Month: June 2018

Epic Games is consistently adding new limited-time modes to Fortnite: Battle Royale, and that will continue very soon with the addition of the Playground LTM. This is a mode Epic mentioned a while back, but it has only just been confirmed by way of an in-game message.

“Let your creativity run wild on your own private island,” reads the message. According to a blog post from around a month ago, Playground “will load you into the Battle Royale Map with some adjusted settings.”

The post continues: “Battle and build to your heart’s content with an extended period of time to roam around the map as well as increased resource generation. All treasure chests and ammo crates will be spawned, try droppin’ in different spots and scope out the loot. Friendly fire is on so you can scrimmage with your squad (up to 4 friends per match), but fear not you’ll respawn immediately.”

It appears the mode will act as a private server of sorts for you or your squad. Here, you can practise new strategies or hone your building skills without the risk of an enemy getting the jump on you.

Epic is also working to diversify the strategies used by players in Battle Royale. In a separate blog post a few days ago, the company said it plans to “continue to make changes to evolve the game to give players multiple ways to counter each other in combat, and create more strategies to win the game.”

The most recent Fortnite update added Stink Bombs and more. The patch, version 4.4, is the game’s first since the launch of Battle Royale on Nintendo Switch. That came shortly after it was confirmed during Nintendo’s E3 press conference broadcast, though it had been leaked and rumored for quite some time.

Looks like Amazon’s streaming list is getting a whole lot longer this July. A host of new shows and movies are coming to Amazon Prime Video including oldies, newbies, and originals.

A handful of new shows are being added like Burn Notice and The Closer, along with a few originals like Comicstaan. Amazon will also be adding new seasons of shows they already have like season 6 of The Americans. One notable addition is that the first two seasons of 21 Jump Street, the show that made Johnny Depp famous, will be added to Prime.

Most of the titles added will be movies though, and there are a lot of them. To name a few, Snowden, American Psycho, Mulholland Drive, The Twilight Saga, and the Jaws franchise will all become streamable on Amazon starting in July. Amazon will also be the only place to stream a new movie called Zoe starring Ewan McGregor which will be released July 20.

If you want to know everything that’s coming to Amazon Prime Video in July and when, check out the complete list below.

Amazon Prime Video’s New Releases For July 2018

July 1

• 21 Jump Street, Seasons 1-2

• Burn Notice, Seasons 1-7

• Damages, Seasons 1-5

• NYPD Blue, Seasons 1-12

• The Closer, Seasons 1-7

• 20,000 Days on Earth (2004)

• A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

• All is Lost (2013)

• American Psycho (2000)

• American Psycho 2 (2002)

• An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017)

• And God Created Woman (1988)

• Angel Heart (1987)

• Angela’s Ashes (1999)

• Assassination (1987)

• Avenging Force (1986)

• Barfly (1987)

• Blazing Saddles (1974)

• Blue Chips (1994)

• Body Count (1997)

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

• Cadillac Man (1990)

• Christmas Trade (2015)

• Cronicas (2004)

• Dead Man Walking (1995)

• Double Jeopardy (1999)

• Dr. T. and the Women (2000)

• Finding Bliss (2009)

• Gran Torino (2008)

• Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

• Incident at Loch Ness (2004)

• Invaders from Mars (1986)

• Jeepers Creepers (2001)

• Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

• Ladybugs (1992)

• Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf (2014)

• Letters to Juliet (2010)

• Maximum Overdrive (1986)

• Mixed Signals (1997)

• Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear (1988)

• Ms. 45 (1981)

• Mulholland Drive (2001)

• Murphy’s Law (1986)

• Next (2007)

• Number One with a Bullet (1987)

• Our Nixon (2013)

• P.O.W. the Escape (1986)

• Patriot Games (1992)

• Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

• Pretty in Pink (1986)

• Rabbit Hole (2011)

• Sahara (2005)

• Sex Drive (2008)

• Six Shooter (2013)

• Snake Eyes (1998)

• State of Grace (1990)

• Street Smart (1987)

• Stripes (1981)

• Switchback (1997)

• The Act of Killing (2012)

• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

• The Brothers Bloom (2009)

• The Eternal (1998)

• The Foot Fist Way (2006)

• The Fourth War (1990)

• The Graduate (1967)

• The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008)

• The Invisible War (2012)

• The Longest Yard (2005)

• The Mechanic (1972)

• The Monster Squad (1987)

• The Twilight Saga (2008)

