusion that Warner Bros. Montreal is bringing The Court of Owls to a new Arkham game. Or maybe they're working on a standalone Court of Owls game, though that route seems far riskier when you've got so much goodwill already attached to the Arkham name.

For those unfamiliar with the Court of Owls, they're actually a relatively new addition to the Batman mythos, first appearing around the recent relaunch of the DC Comics universe. Unlike The Joker or The Penguin, the Court is less of a lone mastermind and more of a criminal conglomerate. The group is made up of extremely wealthy individuals who prefer to operate in secret and have been pulling the strings of Gotham from behind the scenes for a very long time.

That string pulling usually involves crime aplenty, which is why Batman isn't super happy with The Court or its members. Unfortunately for him, they've got untold wealth to burn on thwarting his best efforts and an army of followers to carry out their orders. In other words, they would be the perfect opposition to Batman in an Arkham game.

So what do you thin, Arkham fans? Would you like to see Batman take on The Court in an upcoming game? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

F0ollowing the departure of a major player in the game space from the E3 trade show, Xbox head Phil Spencer has reiterated the company's support for the show, and now he's explained why. According to Xbox head Phil Spencer, Microsoft plans on remaining part of the E3 experience for a couple of reasons but, primarily, he said it's just a great way to celebrate games with the community.

Spencer noted the above during a recent Extra Life livestream (via Twinfinite) when asked about Xbox's role at E3. Spencer discussed the evolution of E3 and how, over the years, it's basically turned into a hype machine for fans, which Microsoft considers a worthwhile investment.

Back in the day, Spencer notes that E3 was just a trade show for retailers to check out games and determine how many copies of each they wanted to buy. The press was eventually invited in to add its expertise in determining which games were the most likely to grab the audience. Now, in more recent years, the press has been joined by regular fans, making the event less about stats, figures, and sales numbers and more about everyone getting excited for the next year's worth of gaming.

The elephant in the room during this conversation is the fact that Sony recently announced it will not be taking part in E3 2019, deciding to cut its press conference from the agenda and not make an appearance on the showroom floor. While Sony has stated it plans on reaching its PlayStation audience in a number of other ways, the fact that it cut both E3 and the PlayStation Experience event typically scheduled for December has stirred up questions concerning the previously tried and true methods by which publishers interact with their audience.

Several publishers have pulled out of E3 in recent years. EA, for instance, still hosts its own event down the road from the Los Angeles Convention Center. Last year, Microsoft moved its floor show to LA Live, which is literally right next door to the Convention Center. Still, it sounds like Spencer and Co. want to head back to the main show and be part of the communal experience.

Concerning E3 and Xbox's own recent fan event, XO18, Spencer noted that Microsoft is happy with how this year's events went and noted that they would like to experiment with those formats again but, for the time being, they're still learning and evolving.

While nothing has been set in stone, Spencer makes it sound like Xbox will be returning to the regular E3 format in 2019. This will likely include the standard press conference, as well as a floor show including oodles of demo stations for visitors to play. Concerning floor space, I imagine Xbox would have little trouble filling the hole Sony plans to leave in the West Hall next year.

One of the least talked about but biggest games set to come out is the Avengers project that is currently being worked on by various game studios under the Square Enix publishing label. It was briefly teased some time ago but hasn't been discussed much thereafter. However, some speculation has arisen that it might make an appearance at this year's Game Awards show.

The speculation began to seriously mount after Geoff Keighley announced via Twitter that the Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors for Avengers: Infinity War, will be present at this year's Game Awards event as presenters.

Now while this alone doesn't mean much, and could literally just relate to the Russo Brothers presenting an award for any number of categories, some gamers, pundits, and news outlets are reading into the tweet as possibly relating to either an announcement for the Avengers 4 or maybe something relating to Square Enix's Avengers Project that was announced some time ago.

In fact, the project was originally revealed back at the start of 2017. Since then we haven't really had any news about the project, other than that the game will be jammed pack with characters, environments, and moments that fans of the Avengers have grown to love. That didn't really sate the thirst for more news and info about the Avengers Project, but this is precisely why some gamers are hoping that the Russo Brothers will reveal something at this year's TGAs.

