Month: July 2019

There will be a “Marvel Games Panel” at San Diego Comic-Con this month, and fans can expect a new look at a range of upcoming games, including the highly anticipated Marvel’s Avengers for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The panel takes place Thursday, July 18 at the massive Hall H beginning at 1:30 PM PT.

The panel promises a first look at “exciting new content” for the Avengers game, as well as other titles like Iron Man VR and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. There will be “many unannounced surprises and panel exclusives,” according to the description.

Marvel Games boss Bill Rosemann will appear on the panel, which will be hosted by KindaFunny’s Greg Miller. Other “special guests” will also appear on the panel.

Those who can’t attend in person can watch the Marvel Games panel from Comic-Con through a number of streaming platforms such as Marvel.com, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

The new Avengers game from Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, and other support studios is scheduled to release in May 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

NBA 2K20, the latest in 2K’s ongoing annual basketball franchise, will arrive on September 6 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. It will also be available on Google Stadia when the tech giant’s game streaming service launches later this year. A new trailer also heralds the integration of WNBA players into the game for the first time in the series, although the extent of that integration is not yet clear.

Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat will grace the cover of the game’s standard, Digital Deluxe, and Legend editions. Davis was previously one of three cover athletes featured in NBA 2K16.

Check out the contents of each version and where you can get it below:

NBA 2K20 pre-order bonuses

Pre-ordering any version of NBA 2K20 includes a collection of in-game items and currency, depending on whether you purchased the Standard, Digital Deluxe, or Legend editions. What is included for pre-ordering each version is listed below.

Pre-Order NBA 2K20 Standard Edition

In addition to the base game, both physical and digital Standard edition pre-orders of NBA 2K20 include:

• 5,000 Virtual Currency
• 5,000 MyTEAM Points
• 5 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
• MyPLAYER Clothing Capsule
• 10 MyTEAM League Packs (doled out one per week)
• 5 MyTEAM Heat Check Packs (doled out one per week at the start of the NBA season)

NBA 2K20 Standard Edition for PS4 — $60

NBA 2K20 Standard Edition for Xbox One — $60

NBA 2K20 Standard Edition for Switch — $60

Pre-Order NBA 2K20 Digital Deluxe edition

At time of publishing, the Digital Deluxe Edition is much less widely-available than either of the other two versions. In addition to the base game, pre-ordering the digital deluxe edition will also include:

• 35,000 Virtual Currency
• 10,000 MyTEAM Points
• 10 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
• MyPLAYER Clothing Capsule
• 10 MyTEAM League Packs (doled out one per week)
• 10 MyTEAM Heat Check Packs (doled out one per week at the start of the NBA season)
• 1 Sapphire MyTEAM Cover Athlete Card

NBA 2K20 Digital Deluxe edition for Xbox One — $80

NBA 2K20 Digital Deluxe edition for Switch — $80

Pre-Order NBA 2K20 Legend edition

In addition to the base game, pre-orders of both physical and digital Legend editions will include:

• 100,000 Virtual Currency
• 50,000 MyTEAM Points
• 20 MyCAREER Skill Boosts
• MyPLAYER Clothing Capsule
• MyPLAYER Apparel Collection
• MyPLAYER Shoe Collection
• 20 MyTEAM League Packs (doled out one per week)
• 20 MyTEAM Heat Check Packs (doled out one per week at the start of the NBA season)
• 5 MyTEAM Theme Packs (one per theme across the next five releases)
• 2 Sapphire MyTEAM Cover Athlete Card

NBA 2K20 Legend edition for PS4 — $100

NBA 2K20 Legend edition for Xbox One — $100

NBA 2K20 Legend edition for Switch — $100

While Netflix is debuting the new season of Stranger Things this week, don’t sleep on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, or Shudder. All three streaming services have some must-watch movies and TV series headed your way. Let’s check out and highlight some of the best.

On Monday, Amazon Prime Video is releasing a lot of content, including five Rocky movies. That means you can watch a robot deliver a birthday cake to Paulie over and over again in Rocky IV, which is the most patriotic of all the Rocky movies. There is a long list of movies headed to the service that day, and some of them are well worth your time: An American Werewolf in London, Big Fish, Con Air, Reservoir Dogs, and Superbad to name a few.