• Trade (2007)

• V for Vendetta (2005)

• Waste Land (2010)

• Witness (1985)

• Woody Allen – A Documentary Parts 1 & 2 (2011)

• Wooly Boys (2004)

• Yelling to the Sky (2011)

• Zodiac (2007)

July 8

• Snowden (2016)

July 9

• Jaws (1975)

• Jaws 2 (1978)

• Jaws 3 (1983)

• Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

July 13

• Comicstaan, Season 1, Episodes 1-4– Prime Original series

• A Fly in the Champagne (2009)

• Between Two Harbors (2015)

• Innersection: Black (2013)

• Innersection: Blue (2011)

• Modern Collective (2009)

• Ocean Driven (2015)

• Surfing Presents: Du Ciel (2016)

• Winter Out West (2018)

July 14

• The Forgiven (2017)

July 16

• Cook Off! (2007)

• Wanderland (2018)

July 20

July 24

• Tumble Leaf, Season 4a–Prime Original Series

• How to Talk to Girls at Parties (2017)

July 27

July 28

• Friends with Kids (2012)

July 29

• The Americans, Season 6

Pokemon Go‘s Summer Tour 2018 kicks off this weekend with the Safari Zone live event in Dortmund, Germany, but even if you aren’t able to attend in-person, you’ll still have a chance to participate. The Pokemon Company announced that special Global Challenges will be underway during each of this summer’s live events, with players all over the world contributing toward their success.

Each weekend that an event takes place, players will be divided up into four regions: the Americas; Europe, the Middle-East, and Africa; Asia-Pacific; and the “main research site,” which is the location of the live event. Each region will strive to complete their own challenges, which will contribute to the global progress and unlock bonus rewards in the game. If players manage to earn bonus rewards during all three events, then Niantic teases an Ultra Bonus will be unlocked–although what that will be remains a mystery.

The first live event in the Summer Tour 2018 is the aforementioned Safari Zone in Dortmund, which takes place on June 30 and July 1. During the event, the Grass- and Poison-type Pokemon Roselia will spawn much more frequently around the globe. Players will also have a chance to find a Shiny Roselia in the wild.

Following Safari Zone Dortmund, Niantic will host the second annual Pokemon Go Fest event in Chicago on July 14 and 15. During that weekend, players around the world will find increased spawns of Trapinch, Feebas, and other Pokemon. The Alolan forms of Geodude and Diglett will also begin appearing for the first time in Pokemon Go.

The final stop in the Pokemon Go Summer Tour 2018 is a special Safari Zone in Yokosuka, Japan. Specific details about that event will be announced at a later date, but it is slated to take place later this summer. You can read more about the Summer Tour 2018 on the official Pokemon website.

In addition to the aforementioned events, Niantic will also host the next Pokemon Go Community Day on July 8. During that event, the Red and Blue starter Pokemon Squirtle will appear much more frequently in the wild, and if previous Community Days are any indication, players will have a chance to find its Shiny variant as well. Participants will also hatch Eggs at a quarter of the distance they typically require.

Between June 26 and July 30, you can play a trial version of EA’s new game, Unravel 2, for free on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The demo comes with the game’s first two levels and lets you play for up to 10 hours. Just make sure you remember to close out of the game between play sessions to stop the timer.

Unravel 2 is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer starring Yarny, a red doll made from–you guessed it–yarn. This sequel adds a second doll that can be controlled by another player over local co-op. The game takes place in the real world, from the perspective of the tiny yarn dolls.

Because of their diminutive size, the ordinary items you encounter often halt your progress. You and your (optional) co-op partner are tasked with figuring out how to get through each predicament. Often, the solution involves using your doll’s yarn to grapple and swing between obstacles.

GameSpot’s reviewer found this sequel to be a big improvement over the 2016 original. From our 8/10 Unravel 2 review: “In almost every moment you’re given ample time and space to breathe and take in the stunning photorealistic world from the viewpoint of the tiniest creatures. It’s a game with boisterous birds, chases through meadows, and most importantly a cheerful partnership with a companion who’s always got your back.”

EA announced and released Unravel 2 during its press conference that coincided with E3 2018. The full game comes with six levels, each of which take about 30 minutes to complete. It costs $20 across all platforms.

A racing fan appears to have accidentally discovered the close-to-finalized roster for Forza Horizon 4. The player pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition and found the Windows Store downloading it early. From there, he examined the game files to discover a listing of more than 450 cars. That makes the leak around the size of the entire roster.

