Month: May 2018

David Price of the Boston Red Sox, one of the best and highest-paid pitchers in all of Major League Baseball, is currently embroiled in some drama–but it has nothing to do with baseball.

Price, who signed a $217 million contract with the Sox in 2015, plays a lot of Fortnite. He also recently missed a start due to minor carpal tunnel. So of course, people are asking if his gaming habits–he sometimes plays until 2 AM after games–has something to do with it.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora already said Price’s gaming is unrelated to his injury. After all, Price has been playing video games for a while, just like most other people. But when you’re paid more than $200 million, people start to ask these kinds of questions.

There has been so much hullaballoo about Price’s gaming habits, and Fortnite in particular, that Price has now come forward to say he’s not going to play the game when he’s at the ballpark. This is according to MLB.com Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne, who apparently spoke with Price in New York this week during the Sox-Yankees series. In announcing his semi-retirement from Fortnite, Browne said Price is “aware the topic has been a distraction last couple of days.” Additionally, Boston Herald reporter Michael Silverman quoted Price as saying video games had nothing to do with his wrist injury.

While Price may be done playing Fortnite at the ballpark, he may still play at home and in hotel rooms. Plenty of Price’s teammates play Fortnite as well; pitcher Carson Smith is apparently the best of the group. They are so wrapped up in the game that they have to remind themselves to eat.

The Red Sox are neck-and-neck with the Yankees for the best record in all of baseball. Should their on-field performance fall off, you can expect more questions about and criticism of their gaming habits. But until then, here’s to hoping they all get victory royales.

In other Fortnite news, Avengers: Infinity War bad guy Thanos is now in the game as part of a limited-time mode. For more, check out GameSpot’s video above that shows off how and where to get Thanos’ super-powerful gauntlet.

YouTube Red has delivered a serious leg sweep with its newest original program, Cobra Kai. The series, which follows up on the movie The Karate Kid nearly 35 years later, just debuted on the streaming service and has already been renewed.

In a press release touting the renewal, executive producers Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg say, “Continuing the Karate Kid saga with YouTube Red has been a dream come true. We are grateful to all our creative partners for giving us the freedom to revisit and expand the LaRusso/Lawrence rivalry. And we are truly exhilarated by the tidal wave of support from fans of this story, both old and new.”

At this point, a release date for the new season has yet to be announced. However, YouTube Red is spilling quite a few details on what to expect from Cobra Kai when it returns.

When can you expect it?

While a specific date has not been revealed, YouTube Red says the new season will arrive in 2019. Production on the series resumes this fall.

How many episodes will be in Season 2?

As with Season 1, the next batch will include 10 half-hour episodes.

Who is returning?

Naturally, William Zabka, and Ralph Macchio will be back as Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso, respectively. Also signed on to return are Xolo Mariduena (Miguel Diaz), Tanner Buchanan (Robby Keane), Mary Mouser (Samantha LaRusso), and Courtney Henggeler (Amanda LaRusso). There’s no word yet on recurring stars like Nichole Brown (Aisha) and Jacob Bertrand (Hawk), but it’s hard to imagine the new Cobra Kai Dojo without them.

What will it be about?

This is where we’re getting into spoiler territory. If you’ve yet to watch the show, stop reading now. But also, what are you waiting for? As GameSpot’s Cobra Kai review will tell you, this is not a show to be missed.

The first season ended with the new Cobra Kai Dojo having won the All-Valley Karate Tournament after Miguel showed no mercy against Robby in the finals. However, the regret on Johnny’s face was clear after realizing the way he trained his students brought pain and defeat to his own son, Robby.

Clearly, Season 2 will continue to deal with the incredibly strained relationship between Johnny and Robby, as the former also likely reevaluates the lessons he learned from his days as a Cobra Kai student. However, complicating matters was the return of Johnny’s sensei John Kreese (Martin Cove) in the season’s final moments.

Johnny previously claimed his sensei was dead. However, he’s very much alive and seems pleased with the dojo’s rise to greatness once again. Could Season 2 lead to a showdown between the student and his teacher? That’s a question that won’t be answered until 2019.

