Centuries ago, Journey to the West brought the story of Wukong to life, and now the mythical hero is getting more press than ever before. Black Myth: Wukong, a new game by Game Science, is taking over the Internet thanks to its intense action and epic story. With over 10 million players onboard, the action RPG is massive, and Dragon Ball fans were quick to spread its gospel. After all, Son Goku was created in the image of Wukong decades ago, and now one gamer has found a way to bring the Saiyan into Black Myth: Wukong.

As you can see below, a simple mod is able to turn Wukong into Goku while you're playing the hit new game. The addition, which was made by NorskPL on Nexus Mods, is nothing short of genius. The mod brings overlays an adult version of Son Goku over Wukong complete with his orange outfit and bo staff. Of course, all the moves Goku performs are sourced from Black Myth: Wukong, but the fighting style fits. After all, both these characters come from the pages of Journey to the West, and this mod makes that comparison impossible to ignore.

When people called it Black Myth Goku well here is your version of the game! #BlackMythWukong pic.twitter.com/sO6V2NaDy3

-- SKINS (@SKINSWukong) August 26, 2024

Footage of the Dragon Ball mod has gone viral, and as you can imagine, anime fans are obsessed. Son Goku is one of the biggest figures in anime, and over the years, series creator Akira Toriyama has unpacked the hero's ties to mythology. Journey to the West was a major inspiration for Dragon Ball as a whole, and before the manga was released, early designs of Goku imagined him as an ape. That idea shift over time as the Saiyan race adapted ape-like features like tails, and of course, guys like Vegeta could turn into Great Apes at certain times.

Beyond the original Chinese folk tale, Dragon Ball has been repping Wukong for ages, but is no longer the case. Black Myth: Wukong has brought the hero to an all-new audience, and it looks great doing so. Already, plenty of gamers are calling for Black Myth: Wukong to win game of the year, and its sales have made it one of the best-selling games of 2024 easily enough.

If you want to check out Black Myth: Wukong, no sweat. The game is now available on PC as well as PlayStation 5. An Xbox release date is expected to drop as well, but we've had no words on when that release will go live.

Did you see this Dragon Ball mod coming...? Let us know what you think over on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate released on Nintendo Switch back in July, but it seems there are lofty plans for the game's future. Developer Super Evil Megacorp has revealed a roadmap for the game's future, which includes additional platforms, new features, and downloadable content. The roadmap stretches from the rest of 2024 through 2025, so some of these things could take time before we actually see them. However, the PC versions of Splintered Fate will be coming this year, with options on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. The game will also be Steam Deck verified.

The roadmap for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate can be found below.

The next update for Splintered Fate "will be going live very soon" across Nintendo Switch and Apple Arcade. That update will include some bug fixes and stability improvements, but the most notable inclusion is cross-play between the two versions! The Apple Arcade version will also be getting the improvements that have been released on Switch, such as couch co-op. Readers should note that couch co-op for the Apple Arcade version will require bluetooth controllers. Following the Steam release later this year, all versions will be getting online matchmaking.

In 2025, Splintered Fate players can expect a new Challenge Mode. Downloadable content is also in the works, and the game's first DLC will "include one of the Turtles closest allies as a playable character." That would seem to suggest Casey Jones or April O'Neil, but it's possible the developers could surprise fans by bringing in Miyamoto Usagi, who did appear in Shredder's Revenge. The DLC will also feature a new TMNT story, as well as a new chapter. However, Super Evil Megacorp notes that runs will still consist of four chapters, "so you'll have to pick your direction each run." The developers are hopeful that this DLC will lead to more content, as well.

Additional details are sparse at this time, but it's possible we could learn more about these updates very soon. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate was first announced for Nintendo Switch during one of the company's Indie World presentations, and there happens to be a new one taking place on August 27th. Perhaps we'll get some more information about the game's next update and DLC this week!

How do you feel about these plans for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate? What DLC characters do you want to see? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is set to release in theaters on December 20th. When the movie arrives, it will see a mix of returning favorites from the first two films, as well as some big newcomers. For fans of the first two movies, the good news is that the vast majority of the cast will be back, from Sega favorites like Sonic and Knuckles, to human cast members like Tom and Maddie Wachowski. Ahead of the new movie's release, we've compiled a list of all the major actors confirmed to appear.

Returning Sonic Cast Members

It wouldn't be a Sonic movie without the blue blur himself, and fans can look forward to the return of Ben Schwartz, who has been providing the character's voice since the first film. Colleen O'Shaughnessey is also back as Miles "Tails" Prower, and is also the only member of the current cast to have also voiced their character in the video games. Following his appearances in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and his self-titled Paramount+ spin-off, Idris Elba is also back as Knuckles. Rounding out the movie's heroes, James Marsden and Tika Sumpter are back as Tom and Maddie Wachowski, respectively.

It's not just the heroes that are back, however. After some speculation that he had retired, it has been confirmed that Jim Carrey will return as Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Once again, his minion Agent Stone will be played by Lee Majdoub. Other returning characters include Maddie's sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell), as well as G.U.N. agent Randall Handel (Shemar Moore) and G.U.N.'s Commander Walters (Tom Butler).

The only major character from the first two movies that has not been confirmed is Wade Whipple, who was played in the first two films by Adam Pally. Pally was also the co-lead of the Knuckles series on Paramount+.

Keanu Reeves Plays Shadow

So far, a couple of new cast members have been confirmed for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The biggest of these is Keanu Reeves, who will be voicing Shadow the Hedgehog. From everything revealed thus far, Shadow's arc should be somewhat similar to what we saw in Sonic Adventure 2, the video game where Shadow made his first appearance. In that game, Shadow was created as part of a genetic experiment by Gerald Robotnik, the grandfather of Ivo Robotnik. As of this writing, Gerald has not been announced for the movie, and has not been cast. However, his granddaughter Maria Robotnik will be played by Alyla Browne.

How do you feel about the cast for Sonic the Hedgehog 3? Are you looking forward to the new movie? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

BioWare has provided details on each of the companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard: Lucanis Dellamorte, Lace Harding, Neve Gallus, Emmrich Volkarin, Davrin, Taash, and Bellara Lutare. There is nothing too juicy within the new character profiles, but if you are itching to get to know each better, the information below will scratch that itch. Meanwhile, BioWare has revealed that tomorrow, August 27, there will be new screenshots for each companion.

As you may know, the game's seven companions features returning characters from previous games, characters that been introduced in extra media, and brand new characters as well. What they all have in common though is none of them have been a companion in any previous game.

Lucanis Dellamorte

Lucanis is an expert assassin for whom the Antivan Crows are a family business. He is poised & pragmatic, but he'd rather not be the center of attention. His focus is usually on his work. Lucanis specializes in executing powerful mages and has earned himself the title Demon of Vyrantium.

Abilities

• Eviscerate
• Abominate
• Soothing Potion
• Debilitate
• Adrenaline Rush

Lucanis stylishly deals necrotic damage in battle with his dual-daggers, whilst supporting his companions with potions and buffs.

Lace Harding

This dwarven scout has a positive outlook and a ready bow - as well as unexpected magical powers. At her core, Harding is still a girl from Ferelden; she loves adventure, animals, and nature and is fiercely protective of her family and friends.

• Seismic Shot
• Heavy Draw
• Shred
• Adrenaline Rush
• Soothing Potion

Harding's skills with the bow are unmatched - her arrows can stagger enemies and shred armor.

Neve Gallus

A cynic fighting for a better future, Neve is both a private detective and a member of Tevinter's rebellious Shadow Dragons. Born and raised in a working-class neighborhood of Minrathous, she does not believe in the superiority of mages.

• Icebreaker
• Blizzard
• Glacial Pace
• Time Slow
• Replenish

Neve uses her talents as an ice mage to freeze and slow enemies, stopping them in their tracks.

Emmrich Volkarin

A necromancer of Nevarra's Mourn Watch, this well-meaning scholar comes complete with a skeletal assistant, Manfred. Emmrich is as serious about his duty to protect innocents from the occult as he is about his studies and his interest in the mysteries of the fade.

• Final Rites
• Replenish
• Entangling Spirits
• The Bell Tolls
• Time Slow

Emmrich summons forth spirits of the dead to both entangle and hinder his enemies and heal his companions.

Davrin

Bold and charming, this Grey Warden has made a name for himself as a monster hunter. Though he was raised in a Dalish clan, he craved excitement and adventure. He'd rather make history than reflect on it. Now, he cares for Assan, a young griffon.

• Battle Cry
• Death from Above
• Heroic Strike
• Assan Strike
• In War, Victory

Fiercely loyal, Davrin brings his enemies down hard with a combination of mighty attacks, teaming with Assan to keep their companions out of danger.

Bellara Lutare

Bellara is creative, romantic, and obsessed with uncovering the secrets of ancient Elvhenan. She has a strong sense of self - a clear idea of who she is and what she wants - and will push herself to her limits to find the answers she seeks.

• Fade Bolts
• Enfeebling Shot
• Replenish
• Time Slow
• Galvanized Tear

Bellara manipulates the Fade and uses electricity and control magic to support her Companions and diminish the powers of their foes.

Taash

A Qunari dragon hunter allied with the Lords of Fortune, Taash lives for adventure and doesn't mind taking risks. While her interests include sparkling treasures and hitting things with an axe, Taash is also deeply knowledgeable about many topics.

• Fire Breath
• Dragon's Roar
• Dragonfire Strike
• Spitfire
• Fortune's Favor

Blunt and straightforward, Taash is a mighty warrior, who wields dual-axes and breathes out flames, igniting enemies with draconic fury.

It is unclear if any more details than this will be provided on each Dragon Age: The Veilguard companion. Presumably, there will be a deep dive on each character before release as is typical with BioWare, but this remains to be seen.

After rumors began to circulate over the last few days, it has been confirmed that the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be released on Tuesday, August 26th. Paramount made the announcement today via a series of images shared to the official Sonic Twitter account. These images feature images of Sega characters projected on buildings around the world, in locations like Dallas, Tokyo, Frankfurt, and New York City. Sonic and Doctor Robotnik both feature prominently, as does Shadow the Hedgehog. Fans have been wondering for months now when the trailer would be released, and it looks like the hype cycle is about to begin!

An image of Shadow's face projected in New York City can be found below.

We've long known that Shadow will have a major role to play in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and these teasers show how the character will be used in the film's promotion. Knuckles got the big push last time around, and it looks like Shadow is going to be all over the place this time! While Paramount has just begun to build hype for the new movie, Sega started things off several months ago, when it proclaimed 2024 the "Year of Shadow." Sega has spent the last few months building up the character in various ways, from a tour featuring a replica of Shadow's motorcycle, to a new LEGO set. There's even Sonic x Shadow Generations, a new video game coming out for multiple platforms on October 25th.

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie was released back in 2020, and the series has become a major success story for Paramount ever since. The first two movies have raked in more than $720 million combined at the global box office. That would be impressive enough on its own, but this year also saw the Sonic Cinematic Universe expanded with a live-action Knuckles series. That show set new streaming records for Paramount+, and gave audiences a chance to learn more about how things have progressed since the previous movie. It remains to be seen whether Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be able to continue this string of successes, but we'll have a better idea when the first trailer drops!

Are you excited about the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3? What are you hoping to see in tomorrow's trailer? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

PlayStation's next State of Play event for 2024 is reportedly set to happen in September. To this point in the year, Sony has only held two State of Play presentations. the first took place in January and featured reveals for Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade, and Judas. The most recent State of Play broadcast, though, happened in May and included announcements of Concord and Astro Bot. Now, another such event sounds like it's set to happen soon, although details of what might be featured are still slim.

According to Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb, the next State of Play for the year is broadly being planned for September. Grubb said that based on what he currently knows, he expects the presentation to happen near the end of the month. As for what is set to be revealed at the State of Play, Grubb didn't commit to anything outright, but he said that this venue would make sense for Sony to unveil the PS5 Pro, which is said to still be on track to launch in 2024.

"Last I heard [PS5 Pro is] still coming out this year. More recently what I've heard is that there is probably going to be a State of Play - a PlayStation State of Play, not a Showcase - by the end of September," Grubb said. "It's probably going to be late next month. I don't know if the PlayStation 5 Pro is in this State of Play but where else would it be?"