Now typically when high-profile guests appear at the awards show it's not just to present but also to reveal. Hideo Kojima and Norman Reedus were there to present and to reveal new footage of Death Stranding. Josef Fares showed up not as a presenter but he did unleash brand new trailer for the two-player cooperative action game, A Way Out, which went on to become a sleeper hit earlier in the year.

There are supposed to be 10 big reveals taking place at this year's awards show, which could include the Avengers Project. Then again, maybe it's not even the Avengers Project that will get the spotlight at the event... what if it's related to the upcoming Avengers 4 movie?

However, some people might be reading too much into all of this and there's a really good possibility that the brothers are simply there as presenters. We do know that both Russos are actually into gaming, and that it was because of their love of gaming that it made it easier for Epic Games to connect with Marvel and feature Thanos from Infinity War in Fortnite.

So while there's all this speculation about what the Russos might reveal at The Game Awards, it's completely possible that as gamers themselves, they're just there to present an award about gaming and help honor the achievements made within the realm of interactive entertainment.

Of course, no matter what the outcome is you can expect gamers to talk about their presence at this year's awards show with all of the potential possibilities that it entails until December 6th rolls around.

Heading into December offers some neat little rewards for gamers for doing nothing more than being a gamer. A good example of that is being able to try out DICE's new Battlefield V for free for a week by completing a very simple little task that won't cost you anything but a few minutes of your time. But you better hurry.

Over on the EA Help Twitter account it was announced that gamers will be able to play Battlefield V for free along with gaining access to a basic Origin Access account with a seven-day free trial. Origin Access is the PC version of the EA Access service that Xbox One gamers have access to.

All you have to do is direct message the EA Help Twitter account with #TRYBFV and you will be set up with a code that will allow you to check the game out for free.

Some people took the opportunity to message the help account directly in the Twitter thread, and oddly enough the account responded with a code right there in the public thread. What this means is that people who requested a code are receiving their codes in public, which means anyone can take them and use them. A few people reminded gamers to direct message the account instead of asking for a code in public.

However, the oddest thing about it is that a large portion of people who are responding to the tweet are actually FIFA players.

It turns out that many FIFA 19 players are still waiting for their points to arrive after having paid for the points. There are a number of gamers disgruntled about not having received the points after waiting a week.

Further into the thread, however, things eventually get back to normal and you see more people requesting codes to try out Battlefield V.

The free trial for the first-person shooter will give you access to the multiplayer competitive modes as well as the game's War Stories, which is the single-player story mode featuring three playable campaigns that stretch across the globe, tackling some of the lesser-known events that transpired throughout World War II.

I don't know if now is the best time to give out the trial since the game isn't complete. For those of you who don't know, while certain modes were squeezed in at the last minute after previously being announced as not making the cut (such as the Grand Operations mode), certain modes are still a ways out from release, such as the Battle Royale mode, which won't be available until early 2019. There's also another entry in the campaign mode but it won't be available until December 4th.

Nevertheless, if you were curious about Battlefield V and wanted to give the game a try over the weekend, along with gaining access to a week's worth of the Origin Access, which allows you to download and try out games from EA's library, you can do so right now.

Fortnite on mobile just got a heck of a lot better for some users, as certain iPhone models can now turn on 60FPS for the hugely popular battle royale shooter. If you've got one of the supported devices, get ready for some buttery smooth gaming on the go.

What's pretty humorous about this announcement is that it comes from Nick Chester on Twitter, who works in PR for Fortnite. Despite that fact, he notes that this pretty big announcement didn't even make it into the latest patch notes for the mobile version of Epic's runaway hit, so he did what everyone else does these days and just made the announcement via social media.

In short, if you're using an iPhone XS, XS-Max or XR, you can now head on over to the Fortnite video options and turn on an option for 60FPS. As Chester notes, that's an impressive technical achievement by the development team, even if it's only possible on absolutely top-of-the-line phones. As those specs become more commonplace, I figure everyone will eventually be enjoying 60FPS in their mobile games. That's assuming the developers want to put in the same kind of work Epic is clearly pouring into Fortnite.

