Month: October 2019

The video game industry is built on money and hype, and video game trailers are the perfect mix of both. But considering just how many we get bombarded with every year, it takes a truly special one to stand out from the crowd. Here’s our list of the cream of the crop – the best video game trailers ever.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Reveal Trailer, E3 2000

The first trailer for Metal Gear Solid 2, shown at E3 in 2000, is almost single-handedly responsible for that little boast we see in so many AAA trailers today: made entirely from in-game footage. Kojima and his team wanted to show off exactly what we were in for when stepping back into Snake’s (assumedly really soft) sneaking boots and managed to do just that. Not only did we get a first look at one of the most anticipated games of all time, we got to see nine whole minutes of cutscenes and gameplay that featured (for its time) some of the most advanced AI, environmental interaction, and stealth-combat mechanics we’d ever seen. Sure there was that whole “you’re not actually gonna play as Snake for like 70% of the game” twist, but that didn’t come until later. – Jon Ryan, Senior Editor

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Marel and DC may not be as aggressive as they once were about locking up big-name creators under exclusivity agreements, but the news that Patrick Gleason has jumped to Marvel after a long tenure at DC was definitely significant. And one need look no farther than The Amazing Spider-Man #32 to see why. This is easily the most visually stunning issue of ASM since Stuart Immonen was still drawing the series. Clearly, Spider-Man and his world can only benefit from having this new artistic weapon in the artillery.

It helps that Gleason makes his debut in a story that caters so directly to his storytelling abilities. Issue #32 kicks off a new storyline featuring the return of Spider-Man 2099 and a new conflict between the present and future. The specifics of that conflict aren’t well established, but for now it’s enough simply to savor the return of Miguel O’Hara and the futuristic visuals that come along with him.

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Here’s a sweet deal for anyone who could use an Echo Dot: Amazon Prime members can get an Echo Dot and a one-month subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited for just $8.98. That’s a cool $41 off the normal price of the Dot alone, and far lower than it’s ever gone before, including on Black Friday.

The only restriction is you have to be a new Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber. And if you don’t want to continue your subscription, make sure to cancel before you’re billed for the second month.

Echo Dot and 1 Month Amazon Music Unlimited for $8.98

• See the deal at Amazon

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out this Friday on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, but those in Russia won’t be able to purchase the latest big-budget blockbuster on the PlayStation Store, Activision has said.

Despite being available digitally on both Xbox One and PC, Sony has decided to delist the game on Russia’s PlayStation Store. A tweet from the Sony Russia Twitter account broke the news, and Activision has since issued a statement to Eurogamer confirming Sony’s decision to remove the first-person shooter from sale.

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a fictional game that has been thoughtfully created to entertain fans and tell a compelling narrative,” Activision’s statement says. “Sony Interactive Entertainment has decided not to sell Modern Warfare on the PlayStation Store in Russia at this time. We look forward to launching Modern Warfare digitally in Russia on 25 October on PC via Battle.net and on console via Xbox.”

Sony has yet to give its own reason, and all digital pre-orders have been cancelled, though, presumably, physical copies will still make their way to store shelves as planned.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a soft reboot for the franchise, but it harkens back to earlier entries in the series by painting Russians as cold-war era villains. Activision’s blog says to “expect no compromises as Modern Warfare takes you on an engaging narrative, featuring military operations across the globe, where morality is sure to be tested.”

Farah Ahmed Karim is one of the key characters in Modern Warfare’s story, with her tale beginning 20 years before the rest of the game’s events as Russian soldiers kill her parents in a harrowing attack on the fictional Middle-Eastern country of Urzikstan. Now she’s the leader of the Urzikstan Liberation Force, “labeled a terrorist organization by the Russian government for their long-standing resistance, Russian soldiers are ordered to make no distinction between the terror group Al-Qatala and the liberation fighters under Farah’s command. AQ terrorists pursue Farah and the ULF with a mandate to kill.”