Generally speaking, a State of Play in September makes sense for multiple reasons. For starters, Sony tends to always hold a State of Play in September as it has done so for five straight years. Other than this, though, PlayStation is also set to take part in the 2024 Tokyo Game Show, which will transpire at the end of this coming month. With that convention happening from September 26th to the 29th, it would be logical for PlayStation to hold a State of Play in close proximity to highlight games that it plans to show at TGS.

In the near terms, PlayStation just released Concord on PS5 and PC at the end of this past week. It will be followed by Astro Bot quite soon, which is set to hit PS5 on September 6th.

After eight long years of development, last week Firewalk Studios and PlayStation released first-person hero shooter, Concord. At the moment of writing this, the game is sitting at a 67 on Metacritic and virtually no one is playing it. It remains unclear what the player numbers are on PS5, but the game was instantly dead on Steam. To date, its highest peak player count was 697. To put that number into context, one of the worst games of the generation, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, posted a higher peak than this with its 758 peak concurrent players. 697 peak concurrent players for a big budget game from a PlayStation-owned studio is such a low number most of social media assumed it was a glitch in reporting at first. It's not though. It's just going that poorly for Concord.

All of this begs the question: how did PlayStation greenlight this game through various milestones all the way until release? This is a game that was made by a studio of approximately 150 developers located in Washington state. That isn't cheap overhead. Couple this with AAA production value and what you get is not just a catastrophic flop, but a very expensive catastrophic flop. Like many publishers though, PlayStation is well known for killing projects in the middle of development, so how did this slip past the goalie? In what world does Concord release, but PlayStation cancels The Last of Us multiplayer, a game that it had already announced publicly, a game that was no doubt more expensive to make, and a game that the market actually was anticipating? It doesn't really make much sense, and makes you wonder what is going on at PlayStation.

Who Dropped the Ball With Concord?

The moment Concord was revealed, the Internet knew the PS5 and PC game was going to flop. The dislike bar shows this, all the comments on trailer say as much, and its just obvious looking at the game. It is clear hard work went into Concord, but the ideas this work was built on are flawed. As a hero shooter, the game is years late to a trend the market has been tired of for years. As an online competitive multiplayer game, built with live service in mind, it is competing against some of the biggest and best games the industry has ever produced. Literal juggernauts of the industry even established IP is finding difficult to dislodge. And then there is the writing. Thanks to Marvel and the endless amounts of entertainment it has inspired, banter-fueled goofy writing is incredibly risky when trying to make a first impression. It's a writing style that has been exhausted, and in the reveal trailer and promotional material for the game, it quadruples down on this style. And it doesn't even do it well. Making matters worse, the character design is rudimentary and uninspired. A hero shooter, at the bare minimum, has to have cool heroes. Concord's roster looks like the student project version of Overwatch. The characters range from trite to cringe. Surely all of this raised a red flag.

On one hand, it seems like everyone at PlayStation missed blatant red flags, yet the game's marketing actually suggests it was aware it had a dud on its hands. Only two months separated the reveal and the release of Concord. Two months doesn't scream confidence in a product. It screams doubt. If PlayStation was confident in the product, wouldn't it have had a longer marketing run complete with more opportunity to show the game off? Marketers across the industry have been shrinking the time between reveal and release, but nothing like this. A two month window between reveal and release suggests PlayStation wanted this failed experiment to be over with.

Concord vs The Last of Us Online

Concord was in development for eight years. It wasn't announced until 2023 though, a year before its eventual reveal. This means that PlayStation had ample opportunity to can the project before the public even knew about it. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Online was already announced, and had years of anticipation behind it. In addition to this, it no doubt had a couple hundred million in investment already. In fact, it probably cost more than Concord, despite never making it as far in development. It was also attached to one of PlayStation's biggest and most important IPs, and could have provided some synergy with the HBO show. It was probably a much higher quality game as well, unlikely to ever flop. Yet deep into development it was canned by PlayStation.

At the time, it was reported PlayStation-owned Bungie aided in this decision as some type of internal expert on multiplayer and live service games. There is a whole list of separate problems with this, but does this mean Concord also got the greenlight from Bungie, in addition to PlayStation? If so, that is even more perplexing.

For what it is worth, Concord and PlayStation are not the only victims of this growing disconnect between consumers, developers, and executives. It doesn't take an expert to see Concord, hear its pitch, and send the team back to the drawing board . And there are many other examples of this. With Concord and The Last of Us Online, it's increasingly obvious that things are a little all over the place at PlayStation as they try and realize this live service initiative they've undertaken.

It looks like the upcoming sequel to Lies of P from Neowiz is set to feature open-world elements. A little more than a month after its launch in 2023, Lies of P director Ji Won Choi confirmed that a sequel to the action Soulslike title was in the works. Given that Lies of P itself isn't even one year old yet, it's likely that this follow-up entry won't see the light of day for a few more years. Whenever it does come about, though, we now seem to have a better idea of what to expect.

In a new job listing for a Field Level Designer at Neowiz, the developer specified that it's looking for candidates who have experience with open-world games. Not only are potential hires asked to have played a wide variety of open-world titles, but it's preferred that candidates also have a history in developing titles like this. Elsewhere in the listing, it was specifically mentioned that this role is tied to Lies of P 2, or whatever the official name of this sequel will end up becoming.

**Spoilers for the end of Lies of P are mentioned beyond this point.**

For those who finished Lies of P, it seems pretty clear where Neowiz is trying to take the series next. In the game's final cutscene, the character Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz is briefly mentioned. While it's not known exactly how the world of Lies of P, which is rooted in the lore of Pinnochio, will end up clashing with Oz, it's clear that this locale is likely where the sequel will be set. To that end, Neowiz seems interested in making Oz an area players can traverse at their own free will. Whether or not this will be a good direction for the series remains to be seen, but it definitely suggests that the sequel will be quite a departure from the first entry.

How would you feel about Lies of P 2 becoming more of an open-world game compared to its predecessor? And what else are you hoping to see Neowiz expand upon in the sequel? Share your own thoughts with me over on social media at @MooreMan12.

[H/T T4G via Reddit]

Fans of Hollow Knight: Silksong are already preparing to be disappointed by Nintendo's next Direct. Earlier this morning, Nintendo revealed that it would be holding a new Nintendo Partner Direct and Indie World showcase tomorrow on August 27th. Naturally, this announcement led many to begin hypothesizing about whether Silksong could show up during the event. And while one would think that hopes would be high for a re-emergence of Silksong, it seems that fans are instead starting to feel like the Metroidvania title will never see the light of day.

On the official Hollow Knight: Silksong subreddit, news of this new Nintendo Direct quickly became a topic of conversation. While some were willing to get excited about a new potential showing for Silksong, most users on the subreddit said that they're past the point of getting their hopes up when it comes to Directs being a venue for news on the long-awaited game.

"The news will come from Team Cherry themselves, there's zero events that will have Silksong," said u/DubbtTM on Reddit. "I know it's a broken record at this point but so are people fake hyping sh**, so I'm gonna say it."

"I already lost hope a long time ago," added u/Randomguyontheapp. "Everyone here is insane, someone please help them."

Generally speaking, there might be a better chance than normal that Hollow Knight: Silksong makes an appearance during tomorrow's Nintendo Direct. Not only does Team Cherry qualify as a Nintendo "partner", which simply means a third-party developer, but Silksong itself is also an indie title. As a result, there's a chance that Silksong could appear in either the Direct or Indie World portion of the showcase, which would make numerous fans around the globe happy.

If Hollow Knight: Silksong does happen to show up this week, it's likely that we will learn more about the game's eventual launch. Currently, Team Cherry hasn't committed to a launch window of any sort for Silksong, although it is known that the Hollow Knight sequel is bound for Nintendo Switch in addition to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Previous leaks from earlier in 2024 suggested that a release date for Silksong might be imminent, but only time will tell if this was accurate.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is the lowest price it has even been thanks to a new sale. Unfortunately, the sale is limited to PC, which means those on PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X are set to miss out. Steam users on PC looking to buy and play the Capcom survival-horror game though are about to save serious money on it.

Right now, for a limited time -- for 47 more hours at the moment of writing this or as supplies last -- Fanatical, an authorized third-party seller of Steam codes has Resident Evil 4 Remake for just $26.39, which is cheaper than it has been previously on any digital storefront or at any physical retailer. And given that the game is only about a year old, this is a great price for one of the best and most popular 2023 releases. It will no doubt get cheaper over time, but it may take a while before it dips below $25.

Below, you can read more about the game and check out a trailer for it as well:

"Survival is just the beginning," reads an official blurb about the game. "Six years have passed since the biological disaster in Raccoon City. Agent Leon S. Kennedy, one of the survivors of the incident, has been sent to rescue the president's kidnapped daughter. He tracks her to a secluded European village, where there is something terribly wrong with the locals. And the curtain rises on this story of daring rescue and grueling horror where life and death, terror and catharsis intersect. Featuring modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics, Resident Evil 4 marks the rebirth of an industry juggernaut. Relive the nightmare that revolutionized survival horror."

"Even if there's a part or two in the remake that could've been handled better, replayability is a core part of a Resident Evil game's success, and Resident Evil 4 is no exception," reads a snippet from our official review of the remake. "It should be a promising sign then that as soon as credits rolled, the next logical step was to look through the new challenges at hand and plan out the next playthrough. Costumes, new weapons, and challenges both self-imposed and presented by the game are incentives that bolster Resident Evil's arcade-y feel and give the player an excuse for another run, but even if they were absent, the Resident Evil 4 remake offers enough to justify countless runs once more."

The debut trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's multiplayer mode has been released. With the Black Ops 6 beta set to begin its first of two beta phases this coming weekend, Treyarch and Activision are finally ready to show off what the multiplayer component of the shooter will have in store. And for those that predominantly play multiplayer in each new Call of Duty entry, it looks like Black Ops 6 could be a return to form in a major way.

Clocking in at around two minutes in length, this new Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 trailer is chaotic, to say the least. The video doesn't only highlight the fast-paced gameplay that will be seen with BO6, but it also shows off many of the different maps that will be found in the multiplayer suite. Killstreaks, omnimovement, new weapons, and numerous other features that are new to Black Ops 6 also make an appearance and give fans a taste of what's to come.

As mentioned, the first Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta will take place from August 30th through September 4th for those who have pre-ordered the game. The open beta will then transpire the following weekend for everyone from September 6th through 9th. This will precede the launch of Black Ops 6 itself, which will drop on October 25th for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms.

You can find today's new Black Ops 6 trailer alongside the game's official synopsis below.

"Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.

The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.

In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.

Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies."

If you've been looking forward to the Dead by Daylight spin-off developed by Supermassive Games and just can't wait until next week to experience The Casting of Frank Stone, you're in luck! Behaviour Interactive, the developers of Dead by Daylight, and Supermassive Games have released a demo for the upcoming game on Steam, allowing players to experience the prologue for the thrilling narrative-driven horror game that introduces several features new to Supermassive titles.

In the demo, players step into the shoes of Sam Green, a determined policeman investigating the mysterious disappearance of a child. The journey leads deep into the eerie Cedar Hills Steel Mill, where chilling secrets await, revealing a far more sinister truth than anyone could have anticipated. As mentioned, this demo serves as the prologue to the full game, offering a segment full of hidden Easter eggs and plenty of twists and turns to set the tone for The Casting of Frank Stone, which dives deeper and darker into the grander lore of the twisted Dead by Daylight univese.

Per a press release for the newly released public demo, it's noted that progression from the demo will not carry over to the full game, so it's not a headstart on the game like some may be hoping for. Despite this, the demo does provide a unique opportunity to experiment with the game's mechanics and explore various outcomes and secrets by testing different paths, choices, and difficulty settings, so when you jump into the full game next week you'll have more of an idea of what to expect and seek out what's lurking in the dark with a bit of a headstart to understanding.

As for the demo, ComicBook was able to play the prologue sequence for The Casting of Frank Stone ahead of time, and in the coverage we published for the hour-long segment last week we asserted that, in our opinion, "Supermassive has delivered on tone and environmental expectations - I feel confident in saying that this early on based only on one location. The Prologue was atmospheric and continually worked to build a feeling of suspense and trepidation in its player.

