Month: May 2018

A new distribution is now underway for Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. From May 4-27, players will be able to add one of the Legendary Pokemon from the Kalos region, Xerneas and Yveltal, to their teams via a free download code.

To claim the download code, players will need to head to a participating retailer and pick one up near the register. In the US, the code will be available from GameStop; UK and Ireland residents can get one from Game stores; and players in Canada and Australia will find the code at EB Games.

The download code can be used in any seventh generation Pokemon title. To redeem it, select Mystery Gift from the games’ main menu, then choose the option to receive your gift via a code/password. Input the code and the game will begin downloading your Legendary. You can then pick it up from the deliveryman waiting inside any Pokemon Center.

The Legendary you receive depends on which version you’re playing. Those with Sun or Ultra Sun will get the Dark/Flying-type Yveltal, while players with Moon or Ultra Moon will get the Fairy-type Xerneas. If you redeem the code in either of the Ultra games, the Legendary will also come equipped with a Gold Bottle Cap, which can be exchanged to Hyper Train a Pokemon.

Additionally, the Legendaries will come at a higher level if you redeem the code in either of the Ultra games. They’ll also know a different moveset depending on the version you’re playing. You can take a look at the attacks they’ll come with in each game below.

Pokemon Ultra Sun

• Yveltal — Level 100
  • Oblivion Wing
  • Dark Pulse
  • Heat Wave
  • Tailwind

Pokemon Sun

• Yveltal — Level 60
  • Oblivion Wing
  • Dark Pulse
  • Phantom Force
  • Psychic

Pokemon Ultra Moon

• Xerneas — Level 100
  • Geomancy
  • Focus Blast
  • Grass Knot
  • Moonblast

Pokemon Moon

• Xerneas — Level 60
  • Geomancy
  • Horn Leech
  • Night Slash
  • Moonblast

The Pokemon Company is giving away different Legendaries every month in 2018 as part of its Year of Legendary Pokemon promotion. In June, players will be able to get another Legendary from Pokemon X and Y: Zygarde. What makes this Pokemon special is that it will be its shiny variant. Until then, you can see all of the free Pokemon up for grabs right now.

Star Wars: We Make An Ugly Movie With Battlefront 2’s Lowest Settings | Potato Mode

Joey and Rob decide to celebrate Star Wars Day the only way they know how: by turning Battlefront 2’s gorgeous graphics into mush and making their own movie from it. CinematicTools by Matti Hietanen

by Robert Handlery, Joey Yee, and Chris Pereira on May 4, 2018 at 8:00AM

Prior to its release, Star Wars Battlefront II generated an immense amount of criticism over its progression system and implementation of microtransactions. In-game purchases were pulled out just hours before launch, but even when fans were worried about players paying their way to unfair advantages, there was no denying that the game was gorgeous. Battlefront II is easily the best-looking Star Wars game ever released. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

For Star Wars Day, Potato Mode has worked its magic on EA and DICE’s beautiful shooter. The end result, as you can see in the video above, is a horrifying, unrecognizable husk of a game. We start out by turning down all of the in-game settings to Low before making use of the resolution scaling option, which turns everything into a heavily pixelated nightmare that is borderline unplayable. At the 1% option, there’s no longer even discernible shapes on the screen.

This being Potato Mode, though, we didn’t stop with what you find in the Settings menu. Using the Nvidia Profile Inspector, we mess around with the game’s textures, and things go even further downhill for Battlefront II’s graphics from there. Toward the end, we also use this awful look to make a small Star Wars movie of our own.

Battlefront II has changed fairly significantly since its initial release. This spring saw the release of some major updates that revamp progression and re-introduce microtransactions, but in a much different way than they were originally conceived. Crystals that are purchased with real-world money can only be used for cosmetics. Alternatively, you could follow some of the steps we go through in the video above to ensure you–and everyone else–has a different, more nauseating look than usual.

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Star Wars day has finally arrived. And if you’re a fan of the tenured film franchise, it’s likely you’ve got a hankering to play some Star Wars games right now. However, you might be asking yourself: “what games are available on my PS4?” There’s actually a fair amount aside from the most recently released EA-developed Battlefront games.

While not every Star Wars games in this feature have held up the test of time, it’s difficult to deny the sense of nostalgia we still feel for them. After all, we all had to start somewhere, and if that starting point was the middling Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, then so be it. Nostalgia is a force that helps heal some of the worst shortcomings.

As an added bonus, many of the Star Wars games highlighted in this feature are on sale right now on the PlayStation digital store to celebrate Star Wars day. The deals last until May 8, so be sure to jump in while you have the chance.