Shudder also has a few new releases at the beginning of the week as well. On July 1, the classic Stanley Kubrick horror film The Shining arrives. And although Kubrick himself did not like the movie, it’s still a masterpiece. Additionally, the 1987 John Carpenter movie Prince of Darkness arrives on Monday as well. The movie revolves around the basement of a church where a mysterious liquid resides that could end the world.

Over on Hulu, Friday is a huge day for the service. The 7th season of The Venture Brothers hits the service, and so does Season 13 of It’s Always Sunny of Philadelphia. The latest round of Always Sunny episodes continues to be one of the funniest series on television, even though one of series’ stars Glenn Howerton (Dennis Reynolds) had a limited role because he was off filming A.P. Bio. The finale ends with an episode titled “Mac Finds His Pride,” which is one of the best episodes in the series, as it continues to develop Mac as a character, while trying to get acceptance from his criminal father.

Below, you’ll find all the new releases this week to Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Shudder.

Monday, July 1

Amazon

• Under the Silver Lake (2019)

Hulu

• Forged in Fire: Complete Season 5 (History Channel)
• Forged in Fire: Knife or Death: Complete Season 2 (History Channel)
• Grace vs. Abrams: Complete Season 1 (A&E)
• Hoarders: Complete Season 6 (A&E)
• Killer in Plain Sight: Complete Season 1 (Content Media)
• Married at First Sight: Complete Season 7 (Lifetime)
• Mountain Men: Complete Season 2 (History Channel)
• Nightwatch Nation: Complete Season 1 (A&E)
• Project Runway: Complete Season 12 (Lifetime)
• The Universe: Complete Seasons 4-6 (History Channel)
• Veronica Mars: Complete Seasons 1-3 (Warner Bros)
• What Just Happened??! With Fred Savage: Series Premiere (FOX)
• 88 Minutes (2007)
• A Little Princess (1995)
• A Year Ago in Winter (2008)
• Accomplices (2010)
• Airplane! (1980)
• Airplanes II: The Sequel (1982)
• American Gun (2005)
• An American Werewolf in London (1981)
• The Amityville Horror (2005)
• Antiviral (2013)
• The Appeared (2009)
• Apres Lui (2008)
• Arbitrage (2012)
• Are We Done Yet? (2007)
• Are We There Yet? (2005)
• Astro Boy (2009)
• Bad Lieutenant (1992)
• Bad Santa (2003)
• The Benchwarmers (2006)
• Beyond the Gates (of Hell) (2016)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Brotherhood of Justice (1986)
• Bull Durham (1988)
• Bunny and the Bull (2010)
• The Chateau (2001)
• The Childhood of a Leader (2016)
• Child’s Play (1988)
• Coffin Rock (2009)
• Con Air (1997)
• Cooties (2014)
• CSA: Confederate States of America (2005)
• Curse of the Zodiac (2007)
• Dans Paris (2006)
• Death Bell (2009)
• Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
• Endless Love (1981)
• Errors of the Human Body (2013)
• Evolution (2015)
• Fainheart (2008)
• Fighter (2007)
• The First Wives Club (1996)
• Gangster No. 1 (2000)
• The Girl Under the Waves (2001)
• Good Luck Chuck (2007)
• Good Time Max (2008)
• Hard Candy (2006)
• Hellions (2015)
• Hero (“Ying Xiong”) (2002)
• Home of the Brave (2006)
• Honey 2 (20111)
• The Housemaid (2011)
• The Human Stain (2003)
• I Remember You (2017)
• The Imperialists are Still Alive (2011)
• Into The Blue (2005)
• Into The Blue 2: The Reef (2009)
• Johnny Mad Dog (2010)
• Killing them Safely (2015)
• King Kong (2005)
• The Last Days (2014)
• Leaving (2010)
• Letters to Juliet (2010)
• Man About Town (2006)
• Man in the Moon (1991)
• Manglehorn (2015)
• Married to the Mob (1988)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Mission: Impossible III (2006)
• My Best Friend’s Girl (2008)
• Myth of the American Sleepover (2011)
• No One Knows about Persian Cats (2010)
• Open Water (2004)
• Open Water 2: Adrift (2006)
• Operation Condor (1991)
• Operation Condor II: The Armour of the Gods (1991)
• The Overbrook Brothers (2010)
• Paper Covers Rock (2009)
• Paranoid Park (2008)
• The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
• The Polar Express (2004)
• The Princess of Montpensier (2011)
• Primal (2011)
• Prime (2005)
• Proof (2005)
• Pumpkin (2002)
• Puzzle (2011)
• The Quiet American (2002)
• Quigley Down Under (1990)
• Rain (2009)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
• Rocky (1976)
• Rocky II (1979)
• Rocky III (1982)
• Rocky IV (1985)
• Rocky V (1990)
• Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Rules of Engagement (2000)
• Running Scared (1986)
• Sangre de mi Sangre (2008)
• Shanghai Surprise (1986)
• Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• Sling Blade (1996)
• Someone Else (2009)
• Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary (2010)
• Spaceballs (1987)
• Species (1995)
• Species II (1998)
• Species III (2004)
• Species: The Awakening (2007)
• Stalked By My Patients (2018)
• Stigmata (1999)
• Stung (2015)
• Superbad (2007)
• Swimfan (2002)
• Swingers (1996)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• The Sum of all Fears (2002)
• Terror in the Woods (2018)
• The Time that Remains (2011)
• The Uninvited (2009)
• The Wraith (1987)
• Thomas in Love (2001)
• Traitor (2008)
• Turtles Can Fly (2004)
• Unmade Beds (2009)
• Uptown Girls (2003)
• Vampires (2011)
• Vincere (2010)
• Walk Away Renee (2012)
• We Are What We Are (2011)
• White Night Wedding (2008)
• With a Friend like Harry (2000)
• Women of Brewster Place (1989)