The Casting of Frank Stone releases its full game on September 3rd for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, and the demo is available to download now on Steam.

Just like Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is going to have Darkspawn, Archdemons, and Grey Wardens. What it probably is not going to have is ThE Warden, the protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition both excluded The Warden, but the plot of Dragon Age: The Veilguard means players are going to be forced to suspend some serious disbelief to ignore the fact that their favorite character is absurdly missing.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard's plot includes a Double Blight, Darkspawn galore, and an Archdemon led by a risen eleven God attacking Weisshaupt Fortress, the home of the Grey Wardens. This alone is enough to justify the presence of the greatest Grey Warden in all of Thedas. The HQ of the Grey Wardens is going to be under attack by an Archdemon and a modern legend of Thedas, who is a Grey Warden, isn't going to show up? Narratively that sounds absurd.

Morrigan is also clearly in the game and likely heavily involved. The Witch of the Wilds is the most popular romance in Dragon Age: Origins. This means in a metric ton of world states The Warden is not only going to be missing during a threat that could wipe the existence of the order, but once again apart from his love interest, and in some cases the mother of his child, as she faces grave danger that includes Archdemons and risen eleven gods.

In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Morrigan also showed up without The Warden, and BioWare wrote it off as the character was busy looking for a cure to The Calling. That narrative thread doesn't exactly hold in this new set of circumstances, especially if BioWare is never going to make good on it.

The reason BioWare continues to largely pretend the biggest hero of its universe doesn't exist is because of the world state permutations that tangle the character. In some world states, the character isn't even alive.

BioWare is in a pickle with The Warden. If you make it canon that The Warden is alive, you will no doubt upset players whose canon world state includes the character dead. However, player data has revealed this is a minority of players. Meanwhile, the alternative is essentially pretending the character is dead, which is going to upset the majority of players.

For all we know, BioWare is going to surprise many with a cameo for The Warden in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. This seems unlikely though. That said, BioWare can't continue to hide the character as it is becoming a detriment to the immersion, believability, and quality of the larger narrative it is telling. One way or another it has to make a decision: bring The Warden back or kill them, but no more sitting on the fence and hiding the former protagonist.

After several rumors, Nintendo has confirmed that a new Nintendo Direct presentation will take place this week. The event will happen on Tuesday, August 27th at 7 a.m. PT, and will be a little bit different than we've seen in the past. This time around, viewers can expect both a Partner Showcase and an Indie World, which will stream back to back. In total, viewers can expect to see about 40 minutes worth of announcements related to the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has confirmed that the event will not have any announcements related to the company's new console.

The event will be streamed on Nintendo's official YouTube channel, and the link for the stream can be found right here. Nintendo fans should note that because this is a Partner Showcase, it means that we probably shouldn't expect to see anything related to Nintendo published games. That's not to say that there haven't been exceptions; a Partner Showcase earlier this year saw the announcement of Endless Ocean Luminous, which is a Nintendo published game. However, that game was developed by the third-party studio Arika, which is why it was able to fit with the theme.

So what can we expect during tomorrow's stream? It's hard to say, but we do know of several third-party games that are coming to Switch over the next few months. Sonic x Shadow Generations could show up, and it could be the place where Sega reveals the game's fourth playable character. We could also see Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, which hasn't gotten a lot of focus from Square Enix, despite releasing in November. A release date for Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics could also happen; the compilation was revealed during June's Nintendo Direct, and fans have been desperately waiting for official news on when it's coming. Of course, some new game announcements would also be nice!

With just 24 hours to go until the Nintendo Direct takes place, fans won't have to wait too long to see what gets unveiled. Some fans might have preferred a traditional Nintendo Direct, but with rumors about a Nintendo Switch 2 announcement happening in September, there might be even more exciting announcements in just a few weeks!

How do you feel about this Nintendo Direct announcement? Are you planning to watch the show tomorrow? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

The next season of Pokemon Go has been revealed. Max Out will be the new theme, and it will begin September 3rd, and run through December 3rd. Niantic has not offered full details about the new season just yet, but the title was revealed via a special trailer that debuted this morning. The trailer continues to hint at the addition of Dynamax to the game, following several teases that over the last few weeks. Coupled with the season's title, it seems like a safe bet that we can expect to see these giant Pokemon playing some kind of role!

In addition to the Dynamax theme, the new trailer features a hint about the arrival of the three Galar starters: Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. While the Pokemon themselves are not fully shown, we can see their legs in the trailer. A video showcasing the new season's theme can be found below.

Max Out Community Day Schedule

While we're still waiting on full information, there have been a few other things revealed about the new season so far. There will only be three Community Day events this season, one for each month. That means we won't have any Community Day Classics, only standard events. The first of these events will take place on Saturday, September 14th, and will feature both Ponyta and Galarian Ponyta. That makes a lot of sense considering the Galar theme that seems to be taking shape for Max Out! Following that event, we can expect to see Community Day events on Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, November 10th. At this time, we do not know which Pokemon will be getting the spotlight.

The final Community Day of 2024 will take place in December, once the following season kicks off. Presumably, that one will feature all of 2024's Community Day Pokemon, which is something we've seen in past years. So far in 2024, we've seen Rowlet, Chansey, Litten, Bellsprout, Bounsweet, Goomy, and Tynamo all featured, with a Popplio Community Day event set to take place this weekend. That's nine of the eleven Pokemon we can expect to see in December's event. Porygon, Cyndaquil, Bagon, and Beldum all received Community Day Classic events this year, so we can expect to see them in that event as well.

How do you feel about this new season theme for Pokemon Go? Are you excited for Max Out? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

D&D Beyond will not move forward with a controversial plan to update all of the spells on its digital character sheets to those found in the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook after immense pushback from players. In a statement released early this morning, Wizards of the Coast announced that D&D Beyond users would no longer automatically have their character options, spells, and magical items updated to their 2024 versions in their character sheets. Instead, players who only have access to the 2014 version of the Player's Handbook will maintain their current sets of rules on the character sheet, while those with both the 2024 and 2014 version can select from both sources when creating new characters.

The announcement is a direct reversal of previous plans for D&D Beyond, which acts as one of the primary ways Dungeons & Dragons players manage their characters. Previously, all players, regardless as to whether they purchased the 2024 Player's Handbook, would have their spells, magical items, and mundane items updated to the updated rules found in the new rulebook. Fans protested, as many players have either not committed to using the new revised rules or plan to only switch over after finishing their current campaign. The forced change, while free, was also seen as pushing the new rules on all players, regardless as to whether they wanted to use them or not.

"Our excitement around the 2024 Core Rulebooks led us to view these planned updates as welcome improvements and free upgrades to existing content," a statement on D&D Beyond's website read. "We misjudged the impact of this change, and we agree that you should be free to choose your own way to play."

D&D Beyond did confirm that it would move forward with some renaming of certain resources or categories based on the 2024 Player's Handbook. Examples include Races to Species, Inspiration to Heroic Inspiration, and Cast Spell to Magic. None of these are mechanical changes though to the extent of those previously planned for the new character sheets.

One of the creepiest monsters in Dungeons & Dragons should be making a comeback soon. Speaking with D&D game architect Chris Perkins at Gen Con earlier this month, ComicBook asked about some of the upcoming plans for the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, some of which will be revealed at a planned D&D Direct this week. One monster ComicBook was specifically interested in learning about was the phaerimm, a windcone-shaped monster from the Forgotten Realms that was specifically responsible for the demise of the ancient Netheril Empire and whose magic literally drained the moisture from their surroundings. While a dead phaerimm made a cameo appearance in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, the magic creatures are one of the most prominent D&D monsters to not appear in a 5th Edition adventure or have its own Wizards-created statblock.

Luckily, it appears that the phaerimm may be making a comeback. "We have a Phaerimm thing afoot," Perkins said. "The Phaerimm should be making their triumphant reappearance soon."

Perkins didn't provide any additional details about how the Phaerimm would make a comeback, but he did talk about what makes the creatures such wonderful and weird villains. "I'm super excited about them," Perkins said. "The Phaerimm are such a fun, weird monster. It's a flying cone with tentacles, and it sucks magic. They're awful. I'm looking forward to bringing them back. "

Perkins also noted that a fan made him a Phaerimm miniature, which might be the only one in existence as they've never been turned into an official D&D miniature.

Wizards of the Coast is set to reveal more information about the future of Dungeons & Dragons this Tuesday at 12 PM ET. The D&D Direct will be streamed on the game's YouTube page.

Star Wars fans have been eager for an open-world game to allow them to fully immerse themselves into the galaxy for what feels like forever, and Ubisoft has finally delivered with their latest release: Star Wars Outlaws. Outlaws, while not without fault, offers an expansive exploration of the galaxy far, far away the likes of which Star Wars fans haven't seen before, with multiple dense planets to explore as players aim to become the best thief in the galaxy, making a name for themselves through Outlaws' reputation system while experiencing a compelling new piece of the Star Wars narrative.

As is the case with the Andor and the majority of The Book of Boba Fett series, Star Wars Outlaws offers a welcome departure from the fantastical world of the Force from being the center of the galaxy, and the Force's presence is integral to the overarching story and themes with the galaxy it's nice to see parts of the galaxy's without a Jedi being central to it. Much like Andor, Outlaws allows its audience to see the impacts on the everyday individuals and their loved ones that the harshness of the Empire creates, and because this is considerably more relatable to audiences as none of us can understand a life with the Force's wonders (unfortunately) and allows for a level of immersion not achieved with any previous Star Wars gaming title.

Early previews heralded Star Wars Outlaws as the new Red Dead Redemption 2, and while I don't feel Outlaws offers quite the same level storytelling and exploration offered by Rockstar Games' 2018 title, I have to say it comes as close as possible. Its settings are as dense as any in RDR2, yes, and therefore just as intersting to explore, with the star ship and speeder Kay Vess has at her disposal offering some seriously fun traversal mechanics. With some changes and enhancements Outlaws could have truly been Red Dead Redemption 2 in space, and falls only just short - Outlaws simply doesn't deliver any overly memorable characters that I anticipate many fawning over in excess in the future, and the gameplay just isn't as fun.

The writers for the game, while clearly deeply knowledgable on the Star Wars franchise and passionate to deliver the aforementioned compelling story, have only fallen somewhat short when it comes to the game's content, and as mentioned it's only the characters that I feel could've been improved upon. The two standouts for me from the game were Sliro, who is a wonderful representation of the title "crime boss", and the player character Kay Vess' companion, Nix. I simply didn't feel attached to any of the characters outside of Nix, and for me it's a huge missed opportunity in a game when I find I don't connect with the character I'm playing as - and unfortunately, I just don't see a character in Kay that many people will. The various storylines will have you intrigued and eager to experience more, familiar appearances from characters we've seen in the past will inspire that Star Wars nostalgia to carry you through, but ultimately the most compelling "new" content that Outlaws has to offer is its worlds and adding more depth to the criminal syndicates running the under workings of the galaxy.

In trying to become the best thief in the galaxy as Kay Vess, you will experience Outlaws' Reputation and Imperial Wanted sytems, which for me was the most interesting part of the game. It's never going to not be fun to make such a horrific group such as the Empire increasingly frustrated with you, and the reputation Kay develops with each of the criminal syndicates offer sizable changes to how the player will experience the game, with their behavior changing toward Kay dependent on the player's choices. This offers a replayability factor to the game, and I personally would be the type of person to replay Outlaws several times over to experience as many variations as possible if it weren't for a major setback - Outlaws' gameplay itself.

Outlaws plays exactly like any other Ubisoft title you've experienced before - it's commonly said that if you've played one game from the studio, you've played them all. While from a gameplay point this is accurate and anyone playing Outlaws that has played a previous Ubisoft title will know exactly what to do from a gameplay perspective - which is either good or bad dependent on how you feel about Ubisoft gameplay, and them falling into this almost formulaic approach to game development. For me, this monotony became tiresome in a way it has in many Ubisoft titles before it - the open world, while it should feel vast throughout the game, almost feels small at times because of the repetition in the open world chores, and stealth mechanics become increasingly eye-rolling to have to carry out throughout the game.

