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.

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 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.

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.

Riot Games is kicking off 2019 with some much-needed changes to how jungling works in League of Legends, with the end goal being to bring all player classes back onto a level playing field. If you spend most of your LoL time avoiding the lanes, there are a handful of incoming tweaks you'll want to be aware of.

While Riot Games began its work at rebalancing jungling in League of Legends late last year, it has since been determined that those adjustments were simply too small to have the desired impact. As a result, some additional changes are being made that should offer a more significant rebalance. As for why all of this fuss is being made concerning the game's jungle ecosystem, a recent post on the Riot blogs explains that folks who like to hang out in the shrubbery have simply become too powerful.

In MOBAs like League of Legends, jungling is when a player avoids the main lanes of combat and instead focuses on taking out neutral enemies and camps in order to gain extra energy, gold, buffs for teammates, etc. Hanging out in the "jungle" can be an extremely important part of team strategy but, when those activities aren't balanced properly, it can totally throw off the normal flow of combat.

So, what do these changes mean for the jungle crowd in LOL? For starters, camps, Chilling Smite and Challenging Smite are all receiving adjustments.

Camp scaling

General Camps : Experience scales to 150% >>> Experience scales to 125%.

Buff Camps : Experience scales to 157% >>> Experience scales to 125%.

Scuttle Crab : Gold and Experience Scales to Double base value >>> Scales to 180% of base value.

Chilling Smite

Damage : 28-164 (20 + 8 Level) >>> 20-156 (12 + 8 Level).

Challenging Smite

Damage Per Tick :: 20-54 >>> 19-42.

Damage Total :: 60-162 >>> 57-125.

DoT Duration :: 3 seconds >>> 2 seconds.

No longer grants vision for the mark duration.

The update goes on to explain that, in previous years, junglers gained in-game experience at about the same rate as a team's marksman. Following changes made in 2018, jungling moved well ahead of the competition in terms of experience and gold gains. The post explains that players running through the jungle definitely needed a boost compared to previous years, but probably not as large a boost as seen in League of Legends in recent months.

For those of you who have specific questions, a handy FAQ has been added to the bottom of the update covering everything from the significance of the Scuttle Crab to powerfarming and camp respawn rates.

Based on the comments, League fans seem pretty happy with how Riot is kicking off the new year. As noted in the post, the team is trying to do less "this is what we're changing" and do more "this is what we're changing and why." While these most recent adjustments might not be a bullseye, it's clear the team is listening to player feedback and will continue to work on in-game issues to make the experience fun and fair for everyone involved.

It was a bummer to hear Heroes of the Storm is throttling way back on its bid for MOBA supremacy moving forward, so it's nice to see one of the remaining genre heavy-hitters so focused on this kind of transparent community support, especially in light of last year's less-than-stellar headlines.

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 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.

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.

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.

One of the most discussed topics in the realm of VR was the lawsuit surrounding Oculus and ZeniMax. Some saw the lawsuit that really hampered the potential growth of VR, while others saw it as Facebook getting its comeuppance. No matter which side you fall on, the lawsuit over the Oculus VR headset is officially over.

In a press release issued by ZeniMax Media, the mega-corporation announced that it had agreed to settle the litigation that was brought against Facebook over the Oculus Rift headset, which is owned by Facebook when the company bought out the Oculus brand back in 2014.

So there's some interesting information in the press release by ZeniMax. First of all, the company does not reveal how much the settlement was that was reached between ZeniMax and Facebook. It is mentioned that in the original ruling, the jury came out in favor of ZeniMax, with Facebook being hit with a $500 million verdict. Facebook, however, appealed the decision after the District Court reduced the overall damages to $250 million. Before the appeal could be completed, ZeniMax and Facebook managed to meet the settlement, which is likely less than the $250 million number.

It definitely makes you wonder if it's enough to compensate for the issues surrounding Fallout 76? Or worse yet, what if everything earned from the lawsuit goes back into settling any potential lawsuits that spawn out of the situation involving the people who were accidentally doxed by Bethesda while they were filing support tickets for Fallout 76? That would be a real doozy.

There are currently reports going around that Bethesda, the subsidiary under ZeniMax Media, could be facing a class action lawsuit over a number of issues surrounding Fallout 76, including the refund policy that some people have claimed is anti-consumer, along with what some are calling a bait-and-switch false advertisement of the canvas bag in the Fallout 76: Power Armor Edition, which was swapped with a nylon bag. So while this war with Facebook may have ended, there could be more lawsuits for the company in the near future.