Shudder

• Prince of Darkness (1987)
• The Shining (1980)
• Vault of Horror (1973)

Tuesday, July 2

Amazon

• Phoenix (2014)

Hulu

• The Last Word (2017)

Wednesday, July 3

Amazon

• Peterloo (Amazon Original movie)

Hulu

• Phoenix (1998)

Shudder

• Party Hard, Die Young (2018)

Thursday, July 4

Hulu

• Into The Dark: Culture Shock: Episode 10 Premiere (Hulu Original)
• The Brink (2019)
• Woman at War (2018)

Friday, July 5

Amazon

• Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny S1B – Amazon Original series

Hulu

• Amazing World of Gumball: Complete Season 6 (Cartoon Network)
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Complete Season 13 (FX)
• The Venture Bros.: Complete Season 7 (Adult Swim)
• Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

For the past year or so, DC has been partnered with Walmart stores for the sale of 100-page special comics that include reprints of classic issues as well as original, ongoing stories written by current DC talent. Fan-favorites like Batman and Superman both got the 100-page treatment, with their respective new stories involving a creative team switcheroo. Brian Michael Bendis, the current mainline Superman writer, took on the 100-page special Batman with artist Nick Derrington, and Tom King, the current mainline Batman writer, took on Superman with artist Andy Kubert.

Since their initial release, the only way to read these new original stories was by tracking down a physical copy of the special at Walmart–that is, until now. After nearly a year of exclusivity to Walmart stores, the 100-page special line has evolved and expanded–including publication of the original stories as traditional comics, available anywhere comics are sold, starting this week with Superman: Up In The Sky #1. Take a look at a preview of the first five pages here.

The issue includes the first two parts of the story originally included in the Superman 100-page giants volumes #3 and #4, in which Clark is charged with solving a mysterious rash of murders–a case that promptly goes cosmic and leads him to the alien planet Rann.

Superman: Up In The Sky #1 hits shelves this Wednesday.

Star Trek: Discovery was recently renewed for a third season, and it will be soon be joined by two more series in the long-running sci-fi franchise–Star Trek: Picard and the animated show Lower Decks. It has now been announced that all three shows will feature at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

CBS has confirmed an event titled “Enter the Star Trek Universe” is taking place on Saturday July 20 in Hall H, at 11.30am PST. It will kick off with a Discovery panel, moderated by comedian Tig Notaro, who also co-starred as Reno in the most recent season of the show. Guests will include star Sonequa Martin-Green and executive producer Alex Kirkman.