The stealth and most aspects attached to it are the only thing holding Outlaws back from truly fun gameplay. At certain points it becomes outright frustrating to navigate the criminal underworld, and its steal level layouts simply do not allow its players to have a seamless experience. Enemy line-of-sight isn't communicated well, the guard layouts simply do not make sense more often than not and become an overly frustrating source of planning, and ultimately the stealth becomes horribly monotonous and unexciting.

Overall, while I finished the main storyline and got a fair amount of exploration in, I'm already fairly excited to load up Star Wars Outlaws some more today to get back into the aspect of the game where it's at its best - exploration - though I'm not particularly enthralled to have to sit through more of its gameplay.

3.5/5

Star Wars Outlaws launces on August 30th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Star Wars Outlaws from developer Massive Entertainment and publisher Ubisoft is set to release this week via PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X. Before this, reviews for the Star Wars game have begun to be published, which in turn has revealed an early Metacritic score for the title. And so far, it is not looking great for Ubisoft.

Star Wars Outlaws is a big AAA Star Wars game that no doubt cost Ubisoft lots of money. The licensing alone is quite expensive. As a result, Ubisoft is going to need to ship quite a few copies to breakeven. To achieve this, strong reviews would have gone a long way, but right now the games various Metacritic scores are in the 70s.

At the moment of writing this, the Xbox Series X|S version is sitting at a 76, while the PC version and PS5 version are both at 77. 77 is close to a strong score, but as more reviews are posted online, it is likely to dip, or at least this is what typically happens.

What is also noteworthy is how all over the place reviews are. There are some near perfect scores and then some five out of tens. Why there is such a wide range, we don't know, but this is increasingly common with video game reviews.

About the Game + Trailer

"Experience the first-ever open-world Star Wars game, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi," reads an official blurb about the game." Explore distinct planets across the galaxy, both iconic and new. Risk it all as Kay Vess, a scoundrel seeking freedom and the means to start a new life, along with her companion Nix. Fight, steal, and outwit your way through the galaxy's crime syndicates as you join the galaxy's most wanted. If you're willing to take the risk, the galaxy is full of opportunity."

For more Star Wars Outlaws coverage -- including all of the latest Star Wars Outlaws news, all of the latest Star Wars Outlaws rumors, and all of the latest Star Wars Outlaws deals -- click here.

One of the problems with remakes, especially with horror titles, is that those familiar with the source material have a good idea of what to expect going in. Thankfully, the remake of Silent Hill 2 is going to have some changes in store for those that played the original game. We already expected that there would be some new elements based on the expanded length of the remake, but now we have a better idea of one element that has been changed from the original. In a new interview with Play Magazine, Silent Hill lead series producer Motoi Okamoto revealed that enemies apparently won't appear in the same locations they did in the 2001 game. In doing so, the hope is to keep things fresh for even the most passionate Silent Hill 2 fans.

"As for the creatures, we have some minor updates. We have also replaced and remapped all the enemies from where they were placed in the original so everyone can have a fresh take on combat," Okamoto told Play Magazine.

Silent Hill 2 is not the only remake that has used this approach; it's a pretty tried and true method to differentiate remakes from their original games. When Capcom similarly remade the original Resident Evil, the developers made several efforts to play against the expectations of existing fans. A lot of Silent Hill fans have been cautiously optimistic about this remake from Bloober Team, so It will be interesting to see how a lot of purists feel about the changes that have been made.

The reason so many fans are worried about the remake of Silent Hill 2 is because the original is considered one of the best video games ever made. More than two decades after its release, the Konami game is held in high esteem among players, as well as those passionate about the horror genre. It remains to be seen whether Bloober Team will be able to deliver an experience that truly lives up to that game, but if the developer pulls it off, this could end up being the definitive version of an existing classic. Thankfully, we don't have to wait long to see how things turn out, as Silent Hill 2 is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC on October 8th.

How do you feel about this change for the remake of Silent Hill 2? Does this make you more likely to check out the game? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: MP1st]

This summer, the GameStop sales and deals have slowed down and thinned out, but there are still some great Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S to be had. This week, the majority of the best deals come courtesy of publisher Electronic Arts. In fact, four of the five top GameStop deals this week are EA games, while the fifth and final game comes courtesy of Sega.

How long any of the deals below are going to be available, we don't know. GameStop does not disclose this information. In other words, they are live deals subject to change. Predominately, the deals are exclusive to the Xbox Series X|S, but there is one deal included available for Nintendo Switch and PS5 as well.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition -- $8.99 (Xbox Series X|S)

About: "One person is all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat it's ever faced. Relive the legend of Commander Shepard in the highly acclaimed Mass Effect trilogy with the Mass Effect(TM) Legendary Edition. Includes single-player base content and over 40 DLC from Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 games, including promo weapons, armors and packs - remastered and optimized for 4K Ultra HD."

Need for Speed Unbound -- $9.97 (Xbox Series X|S)

About: "Race against time, outsmart the cops, and take on weekly qualifiers to reach The Grand, Lakeshore's ultimate street racing challenge. Pack your garage with precision-tuned, custom rides and light up the streets with your style, exclusive fits, and a vibrant global soundtrack that bumps in every corner of the world."

Immortals of Aveum -- $18.04 (Xbox Series X|S)

About: "Immortals of Aveum is a single-player first person magic shooter that tells the story of Jak as he joins an elite order of battlemages to save a world on the edge of abyss."

Tales of Kenzera ZAU -- $13.29 (2024 Release) (Xbox Series X|S)

About: "Wield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father's spirit. A grieving boy begins to read a Bantu tale written by his late father. Adventure into the beautiful and treacherous lands of Kenzera as Zau, a young shaman who bargains with the God of death to bring his Baba back from darkness."

Persona 5 Tactica -- $19.99 (Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S)

About: "After a strange incident, the Phantom Thieves wander into a bizarre realm where its citizens are living under tyrannical oppression. Surrounded by a military group named Legionnaires, they find themselves in grave danger until a mysterious revolutionary named Erina rescues them and offers an enticing deal in exchange for their help. What truth lies behind Erina and the deal she offers to the Phantom Thieves?"

For more GameStop coverage -- including all of the latest GameStop news, all of the latest GameStop rumors and leaks, and all of the latest GameStop deals -- click here.

A huge Steam sale over on Humble has a metric ton of games on sale, including some great games for less than $5. To this end, some of the greatest RPGs ever made are only a few dollars. Just the $5 or less part of the sale, series and games such as Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Batman, Marvel, Star Wars, LEGO, Castlevania, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, XCOM, Middle-earth, Hellblade, DOOM, Assassin's Creed, Sonic, Chivalry, and Mortal Kombat are all featured. And of course, there are also some great indie games.

The deals in question are naturally only available for a limited time. More specifically, they are only available for seven days, which means until September 2. For those who have never used Humble, it is a digital retailer that primarily deals in Steam keys. It is very reputable, with a portion of purchases going to charity.

Notable Steam Games Currently Under $5

• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition
• Hellblade
• Chivalry 2
• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• DOOM
• Mad Max
• Death's Door
• Wizard of Legend
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Batman: Arkham Origins
• Enter the Gungeon
• Exit the Gungeon
• Loop Hero
• Outlast
• Outlast: Whistleblower
• Outlast 2
• Space Hulk: Deathwing
• Ruiner
• Graveyard Keeper
• Among Us
• Journey
• The Messenger
• Castlevania Anniversary Collection
• Chorus
• Darkest Dungeon
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• LEGO Batman Trilogy
• Batman: Arkham VR
• Tales of Zestiria
• Call of Cthulhu
• XCOM 2
• XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
• Valkyria Chronicles
• Celeste
• Catherine
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Game of the Year Edition
• Tales of Symphonia
• Dead Island
• Crawl
• For Honor
• FTL
• The Surge
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition
• Assassin's Creed - Director's Cut
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin's Creed 2
• Sid Meier's Civilization VI
• Sonic Mania
• Heavy Rain
• BroForce
• My Hero's One Justice 2
• Mortal Kombat X
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Hotline Miami
• Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
• Shadow Warrior 2
• Donut County
• Steamworld Dig 2
• Rogue Legacy
• Darksiders Warmastered Edition
• Telling Lies
• Sonic Adventures 2
• LEGO Jurassic World
• King's Bounty II
• Fallout: Classic Collection
• LEGO City Undercover
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
• Star Wars: Republic Commando
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
• Star Wars: Episode I Racer
• Monster Sanctuary
• Frostpunk
• The Council
• Rollercoaster Tycoon: Deluxe
• For the King
• This War of Mine: Final Cut
• Mudrunner
• Hitman: Absolution
• Steamworld Heist
• Gris
• Ape Out
• Telltale Batman
• Psychonauts
• Enslaved Odyssey to the West
• Dishonored
• Limbo
• Inside
• Spirit of the North
• LEGO Marvel's Avengers
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• My Friend Pedro
• Abzu
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Little Nightmares
• The Disney Afternoon Collection
• Tales of Berseria
• Mothergunship
• LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
• Generation Zero
• Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King

For all of our of previous and all of our extensive Steam coverage -- including all of the latest Steam news, all of the latest Steam rumors and leaks, and all of the latest Steam deals -- click here.

A fan-favorite PS4 game is now available on PS5 and free for some PS5 users. The PS4, and now PS5, game in question hails from 2020, a year that treated gamers to the likes of The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, DOOM Eternal, Half-Life: Alyx, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Fall Guys, Persona 5 Royal, Crsuader Kings III, Demon's Souls, Spelunky 2, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Cyberpunk 2077. For the modern era, it was a pretty loaded year and also the year of the pandemic, so more people than ever were gaming.

Due to all the new releases and the ever present live service games that suck up so much attention at any given time, there were plenty of great games in 2020 that went overlooked and under the radar. One example is Hopoo Games and Gearbox Software's Risk of Rain 2, a follow-up to 2013's Risk of Rain.

Upon release, the roguelite third-person shooter sold millions of copies, earned an 85 on Metacritic, and an even higher Steam user score. Over on Steam, the game has 190,824 user reviews, 96 percent of which are positive. This gives the game an "Overwhelmingly Positive" user review rating, the highest rating you can earn on the platform.

For those on PS4 who missed the game, there is now the opportunity to remedy this as it has been brought to the PS5. Meanwhile, those who bought the game on PS4 will get the game on PS5 free of charge. Those who didn't will need to fork over the usual $24.99.

As for the PS5 version, it is not a simple port. In other words, there has been some upgrading. There is now split-screen local multiplayer, 60 FPS, and a 4K resolution. There is also now progressive trophies and various features built around the PS5 controller, the DualSense.

"Over a dozen handcrafted locales await, each packed with challenging monsters and enormous bosses that oppose your continued existence," reads an official blurb about the game for those unfamiliar with it. "Fight your way to the final boss and escape or continue your run indefinitely to see just how long you can survive. A unique scaling system means both you and your foes limitlessly increase in power over the course of a game."

For more PlayStation coverage -- including all of the latest news, all of the latest rumors and leaks, and all of the latest deals as it all pertains to both the PS4, PS5, and PS Plus -- click here.

The latest trailer for Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is perfect for those who love the Harry Potter movies. Set to launch in a little over a week, Quidditch Champions will be the first dedicated Quidditch video game that has come about since 2003's Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup. Now, for those who might be on the fence (or are unfamiliar) with Quidditch Champions, publisher WB Games is showing how it relates to both the Harry Potter movies and books.

Viewable below, this new video for Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions features iconic moments from the Harry Potter films that have been recreated in-game. Not only can characters like Harry Potter, Ron Weasely, and Draco Malfoy be used in Quidditch Champions, but other locales that are represented in the movies have been carefully crafted. Outside of just the movies, WB Games also says it's included locations that have only ever been mentioned in the novels. All of these familiar aspects can be combined with new ones, too, as players can look to create their own unique "Champion" and climb through the Quidditch ranks.

As mentioned, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is nearly set to release and will arrive on September 3rd for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. A Nintendo Switch version of the game is also in the works but won't arrive until later in 2024. Additionally, those who are subscribed to PlayStation Plus can expect to snag Quidditch Champions for free as part of their subscription in September.

Alongside this new Quidditch Champions trailer, you can check out the game's official synopsis and list of features at the bottom of the page.

"Your next chapter takes flight! Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Quidditch by playing solo or sharing the magic with friends and family. Take to the sky as one of the classic positions--Chaser, Seeker, Keeper, or Beater--each with their own unique play style. Soar into legendary Quidditch arenas, as well as maps that showcase never-before-seen areas of the wizarding world.

