Month: April 2019

Google Maps has released a “new game” for April Fool’s Day called Snake. The title is free-to-play, and doesn’t require any sort of download. This new game does actually exist, unlike some other April Fools’ Day jokes, and you can play it right now. The joke Google is making is that Snake–a game that’s decades old–is somehow new.

Google’s Snake is relatively simple. After booting it up, you select one of seven different locations–Cairo, São Paulo, London, Sydney, San Francisco, Tokyo, or the whole world. You then take control of a train that’s constantly moving forward, which you can redirect with the arrow keys on your computer. Your goal is to pick up passengers and drop them off at city landmarks, all while avoiding driving into the ocean. As you pick up passengers, the train grows longer, making it easier for you to accidentally corner yourself.

According to GameSpot sister site CNET, a Google spokesperson said that Snake will remain available to play on Google Maps for about a week. This isn’t the first time Google has made an old-school style game for April Fools’ Day, as, back in 2015, a Pac-Man game was added to Google Maps. For more gaming-related April Fool’s Day gags going on this year, check out our round-up.

The original Snake released on the Nokia 6110 back in 1997. In it, you did play as an actual snake. The mechanics and goals of the game are similar to Google Maps’ title, only you were eating little dots as opposed to picking up passengers.

Google recently made a fairly large splash in the gaming industry with the announcement of Stadia, a cloud-based streaming service designed solely for video games. The service is scheduled to launch in the US, Canada, UK, and most of Europe within 2019. Both Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom Eternal have been confirmed for the platform. With Stadia, games can be streamed to any Google-connected device, whether that’s a mobile phone, tablet, computer, or TV. We had the opportunity to try Stadia at GDC 2019, and though we weren’t blown away, Google’s service has potential.

With only two episodes left, Gotham has finally revealed its final version of its take on The Joker. After Jeremiah (Cameron Monaghan) got dumped into a vat of chemicals by Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), fans waited eagerly to see what the outcome would be. Now, to celebrate April Fools’ Day, Mr. J has delivered a couple of treats.

While this new poster and trailer stop short of flat-out calling the character Joker, something Gotham has shied away from doing since Jerome–the first iteration of the character–was introduced in Season 1, it’s hard to deny it at this point. Still, the teaser trailer lists the character’s name as J.

The teaser also shows what happened to Jeremiah after his Ace Chemicals bath. Horribly scarred, he’s locked up in Arhkam Asylum and seems numb to the world as the song “I Feel Pretty” plays until something knocks him out of his stupor. “I feel something new,” he says. “Something beautiful.” The next show shows the character with his face painted white and The Joker’s trademark red lipstick, while maniacal laughter echoes.

While this may be a shocking new look for the Jeremiah character, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Firstly, the series finale of Gotham will feature a 10-year time jump, which finds Bruce Wayne returning to the city as Batman. Additionally, Gotham executive producer John Stephens previously told GameSpot that the final evolution of this character would lean into the horror side of Joker.

“When you look at the Joker, and you break down elements of his personality, and you cleave off certain character traits,” he explained. “Some of those character traits we gave to Jerome. Some of those character traits we gave to Jeremiah. But, there were still some leftover character traits that we said, we haven’t used these elements yet. Specifically to me, horror or terror. I feel like there are elements of the Joker, some iterations of him, which he’s not just a clown prince of crime, but he’s actually a nightmare. And I feel like… some of those remain to be explored.”

Gotham returns to Fox for its penultimate episode on Thursday, April 18. The series finale, which includes the introduction of Batman, follows one week later.

Battle royale is everywhere, from Battlefield V to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Even Tetris has been infected, with Tetris 99 offering the same every-player-for-themself design in the Tetris universe. While the genre’s overflowing with a myriad of titles, the man who popularized it in the video game space, Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, is moving on to something new.

Greene recently announced that his “new day-to-day focus will be heading up to a new division of PUBG Corp.: PUBG Special Projects.” Green served as both the director and designer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and while he’ll “remain as a consulting creative director on PUBG,” he’s leaving the project behind to concentrate on new initiatives for the company. He’s also leaving PUBG Corp.’s headquarters in Seoul, which will continue to work on PUBG, and moving to the newly-established Amsterdam office where he’ll put his attention “on building out an entirely new division to focus on research & game development.”

In a new interview, Greene signaled that he’s also done with the battle royale genre. “The last man standing concept is great, but I’ve done that,” Greene said in a GamesIndustry.biz interview. “I don’t really intend to make PUBG 2. I’ve done battle royale, it’s time to try something else.” Greene also doesn’t have much interest in players killing each other anymore, either. “I think I’ve provided others with a good way of killing each other. But I want to explore some other things.”