He posted the full list of the contents of the download folder, and another user compiled it into a working list of cars as organized by manufacturer (via Polygon). Keep in mind the finalized lineup will probably change or grow slightly for the final release, but the hundreds of cars already named probably make up the majority of it. Players in the fan community have expressed some concern over additional cars being featured as DLC, as well as a general lament that Toyota is still underrepresented.

For its part, the official Forza Twitter account acknowledged the accidental release of an early download, but didn’t comment on the leaked car files within. It advised affected users that they could uninstall the files for the time being.

Forza Horizon 4 takes place in Great Britain, and features a new dynamic weather system with seasonal changes that will cycle. It’s coming October 2 to Xbox One and PC.

There’s little doubt that Pixar has changed the face of animated cinema, through both its technical innovations and brilliant storytelling. But it’s easy to forget that the company had been making films long before Toy Story hit screens in 1995. The studio’s first feature was the culmination of more than a decade of developing 3D animation technology, which was demonstrated in a series of groundbreaking short films.

Thankfully, big screen box office success didn’t change the studio’s desire to make movies on a smaller scale, and it has continued to make clever, charming, funny, and emotional short films over the decades. Since 1998’s A Bug’s Life, every new Pixar feature has been released alongside an original short film, and to date, the studio has produced 20 shorts. At their best, these are masterpieces of miniature storytelling.

So with the 20th short, the acclaimed Bao, currently in theaters alongside the blockbuster Incredibles 2, we’ve ranked every one of these of these wonderful short films.

As the month of June draws to an end, so does your chance to download this month’s free PC games from Twitch–that is, assuming you’re an Amazon/Twitch Prime member. These freebies will be replaced on July 1 by a new batch of games, so this is your last week to grab them. To collect your free games for June, click the crown-shaped Prime Loot icon next to the search bar on Twitch. That opens a drop-down menu with links to the five free games.

Kicking off the freebies is Strafe, a gory first-person shooter that wouldn’t look out of place in 1996. It’s a fast-paced game with procedurally generated levels and tons of weapons that can spill buckets of blood. Next up are The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2, tactical RPGs about a Viking caravan trekking through a world inspired by Norse mythology. The third installment releases next month.

Also free for Twitch Prime subscribers this month is Tumblestone, a multiplayer puzzle game that involves clearing columns of colorful blocks. Last up is Treadnauts, a side-scrolling arena battle game in which you and your buddies control nimble tanks trying to blow each other up.

Twitch Prime is a perk for Amazon Prime subscribers. All you have to do to sign up is link your Amazon Prime account to your Twitch account. Once you do, you can download all five games for no cost between May 31 – July 1. They’re yours to keep forever, even if you cancel Amazon Prime down the line. The only catch is that you need the Twitch desktop app to install them.

Other Twitch Prime benefits include free monthly in-game loot for popular games like Fortnite and Call of Duty: WWII, ad-free viewing on Twitch, and a channel subscription every 30 days.

As for next month’s free games for Twitch Prime subscribers, we’ll probably hear what they are around July 1.

Free Games for Twitch Prime Members in June 2018

• The Banner Saga
• The Banner Saga 2
• Strafe
• Tumblestone
• Treadnauts

The Steam Summer Sale isn’t the only deal in town for PC gamers. Green Man Gaming is also running a sale, and if you enter promo code JUNE20 at checkout, you’ll get an extra 20% off most of the already-discounted games. That amounts to some serious savings on a number of worthy games. You can find the full list of games on sale here, or read on for the highlights.

That extra 20% off bumps many of these deals in to best-ever territory. PUBG, for instance, normally sells for $30, but it’s on sale for $20. Take 20% off of that, and you’re looking at a final price of $16. Not bad at all. Cuphead has a similar thing going on, landing it at $13.

You can get the intense multiplayer cooking game Overcooked for just $5, and you can pre-order Overcooked 2 for $20 instead of its usual $25. Ori and the Blind Forest is also getting a sequel this year, but you can grab the Definitive Edition of the original for just $8. Also $8 is Playdead’s dark puzzle-platformer Inside. For just a buck more, you can grab Rocket League to engage in some automotive soccer action. We have even more picks listed below.

Just remember to enter promo code JUNE20 at checkout, or you’ll miss out on the extra 20% savings. The code doesn’t work on all of the games–there are some exceptions–but it works on most of them. Happy deal hunting.

PC Games On Sale