• Career Mode: From backyard battles in the Weasley Burrow to high-stakes showdowns at the Quidditch World Cup, rise to become a champion either solo or in online co-op with teams of up to 3 friends.
• Exhibition Matches: set your teams, map, and difficulty and play alone or on teams of up to 3 in online co-op.
• Player vs Player: Test your skills in competitive online matches against other Quidditch teams.
• Customize Your Approach: Level up and use skill points to tailor your play style for each role. Change your flight style by switching between and leveling up different brooms.
• Play As Yourself or as Iconic Harry Potter Characters: cosmetic customization options and classic character designs allow you to express your game-time personality."

It continues to sound as though Nintendo's next Direct of 2024 could be happening at some point in the coming days. This past week, Nintendo insider PH Brazil suggested that a new Direct would be taking place before the conclusion of August. If true, this would be a bit of a departure for Nintendo as the publisher historically likes to hold its major Direct of the fall in September. However, with the Nintendo Switch 2 looming, there might be a reason behind Nintendo bumping up the date of its latest Direct a bit earlier than normal.

When Is Nintendo's Next Direct?

At the time of this writing, Nintendo hasn't officially announced when its next Direct will take place. As mentioned, rumors are claiming that it could happen this coming week, likely on a date between August 27th and August 29th. Since 2017, Nintendo hasn't held a major Direct in August, although there have been some presentations that have fallen in this window.

Last year, for instance, a Direct dedicated only to Super Mario Bros. Wonder did transpire on the final day of August. Beyond this, Nintendo has also held its "Indie World" streams in the past in the final days of August, often ahead of PAX West. With PAX West 2024 set to take place this coming weekend, there's always the chance that these current Nintendo Direct rumors could be in relation to the latest iteration of this broadcast.

How Nintendo Switch 2 Changes Nintendo's Plans

If a major, standard Direct were to happen this coming week, though, it's likely happening earlier than expected as a result of the Switch 2. Much like this rumored Direct, Nintendo has yet to properly announce that it's even gearing up to release the Switch 2. However, it has made clear in 2024 that it's working on new hardware that it will announce to the public at some point soon.

Based on Nintendo's previous trajectory with the original Switch, there's a good chance that the Switch 2 will end up being unveiled at some point this fall. If true, this would suggest that Nintendo might want to hold its usual September Direct a bit ahead of schedule to account for its Switch 2 reveal presentation. Then again, the announcement of the Switch 2 might not be extensive and its initial unveiling could simply set up a larger showcase for the hardware further down the line. This is what happened with the original Nintendo Switch as its first showing was nothing more than a commercial highlighting the hardware.

For now, it's hard to know what Nintendo is actually going to do. Rumors are obviously flying all over the place, so be sure to take everything that's been said by "insiders" online with a grain of salt. If any of these current rumors do hold true, though, we could have a new Direct in the coming days that would set the stage for a Switch 2 reveal not long after.

Valve just pushed out a new update for Steam that makes its Steam Deck handheld even better than before. By all accounts, the Steam Deck library is a pretty vast one. While many games are playable on the device, though, not all of them are "Verified" for the platform, which means there might be various issues that keep certain titles from running perfectly. Fortunately, Valve is trying to provide even more clarity when it comes to the performance of games on Steam Deck thanks to a new feature that has been implemented.

Announced on the official Steam Deck social media channels, Valve revealed that it's added a new component to reviews on Steam that further contextualizes where the user in question may have experienced said game they're reviewing. Specifically, if a user played a majority of the game they're leaving a review for on Steam Deck, an icon of the Steam Deck itself will not appear next to their review. This might seem like a small change in the grand scheme, but it's an important one given how influential reviews on Steam can often be for users when making a purchasing decision.

"We've just shipped a new feature on Steam that shows when a customer review was written by someone who played primarily on Steam Deck," Valve said. "Keep an eye out for the Deck icon to see how these players reviewed the game, and let us know what you think!"

By all accounts, this small implementation to Steam has been incredibly well received by those who own the Steam Deck. In response to this move, many praised Valve for adding this new quality-of-life feature to the PC marketplace. Others were quick to notice that Valve also added the ability to sort reviews based on this criteria, which further allows Steam Deck users to get a brief breakdown of how other Steam Deck players might have experienced a specific title. All in all, features like this might not be monumental, but it's great to see that Valve is always trying to improve Steam in every little way that it can.

The Cosmere RPG has officially broken the record for biggest tabletop RPG crowdfunding campaign. The successful campaign by Brotherwise Games, which launched earlier this month, has raised over $10.366 million on Kickstarter, breaking the $9.5 million record previously set by Avatar Legends back in 2021. This marks the first time that a crowdfunding campaign for a tabletop RPG has broken the $10 million mark on any platform.

The Cosmere RPG is a new game system designed specifically for the works of novelist Brandon Sanderson. While Sanderson writes several series of books, most take place within the Cosmere, a solar system of planets whose magic systems have a shared origin and features several recurring characters throughout all books. The Cosmere can be enjoyed as separate individual novels, but there is an emerging meta-plot primarily taking place throughout the books of the Stormlight Archives and Mistborn. Those two worlds will be the first to be explored by the Cosmere RPG, with the Stormlight RPG coming in 2025 and the Mistborn RPG coming in 2026. Part of the offerings for those releases are world guides that provide new and fleshed out details about the worlds of both books.

The game's mechanics include a skill tree system that allows players to customize their characters and either specialize in one career or magic system or potentially take levels in several classes. The game uses a D20-based system that behaves similarly to Dungeons & Dragons, but with a separate and distinct magic system. The game also uses a Fate die, a D6 that can either add "opportunities" or "complications" to the result of rolls, and puts more focus on the narrative of the game.

The crowdfunding campaign for the Cosmere RPG will end this week. You can check out additional details about the game over on Kickstarter.

For a long time, Koei Tecmo has been known as the developer behind the Dynasty Warriors series. However, over the last decade, the company may have become better known for its collaborations with Nintendo. The two companies have worked on a number of popular games together; 2020's Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity sold more than 4 million copies, making it the most successful "Warriors" game of all-time. Koei Tecmo has no announced collaborations with Nintendo or any other company right now, but that could change in the future. During a recent financial results briefing, the company addressed investors that have asked about future collaborations.

"Our policies and resources remain the same and we will continue collaboration. There have been no particular changes in the business environment, including the acquisition of new projects," the company replied. "We do not make any comments or disclosures regarding the collaboration with specific partners or the existence of specific collaboration titles under development."

It should be noted that Nintendo is not the only company Koei Tecmo has collaborated with; there have been several others, including Sega who worked with Koei Tecmo on Persona 5 Strikers. No company is specifically mentioned in the results briefing, but more collaborations with Nintendo seem like a safe bet. Beyond the two Hyrule Warriors games, Koei Tecmo has also allied with Nintendo on Switch exclusives like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 was particularly successful, selling more than 1 million copies. A fourth game in that series would certainly make sense!

At this time, Nintendo has a new video game system currently in development, which fans and the gaming media have taken to calling "Switch 2," pending an announcement of an official name. Given the close relationship that's developed between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, it's possible that the reason we haven't seen a new collaboration announced is because something is in the works for the new system. Whether that ends up being Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, Ultimate Alliance 4, or something else entirely, remains to be seen. Hopefully we'll get an end to that speculation sometime in the near future!

Do you think we'll see more collaborations with Nintendo and Koei Tecmo? Are there companies you'd like to see work with the gaming company? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: Nintendo Everything]

Activision is finally ready to reveal what the multiplayer portion of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will look like. Since being unveiled back in June, developer Treyarch has chosen to remain quiet about what will be seen in what will surely be Black Ops 6's most popular mode. Instead, it has focused on the game's campaign and other key mechanical changes that are being made compared to past Call of Duty entries. Now, with the Black Ops 6 beta set to begin in mere days, an initial look at what this multiplayer suite will have in store is set to drop soon.

Going live tomorrow morning at 10:00am ET/7:00am PT, Activision is set to share its first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's multiplayer. The trailer should be filled with nothing but gameplay footage and will serve as a nice tease of what's to come not only in the final release, but the forthcoming beta. This trailer will also then segue into COD Next, which is a lengthier event associated with Black Ops 6 that will happen on August 28th.

You can watch the trailer here once it unlocks:

As mentioned, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta is set to begin this coming weekend and will run for two consecutive weekends. This first beta weekend will begin on August 30th and will run until September 4th. This phase will only be available in "Early Access", which is open to those who pre-order the game. The following weekend from September 6th to September 9th will then be the open beta which users across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC will all be able to openly take part in.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will then officially release a little over a month after the beta on October 25, 2024, and will come to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. In addition, it will also be coming to Xbox Game Pass as a day-one title. Those subscribed to Game Pass will be able to check out the BO6 beta during its early access phase as well.

Multiple new reports tied to the PlayStation 5 Pro suggest that the console could be unveiled incredibly soon. For a prolonged period of time, reports and rumors have suggested that Sony is gearing up to release a more powerful version of the PS5. To this point, Sony itself hasn't verified whatsoever that a PS5 Pro console is happening, but that hasn't prevented plenty of credible leaks and reports pointing to the hardware's existence. Now, another such leak of this sort has transpired which indicates a proper announcement could be right around the corner.

According to reports from Wccftech and the Italian publication Multiplayer, developers that recently attended Gamescom 2024 openly talked about the existence of the PS5 Pro. It wasn't specified which studios talked about the console with these outlets, but Wccftech notes that one dev did so "without even being prodded." This developer went on to talk about their belief that the PS5 Pro will allow Unreal Engine 5 even better than it currently does as they've seen the specs of the console for themselves.

Based on this information, it's likely that Sony is laying the groundwork to reveal and eventually release the PS5 Pro. For developers to have this knowledge about the hardware (and likely test kits on hand) suggests that Sony is in the final stages of getting this console into the hands of consumers.

If there is one potential venue in which Sony could announce the PS5 Pro, it would be at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show. Sony made waves earlier in the summer when it announced that it would return to TGS in September for the first time in many years. For now, it's not known exactly what Sony has planned for the Tokyo Game Show, but the simple fact that it's even going to be present means that it might have some major news to share.

How do you feel about these ongoing reports associated with the PS5 Pro? And when do you think Sony is planning to finally show off the hardware to the general public? Let me know your own thoughts over on social media at @MooreMan12.

Gun Media has announced changes to the way that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be getting updates in the future. In a post on the game's official subreddit, the publisher has announced that the standard bi-weekly patches will be going away, and the team will be moving to monthly updates instead. The logic is that this should give the developers more time to work on patches, as well as develop new content. Despite this, the developers still plan to take in feedback from players as they work to improve the overall game.

"With transitioning back to a monthly cadence, this decision was made to extend the amount of time our team has to work on a patch. Year Two of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the Content Pass marks a new shift for how we will be rolling out content and game updates. With this new era, we feel this is the best way to proceed forward, while keeping up the flow of incoming new content," the post reads.

It remains to be seen how that approach will work out, but a lot of fans have already voiced frustration. Monthly updates were previously a thing, and Gun Media moved away from them in favor of the bi-weekly method. Texas Chain Saw Massacre fans think this is a step backwards, and many are concerned that monthly updates will mean that certain issues will now take longer to resolve. Reddit user Thumperf00t says that the developer "has demonstrated an inability to act nimbly where needed, to respond to community feedback where overwhelming, and to follow-through where promised." Another user with the handle LowenbrauDel argues that "in the current age you have to be proactive. Otherwise, players will just move on."

LowenbrauDel certainly does have a point. With The Texas Chain Saw Massacre leaving Xbox Game Pass earlier this month, the developers will have some work to do to convince those players to buy the game, or that their money was well spent. Since launching last year, one of the biggest concerns about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is that it would quickly stop seeing updates as we saw with Friday the 13th: The Game. That obviously hasn't happened yet, but it's hardly unprecedented, and now there's increased competition with the release of asymmetrical horror games like Killer Clowns from Outer Space.

It remains to be seen how these changes will pan out. It's entirely possible that changing to a monthly system will result in better updates and a development team that has a little more breathing room. But fans can hardly be blamed for feeling concerned about the game's future.