The event will also give fans the first look at Star Trek: Lower Decks. This animated series has been developed by Rick & Morty writer Mike McMahan, who will appear at the panel alongside “surprise guests.”

But the most exciting appearance for most fans will be at the event’s third panel, at which Patrick Stewart will speak about Star Trek: Picard. The series is set to premiere in the fall and sees Stewart reprise his iconic Next Generation role as Jean-Luc Picard. The Picard panel will also feature showrunner Michael Chabon and co-stars Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, and Harry Treadaway.

In addition to the Hall H event, throughout the convention, fans will be able to visit the Star Trek Universe booth. There will be a meet-and-greet sessions to meet Star Trek talent on Saturday July 20, plus an “immersive transporter experience” during the whole weekend. There will also be limited edition Star Trek pins available from the booth.

For more on SDCC 2019, check out GameSpot’s guide to What Matters At This Year’s Convention.

Disclosure: CBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

We may be nearing the end of Season 9 of Fortnite, but Epic’s hit battle royale game shows no signs of slowing down. Not only is the 14 Days of Summer event underway (which has its own set of challenges to complete and rewards to unlock), Week 8’s challenges are now live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices, giving you another opportunity to earn Battle Stars and level your Season 9 Battle Pass up.

If you can finish all seven tasks from a given week, you’ll also complete one of this season’s Utopia challenges. The reward for doing so is a special loading screen that leads to a free item hidden somewhere around the game’s map. Each odd-numbered Utopia challenge you complete will lead you to a free Battle Star, which levels your Battle Pass up by one full tier. Even-numbered Utopia challenges, on the other hand, will point you to a Fortbyte–a new type of collectible introduced in Season 9.

Unlike the aforementioned Battle Stars, you don’t need to actually complete the Utopia challenges in order to find the Fortbytes; you can pick them up as long as you have a Season 9 Battle Pass and know where to go, but they won’t actually appear in the game until that week’s challenges have gone live. That’s the case with Fortbyte #97, which is now live (albeit a little later than anticipated).

As is the case with previous Fortbytes, the clue for #97 isn’t hidden within the Week 8 loading screen itself, but rather its description, which reads: “Peely and Jonesy first met at Bao Bros. and instantly knew they would be friends forever.” This is your clue to head to the dumpling shop in Lucky Landing. The shop itself is easy to spot; you can tell it apart by the giant angry dumpling head spinning on its roof. Head inside, then make your way downstairs to the gym and the Fortbyte will appear.

There are a few weeks left in Season 9, so you still have some time to catch up on any outstanding challenges from this season. If you need help completing them, you can find tips and guides for all the trickier ones in our full Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup. We also have guides for the 14 Days of Summer challenges to help you clear those. If you manage to complete all 14 by the time the event ends, you’ll unlock a special smoothie back bling.

Platinum Games has enjoyed a close relationship with Nintendo of late. The partnership has already resulted in the release of a Wii U-exclusive sequel to Bayonetta, while Bayonetta 3 is also in development for Switch. But the studio’s next game, Astral Chain, is its first brand-new property created for Nintendo’s console-handheld hybrid. As such, it aims to do things a little differently.

While the core of Astral Chain looks unmistakably Platinum, it’s not specifically in the mold of the studio’s traditional action games. This time, it seems Platinum wants to make a game that features more RPG elements and, in doing so, it could perhaps attract a different audience.

We spoke to director Takahisa Taura, who previously worked on the critically acclaimed Nier: Automata, about how the studio came up with Astral Chain, how it represents the DNA of Platinum Games as a studio, and some of the newer elements it’s introducing to its tried-and-true action gameplay.

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GameSpot: Platinum has a lot of wild ideas for games; where did the idea for Astral Chain come from?

Taura: The biggest [thing for me], as far as the concept is concerned, was to control two characters at the same time, with our main character [and] the Legion. With Platinum Games what we’ve made up until now has generally been games where you control one character at any given time, so I thought maybe if you increase the number of characters the player is controlling, it’ll become more fun.