Which Star Wars games do you love the most? Let us know in the comments below. In other news, check out the most recent TV spot trailer for the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars spin-off.

Fortnite is one of the biggest, most popular games on Earth right now–it’s so big that it’s even impacting the established juggernaut Activision. Management said on an earnings call today that the popular free-to-play game, and other battle royale games, has taken away something away (potentially money or players) from Activision properties in the short term. “We have seen some near-term impact from Battle Royale,” Activision Blizzard management said during a Q&A this afternoon.

The publisher did not say how much of an impact Fortnite and other battle royale games have had on Activision Blizzard’s bottom line or which of its games were most affected. However, it is noteworthy that management would say this at all.

Also during the call, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said Fortnite is helping gaming overall become more popular and mainstream. Activision Publishing president Coddy Johnson added that the battle royale mode is “contributing to innovation within the industry,” going on to say it is helping bring new, younger games to video games. He added that it is “really encouraging” to see Fortnite and other battle royale games do well on mobile. This may inform what Activision Blizzard does in the future with its own mobile games, the publisher said.

Perhaps the bigger takeaway here is that Activision Blizzard, as suspected, might be looking to get in on the Battle Royale movement in some manner.

“When we see people innovate in an interesting and impactful way, we are very quick to figure out how to capture inspiration from innovation,” Kotick said. “When we see things that appeal to our audiences, we are very good at being inspired by those.”

Some have suggested that the popularity of Fortnite and other free-to-play games is in some way eroding the traditional $60 business model. Johnson said the video game industry, like other industries, is big enough to support multiple business models.

“We think that in a growing industry like ours there is room for multiple business models to succeed in parallel,” Johnson said, pointing out that video streaming sites like the subscription-based Netflix and (mostly) free YouTube co-exist in harmony. He added that Activision Blizzard’s own portfolio of games is diversified with free-to-play and paid games alike, along with other revenue streams from things like add-on content and microtransactions.

“We do think $60 games will continue to be an important part of that equation,” Johnson said.

The most important thing when creating content is to ensure that the “value proposition” is in a good place; that is to say, that the content in question is perceived to be valuable enough for people to feel compelled to buy it and satisfied with their purchase. This is Activision Blizzard’s “north star,” Johnson said.

One of Activision’s next big new releases is Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which comes out in early October for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. There have been rumours online that this game will include a Battle Royale mode, but Activision has made no announcements yet. The company plans to formally unveil the game during an event on May 17.

It’s May 4, which means you might hear someone make a clever Star wars reference like, “May the fourth be with you.” That silly pun has turned today into the pop culture holiday Star Wars Day, and to celebrate, video game retailers have dropped prices on all kinds of Star Wars games. To help you find the best deals on games from a galaxy far away, we’ve rounded up all the biggest sales below. In the words of a wise Jedi: Save money, you will.

The biggest, newest Star Wars game is still Star Wars Battlefront II, which has gotten some major progression changes. If you feel like giving it a try, you’ll be pleased to know most retailers currently have physical copies of it on sale. Here are those deals:

If you prefer digital games, you’ll find a whole lot of savings as well. For starters, the PlayStation Store has lots of Star Wars games on sale. You can find deals like Star Wars: Battlefront II for $36 ($30 with PS Plus) and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens for $10.

The Microsoft Store has a Star Wars sale going as well, on Xbox One and Xbox 360 games. Xbox One owners can get Star Wars: Battlefront II on sale for $36 ($24 with Xbox Live Gold) and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens for $15.

For PC gamers, the sales range from new hits all the way back to classic Star Wars games from decades ago. In Steam’s Star Wars game sale, you can get a full-on avalanche of Star Wars games by buying the Star Wars Complete Collection for $76 (down from $273). Steam also has Star Wars games divided into various bundles, like the X-Wing series ($12) and the Jedi Knight collection ($9), or you can buy any game individually. The Humble Store and GOG are running Star Wars sales of their own, with similar sale prices.

“May the 4th Be With You” sales

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone.

Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.

Dragon Age II still has many fans seven years after its release, and now players will get another chance to play as the game is now part of the Xbox Backwards Compatibility program. Starting today, you’ll be able to buy a digital copy of the game on Xbox One or, if you have the Xbox 360 disc already, pop it in your Xbox One and start playing for free.

Dragon Age II came out in 2011 and is a complex role-playing game with expansive questing, twisting narratives, and lots of adventure in an vast fantasy world. It has many of the hallmarks of the traditional fantasy RPG; you fight dragons, level up your skills, and assemble your party. Much like Mass Effect 2, which was also developed by BioWare and came out the year before, you choose how you respond to events in the game by using a dialogue wheel. Some interactions greatly affect gameplay and plot down the road.