How do you feel about this change for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? Are you worried about the game's future? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

The latest PlayStation 2 re-releases on PS5 and PS4 platforms comes with a notable downside. This past week, Sony let loose the entire TimeSplitters franchise in TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect on modern PlayStation consoles. These new versions of all three TimeSplitters entries had been highly requested by fans for many years, so the simple fact that they're now available in this manner is a huge win. Sadly, though, publisher Deep Silver re-released these TimeSplitters titles with one major feature absent for the time being.

Unlike many other PS2 games that have come to PS5 and PS4 lately, TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect all fail to have trophy support. This is something that has been seen with other "PlayStation Classics" that have released in the past but it's still a bit of a rare occurrence, especially when compared to other PS2 titles like Summoner, Sly Cooper and the Thievieus Raccoonus, and Tomb Raider Legend that have launched this summer. As for the reason behind this lack of trophies, Deep Silver hasn't given an explanation, but it has made clear that this likely won't be the case for long.

In a statement given to a user on PSN Profiles (via Push Square), a representative from Deep Silver said that trophies for all of these TimeSplitters games are being "considered" and they "should be available in a future patch." Currently, it's not known when this update for all three titles might be released, but the fact that it's coming about whatsoever is great to see. Still, for trophies to not be available out of the gate for this return of TimeSplitters might dampen the re-release for those who are avid trophy hunters.

How do you feel about TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2, and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect all not having trophy support for the time being? And is this going to prevent you from picking each game up until trophies are added? Let me know either down in the comments section or reach out to me on social media at @MooreMan12.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners stands as one of the best originals on Netflix to date. Brought to life by Studio Trigger, the anime spin-off expands the world that Cyberpunk 2077 brought to life. From its rich characters to its top-tier animation, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners more than earned its title as one of Trigger's best anime. And now, the title is going viral after a group of fans adapted it in live action.

The project, as you can see below, comes courtesy of Frien Force. The YouTube channel came together to bring Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to life in a way we have never seen. The short is set within the anime's canon as it is set ahead of episode four. So if you want to see how David and Lucy fare in real life, this short does the trick.

Starring Cameron Rankin and Eric Hau, this Cyberpunk: Edgerunners short is nothing short of perfection. So if you want a rundown on the fan-film, you can read its official blurb below:

"David and Lucy have a plan to fix this bad blood between their crew and the Tyger Claws, but will it work or will they get flat-lined? It's Night City, so I wouldn't count on a happy ending..."

This adaptation of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is top notch, and it proves just how impactful the anime was. Back in 2022, Trigger and CD Projekt Red put this anime on Netflix, and the rest was history. Characters like David helped revive interest in Cyberpunk 2077 after its infamous launch. The praise gifted to Trigger's anime gave the CD Projekt Red game a new lease on life, and latter Cyberpunk 2077 titles have gone on to include cameos for the anime. It is hardly surprising to see a live-action tribute come from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and this fan-film has left netizens begging for more.

What do you think of this live-action take on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners? Let us know what you think over on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!

Several months ago, an article from The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Keanu Reeves had been cast as Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. That was back in April, but Paramount has yet to confirm if that will happen. While everyone is still waiting on news from the company, the official Sonic the Hedgehog TikTok account just dropped a major tease. The tease comes in the form of a clip from the original Sonic movie, in which Sonic watches Speed, a 1994 film in which Reeves happened to star. In that clip, Sonic praises Keanu as a "national treasure." If you need further proof that something is up, the title of that TikTok happens to be "foreSHADOWing."

The TikTok can be found below.

@sonicmovie

foreSHADOWing ?

? Sonic the Hedgehog Now on Digital - sonicmovie

The use of that clip would seem to suggest that an official announcement will be made very soon. There have been indications that the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be dropping any day now, and it would pretty much have to happen if Paramount is sticking to the movie's December 20th release date. Hopefully we'll get a lot more information over the next day or two!

Shadow was teased at the very end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, though the character did not have a speaking role. Fans have spent the last two years wondering who would play the beloved character, and word of Reeves in the role has been met with a lot of excitement. Very little information about Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is known at this time, but the film's story will apparently take a number of cues from Sonic Adventure 2, a 2001 video game released for the Sega Dreamcast. That game featured the first appearance of Shadow, and Sega initially had no plans to bring the character back. However, Shadow's popularity resulted in the character returning in several games, and across various Sonic media.

While Paramount has been quiet about the third Sonic movie, Sega has been building hype over the last few months, with a number of promotions surrounding Shadow. Sonic x Shadow Generations will be released in October, which is a package that includes a remaster of a well-regarded Sonic game alongside a new title featuring Shadow. LEGO also has a new Shadow set on the way, which is a large build of the character's head!

How do you feel about Keanu Reeves potentially playing Shadow? Are you looking forward to the new movie? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

When Avowed launches next year, the game will run at 30fps on Xbox Series X. That information has been officially revealed by developer Obsidian Entertainment. In an episode of the Iron Lords podcast, art director Matt Hansen talked about the 30fps target, sharing his belief that single-player games don't need to run at 60fps. While this is sure to disappoint fans that put a lot of stock into a game's performance, Hansen notes that keeping the game at a target of 30fps has allowed Obsidian to focus more on other aspects.

"Our core targeting [is] 30 frames per second bare minimum. That's the expectation. You know, it's a first-person, single-player game, you don't necessarily need that 60 frames, and that allows us to get a lot juicier with the effects and lighting and all this other stuff. It's a trade-off we opted to make relatively early and we're really happy with that. I mean... the game's running pretty smooth for how visually dense it is. And that was always our goal," said Hansen.

We'll have a better idea of the game's performance as Avowed's February 18th release date draws closer. Some members of the press got a chance to go hands-on with Avowed at Gamescom this week, though Xbox did not make the title available to the general public. Hopefully there will be more opportunities in the run-up to the game's release, so fans can learn more about it, and see if the performance is something that will be a sticking point.

Obsidian has become one of Xbox's most reliable studios over the years, developing well-regarded games such as Grounded and Pentiment. Interestingly enough, both of those games ended up on other consoles this year, including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Xbox has been making a bigger deal of bringing its games to other platforms this year, and this week saw the announcement that Bethesda's Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be coming to PS5 next year. It's possible we could see the same for Avowed at some point down the line, but nothing has been announced at this time.

How do you feel about Avowed running at 30fps? Does that make any difference to you? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

Pokemon is big business for all kinds of industries. From film to television and gaming, the IP has covered all the basis. Now, a new report from China has fans doing a double take as Pokemon just sparked a big drug bust. According to the South China Morning Post, a Pokemon shop in Hong Kong was raided recently, and it uncovered over a million dollars in narcotics.

The report confirms that the Hong Kong raid happened on August 19, and it went down at a Pokemon hobby shop. The locale, which focused on Pokemon trading cards and goods, came under fire after police encountered a 28-year-old man leaving a warehouse nearby. The man had five kilos of meth on his person, and after detaining the suspect, police were pushed to raid the Pokemon store.

It was there a hidden storage facility as discovered, and more than $1.3 million USD of commercial meth was found. By the time the raid was done, 16 kilograms of meth was found. According to police, the drugs confiscated were not being peddled to or by Pokemon fans who frequented the shop. Current investigations suggest the Pokemon shop was a simple front, and drug trafficking was kept behind closed doors.

"Storing such a large quantity of narcotics in a place where teenagers and children can visit is irresponsible and disgraceful behavior that also heightens the possible risk of teenagers and children mistakenly encountering illegal drugs," Liong Chun-Hin, the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau Inspector, shared with the public in light of this recent arrest.

Currently, the investigation into this drug bust is ongoing, but Hong Kong authorities are confident the operation was part of a larger trafficking ring in the area. Pokemon fans shouldn't be afraid to carry on collecting and attending tournaments because of this isolated front. But honestly, headlines like this one bring a whole new meaning to gotta' catch 'em all.

What do you make of this latest Pokemon update? Let us know what you think over on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!

A few years ago, things were really looking up for the Crash Bandicoot franchise. The first three games received a multiplatform remaster, and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time proved to be a welcome return for the series. Crash 4 even hinted at plans for a potential fifth game, but those plans seemed to fall through, with developer Toys for Bob becoming a support studio on the Call of Duty series instead. It's all been a bit confusing for fans, but DidYouKnowGaming's Liam Robertson has released a new video unearthing several details about the project, and how it all fell apart.

Apparently, Crash Bandicoot 5 would have united the game's titular character with Spyro the Dragon. The two Activision owned characters had appeared in games together in the past, going back to 2004. However, the majority of these crossovers took place in Game Boy Advance titles, or spin-offs like Skylanders. An actual 3D platformer starring the two characters would have been quite a bit different, and played to the strengths of both franchises.

In Crash 5, Uka Uka would have returned as the main villain, getting access to a multi-dimensional portal that would have brought him to Spyro's universe. After Uka Uka corrupted the Dragon Elders of that universe, Crash and Spyro would have had to team up to stop him. Toys for Bob was even looking at ideas for the two characters being playable together, with Spyro potentially being able to carry Crash at points. Pre-development of the game took place over about a three to four month span, during which a lot of concept art was produced, showing the two characters working together.

As detailed by Robertson, the project was ultimately scrapped due to Activision being underwhelmed by sales of Crash Bandicoot 4. Despite strong reviews, Crash Bandicoot 4 launched during the fall of 2020, where it was overshadowed by a number of other games, as well as the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Toys for Bob also attributes some of the game's struggles to the fact that it was not released for Switch at launch, instead coming out five months after the versions released on PS4 and Xbox One.

Back in June, artist Nicholas Kole said on X/Twitter that "some day folks will hear about the Crash 5 that never was and it's gonna break hearts." Now that we know what was planned, it seems like that's very much the case! Following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, Toys for Bob has become an independent studio. At this time, we don't know what the team is working on next, though it will apparently be published by Xbox. It's sad to see some of the ideas that could have been, but hopefully the next project from Toys for Bob will still prove exciting for fans of Crash and Spyro.

How do you feel about this concept for Crash 5? Are you sad it didn't happen? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

In the past, Nintendo systems have often gotten spotty support from third-party developers and publishers. While Nintendo Switch was a big exception, systems like Wii and Wii U struggled to bring in the same level of support that we saw for competitors like PlayStation and Xbox. Thankfully, it seems that the successor to Nintendo Switch will continue to get strong support from companies, including some that have put out games for the current platform. In an interview with IGN, Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann shared his enthusiasm for the so-called "Switch 2" and revealed Amazon's intent to support the platform.

"Yeah, we obviously plan to develop games for it and I can't wait for it to be out. I mean, honestly, I'd rather have them wait a year and get it perfect than rush it to the market and then we all complain about what doesn't work. Switch has been such a fantastic product, I can wait another year if I have to. And from development, I think most non-Nintendo developers are not exclusively doing titles for the Switch. They're always part of a portfolio mix of platform mix. Just wait," said Hartmann.

At this time, we have no idea when the new Nintendo system will be released. We know for a fact that the system will at least be officially announced sometime within the next seven months, before the company's current fiscal year ends. Many fans had assumed that the console would also be released by then, but recent rumors have suggested that it will be released after that, possibly in April or May 2025.

Even though Nintendo has only briefly discussed the new system, that hasn't stopped third-parties from hinting about their Switch 2 plans. Over the last year or so, we've seen multiple companies talk vaguely about the system, including Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, who addressed questions about whether Switch 2 will (or should) be backwards compatible with existing games.

At this time, it's clear that gaming companies are just as eager to see Nintendo announce a new system as everyone else is, but hopefully when Switch 2 does come out, it will prove worth the wait. The current system has far surpassed everyone's expectations, and it will be interesting to see whether Nintendo can maintain its current momentum.

Are you happy that Amazon Games will support Switch 2? Which of the company's games would you like to see announced for the platform? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: Nintendo Everything]

Dungeons & Dragons could be changing how demons and devils look in the near future. As part of the upcoming rules revisions to Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast has redesigned the game's iconic chromatic and metallic dragons with brand new looks. While the dragons are the focus of the big marketing push for D&D's 50th anniversary, some fans are wondering if other classic Dungeons & Dragons monsters will also see similar big visual updates.