Platinum’s games are about precision and having tight windows to execute moves. How does having a second character impact that?

The Legion that you call into battle generally fights on its own. So while it’s fighting you could do things like work together with it, right alongside it, or you can run around and let it handle the fighting. So it may not be as complicated to play as it looks.

But, having said that, there’s also a way to control the Legion directly at the same time. So you can get the feeling while you’re playing that you are controlling two characters at once if you want to.

So is it a simpler mode where you just control one character, and then for those who have a history with Platinum Games or are inclined towards those types of action games there’s a trickier version, and that’s where the depth is?

Well, they’re kind of two sides of the same coin as far as controlling one or the other. Essentially you can control one and have the Legion do the fighting for you or you can control both at the same time.

As far as a separate mode for players who aren’t as experienced with this kind of genre is concerned, there is a mode where the Legion [is] more active in helping the player out, and that’s made so that players who aren’t as experienced can make it to the end of the game.

There’s always a symbiosis between how a Platinum game plays and the story around it. Something like Vanquish, for example, is a sci-fi story, but it is built around this ability to slide around everywhere. And the fiction of Bayonetta feels like it’s designed just so we can have a character that can manipulate time and be a witch. How do you come up with your stories and what comes first, the story or the mechanic?

First, you have the mechanics of the game. And you establish something like, there are five types of Legions, which there are in this game. And then you have other ideas within the game world, that there’s a good Legion called the Arm Legion, and the Arm Legion has the ability to move objects, and the Beast Legion has the ability to be mounted. And so you create parts of the world that respond to those.

And there are other abilities that you can do as well. Like you can send your Legion out and have them pull you over to different things. And so you think of all these systems and that’s fun to do. And having these things available in the real world that the game takes place in is kind of hard to do, so for that we created something called the Astral World, which is a key part of this game. Essentially that came into being as a place where you can do all these fun Legion abilities and then it was added to the [story] of the game from there.

And it’s not like we just leave things as they are. At that point, we make sure, having established the system and scenario, that you interweave the two of them and that’s exactly how we did it for Vanquish. That’s also the way we did it for Bayonetta.

Because [in Astral Chain] the player plays as a police officer you can gain points by doing things like picking up empty cans on the streets and throwing them away or helping the people in the town. So, those kinds of systems were things we were able to do because of the scenario and setting, as well.

What pushes you to create this mad game where you’re this space anime cop and at the same time there’s a mechanic where the player is doing menial tasks like picking up cans?

We just wanted to create a world where you can have lots of different play styles. And it’s not like you’re forced to pick up these cans or anything, but we just wanted to give players the option to do that within this world. And if you don’t want to pick them up, you can just run at them and kick them.

It just reminds me of when I was younger and I would be watching Dragon Ball Z and there’d be a massive fight for the fate of the universe, but every now and then Chi-Chi would appear and be like, “You need to take care of Gohan and make sure he’s studying,” and the entire time I was thinking, “But he’s trying to fight for the universe, why would you be worried about something so meaningless in the grander scheme of things?”

Actually, I should admit that we are kind of going for that kind of, I don’t know if you should call it a gag or kind of a surreal quality in what we’ve made here. In addition to picking up the cans in the street, there are also other elements like you find lost cats, and you take care of them as well.

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Are you tracking that stuff? Is there a leaderboard that shows players that are most helpful in those smaller tasks?

There’s no leaderboard or anything like that but you [will] feel better about yourself.

Platinum’s always going over the top. Have you ever thought about going in the opposite direction and making a straight-laced experience that’s grounded in more realism?

Until now [our games] generally have the player fighting and fighting and fighting and that just keeps going on, but in this game we wanted to have aspects that were not that kind of thing, where they resembled more of an adventure mode type of thing, where it calms down and the player can ask questions. We wanted people who generally aren’t used to Platinum Games to be able to see that side of it as well.

You mentioned it briefly earlier but in that spirit of trying to bring in people who may not be super into or very knowledgeable about this style of action game, are you planning to include a one-button-style control option again?

There is a simpler system like that for people playing this game who aren’t used to Platinum Games titles. But we are going to announce more details about that system at a later date, so please look forward to it.