However, the issue surrounding the claims of VR copyright infringement, which involved former id Software savant, John Carmack, bringing some of the technology over to Facebook while he was still under contract with ZeniMax, has finally been resolved.

Initially there were worries that ZeniMax would force all the Oculus Rift units out of circulation that contained the copyrighted code that Carmack allegedly used in the development of the Rift, as reported by Ars Technica. However, that didn't happen. If it did then it would have put a huge dent in the overall market presence of virtual reality headsets. That's not to mention that there are only three major VR headsets that most people recognize on the market, including the PlayStation VR, the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift, so taking one of those out of circulation would have hurt VR more than helped it.

However, Zenimax managed to avoid that fate by entering into a settlement with Facebook. ZeniMax chairman and CEO, Robert Altman, mentioned in the press release that the company dislikes litigation but is intent on defending its property against "infringement" and "misappropriation" by third parties.

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.

One of the biggest winners at the 2018 rendition of The Game Awards never gave an acceptance speech or received a trophy, and that was the Epic Games Store. The event basically served as a launch party for the new games platform and, coupled with the already insane success of Fortnite, Epic's push to become a force to be reckoned with on PC and Mac might just pay off.

If you tuned into The Game Awards, you saw a three-hour behemoth of a show positively crammed with awards being handed out, orchestral music and, more than anything else, game announcements. In fact, there were entire segments between commercials that included nothing but one game trailer after the next. When you combine that with the fact that many of this year's commercials were also more game trailers, The Game Awards started to feel more like an E3 showcase you might expect from Microsoft or Sony rather than an event where 30-plus awards were handed out.

The one thing that many of these big game announcements had in common was the fact that the new Epic Games Store was part of the conversation. Not only did we learn that a couple of new games are going to be exclusive to the store, but we also saw that "Epic" logo alongside the usual platform lineup for upcoming launches. This means that Epic has been working fast and furious behind the scenes to make it clear to developers that their storefront will be worth putting their games on, which should in turn result in more and more customers adding Epic's launcher to their download queue.

While there are certainly other games services available on Mac and PC, all of those other services combined pale in comparison to Valve's Steam. Up until now, it didn't seem like anyone would be able to topple the giant or even give Valve's storefront a run for its money. While Epic's offerings are minuscule as of this moment, the storefront is already showing great potential. And using The Game Awards to shout that fact loud and clear to millions of viewers around the world was a rather brilliant move on Epic's part. It looks like they've caught Valve completely off guard, yet another factor that could help catapult the Epic Games Store to the forefront.

Before going any further, it's worth pointing out what is easily one of the most powerful arrows in Epic's quiver, the revenue sharing structure on offer to developers who choose to publish games on their storefront. At present, Valve earns about a 30 percent take on game sales through the Steam storefront. Epic is delivering a huge advantage for developers right out of the gate, taking a flat 12 percent no matter how many copies of the game sells, how big the developer/publisher is, etc. Their cut is a little over a third of the competition, which is likely going to be a huge deciding factor moving forward in regards to where developers/publishers want to showcase their game.

To help start things with a bang, a couple of games were announced as Epic Games exclusives during The Game Awards. Supergiant Games' newest offering, Hades, has already been made available in early access on the storefront, with its Game Awards trailer causing quite the stir. You can also grab Ashen, from Annapurna, on the store, as well as the prequel to Hello Neighbor. A quick perusal of the storefront shows Unreal Tournament is also up for grabs in these early goings, with games like Darksiders III, Satisfactory, Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw and Outer Wilds also in the lineup. Several of those games were also featured in a sizzle reel that was, you guessed it, shown off during The Game Awards.

Another huge get for Epic is the formerly PlayStation exclusive, Journey, which will apparently not be available on PC/Mac on any other platforms. That list of games set to launch soon is rounded out by titles like Man Eater, Shadow Complex, Super Meat Boy Forever and more. It's a small but mighty list and a hell of a way to launch a new games platform.

On top of all of that, Epic has announced that they will be making a game available free of charge every two weeks through partnerships with various publishers, giving gamers an even bigger incentive to download the Epic Games launcher and make it a part of their entertainment lifestyle. First up is Subnautica on Dec. 14, with the original Super Meat Boy arriving on Dec. 28.

It was smart of Epic to leverage The Game Awards to put its new platform in the spotlight, but there are a couple other major factors that could make Epic Games a legitimate competitor against services like Steam and GOG.