At Gen Con earlier this month, ComicBook sat down with Dungeons & Dragons art designer Josh Herman to find out if other monsters would be getting a new look in the new 2025 Monster Manual. "I'd say yes and no," Herman said. "Some of the stuff is classic, and doesn't need to be reinvented. The Gelatinous Cube doesn't need to be reinvented. We're happy with that. There are some updates to some of the monsters specifically. Some of them are because we just want to update the design to maybe fall in line within a family or groups, or something like that. Maybe some things are just getting a little old in the tooth, and we are just going to update the visual. Some stuff we want to reinvent all the way up, just to kind of give it a little bit of a push. So, it really depends on what the thing is."

Herman specifically mentioned demons and devils as something that could see redesigns in ther near future. "The level of work that you saw on the dragons is probably work that will be reserved for very specific types of creatures or villains or characters like that," Herman said. "So, you won't see design sheets for all 500 monsters that are going to be in the Monster Manual, just to be clear. There's a good handful, I'd say. One that we're exploring moving forward is the difference between demons and devils. What did the fiends look like? And this is, I think, the critique of when you look at an illustration of a demon or a devil, you should know which group they fall into. And some of them don't."

Demons and devils have been a part of Dungeons & Dragons' history since the beginning of the game, but have underwent several significant changes in lore. Most notably, demons and devils were called "baatezu" and "tanar'ri" in an attempt to distance the game from the Satanic Panic in the 1980s.

Herman also mentioned Demogorgon as an example of a creature that could get a tweaked visual look. "Demogorgon is actually a good example," Herman said. " It could have the exact same general look, but what if there was more under the surface that you didn't know was there? Almost like a plus-one-ing to what we could do, or adding some fun flavor to that. And maybe we can add that in some fun visuals that will kind of add a little bit more flavor, and sort of a deeper reveal to the character that was there all along."

We'll see more of the new monster designs when the 2025 Monster Manual comes out next year.

Prime Video's live-action Fallout adaptation is eight(ish) hours of video game adaptations at their absolute best. While this is a sentiment echoed across audience and critical reactions since its premiere in April earlier this year, it has been further recognized for its successes with multiple nominations at this year's Emmy Awards. Ahead of that, Prime Video has ramped up their "for your consideration" campaign, and the newest way they've sought to bring more attention to their series with is a video featuring a look inside season 1.

Overall, season 1 of Fallout grabbed a nomination in the Outstanding Drama Series, facing off against fellow nominees 3 Body Problem, The Crown, The Gilded Age, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Shogun, and Slow. "These projects are difficult to bring to life," Director and Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan states toward the beginning of the video. "It's a bit of a highwire act across the board, especially episodically. You've gotta do eight hours of this, you have to be smart, and you have to trust."

The singular performance recognition for the Fallout series comes for Walton Goggins, who portrays two sides of the same coin in the charming and camera ready Cooper Howard and his post-apocalyptic persona, the Ghoul. Nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series against Idris Elba, Donald Glover, Gary Oldman, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Dominic West.

"You tell the story with your face - you tell the story with your voice. And both of those things were dramatically changed with this prosthetic and with the mouth pieces that I wear," Goggins discusses toward the end of the video as his nominated performance is the center of attention. "I just didn't anticipate all that I would feel being the Ghoul. What a magical, strange experience it's been."

The magical, strange experience is set to continue with season 2 sometime in the future, and while there isn't a premiere date for the highly anticipated continuation just yet, it sounds like it's full steam ahead on Fallout to provide more episodes as "fast as humanly possible."

A new strategy game released this week on Steam is currently sitting at 963 user reviews, with a 98 percent approval rating. This means the game boasts an "Overwhelmingly Positive" Steam User Review score, the highest rating you can earn on the Valve platform. To coincide with the release buzz, the game is even on sale, allowing Steam users to pick it up with a 10 percent discount that knocks the game's price down from $19.99 to $17.99.

The game in question is called Tactical Breach Wizards from Suspicious Developments, a studio that has made a name for itself with releases like Gunpoint and Heat Signature. To date, the studio has not released a game on Steam with a rating less than 94 percent. None of their games have achieved substantial commercial success, but all have been received very well by critics and consumers a like. And it looks like Tactical Breach Wizards is continuing this positive trend for the developer.

In reviews, Steam users cite games such as XCOM, Into the Breach, and Invisible Inc. In other words, if any of these games tickle your fancy, there is a decent chance this one will as well.

"This is easily one of the best games I've played this year," reads one of these user reviews. "It combines the best elements of both turn-based tactics and puzzle games to produce something that feels complex and rich without being confusing or frustrating. The writing is top notch, the worldbuilding is surprisingly deep for a game of this type and I found myself unable to put it down until I'd finished the whole thing. Replayability is a little bit limited compared to Suspicious Developments' previous output, but I'd still strongly recommend you get this even if you only play it through once. I don't think there's anything quite like it on the market right now."

About the Game + Trailer

"Tactical Breach Wizards is a turn-based tactics game in which you lead a team of renegade wizards in kevlar, as they unravel a modern conspiracy plot and/or find the most stylish way to punch a Traffic Warlock through a 4th story window.

For those on Steam Deck interested in checking it out, the game is listed as "Playable" on Steam Deck. According to Valve, this means it "may require extra effort to interact with or configure" but it is playable from start to finish with no glaring issues.

Everdell's charming cast of characters and stellar gameplay has made it one of tabletop's brightest gems, and thankfully the franchise shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Now Tabletop Tycoon has expanded the franchise once more with Welcome to Everdell, and as the name suggests, this entry is the perfect way to introduce new fans to the franchise. That said, Welcome to Everdell's all-ages approach to the series will also appeal to longtime fans as well, as it streamlines the beloved game into a more compact and less time consuming experience. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Tabletop Tycoon Founder Dan Yarrington and Welcome to Everdell Co-Designer James Wilson all about the game and what new fans and longtime fans will love once they jump in and give the game a try.

A Perfect Starting Point

Welcome to Everdell is designed as a one-stop-shop for those looking to jump into the Everdell world, and takes both scale and price into consideration. The other major element it considers is new fans who can grow with the game, so a younger player can make the experience more complex as they get older. "It's standalone. You don't have to worry about a bunch of expansions and stuff, very much like what you'll see at Monopoly or Jenga or something like that. There could be other versions of it, but it's not like, Hey, here's the 27 expansions, the Jenga that you have to learn and add on," Yarrington said.

"So the simplicity of it in a lot of ways is what makes that great, and then as the kids age, my kids were, my youngest was four, he's now eight. When we started working on this project, he was four. So now he's grown to the point where, okay, now you can play real, right? So now we can still play Welcome to Everdell, and we can just enjoy that, and that's any age. Like I said, there are people that are in their fifties and they're like, I like Welcome to Everdell more than Everdell," Yarrington said.

"It's also a lower price point so people can get into it. Everdell the regular game, standard edition, $75. So this is a third of that cost to be able to get that core Everdell experience as a full fledged complete game. It's not dumbed down, it's not stripped or anything like that. There's a lot of really cool stuff in there," Yarrington said.

Not Just a Kids Game

Welcome to Everdell was inspired by Wilson's kids, as one day the couple noticed they were playing with all of the pieces from the core Everdell game and having a wonderful time without actually playing the game. "They were happy and they just would do that for a long time. And my wife, who co-designed Welcome to Everdell with me and I were talking like, that's almost enough of a game for the younger kids to do that, and so we just started brainstorming, what if there was a way to play Everdell that still felt like Everdell, but that our really young kids could grasp as well and that we could enjoy," Wilson said. "The pieces were there and our kids were showing us what they wanted to do. We just let them guide us on how much they needed it to be or wanted it to be."

"We on purpose didn't want this to be a kids' game. We wanted this to be a game you can play with your kids. And that's a pretty big difference actually, because a lot of times the kids' game, the adults don't really get involved. They're not engaged," Wilson said. "And so we were so glad to get it to what we feel. It's at that spot where just like you've both been saying, and Dan in particular in the office, there's 50-year-old adults that say, I enjoy this game. And then there's kids that say, I love this game, I want to play it back to back. And that's what we wanted it to be, that it wasn't only for kids or something like that."

What The Future Holds

Welcome to Everdell is a wonderful entryway into the Everdell universe, and Yarrington teased that the franchise has all sorts of plans moving into the future, so those who jump in will have plenty to look forward to. "This is the first time that we've had something this accessible and this broadly available through Walmart now through this launch that people can get it at that low a price point and jump into the game," Yarrington said. "And so we're hoping that it expands beyond the tons of people who have already played Everdell as a line. And yes, we do have plans for, like I said, we're in year six, we just had the five year anniversary last year, so we've got to plan out to at least year 10 and we'll keep going as long as people want to keep buying stuff. That's the plan."

Welcome to Everdell is designed as a complete experience for a wide age range, and part of what makes it so great is the fact that it's so self-contained. That said, that doesn't mean there aren't ways to bring some of the expansion content into that corner of the world. "Now, does it mean that there could never be a Far Shore themed welcome to Everdell? No, of course not. That's possible. But welcome to Everdelll is designed as like, Hey, I come in, I play this game," Yarrington said.

"I am so excited that it's able to be widely accessible and we hope that people at Walmart will pick it up not knowing what it is, and be really surprised to discover a little bit deeper level of game than they thought was out there and something that everybody, literally, everybody at the table can go, this is really engaging," Wilson said. "I'm having a really fun time with this and this world is exciting, and if that's where they stay and they never go beyond it, that's still great that we were able to give that. But if it wets their appetite for something a little more and they go towards something like Everdell later, then that's exciting for them because the world has really opened up because it's a huge world as we know who's in the industry. There's so many great games to explore out there, but there are a lot of people still who haven't found that and discovered that game that gets them in there. So if Welcome to Everdell can be that, I mean that would be really cool."

Welcome to Everdell is available at Walmart, and you can order the game right here.

Have you tried Welcome to Everdell yet? You can talk all things gaming with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

In a game with as many nuanced characters as Larian Studios' Baldur's Gate 3 has to offer, it's certainly hard to select favorites and even more difficult to say which of the roster has more layers to peel back before passing judgements as to who the most complex character in the game is. While this statement is true, a character that fairly unanimously seems to receive high praise for its multi-faceted writing and portrayal is one who is shown in multiple physical forms throughout the game - from flashes of his life as the founder of the city of Baldur's Gate, to the disguise as the player's Dream Visitor, and ultimately the mindflayer inside the Astral Prism.

The Emperor, as portrayed by Scott Joseph, can be quite divisive amongst the RPG's playerbase, but it cannot be said he's not one of the absolute icons of the game, and one that receives quite a bit of attention in fan works and discussion. Given there are so many different layers to the character there are many different interpretations of him, and it's on a fairly case-by-case basis as to whether or not players like him, love him, or want to get rid of him as soon as they can. Despite this, The Emperor is an icon for the game and for the larger Dungeons & Dragons IP as a fearsome mindflayer, and it's for this reason he finds himself on this year's Monster Manual.

In interviewing Dungeons & Dragons' Art Director Josh Herman at this year's Gen Con event, ComicBook inquired as to how much of an impact Baldur's Gate 3 had on the upcoming edition of the Monster Manual, centered on The Emperor's cover.

"We're not going to see a ton of BG3 stuff in the Monster Manual in general. It came out late enough that we were in development pretty far on a lot of things," Herman responds. "I put a hundred plus hours into BG3, so I was also a big fan. But the alternative cover, that was also a good way for us to just show that this is all D&D: if you want to play BG3, and you want to play on tabletop, it's the same. This is the same world, this is the same game."

While Herman says Dungeons & Dragons players won't see a ton of influences or Easter eggs from Baldur's Gate 3 in the Monster Manual as a whole, we point out that there's plenty of other D&D media to draw inspiration from, including from the early 1980s cartoon. Without going too far into the territory of spoiling things for players who want to be surprised by the Monster Manual's pages, Herman confirms that there will be more.

"It would be odd as a player, to see something and experience it here in something else, and then go into the core game, and be like, 'I don't recognize any of this.' You know what I mean? I think it makes sort of that connection of, this is the same world. If you liked it over here, you'll like it over here too. And this is the same play space that we all get to play in," the Art Director states. "So, yes, in the way that we want to make it feel like a bigger world, that it's all connected in that way."