I should probably note that, even if you aren't using one of the latest and most powerful iPhone models, Fortnite still runs insanely well on the mobile platform. It's one of those "how the hell are they even doing this" kind of situations, and now that feat is even more impressive with 60FPS on some phone models.

Digging into the conversation a bit, Chester explains to one commenter that the team at Epic is always looking to optimize the game's performance on more devices, so 60FPS on, say, an iPhone X might be possible in the future. Someone from the Android crowd chimed in asking about possible support for non-iPhone devices but, sadly, that question has not been addressed yet. Considering the fact Fortnite launched on Android devices after iPhone, it's likely that platform remains the secondary focus for non-critical updates such as 60FPS. Also, no word if the game can or will be boosted to 60FPS on the Nintendo Switch, so fingers crossed on those fronts, I guess.

As reported earlier this week, the Fortnite hype train doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. The game's total registered player count has skyrocketed this past year and its concurrent player record is over 8 million players, which means a heck of a lot of people are playing Battle Royale at any given hour of the day. That's largely due to the insane amount of support Epic is pouring into the game, with constant patches, updates, special events, loot and the like.

Only a handful of games ever see this level of success, so I'm interested to see how Epic continues to respond to the success of Fortnite, and how long players will remain totally devoted to the game.

I found myself becoming increasingly concerned through the first few hours of Darksiders III. The crumbling city environments are initially repetitive and a bit boring, enemies felt too similar and Fury's combat prowess left much to be desired. On top of that, there was little in the line of narrative to motivate my actions and the game suffered from bizarre load freezes and headache-inducing framerate issues.

I've waited six years for the Darksiders series to return, so I'm happy to report that all of those issues were addressed to at least some degree the further I got into the game. That's obviously not ideal, but those willing to trudge through a weak opening are rewarded for their dedication. Darksiders III is kind of like an old chainsaw tucked away in the back of a shed. It may take a while to rev up but, once it does, it manages to get the job done.

As Fury, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, you are tasked with hunting down and capturing the personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins in order to restore balance to the world. This all comes after your brother, War, allegedly kicked off the end of days earlier than planned, so the tale takes place before either Darksiders or Darksiders II, if I've got my chronology correct.

If you haven't played the previous games in the series, the good news is that you don't have to worry about missing out on much (outside of the fact that they are fantastic games and you should absolutely play them). The team at Gunfire Games said early on that they were more focused on gameplay than story in this outing, and they certainly delivered on that promise. Kind of a bummer, but at least you don't have to worry about being totally lost from a narrative standpoint. That's not to say there aren't some decent story beats along the way, just that you'll be spending far more of your time whacking demons and angels with a whip than trying to uncover the truth behind the apocalypse and whether or not Fury is being deceived by Heaven, Hell and everything in between.

The Darksiders series has always worn its inspirations on its sleeve, with the first two games cribbing openly from The Legend of Zelda. Darksiders II plugged in some additional RPG elements like crafting, stat management and open maps, helping distinguish the series a bit more from the adventure games it was so clearly influenced by. Rather than continue to build on that formula, Darksiders III instead takes several steps back in order to become a straight hack-and-slash game that was clearly fueled by a love for Dark Souls.

The map is comprised of several large areas connected by tunnels aplenty and many, many smaller locales. This makes for a much more linear experience, though there are plenty of secrets tucked away and entire branches of maps you could miss completely if you aren't keeping a sharp eye out. Once the action moved into caves and crumbling crypts, my issues with the framerate and the bizarre loading became less of a problem. Things seem to have improved further following a day-one patch, so here's hoping the lingering issues can be ironed out through additional support .

Shortly after her first tussle with Wrath, Fury is introduced to the Lord of the Hollows. Along with making Fury question her mission and the motivations of those she serves, this towering plot point grants our hero her first Hollow, an elemental form that offers a handful of useful new abilities. The first Hollow gives Fury a secondary attack boasting flaming flails, as well as a new traversal ability to jump higher than before. It also grants her a couple of new moves to unleash in battle, making it a pretty versatile upgrade.

This is when the combat in Darksiders III starts to take shape and, by the time you've got another Hollow or two to aid in both combat and traversal, the game starts to really find its groove.