For starters, there is zero cost to throw your hat in with Epic's new platform. When a new game console launches, consumers have to weigh a hell of a lot of factors including exclusivity and, of course, that initial investment. While you will need to spend several hundred dollars on the next Xbox or PlayStation and hope that they make your investment worthwhile, downloading the Epic Games launcher cost zero dollars, takes about two minutes and can be done from any PC or Mac. Even if you only download it for the free games every two weeks, you're still an official customer of the Epic storefront. Maybe you'll buy a game or two while you're there, especially something that's exclusive, and you can even take something of a moral high ground knowing that more of your money is going toward the team that actually made the game in the first place. On top of that, said teams know they'll have far less competition on a new platform, making Epic Games a more appealing option as it gets up and rolling.

Finally, it's time to address the elephant in the room: Fortnite. Epic's battle royale monster recently introduced a creative mode and new season that are only going to spur on its insane popularity and anyone who plays Fortnite on PC already has the Epic Games launcher installed. That means that, right from the beginning, Epic has tens of millions of customers already taking part in its games ecosystem. Valve made a similar move with Half-Life 2 on Steam and that single, hugely popular game is the primary reason the platform found traction.

Still, Epic knows that even with all of those factors working in its favor, you're only going to be successful if people know you actually exist. They've been aggressive getting Fortnite in front of as many people as possible this past year and, based on how big of a presence Epic Games Store had at The Game Awards, it looks like they'll be bringing that same tenacity to this new undertaking as well.

Magic: The Gathering is upping its competitive portfolio, introducing a new competitive structure that includes both digital and physical versions of the game and an increased prize pool. The idea is to go full eSport with Magic, including massive tournaments, additional sponsored events and even a roster of professional players taking part in regular match-ups.

Revealed during The Game Awards on Dec. 6, Magic: The Gathering is set to undergo a complete overhaul in terms of competitive play. While the physical card game has been making a splash for about two decades, Magic: Arena is a newer, digital version of the popular trading card game that's made quite a splash of its own since its launch. Wizards of the Coast has decided to leverage the popularity of both formats, making a more comprehensive tournament structure whether you're playing physical, digital or both.

To help the digital format hit the ground running, a special Magic: Arena Mythic Invitational event will be hosted out of PAX East from March 28-31 with a $1 million prize pool. More details concerning this tournament will be revealed in January, which is when we'll also find out who, exactly, has been invited to compete.

In a recent blog post, WotC's Elaine Chase explained that 2019 is going to be the biggest year yet for Magic organized play, combining what is already being done on the physical front with an approach to the digital format not unlike what you might be used to in games like League of Legends or even Overwatch. Next year's prize pool is a whopping $10 million, which is double that from 2018. As noted in the announcement, this new format should prove lucrative for players, sponsors and, of course, eSports partners.

This all hinges on the creation of the Magic Pro League, which will initially play host to 32 top-ranking players from around the world. These folks are getting contracts to play competitively and stream matches regularly, and they're basically going to be treated the same as professional athletes in any other sport. Folks who follow Magic learn about their favorite players, but the MPL will keep them in the spotlight and make it way easier for more casual observers to learn who they are and cheer for their favorite players. WoTC will be rolling out profiles on each of the 32 players soon, with regularly scheduled matches set to begin in 2019.

As you might have noticed earlier in this update, the upcoming Magic: Arena tournament is being called a "Mythic" event, which is apparently how WotC plans to distinguish these higher-level tournaments across both the digital and physical version of the game.

I, for one, am excited to see Magic: Arena getting so much support here in the early goings. Not everyone can find folks to play the physical game against in their hometown and others are unable to travel for tournaments. Magic: Arena brings that kind of competition to everyone and, if your skill level is high enough, maybe you'll find yourself being labeled a pro in time for one of these high-paying tournaments.

Epic Games officially opened up the Epic Games Store yesterday. It's a rival digital distribution service to Valve's Steam or the DRM-free service GOG.com. The new store isn't just about making PC games available to gamers from a convenient launcher, it also has some other goodies, too. Here's what we know.

If you've already signed up with Epic Games to make use of the Epic Games launcher then you'll be able to make use of the service right away over on the Epic Games Store page. This was actually leveraged by Fortnite registrations, so if you play the game, you're already registered with an account that can be used with the Epic Games Store. So technically, Epic already has a built-in userbase of around 200 million users... all they have to do now is get those users to buy from the store.

As for the store offerings, the selections are slim pickings at the moment but the store just launched, so that's to be expected. At the moment there are some games in Early Access, some games that are fully launched, and some games that are coming soon.

What's In Early Access

Supergiant Games' Hades is currently in Early Access on the Epic Games Store at the moment for $19.99. Right now it's the only featured game in Early Access but that's likely going to change very soon in the near future.