"If you like something in one medium, you'll like it in the other one, I think that's the goal. But not to the level that it's going to get a super meta in-world joke where you have to read every one of our things to be up to the date with it. If that makes sense. So, more of a aid for players, honestly, than it is trying to create the metaverse or whatever of D&D."

Just like EA Sports FC, NHL, and the other sports games EA makes, Madden NFL has some long-standing shortcomings and issues that go unimproved and unfixed year after year. Madden NFL 25 is no exception. One of the big things the latest Madden game struggles, is something that has plagued the series for many years: immersion. Just like EA Sports FC and the other EA-made sports Madden does not do a good job in creating atmosphere or immersing the player in the ongoing content. This is most obvious when you are playing in a Super Bowl.

Madden NFL 25 does very little to immerse the player in an experience that evokes the real life product, which is always a spectacle. The commentary isn't adaptive enough for it and the presentation is far too bare bones. This may seem like a nothing burger issue, but for those that play the game year in and year out, it's a glaring problem, which explains why a post slamming the effort is one of the top posts on the series' Reddit page this week.

"The Super Bowl isn't special. Like, at all," reads the post in question. "Huge gripe with recent Madden releases. The commentary acknowledges that you are playing the Super Bowl maybe three times during the game. In the pregame, they mention it once. But my big gripe is when you win. Over 50% of the time, they say nothing at all. Just the generic end of game 'Well Brandon, what a great game, and we'll see what happens next week, on EA Sports! No speech on how 'many are called, blah blah blah;. No 'and here's your Super Bowl MVP.' No ;the players have worked so hard to get here;. No 'the last time your team won the Superbowl.....'. No special commentary at all. And sometimes, they literally say nothing. Like, nothing. Just a huge, weird, awkward silence as your team celebrates."

The post continues: "And before the 'just turn off the commentary; gang shows up; no. I shouldn't have to. I just won the trophy that is the point of the entire game. You'd think they would pump your tires a little bit."

The number of votes up the post has received confirms this is not an isolated take among hardcore fans. Meanwhile, all of the comments also echo the sentiment.

"Half the time in these games you just have to pretend it's a big deal in your head and fantasize. I wish they could make it a bigger occasion," reads one of the top comments on the post.

Unfortunately, given how longstanding this issue is, it is hard to imagine this suddenly getting fixed with the next installment. That said, and as always, feel free to weigh in on the discussion with a comment. Do you agree with these players or are there bigger issues EA needs to prioritize?

BioWare has inexplicably revealed what seems to be another major Dragon Age: The Veilguard story spoiler. Whether its Harding's new magical powers, Solas' Dreadwolf form, or Morrigan's return, BioWare has been packing the marketing for Dragon Age: The Veilguard with major reveals and story points that would probably be wiser to withhold. To this end, it has randomly shared another spoiler, this time in completely bizarre fashion.

Today, BioWare previewed the combat of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, focusing on the Warrior class. In the process, it revealed -- after saying there wouldn't be any major spoilers -- that Weisshaupt Fortress (home of the Grey Wardens) is under attack from Ghilan'nain (one of the game's two villains) and her Archdemon.

It's unclear how this is not classified as a major story spoiler. Perhaps for more casual fans lacking context and lore it isn't that notable, but for hardcore fans -- the primary audience of this specific type of marketing -- this seems like a pretty major tidbit to divulge. More than that, an unnecessary tidbit to share. Suffice to say, some Dragon Age fans are not happy with the sudden reveal.

This story beat also begs the question: how is there going to be an Archdemon led by an elven god in a Double Blight attacking the HQ of the Grey Wardens and the Grey Warden -- the protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins -- not going to show up? Unless it is a sudden attack, that is dealt with quickly, it would require the player to suspend some serious disbelief. Whatever literary reason BioWare thinks up to explain it away won't suffice, especially knowing the real reason is that BioWare doesn't want to bring back the character because how complicated it would be to do so, given that they can be dead in some world states. Whatever the case, the plot point highlights a growing problem with the series, which is that it is not making good on the content of Dragon Age: Origins. Or maybe BioWare will surprise us and the Grey Warden will show up during the events of Veilguard. This seems unlikely though.

Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie is scheduled to be in theaters in just a couple of months on December 20th, but so far, we've only gotten just a few teasers for the movie. Some of those came from the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but the Knuckles TV show that aired on Paramount+ didn't really do much to offer any insights into what's coming in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Just one title reveal trailer has been shared thus far (spoiler: it's called Sonic the Hedgehog 3), but according to some new rumors, our Sonic the Hedgehog 3 drought may be coming to an end soon.

That's because, according to these new rumors, a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer is dropping next week. There's been some talk about whether it would be released in August or September as well as during months prior, but according to insider DanielRPK, the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer will release on August 27th.

Now, before anyone gets too excited about the next Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer and considers this date a surefire thing, it's worth pointing out that leakers and insiders -- including DanielRPK -- have put forward release months for the next trailer in the past with those months come and gone and nothing to show for them already. However, many of those guesses have been tied to broad, monthly releases as opposed to a specific date like this latest rumor, so there could be some more truth behind this date compared to past predictions.

As for what we do know about the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie, we know that it's already wrapped filming as of March. We also know that Shadow the Hedgehog will be a prime focus of the movie just like Knuckles was in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While Idris Elba plays Knuckles, it's been reported that Shadow the Hedgehog will be played by Keanu Reeves, though we haven't heard anything of the sort from Paramount yet. The next trailer to come out for the movie will presumably feature Shadow more, so perhaps we'll get an answer then.

Sega has already announced plans for even more Shadow the Hedgehog events and celebrations given that this is the "Year of Shadow," so aside from the movie, Shadow fans can expect to see even more of the hedgehog throughout the rest of the year.

The latest Xbox Game Pass game is proving to be an instant hit with subscribers, or at least subscribers over on the Xbox Game Pass Reddit page. How many subscribers are tuning into the new Game Pass release, we don't know, but those who are booting up the latest addition to the PC and Xbox Series X|S versions of the subscription service seem to be enjoying it.

For those that missed it, on August 22 Microsoft updated Xbox Game Pass with Atlas Fallen, or Atlas Fallen: Reign Of Sand as it's been renamed in a recent rebranding of the 2023 game from developer Deck13 and publisher Focus Entertainment. Its Metacritic scores that range from 64 to 71, depending on the platform, would suggest it would at least have the potential to underwhelm subscribers, yet a new post on the Xbox Game Pass Reddit page -- titled 'Atlas Fallen is amazing' -- proves otherwise.

Of course, not all the comments echo the sentiment but the number of votes up, and many of the other comments, suggest there is something to the claim. "It normally takes a good 45 mins or so for me to get into/click with a game. Atlas Fallen was almost instant," reads one of these comments.

About the Game

"In solo or co-op, experience Reign of Sand, the ultimate version of Atlas Fallen," reads an official blurb about the game. "Ride the sands of a timeless land and defeat legendary monsters in spectacular Action-RPG combat using devastating powers. Master the sand to manifest devastating weapons and harvest the essence of your enemies to customize your own play style. Open a new era for humanity in a narrative campaign playable solo or in cooperation with a friend. Break your chains. Unleash the storm!"

How long Atlas Fallen is going to be available via Xbox Game Pass, we don't know. However, as long as it is available via the Xbox subscription service, it can be purchased by subscribers with a special 20 percent discount.

For more Xbox Game Pass coverage -- including all of the latest Xbox Game Pass news, all of the latest Xbox Game Pass rumors and leaks, and all of the latest Xbox Game Pass deals -- click here.

Dungeons & Dragons' art director knew that the changes to the blue dragon in the upcoming 2024 Core Rulebooks would be polarizing. Over the past few months, Wizards of the Coast has rolled out a series of redesigns for both the chromatic and metallic dragons that appear in Dungeons & Dragons. For the most part, these changes have been well-received by the D&D fanbase, but the blue dragon's redesign was distinctly polarizing, with the new dragon's sleek look and scythe-like horn a contrast to the spiky, chunky kaiju-like version that has appeared since 3rd edition.

Sitting down with ComicBook at GenCon, D&D's art director Josh Herman spoke about the reaction to the new blue dragon. "I think whenever you make a big change, that's bound to happen," Herman said of the polarizing reaction to the redesign. " Redesigning 10 dragons, I didn't expect all 10 of all of them to be beloved by everybody, just to be honest. And we changed that one specifically to give it a different vibe. I knew that people would miss the ears. I knew that people would miss the spikiness. I think that it's one of those things where there's a new depiction, but there's also an older depiction. So, if you want to use the older one, there's 10 years of art that you still have, that you can use of that version of the dragon."

Herman noted that the dragon's redesign was made to make it fit into its desert biome and make it match with its abilities in the wild. "If I had to give a critique on the previous one, meaning how does the odl design function, it felt more like it was inspired by desert creatures, like horned toads and things like that, which I think is super appropriate for the biome that it lives in," Herman said. "But it didn't have a connection to the lightning, and to being what you would need to be in that biome as a creature of that size."

Herman noted that there are few flying creatures that live in the desert, limited to only small insects and creatures like vultures. The redesign for the blue dragon was specifically inspired by birds of prey who could stay in the air for a long time. "The Blue Dragon is something that's almost like... a specialist in that way," Herman said. "That's where it lives, essentially in two domains."

You can get a better look at the new blue dragon over on CBR's website. All the new dragon redesigns will be revealed in the Monster Manual, which will be released in early 2025.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies is set to add a feature players have been desperate for. Zombies was first introduced back in 2008 with the release of Call of Duty: World at War. Since then, it has not been a staple of the series, but it has been a staple of Treyarch-developed Call of Duty games. To this end, it's not surprising to see zombies back with Black Ops 6. What is surprising is a newly-announced feature for the mode.

Treyarch has confirmed that when Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies releases, it will have a save and quit menu. Of course, this only applies to non-online matches of the mode, but it is a feature that players are nonetheless elated to have in the mode for the very first time.

"This is a huge one," said associate design director, Kevin Drew. "For the first time ever, in solo, you will be able to save and quit at any point.... and there are some restrictions on how that works. Essentially if you are in a safe spot, you can save and quit, and then pick up that save at a later point.

It is unclear why it took so long for this basic feature to be added, especially with how wanted it was by players. It's also unclear why now of all times is the time has been added, but it has, and players are happy to see it in the game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set to release worldwide on October 25. When it does release, it will be available via PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. At launch, it will be available for standard, regular purchase, and for the first time, it will also be available via Xbox Game Pass.

For more coverage on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 -- including all of the latest Black Ops 6 news, all of the latest Black Ops 6 rumors and leaks, and all of the latest Black Ops 6 speculation -- click here. Meanwhile, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think.

Some Pokemon fans are speculating that an upcoming TCG Advent Calendar has leaked the identities of Pokemon Legends: Z-A's starter Pokemon, but that rumor is missing some key context. Copies of the annual Pokemon TCG Advent Calendar are hitting stores this week, and Pokemon fans are already cracking it open to see what's inside. While the Advent Calendar does contain Pokemon cards, many are included in "fun packs" that contain 3 cards instead of 10 and also uses new wrappers. In this year's Advent Calendar, there are fun packs featuring cards from the Temporal Forces expansion set. The wrappers for those Temporal Forces packs feature Turtwig, Litten, and Totodile, which some believe is a clue for the upcoming Pokemon Legends: ZA release.

The 2022 Advent Calendar included Astral Radiance fun packs, which included images of Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott, the starters of Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Some players believe that there's a connection between the two wrappers, given the similar collections of Starter Pokemon, but there are two key differences. The first is that Astral Radiance was released after the release of Pokemon Legends: Arceus and was a set specifically meant to tie into that game. The other is that Temporal Forces set includes the three Pokemon featured on the fun pack wrapper, which is the reason for their inclusion, and that Temporal Forces has no ties to Pokemon Legends: Z-A whatsoever.

Fans might have to wait longer than expected for news about Pokemon Legends: Z-A, as it appears that the game won't be released until later in 2025. The Pokemon TCG is already starting to tease out its 2025 plans with no mentions of Mega Evolution or new mechanics tied to that game, instead announcing the return of Trainer's Pokemon, an early gimmick from the game that hasn't been featured in years.