So what exactly is Greene doing now? According to GI.Biz, PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim approached Greene about taking the ideas in his head and “[turning them] into something that may be playable.” Kim’s allowing Greene to form a new team in a new location to create new things. The purpose of Special Projects, it seems, is to experiment. There are no in-depth details “because I don’t have them yet,” Greene said, but he does want to continue “[exploring] online experiences and how to connect people in ways that we haven’t really done before.”

Greene’s considered the father of the battle royale gaming genre. With both H1Z1 and PUBG, Greene’s proved that it’s possible–albeit difficult–to strike gold twice. However, according to Greene, there’s no pressure to strike gold again with Special Projects. “There is no deadline here, this is us with a few years to play,” he said. “Gaming and the industry has become so hard this is a very lucky thing to have. We can genuinely explore and be curious for some time.”

April 1 has arrived, and in the spirit of April Fools’ Day, Ubisoft has kicked off a ridiculous new event in Rainbow Six Siege. The Rainbow Is Magic event is now live across PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it introduces a special playlist along with an assortment of colorful new cosmetic items in the popular tactical shooter.

For a limited time, players can take on a special rescue mission set in a redesigned, candy-colored version of the Plane map. The object: safely retrieve a VIP teddy bear from the vehicle. For this mission, players will be able to choose between four Operators–Blackbeard, Montagne, Smoke, and Tachanka–and nine “toy soldiers.”

In addition to the special mission, Ubisoft has rolled out a new line of exclusive Rainbow Is Magic cosmetics. The collection consists of 17 colorful items ranging from BDUs to headgear. Players will receive one free Rainbow Is Magic Pack when they log in during the event and can earn additional ones by completing Ubisoft Club Challenges or purchasing them for 300 R6 Credits. As with other Rainbow Six Siege loot packs, there will be no duplicate items.

The Rainbow Is Magic event runs until April 8, while the Rainbow Is Magic cosmetic packs will be available for an additional week until April 15. You can read more details about the event on the official Rainbow Six Siege website and on Xbox Wire.

In addition to Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft is holding a ridiculous, 24-hour April Fools’ event in its swordfighting game, For Honor. Until 9 PM PT on April 1 (12 AM ET on April 2), players can take on swarms of Rabbids, and everyone who participates will get a melee pack. You can watch footage of the Rabbids crossover on YouTube and see all the other April Fools’ pranks and events going on in games in our big roundup.

Releasing mini versions of classic consoles is an ongoing trend that took off with Nintendo’s SNES and NES Classics and continued with Sony’s PlayStation Classic. Now Sega is throwing its hat into the ring–the company announced March 30 that its own nostalgia console, the Genesis Mini (or Mega Drive Mini, for those in Europe), will launch worldwide on September 19.

The Genesis Mini will cost $80 / £70/ €80 / AUD $140 and comes with 40 games. Only 10 games have been confirmed so far: Sonic the Hedgehog, Ecco the Dolphin, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Space Harrier 2, Shining Force, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, ToeJam & Earl, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, and Gunstar Heroes. According to Sega, the rest of the games will be announced intermittently leading up to the console’s release date.

Some of the classic Genesis games that will be included

Based on the Model 1 Genesis, the mini console is about 55 percent smaller than the original and comes with two classic three-button controllers, a USB-to-Micro-B power cable, and an HDMI cable. If you live in America, a power adapter will also come with it.

If you’re itching to play all those old-school games from your childhood ASAP, there’s another option: the Analogue Mega Sg, which is more expensive at nearly $200 but comes with more adaptability. You can read more on that in our Mega Sg review. In the meantime, the Sega Genesis Mini is already available for pre-order–more info on that below.

Pre-order the Sega Genesis Mini

A few retailers already have listings for the Sega Genesis Mini, and we’ll update this story as more become available. The Sega Genesis Mini is offering twice the number of games that the PlayStation Classic had for $20 less, so we expect it’ll sell out quickly, just as the SNES Classic and NES Classic both did. So if you want the Sega Genesis Mini, consider pre-ordering now before scalpers get their hands on the console.

If you’re curious about Jordan Peele’s new The Twilight Zone TV series remake, you can watch the first episode for free. The show will be normally available exclusively through CBS All Access, but the first episode is currently live on the streaming service’s YouTube channel for all to see.

The first episode of The Twilight Zone is titled “The Comedian,” and it follows the tragic tale of Samir, a comedian struggling to connect with his audience with his humor. One day he’s offered a solution: add a little bit of himself to his routine and he’ll get the laughs he wants. However, once that part of his life has been turned into a joke, it will leave his life for good. Samir believes this warning is merely figurative, but as this is an episode of The Twilight Zone, of course it’s anything but.