The environments never really wow, but they're varied enough considering the fact they are all set within the same area of a demolished city. The cast of characters is pretty small, but the performances are solid and the shallow story was just intriguing enough to keep me invested.

As for the baddies you'll be beating the stuffing out of, they become increasingly diverse the further you dive into the dilapidated structures and tight corridors, with each of the six or so major zones offering some new twists to master in terms of both combat and making your way around the map.

As noted above, Darksiders III is heavily influenced by Dark Souls, so even the weakest enemies can do some serious damage to Fury if you're not paying attention and learning their attack patterns. Most encounters become fast and furious balancing acts between well-timed dodges and attacks and, while you'll occasionally be battling the camera as much as your enemies, the end result is a satisfying romp. The weapons you get from Hollow forms help keep the proceedings varied so, again, the further into Darksiders III you get, the more tools you'll have at your disposal.

When I look at Darksiders III as a whole, the end result is a game with a lot of heart that never quite lives up to its ambition. Whether it's due to limited resources or the fact that this game very nearly never saw the light of day is unclear but, in the end, this third outing never rises to the level of the games that came before it.

At the same time, Darksiders III still manages to be a heck of a lot of fun once it shakes off the cobwebs and the combat opens up. And after playing so, so many open world epics these past few years, I find its more focused approach to be something of a relief. While many will understandably fault Darksiders III for being scaled down in many ways, I was content to go on an adventure that has a set path, only a few attributes to level up and minimal customization/resources to manage. There were enough moving parts to keep me engaged without ever making me feel overwhelmed and the adventure's 20-hour runtime kept me entertained without having Fury and her pals overstay their welcome.

Darksiders III is a relic of the past suffering from an identity crisis but, despite its faults, it manages to deliver a fun and frequently challenging experience for genre fans to hack and slash their way through. It's not the triumphant return devotees of the series were hoping for, but it's still a serviceable continuation.

This review based on a PlayStation 4 download provided by the publisher.

An 8-year-old Fortnite fan recently posted concept art for a Chicken Trooper skin he wanted to see added to the game, and now Epic is making that happen. If you needed something wholesome to dispel your fowl mood, this story should do an eggcellent job.

Back in September, a Redditor posted an image of the Chicken Trooper, a skin his son designed for Fortnite. The image included a look at the feathered hero, as well as an idea for additional items like Back Bling taking the form of an order of chicken nuggets, as well as a pickaxe that looks like a couple of chicken strips. Along with the image was a letter from the boy, Connor, asking Epic to add the Chicken Trooper to the game.

The adorable image went on to garner more than 40,000 upvotes and plenty of additional love from the community. Several folks even offered their own take on the character, including a "Tender Defender" that helped make clear what the character might actually look like if it were to be included in Fortnite. Connor was apparently ecstatic with how well his creation was received, but it looks like he'll have even more to be excited about in the not-too-distant future.

Epic is really good about updating the game world to tease things that are going to eventually be added to Fortnite, which is why fans got super excited when they noticed a shack in Lonely Lodge appeared to have a new resident. The shack now boasts a sleeping bag covered in feathers, a couple of drumsticks and even a police scanner.

That got the usual batch of dataminers rolling and digging into Patch v6.30, they discovered a skin that looks just like the design and is even called the Tender Defender. Folks apparently reached out to the creator of that particular incarnation of the design and he confirmed that Epic reached out for approval to include it in the game.

Now Epic has revealed a new Fowl Play content update and, yep, the Tender Defender is the big draw. He's a googly-eyed chicken and is complemented by a Flappy Flyer chicken glider, a cracked egg for back bling and a Scrambler pickaxe, which is just a massive whisk. The skin and Back Bling will set you back 1,500 V-bucks, and I figure it will go on to be a favorite of Connor and many other players.

Stories like this are exactly why Fortnite continues to resonate with its audience. Enough people were interested in making an 8-year-old kids dream a reality, so Epic decided to do exactly that. Connor's dad has apparently been keeping all of this a secret until the news was made official, so here's hoping he has a camera rolling when the kid first boots up the game and sees his Chicken Trooper has actually made its way to the battlefields of Fortnite.