What's Available Right Now

Annapurna Interactive's Ashen launched as a full game on the Epic Games Store for $39.99, while tinyBuild's Hello Neighbor is available for $29.99. Obviously you can get Fortnite from the store as well, but you don't have to pay anything since it's available for free, along with Epic's other shooter game, Unreal Tournament.

Another classic Epic Games title, Shadow Complex, is available for $14.99. Sadly the Gears of War trilogy is not available in the store, but if it did become available that would be huge. Additionally, Team17's Genesis: Alpha One is currently listed for pre-purchase for $29.99.

What's Coming Soon

Beyond that, there are a handful of other games are listed as "Coming Soon", including Subnautica, the recently released Darksiders III, Coffee Stain Studios' Satisfactory, Double Damage's Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, another one of Annapurna Interactive titles called Outer Wilds, Team Meat's Super Meat Boy Forever, Tripwire Interactive's Man Eater, Saber Interactive's World War Z, and ThatGameCompany's Journey... yes, the same Journey that was originally a PS3 and PS4 exclusive. All of these games are marked as "Coming Soon" and some are set to release within weeks, while others are months away.

What's Special About The Epic Games Store

One very special feature for the Epic Games Store is that every two weeks they will be giving away a free game for users. Yes, there will be free games to own without paying a dime. Subnautica will be the first game given away for free from December 14th through December 27th, and it will be followed by Super Meat Boy, which will be available for free from December 28th, 2018 through January 10th, 2019.

Now the cool part about it is that the store is easy to navigate, the games are right there for your perusal, and the pricing is about par the course with other digital distribution services.

Obviously, since the selections are limited right now you won't find an entire library's worth of games on the Epic Games Store like you will on GOG.com or Steam. So it's a long ways off from being a Steam/GOG killer. However, with the giveaway of games every two weeks and an easy-to-use interface, it could definitely become a noteworthy digital distribution outlet if Epic Games works hard and keeps bringing new titles to the platform at a moderate clip.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but thankfully (for fans of Counter-Strike) the addition of the Battle Royale mode has happened much sooner than expected for the first-person shooter. Valve announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has now officially stepped into the arena to rival Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Valve sent out a short and sweet message about the new mode, which is dubbed Danger Zone, for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The new mode also accompanies the game's transition into a full free-to-play title. According to the press release, the next time anyone logs into the game, the update will automatically commence, the files will be altered, and the game will be free-to-play. All accounts that already have access to the game will also automatically be upgraded to Prime Status, completely free of charge.

For neophytes, if you have not downloaded the game before or registered an account with the game, you will have the option to try out the free-to-play account or you will be able to lob some actual money into Valve's coffers for $14.99 to upgrade to a Prime Status account.

Not only that, but you'll also gain access to the brand new Danger Zone mode, which enables the ability to play Last Man Standing against 17 other players.

No, the game does not sport the 100 player Battle Royale mode like its nearest competitors PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Fortnite. Instead it's a lot closer to the Battle Royale mode featured in Warface, where there are just over a dozen other players in the map that you have to whittle down in order to become the winner of the round.

Over on the Danger Zone web portal, there's a breakdown of how the game mode works. You drop down into the map, you can either scour for weapons or order what you need using the personal tablet device, and then you can either run to safety or track down your foes and finish them off.

Now there are multiple ways to earn points in the mode. Unlike other Battle Royale games like The Culling or Island of Nyne where you kill your foes to earn points, you can also earn points by rescuing hostages located around the Danger Zone map in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Barring that, you can find locked safes throughout the map that you can blow open using C4 charges.

According to the website, what's in the Danger Zone mode at the moment is just the start. Hopefully, Valve takes tips from Treyarch and what that team did with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 by starting out with a lower player count for the Battle Royale mode and then slowly ratcheting up the number until they hit 100. It would be pretty cool if Valve did the same for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

For now, though, you can check the game out and dive into the various game modes and features now that it's free-to-play. For those of you who were bored with the standard modes, you can check out the Danger Zone mode as a solo survivor, as a team, or as a trio in three different variations of the mode.

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.

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.

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.

One of the most popular genres in all of gaming is the first-person shooter. The games are undoubtedly intense, visceral, oftentimes fast-paced and if they're done right, unforgettable. Well, if you're interested in the best first-person shooters so far this console generation, look no further than this list.

10. Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Fatshark's Warhammer: Vermintide series isn't talked about often despite having sold millions of copies. Vermintide 2, in particular, managed to pick up a strong following on PC and Xbox One, thanks to its high-quality visuals, unique stage designs and Left 4 Dead 2-style co-op requirements, where players have to work together to progress through the levels, defeat bosses and complete objectives. The game takes the best of Warhammer and combines it with a survival-style first-person shooter/hack-and-slash game.

9. Rainbow Six: Siege

The success of Ubisoft's 2015 release of Rainbow Six: Siege came out of nowhere following the game's initial launch. Most people didn't expect it to become one of the most popular shooter games of the generation, but it did. A lot of its success is owed to the environmental destruction that each stage houses, and the intense elimination-style gameplay that helped set it apart from everything else on the market. The fact that Ubisoft keeps the game updated with regular maps, characters, and weapons, probably helps keep players coming back for more.

8. Prey

The 2017 outing of Prey from Arkane Studios and Bethesda took a lot of gamers by surprise for a number of reasons, mainly because it was a reboot of the 2006 first-person sci-fi shooter from Human Head Studios for the Xbox 360 and PC. But it replaced the portal-hopping story with a more existential focus on alien goop monsters. The game has an intriguing story that takes some twists and turns you probably won't see coming, and it actually puts a lot of outcome of the story in the hands of the player. It's considered an underrated gem of eighth gen, and it's not hard to see why once people start talking about how much they love it.

7. Far Cry 5

Ubisoft caused quite a stir with the initial announcement of Far Cry 5. The game takes place in America for the first time in the series' history, pitting players against a religious doomsday cult out in the far corners of the fictional Hope County, Montana. The game takes many of the standard elements of the Far Cry series and then throws in two-player drop-in co-op, along with many American-themed weapons and vehicles, and a story that unfolds based on how you choose to play it. It's no wonder that the game became one of the top-selling titles of 2018.

6. Superhot VR

While many games on this list are big-name AAA titles from top-name publishers, it doesn't mean that every game on this list is going to be a AAA title. Sometimes the best things come in small packages, and Superhot is one of those games. The crowdfunded shooter is based on a simple concept that revolves around complex tactics: time only moves when you move. Whether you're throwing knives, using frying pans to knock an enemy upside the head, or dual-wielding pistols, Superhot VR is an unparalleled experience for the PlayStation VR headset that completely takes the FPS genre and dumps it on its head in the best way imaginable. If there's one game on this list worth trying above any other because you don't like FPS games, well, Superhot would be the game to try because it'll defy all your expectations.

5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Initially, this spot was reserved for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which is admittedly a game that received a lot more hate than it deserved, only because it was one of the most ambitious Call of Duty games ever made. Black Ops 4 is kind of on the opposite end of the innovation factor, completely removing the single-player campaign and focusing only on multiplayer and the Battle Royale mode this time around. However, sometimes it's not about a game's innovation but how well it does what it does that makes it stand out, and Black Ops 4 does everything nearly pitch-perfect, from the new Blackout mode to the standard deathmatch, to the Zombies mode. What the game lacks in single-player it makes up for with its multiplayer offerings.

4. Halo: The Master Chief Collection

There aren't many exclusive games on this list, but that's because exclusive first-person shooters on home consoles have become a rarity, save for Halo. While 343 Industries is still trying to find its way around the franchise, Halo: The Master Chief Collection has matured over the years to finally run the way it was intended to and offering Xbox One gamers the kind of classic Halo experience they grew up loving nearly two decades ago. Of course, it got off to a rather rocky start, but it's earned its place on this list (many patches later). The collection is notable for taking the classic OG Xbox and Xbox 360 titles and compiling all of the Master Chief games into one bundle while retaining the much-beloved two-player split-screen campaign co-op modes along with the coveted offline, LAN, and online multiplayer.

3. Titanfall 2

Respawn Entertainment's Titanfall 2 was a real breath of fresh air in terms of quality gameplay, an awesome campaign mode, and a sustainably replayable multiplayer component. It's a shame that Electronic Arts sent the game out to die against Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Battlefield 1 as a means of eating into the market share of Activision (which did work, by the way), but that meant that the game came up short in the sales department. Respawn's Titanfall 2 is hailed by many gamers as one of the best shooters of the generation that no one bought. It's probably worth checking out if you can get it at a discounted price during one of the many holiday sales going on.

2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

One of the best-selling games Activision ever published and one of the best-selling Call of Duty games of all time is Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. It definitely goes down in history as my all-time favorite in the series and I don't even like Call of Duty games. It was the first game in the series to include a four-player cooperative campaign mode, along with split-screen options for both the campaign mode and the multiplayer modes. The PC version also received an extra bit of something special in the form of mod support with Steam Workshop integration, making it one of the most infinitely replayable and fun first-person shooter games this generation.