Call of Duty is no stranger to Russian villains so it’s odd for Sony to pull one of the biggest games of the year from sale a few days before its release, especially when other platforms have no qualms releasing it digitally in the country.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC this Friday, October 25.

With Halloween just around the corner, many games are getting into the spooky spirit with their own Halloween events, and it appears Rainbow Six Siege will be the latest to join that list. An event titled Doktor’s Curse has been spotted on the Xbox events page (via Dot Esports), and it’s reportedly beginning soon.

While Ubisoft has yet to formally reveal the Doktor’s Curse event, the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account tweeted an image of a VHS cassette labeled with the event name, effectively confirming it. According to the Xbox page, the event is slated to begin today, October 23, and run until November 6, but Ubisoft has not made any official announcements regarding it.

This isn’t the first Halloween event in Rainbow Six Siege. Last year, the tactical shooter held a Mad House event that added a haunted variation of the House map, along with a variety of special skins that transformed 10 Operators into ghoulish versions of themselves, as well as Halloween-themed weapon skins and charms.

Rainbow Six Siege’s latest update, Ember Rise, arrived last month and introduced a wealth of new content to the game, including two new Operators: the attacker Amaru and the defender Goyo. Additionally, Ubisoft reworked the Kanal map and made a spate of Operator balance tweaks and other adjustments. You can read the full breakdown of everything new in Ember Rise on Ubisoft’s website.

Fallout 76 has launched a new premium membership service called Fallout 1st, Bethesda has announced. The service is available to purchase now and includes access to private worlds for you and your friends, exclusive items, and membership bonuses.

Private worlds has been one of the most requested features since Fallout 76 was released back in November 2018. Last week Bethesda revealed that private servers would be coming to the game this week, but there was no indication that the feature would be locked behind a subscription paywall. You can purchase a Fallout 1st subscription for $12.99 / £11.99 a month, or buy a full year at a 36% discount for $99.99 / £99.99. It’s a steep price to pay in order to play Fallout 76 privately, either alone or with friends. For comparison, an Xbox Game Pass subscription costs $9.99 / £10.99 a month, and features both Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, among a myriad of other games. At least only the owner of a private server is required to be a Fallout 1st member. Bethesda has also said it’s looking into incorporating mod support in private worlds.

Aside from receiving access to private worlds, Fallout 1st members will also receive a monthly bonus of 1,650 atoms to spend in the Atomic Shop. There will also be exclusive discounts on items in the store, and members will gain access to their own private Scrapbox, too, letting you store all of your crafting components in a separate place to the limited Stash Box. Meanwhile, the new survival tent will save you some caps by acting as a fast travel point you can place anywhere on the map, and unique emotes and the Ranger Armor outfit give you some more cosmetic options.

Fallout 76 had a rocky launch and was met with largely negative reviews, including GameSpot’s review which awarded it a 4/10. Bethesda has been releasing updates fairly regularly, though, adding features like a battle royale mode and raids.

Fallout 76 has revealed a new subscription service, Fallout 1st, which allows players to play alone in private worlds, among other things.

Launching today, and priced at $12.99 a month, or $99.99 a year (that’s £11.99 / £99.99 in the UK, Australian prices not available at time of writing), Bethesda explains that a Fallout 1st membership gets you:

• Private worlds for yourself and up to seven friends.
• A Scrapbox with unlimited storage for crafting materials.
• A Survival Tent that acts as a placeable fast travel point.

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It’s downright impressive that, even after more than 20 years, the bulk of MediEvil’s DNA hasn’t lost an ounce of its charm. That’s due in part to the fact that the original hack-and-slash adventure was ahead of the times for 1998 in many ways, and it’s deserving of its cult classic status. A lot of credit, though, has to go to the incredible work developer Other Ocean has done in recreating it for this new, ground-up remake, which stays true to its roots – although to a fault in a lot of ways. MediEvil walks a fine line between reinventing itself and being the same game that people remember from the PS1, and too often places nostalgia over modernizing itself to be palatable for an audience in 2019.

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