Update: Bethesda has shared another teaser image on Twitter, further reinforcing the theories that May 14 will bring some kind of announcement. This one features a rocket firing into space with the numbers “5-14” adorned on the side. It’s clear that something is coming on Monday.

Rage 2 still seems to be a likely candidate, assuming the Walmart listing for it was not an error. The smoke left behind the rocket is the same pink color that was used in Bethesda’s tweets about the Rage 2 listing. Whether that means anything at this point is unclear, but the choice of color between each of these posts is telling. Whether the actual images–the rocket and Big Ben–have any meaning remains to be seen. The original story follows the tweet.

Bethesda appears to be teasing an upcoming announcement with a vague image of the Big Ben clocktower in London, England. A tweet consists only of an image of the tower, with bright pink streaks of graffiti across its face. The Internet is already scouring the image for clues.

Recently Walmart Canada appeared to have leaked several upcoming game announcements, including Rage 2 from Bethesda. The company had an uncharacteristic reaction for a publisher, publicly responding to the leak with gentle chiding. The official Twitter account for Rage made a point of mocking the placeholder image for using the wrong font and incorrect key art. All this is notable because the hot pink paint used for the anarchy logo and notes appear to be similar to the one on the Big Ben clock face. The paint even looks like it could be a partial anarchy symbol.

Also potentially a clue is the time, which is set at 5:14. That could correspond to a date, which would be this Monday. Altogether it seems possible that a Rage 2 announcement of some sort could be coming next week. Whether this would have been the original plan or if the company is just responding quickly to the cat being let out of the bag isn’t clear.

Or, all this could be entirely off the mark and Bethesda is teasing something else entirely. With E3 2018 rapidly approaching, we’ll know soon enough. Bethesda’s E3 showcase is planned for Sunday, June 10 at 6:30 p.m. PT / 9:30 p.m. ET.

Publisher 505 Games has shared a new trailer for Overkill’s The Walking Dead game. Like the previous two trailers, this new video introduces viewers to another one of the characters who’ll be playable in the upcoming co-op shooter: the elderly Grant.

“Of all the survivors we’ve met so far, Grant may be the best prepared for the apocalypse,” developer Starbreeze said. He is described as “a steely outdoorsman who left city life behind to live out his golden years in the wilderness,” but he returns to a zombie-infested Washington D.C. to find his missing family. You can watch Grant’s character trailer above.

Grant is the third playable hero to be announced for Overkill’s Walking Dead game so far. Previous trailers for the title introduced Maya, a doctor who fills the role of a healer, and Aiden, a brawler-type character. One final playable hero still remains to be announced, although Starbreeze hasn’t hinted at who that could be.

The Walking Dead is a four-player cooperative shooter from Starbreeze subsidiary Overkill, the studio behind Payday 2. It is being developed with the blessing of the original Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who said he was certain from the first day he saw the project that it was the “co-op action game fans have been waiting for.” Players will need to work together in the game to complete missions, rescue other survivors, and stay alive in the hostile, zombie-filled world.

Overkill’s Walking Dead game has been a long time coming. The title was first announced in 2014, with a planned release in 2016. It was subsequently delayed to 2017 before being postponed again to 2018. The game is now slated to arrive for PS4, Xbox One, and PC sometime this fall.

Sony has updated the PlayStation Store with a whole new set of discounts on downloadable games this week. For some of the deals, Sony is offering a small additional savings for PS Plus members. For others, everyone gets the same sale price. You can view the full list of PS4, PS3, and PS Vita games on sale here, or read on for our picks for the best deals in the bunch.

To kick things off, Ubisoft has sliced the prices of a bunch of its big games, ranging from the medieval brawler For Honor to the shooters Tom Clancy’s The Division and Ghost Recon Wildlands; they’re all available for about $20 regardless of your PS Plus status. For Assassin’s Creed fans, you can get Origins, Syndicate, and the Ezio Collection on sale as well, for between $20 and $30 each.

As is often the case, Grand Theft Auto V is on sale for $30 this week, while the turn-based strategy game XCOM 2 will only set you back $20. Additionally, a bunch of smaller and/or indie games are on sale, including The Witness, The Disney Afternoon Collection, and Undertale. See below for details on the deals.

PS4 games on sale

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