1. DOOM

How could id Software's 2016 outing of DOOM not make the list? This is one of the most hardcore first-person shooter games this generation and the only game that's likely going to come close to dethroning it is DOOM: Eternal. The design is built around fast-paced shooting, non-stop combat, and enough blood and gore to make both Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino blush. It wasn't quite the horror-themed maze-crawler from the 1990s, but it brought with it something that's been missing the entire generation: attitude. DOOM felt like a throwback to the counter-culture antics of the 1990s, but with all the new-gen tech and quality of life features of today's generation, including a built-in map editor for single-player and multiplayer content called Snap Map, and that's probably why it's one of the best shooters this generation has to offer.

Epic is making some major improvements to its tournament structure in Fortnite over the coming weeks and, to help get the ball rolling, they'll be holding a Winter Royale that every player can participate in. With an award pool totaling a million bucks, it'll be worth it to test your skill against the best players in the U.S. and Europe.

Tournaments aren't exactly new to Fortnite, but the team at Epic has learned a lot from previous events and is implementing those lessons in the upcoming Winter Royale. The event is currently only open to players in the U.S. and Europe, though additional events for other regions are being planned.

Over on the Fortnite blog, Epic has given a rough outline of how the winter-themed tournament will go down. They're calling this a test event, though having $1 million in prizes up for grabs certainly adds a nice incentive for folks to jump in and help test things out. The Winter Royale structure is planned to be used for next year's World Cup qualification events, so consider this a nice way to familiarize yourself with the process.

First up will be the Winter Royale Qualifiers, followed by the Finals. The qualifying event is open to all players and you can take part simply by playing events through a given timeframe. The qualifiers for both regions is this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 24-25. The European finals will be held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, with the North American finals from Dec. 11-12.

During the qualifying days, all you need to do is take part in the Winter Royale events and aim for the highest score you can manage. Your highest score from throughout the event will automatically be used as your qualifying result for possible inclusion in the finals. Once Epic verifies those who are eligible for the finals, those players will be invited to take part in the ultimate winter showdown. Simple, right? Just log in and play this weekend and, if you do well enough, you could be on your way to the finals.

As for the tournaments themselves, update v6.30 addressed several concerns from previous events which should help make the Winter Royale a more competitive affair. For starters, point tracking should be more accurate and the results should log to your account more quickly. That's important because players will then be grouped in additional rounds against players with similar point pools. So the first time you join a qualifying event, you should be dropped into a match with other folks who haven't taken part in the tournament yet. As you finish rounds and earn points, you should be dropped into matches with players with similar score totals. Just know that, the better you do, the longer matchmaking will likely take to pull together a full room of high achievers. It's likely

YouTube and Twitch will receive a big boost this weekend as prominent streamers play round after round with their eyes on the prize.

Darksiders III is set to launch next week and, to help prepare gamers for Fury's onslaught, the folks at THQ Nordic have created an ASMR series featuring the apocalyptic horseman, candles and chains. And no, I'm not kidding. It's..weird.

We've seen a lot of unique promotional videos over the years, but the above definitely belongs somewhere near the top of the list in the "Say what?" category. Using ASMR to promote Darksiders III isn't quite as random as it may first seem, as the video description explains the team at THQ Nordic wanted to give folks a way to "de-stress this holiday season." It's also kind of funny since, you know, it's Fury doing the ASMR and she's anything but "chill."

For this video, THQ partnered with body paint artist Ruby True. She's decked out like Fury from Darksiders III and even her face is painted so that it looks like the game character. If nothing else, you've got to appreciate the fact that, to get the eyes right, she has to keep them closed. That means she's doing all of this ASMR business while not being able to see what she's doing. Also, she's wearing costume gauntlets that have got to be making it tricky to feel exactly what's going on.

It's kind of spooky, if I'm being honest, but the ASMR stuff seems to be on point. If you close your eyes and pop on some headphones, maybe you'll find the subtle sounds of flames gliding past and a wood wick candle soothing.

The team has five of these videos planned and, so far, only two have been posted. You can find the second video on YouTube, featuring Fury with a bunch of chains and what appears to be a leather replica of the whip she uses in the game. Again, if you haven't dabbled in ASMR yet, it's understandable that all of that would sound a bit strange. But everything here is super subtle, with the chains gently clinking as the bend of leather blends into the background. I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it.