In GameSpot’s Dragon Age II review, Kevin VanOrd gave the game an 8/10 and said it had a wonderful combo of great writing, voice acting, player choice, and fun, fast-paced combat. “Here is a game in which decisions have consequences that ripple outward, producing effects you may not have seen coming,” he wrote. “What makes them more effective is that there is not always a clearly bad or good path to take–not in this world in which greed and anger course through the veins of so many, regardless of their affiliation…[It] makes a strong impression, pulling you through with the promise of another fun quest, another character to meet, and another beast to slay.”

As mentioned, if you own a physical copy of Dragon Age II, you can simply pop it into your Xbox One and begin playing. Alternatively, if you own the title digitally, you’ll find it waiting in the Ready to Download section of the My Games and Apps menu. You can also purchase a digital copy of Dragon Age II from the Xbox Store for US $20 / £15 / AU $49.95.

In other news, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Backwards Compatibility program is super popular, with users logging nearly 1 billion hours playing Xbox and Xbox 360 games on their Xbox Ones and around half of all Xbox One owners having tried the feature.

Nintendo’s iconic simian Donkey Kong makes his Switch debut this week with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which launches for the hybrid console on May 4. Originally released for Wii U in 2014, Tropical Freeze is the second DK game from Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios, following 2010’s Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Like its predecessor, Tropical Freeze is a side-scrolling platformer in the vein of Rare’s beloved SNES trilogy. This time around, Donkey and Diddy are joined by the returning Dixie Kong. The game also marks the first playable appearance of Cranky Kong, who can use his cane to pogo-bounce on enemies.

On top of the same content found in the original Wii U release, the Switch version of Tropical Freeze boasts a new Funky Mode, which gives players control over another playable character: Funky Kong. Funky’s unique abilities help make the game’s challenging levels more accessible, as he can double jump, float through the air, roll infinitely, and resist spikes thanks to his surfboard.

Ahead of its Switch release, other outlets have begun publishing their reviews of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. As always, we’ve rounded up a sample of them below to see how well the game holds up. For a broader look at what critics think about the Switch version of Tropical Freeze, be sure to check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

• Game: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
• Developer: Retro Studios
• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Release date: May 4
• Price: $60 / £50

GameSpot — 9/10

“Tropical Freeze isn’t a heavy-hitter from Nintendo in the same way Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey are, but it’s a fantastic platformer that’s bursting with creativity and expertly designed challenges. It’s tuned just right–always tough but rarely frustrating–to ensure that even the most common moments feel great. If you missed out when the game first debuted back in 2014, give it a shot today. It easily stands the test of time.” — Peter Brown [Full review]

IGN — 9/10

“Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze’s addition of Funky Mode makes it more accessible without reducing the formidable platforming difficulty to a walk in the park. There’s still a lot of challenge, even with the extra help Donkey’s Funky uncle affords. But the Switch version manages to take just enough of an edge off a punishing game to let the fun platforming outshine its difficulty.” — Seth G. Macy [Full review]

Game Informer — 9.25/10

“The Switch version reaffirms that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a fantastic platformer. Having a new character to control and a handheld version of the game is great for previous owners, but the real audience is those who missed the original release.” — Kyle Hilliard [Full review]

GamesRadar+ — 4.5/5

“Although this is ultimately a better looking version of the Wii U classic with Funky Mode thrown in for added fun, the Switch version of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is proof that even Wii U games can age like fine wine. This is a beautiful, smooth experience when taken out and about on the Switch, and only gets better when you whack it on the big screen. You’ve got no excuse to miss out this time around on Tropical Freeze.” — Lucas Sullivan, Sam Loveridge [Full review]

EGM Now — 9/10

“Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze makes another strong case for the argument that Nintendo needs to port every single one of its Wii U games to the Switch. DK’s latest adventure is one of the most clever, joyful platforming experiences I’ve had in a while, and it adds just enough newness to the series to keep the formula engaging without going overboard. There might not be enough (or anything) to convince Wii U owners to play it again, but long-lost Nintendo fans who came back for the Switch have another must-play game to add to their growing libraries.” — Michael Goroff [Full review]

Eurogamer — Recommended

“Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, with its challenge and its craft, its energy and its ingenuity, feels like nothing less than a display of pure mastery over the 2D action genre. That might not be as exciting as when Retro Studios brought Samus Aran into the third dimension with Metroid Prime, but it’s an achievement that in its own way is just as remarkable. More remarkable still is how Tropical Freeze sits comfortably alongside the greats of Nintendo, that venerable master of the 2D action genre.” — Martin Robinson [Full review]