“The Comedian” premiered alongside “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” which is itself a remake of one of the original The Twilight Zone’s most memorable episodes, titled “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” This new version of the classic episode replaces the story of a gremlin trying to take down an airplane–which only the protagonist and the audience can see–with one of a man frantically trying to prevent a plane crash he’s learned about through a podcast that’s seemingly from the future. “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” is only available through CBS All Access right now.

The Twilight Zone comes from the mind of Jordan Peele, who also serves as the new series’ host and narrator. His production company, Monkeypaw, is producing the show. Other cast members for the The Twilight Zone include Ike Barinholtz, John Cho, Lucinda Dryzek, Taissa Farmiga, Greg Kinnear, Luke Kirby, Sanaa Lathan, Kumail Nanjiani, Adam Scott, Rhea Seehorn, Alison Tolman, Jacob Tremblay, Jefferson White, Jonathan Whitesell, Jessica Williams, DeWanda Wise and Steven Yeun.

Although “The Comedian” represents The Twilight Zone’s willingness to approach new subjects, the show will continue to remake episodes from the original series as well–just like “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” A reimagined version of “The Wunderkind” is already confirmed, but the details have not yet been released for other episodes. Similar to the original series, each episode of The Twilight Zone is a contained narrative, which covers a supernatural or science fiction event that befalls an ordinary person after they’ve accidentally stumbled into a mysterious dimension that the show’s narrator refers to as “not only of sight and sound, but of mind.” Although many are designed to provide a moral lesson, others were just plain spooky.

Disclosure: CBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

When 2K released its latest installment of its wrestling series, WWE 2K19, there was an interesting challenge included in the game. If the player could beat an ultra-hard mode, they would have a chance to face WWE superstar AJ Styles in a one-on-one match, and if successful, they’d win $1 million. And the finals for the event will take place during Wrestlemania weekend.

On Friday, April 5, 2K and WWE will host the semifinals for the Million Dollar Challenge at Wrestlemania Axxess at Pier 12 in Brooklyn, New York. The finals will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and those who aren’t in attendance will be able to at least watch the finale, which is taking place during the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn preshow. At 6:30 ET, it will be streamed on multiple platforms: Fox Sports digital platforms, WWE Network, WWE on YouTube, WWE 2K on Facebook and Twitter, on-demand after air on the USA Network.

During the event, WWE superstar Kofi Kingson, Big E, Paige, Ember Moon, and the Miz will be in attendance to coach the final four participants. The winner of the challengers will then take on AJ Styles one-on-one. If they win, they’ll be awarded with $1 million. Gregory Davis from Jacksonville, Florida; Stephan T. Benson from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; David Hoey from Sydney, Australia; and Roman Droßard from Pfalzfeld, Germany are the final four that will compete in this tournament.

Head back to GameSpot during Wrestlemania week for coverage of the Million Dollar Challenge from the event, including interviews with competitors and WWE superstars as well as live results and a review of Wrestlemania.

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It’s a somewhat busy time for new game releases, and one of those new titles claims top spot in the UK physical sales chart this week. Nintendo’s new Switch platformer Yoshi’s Crafted World was the best-selling game in the UK for the week ending March 30, according to sales monitor Chart-Track.

Crafted World becomes the first Yoshi game ever to get to No.1 in the UK, though it was a close battle this week–the Switch exclusive beat The Division 2 by just 63 copies, according to GamesIndustry.biz. Below those two games is last week’s No.1, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which falls two places to No.3.

The other new entries are Assassin’s Creed III: Remastered, which debuts at No.9, Generation Zero at No.19, Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season at No.23, and Outward at No.24.

Yoshi’s new game has enjoyed a positive critical reception, including an 8/10 in GameSpot’s Yoshi’s Crafted World review. “Yoshi’s Crafted World is at its best when it’s relaxing and pleasant,” wrote Kallie Plagge. “The 2D-to-3D level design keeps you curious while the go-at-your-own-pace approach keeps the pressure off and leaves you to appreciate the small, imaginative details. Its most interesting ideas never evolve past their first introductions and are frequently confined to one or two levels, but individually, those levels both reward your curiosity and your willingness to slow down and look at what’s around you–and it’s those simple pleasures that provide the most joy.”

You can read the full top 10 sales chart for this week below, courtesy of UKIE and GfK Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.

1. Yoshi’s Crafted World
2. The Division 2
3. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
4. FIFA 19
5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
6. Far Cry: New Dawn
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
8. The Lego Movie 2 Video Game
9. Assassin’s Creed III: Remastered
10. Forza Horizon 4