While THQ Nordic is the publisher, Darksiders III is being developed by Gunfire Games. The series has been dormant for quite some time, with studio closures and license deals finally leading to this continuation. Darksiders is low key one of my favorite series of all time, so here's hoping that Fury's adventure is just as much fun as War and Death before her.

Fury's quest takes place alongside those of her brothers, with the adventure set on earth following an unplanned start to the end of days. Her specific mission is to take out the Seven Deadly Sins, which are big monsters that embody their namesakes.

The good news is that Gunfire Games is largely made up from members of Vigil, the now disbanded studio responsible for the first two games. We'll get to see how everything comes together on Nov. 27, when Darksiders III launches for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

After decades of making some of the biggest games in the industry, Cliff Bleszinski has announced that he plans to step away from development for good in order to spend his time with friends and family. Now, he's gone into more detail about why he's made that decision. In a recent post, Bleszinski said...

The above comes from a statement Cliffy B. posted to Facebook. He took to social media recently saying that he was stepping away from the games industry and, based on this follow-up, it sounds like he's planning on making it a permanent move. Not a lot of game developers are as well known by the industry as Bleszinski, which is why this news is likely hitting folks so hard.

Bleszinski started in the games industry nearly 30 years ago, making his first round of major noise courtesy of Unreal Tournament in 1999. He eventually went on to spearhead the Gears of War series, which is when he became a household name for the games community.

Stepping away from Epic, Bleszinski went on to form his own studio, Boss Key Productions. His first game was an inventive arena shooter called LawBreakers, which hit the scene with a resounding flop. The game was actually a hell of a lot of fun, but Overwatch was really hitting its stride when LawBreakers launched, and PUBG was sucking all remaining oxygen out of the room at that time.

To try and keep the company afloat, Boss Key went on to create its own battle royale game, Radical Heights. That game launched in super early access but, while it was showing some promise, it never really caught hold. Fortnite had taken over the world by the time Radical Heights was being introduced so, again, Bleszinski's game never really stood a chance.

Through all of that, Bleszinski became even more familiar with the inner workings of the industry and, as he states in his comments, it's just not a life he wants for himself.

As we've seen in recent months, publishers have some insane expectations for games with massive sales for games like Destiny 2: Forsaken and Black Ops 4 still not enough to impress investors. Combine that with months upon months of hard work and uncertainty for a project that might not even find an audience and it's easy to understand why Bleszinski has decided to step away. As he also notes in his statement, he's good friends with a lot of folks in the business and, as best he can tell, things don't seem to really get better, even for those who find success.

An attempted video game return at GameStop turned slightly violent recently as a guy who was denied a cash refund for an open copy of Fallout 76 decided to trash the business in retaliation.

Facebook user Tarenthis Campbell happened to be at GameStop when a customer entered the store and attempted to return a copy of Fallout 76. As you can see from the short clip above, the customer was not super happy with the fact that he could not receive cash back for the return.

It's important to note that GameStop is upfront about its return policy and the guy behind the counter is very polite in his explanation, making it clear that they can only offer store credit, not a cash refund, if a game has been opened.

The first customer walks off camera as another customer walks into the store, which is precisely when we hear a loud commotion happening off to the right. The camera quickly pans over to witness the disgruntled customer trashing several store displays on his way out. The customer who just entered the store stands frozen, not quite sure what he just walked in on. When the violent customer leaves, the guy filming the ordeal flips the camera around to state his own shock concerning what just took place.

Obviously, this is a horrible way to behave regardless of whether or not the guy thought he was in the right for wanting his money back rather than store credit. Still, something has to be said for the GameStop employee who either has seen this type of thing too many times before or is just so hardcore he can't be phased. As the destruction comes to a close, you can hear the guy simply answer a ringing phone saying, "Thank you for calling GameStop, this is Brian, how can I help you?" as if absolutely nothing out of the ordinary has just taken place.

At first, I thought it was a bit odd that this person was filming this encounter before anything started to go down but, then again, people start filming anything and everything these days, so maybe he just sensed things were about to turn sour.

Given the lukewarm reception Fallout 76 has received in the first several days since launch, a lot of folks seem to be making jokes about how the game has driven players to react in extreme ways, such as in the video above. But that's super unfair to the game and the team that developed it. More importantly, even if a highly-anticipated game isn't creating the splash its community expected, absolutely zero blame should be pointed at the game for this kind of behavior.

Thankfully, it looks like a lot of folks in the comments agree. Some are talking about how people inexplicably expected a different game than what was being advertised with Fallout 76, while others point out that the return policy is printed on the back of the receipt.

It hasn't been a rosy year in the world of video games. In fact, it's been rather difficult for some development studios given how harsh the financial times have been. This has become ever-so-present with the news that yet another sizable development outlet had to shut its doors recently.

Landon Nguyen, the mobile game director for Tekken and the senior vice president at Bandai Namco, announced via his official Twitter account that Bandai Namco Studios Vancouver was shutting down.

The British Columbia-based outfit was responsible for the aforementioned mobile version of Tekken, which came out back in 2017. The game managed to get downloaded by millions of gamers across both iOS and Android devices. The Vancouver outfit was also responsible for Tap My Katamari, which is another mobile spin-off based on Bandai Namco's popular Katamari Damacy series, and there were a couple of Pac-Man games that the studio made for mobile devices as well.

As you can tell, Bandai Namco Vancouver was responsible for mostly making mobile games. While this is usually the direction most big studios go in to chase down easy dollars, the mobile market hasn't been kind enough to keep Bandai's British Columbia offices open. This is basically to outline that just because a company is making mobile games, and just because millions of people are downloading those games, doesn't always mean that those games are turning big profits.

The mobile market is an extremely over-saturated marketplace where everyone is competing not just to get millions (or billions) of downloads, but to also land enough of the consumer market that are referred to as "whales". These are a small pool of dedicated consumers who spend big bucks on games. If you don't have enough whales for your free-to-play title or cash-shop driven app, then it begins to lose money and potential profits.

That doesn't mean things are any safer in the standard core market of gaming. We recently saw Telltale Games go bust after a deal fell through with Smilegate and AMC, which resulted in only two episodes for The Walking Dead: The Final Season being completed and released. Other games from the company have also been pulled from digital distribution outlets as the liquidation process continues.

In the case of Bandai Namco Vancouver, Nguyen confirmed that the mobile version of Tekken will still be available for download, and that there is a skeleton crew left on board to maintain the game, for now. However, Nguyen also states that any future updates are up in the air at this point.

Some studios reached out in support of staff looking to get hired, including Relic Entertainment, another Vancouver-based studio that has been responsible for classics like Homeworld, the World War II RTS series Company of Heroes, and the Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War trilogy.

Nguyen, meanwhile, has shown a lot of positivity online and noted that many of the job opportunities would be passed on to the team for those looking for extra work. So it at least sounds as if various members of the team will definitely have a soft landing.

One of the Xbox One's hidden gems, Sunset Overdrive, is getting a second lease on life thanks to the announcement that the game would be making its way to Windows 10 PC via Steam. Even better is the fact that the game's launch on the platform coincides with this news, so you can go ahead and grab it right now.

Major Nelson himself took to social media today to tout an episode of "This Week on Xbox" featuring Ted Price of Insomniac Games. The topic of their conversation was Sunset Overdrive, an early Xbox One exclusive which is now available on PC. The game can be yours for $19.99, and it comes with the base game and both of its DLC packs.

Sunset Overdrive was one of the major games Insomniac worked on before moving on to develop Marvel's Spider-Man for PlayStation 4. During the last console generation, most of their other games were also PlayStation exclusives, including the celebrated Resistance FPS series.

The Resistance series made a name for itself with some seriously unique weaponry, including a gun that let you tag an enemy with a single shot, and then remaining shots from the clip would defy the laws of physics in order to hit that same target.

Rad weaponry was on display once again in Sunset Overdrive, which equipped players with some of the most unique firearms ever seen in this entire generation. Even cooler was the fact that players got to use those weapons in a wild and wonderful open world that was one part Jet Set Radio and one part The Walking Dead.

In Sunset Overdrive, a bad batch of a new energy drink has turned most of the city's inhabitants into various forms of crazed monsters. As one of the survivors, you got to deck out your customizable character in some pretty sweet duds, grab some over-the-top weaponry and destroy any of the baddies that got in your way while trying to carry out all sorts of missions.

The hook was that the game really rewarded the player for building and maintaining momentum while zipping around the city, as standing still for too long was just about the best way to get yourself overrun with mutated jerk-faces.

What's cool is that the bonkers weapons from Resistance made it into Sunset Overdrive, while the fast and fun traversal from the latter made it into Spider-Man. I love it when you can follow a studio's evolution and growth through the games they make.

The biggest thing working against Sunset Overdrive was that it came out when the Xbox One was still pretty new and, going against other Microsoft exclusives, not everyone picked the game up at launch or circled back around to try it out later. It seems to have done well enough, but it's still fair to say it was unfortunately overlooked by many a gamer. Now that the game is available on PC for cheap, hopefully, that oversight will be corrected.

Sunset Overdrive 2 next?