Month: May 2020

Unless you were willing to part with a large sum of cash, the concept of your laptop being your primary gaming rig used to be laughable. Simply put, the tradeoff of power for portability was just not worth it. Fast forward to 2020 and things have changed. Laptop parts are far more powerful and far cheaper than they used to be. Some laptops can even run VR headsets without breaking a sweat. Every one of the deals we’ve found below are best on the web pricing. They range from GTX 1660 Ti equipped laptops that can easily run games at 1080p all the way to RTX 2080 equipped laptops that can crush most gaming desktop PCs.

HP OMEN 15″ 4K 3840×2160 Intel Core i9-9880H Gaming Laptop with RTX 2080 for $1916.99

You won’t find another laptop with beastly specs like this for under $2K. Not only are you equipped with an RTX 2080 Max-Q video card, the most powerful mobile GPU available, you’re also getting an Intel Core i9-9880H 8-core processor and a gorgeous 4K IPS display. Upgrading your RAM and HDD will push it just over $2K although you could probably do that on your own and save some money.

• Click Here
• Select Processor and Graphics – i9-9880H + RTX 2080 (+$980)
• Select Display – 15.6″ 4K IPS (+$150)
• Proceed to shopping cart
• At cart, apply code “10GAMERSPRING“
• Price should show up as $1916.99

HP OMEN 17″ 1080p 144Hz Intel Core i9-9880H Gaming Laptop with RTX 2080 for $1916.99

The 17″ model doesn’t have any option to upgrade to 4K, but one could argue that 4K is overkill for a laptop. You still get a 1080p display with 144Hz refresh rate, which is better for FPS.

• Click Here
• Select Processor and Graphics – i9-9880H + RTX 2080 (+$1080)
• Select Display – 17.3″ 144Hz 1080p IPS (+$100)
• Proceed to shopping cart
• At cart, apply code “10GAMERSPRING“
• Price should show up as $1916.99

Dell G7 15″ 1080p Intel Core i7-9750H Gaming Laptop with RTX 2060 for $1279.99

The G7 is Dell’s highest end gaming laptop outside of Alienware. The RTX 2060 is slightly faster than the previous GTX 1070 video card. This G7 comes well equipped with 16GB of memory and dual storage drives.

• Get it at Dell for $1279.99

HP OMEN 15″ 4K 3840×2160 Intel Core i7-9750H Gaming Laptop with RTX 2080 for $1826.10

It’s hard enough to find an RTX 2080-equipped gaming laptop for under $2000, but this one doesn’t skip on any other spec either. In fact, you get a true 4K 3840×2160 display, a 9th gen Intel Core i7 processor, and plenty of RAM and SSD storage.

• Click Here
• Select Processor and Graphics – i7-9750H + RTX 2080 (+$630)
• Select Display – 15.6″ 4K IPS (+$150)
• Proceed to shopping cart
• At cart, apply code “10GAMERSPRING“
• Price should show up as $1826.10

HP OMEN 17″ 4K 3840×2160 Intel Core i7-9750H Gaming Laptop with RTX 2080 for $1871.99

If anything, a 17″ display would be put to better use with a massive 4K resolution bump. Fortunately, the RTX 2080-equipped OMEN 17 is the exact same price as the OMEN 15.

• Click Here
• Select Processor and Graphics – i7-9750H + RTX 2080 (+$630)
• Select Display – 17.3″ 4K IPS (+$100)
• Proceed to shopping cart
• At cart, apply code “10GAMERSPRING“
• Price should show up as $1871.99

HP OMEN 15″ 1080p 144Hz Intel Core i7-9750H Gaming Laptop with RTX 2070 for $1430.99

This laptop is every bit as good for gaming but you’ll save about $350 compared to the above config. The RTX 2070 video card is almost as powerful as the previous generation’s GTX 1080, which used to be the most powerful mobile GPU. It should be more than enough handle any game on the 15″ 1080p display, even at 144Hz refresh rate. If you want to, you can upgrade to 12GB RAM and 512GB SSD for $180.

• Click Here
• Select Processor and Graphics – i7-9750H + RTX 2070 (+$450)
• Select Display – 15.6″ FHD 144Hz IPS (+$70)
• Proceed to shopping cart
• At cart, apply code “10GAMERSPRING“
• Price should show up as $1430.99

HP Pavilion Gaming 17″ 1080p Intel Core i7-9750H Gaming Laptop with GTX 1660 Ti for $1073.49

Use code “HOLIDAYGAMER”

The HP Pavilion Gaming laptop is a more affordable version of the OMEN. The build quality is actually very similar, with the same durable hinge system, excellent cooling, and nice aeshetics. For those of you who don’t like the bling of the OMEN, the Pavilion might actually look better.

• Use code “HOLIDAYGAMER” to get it at HP for $1073.49

Alienware m15 15″ 1080p Intel Core i7-9750H Gaming Laptop with GTX 1660 Ti for $1296

The Alienware m15 is the newly designed 15″ laptop and weighs only 4.8 pounds, which is remarkable given its payload. We reviewed the m15 and highly recommend it. It’s easily one of the best laptops you can get in terms of build quality and under-the-hood power.

• Use code “50OFF699” to get it at Dell for $1296

______________________________

Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends 25% of his pay on stuff he posts.

One Australian politician believes he has the solution to the isolation blues, by playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Tim Watts, Labor’s shadow assistant minister for communications and cyber security, posted a short video on Twitter about how people can stay cyber safe and sound during the COVID-19 quarantine.

While he gave out some general advice on remaining safe on the internet, using two factor authentication and being smart about transfering money online for instance, his main point revolved heavily around Nintendo’s island getaway simulator.

Watts recommends Animal Crossing: New Horizons to parents during the lockdown, “I’ve found that the promise of an hour of Animal Crossing after school work has been completed has been great for keeping the kids on task, and parents productive on sane.”

With two kids learning from home himself, Watts recommends the Nintendo Switch system be used as a reward for kids completing school work at home.

It’s certainly a sign of strange times when a politician says something like this with a straight face: “The violence inherent in Tom Nook’s system of indentured servitude remains cleverly obscured at all times.”

If you’re following Watts’ advice and staying home with Animal Crossing, be sure to look at our guides on the new Art Gallery feature and whats new to catch in May.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon has only officially been announced for PlayStation 4, but evidence has emerged suggesting that it will get a PC release, too. The game has received a listing on Steam Database, a third-party site that collects data about games on Steam, and will occasionally reveal a PC release of a game before it’s officially announced.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon, the seventh game in the mainline Yakuza series, will introduce turn-based battles and a new playable character (Kasuga Ichiban–read all about him here). It looks like an interesting departure from what has come before.

While Yakuza is a series that has long been associated with PlayStation, the games have recently started to make their way to PC and Xbox One, too. So far, Yakuza 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2 have made their way to Steam; it’s unknown whether 3-6 will make their way to the platform. Since Like A Dragon features a new protagonist, it could serve as an entry point for new fans.

This does not absolutely confirm that the new Yakuza is coming to PC, but it seems likely.

There’s also been some suggestion that Yakuza: Like A Dragon will get an English dub, unlike most games in the series. The Japanese version, which released in January 2020, has already been updated with a new difficulty option and new game plus mode.

A western release date for Yakuza: Like A Dragon has not been set yet, but it’s expected this year.

The second installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Little Hope, is on its way, and developer Supermassive Games has released a dev diary to explain the game’s influences and how things have changed since the previous game, Man of Medan.

The video features new gameplay footage and is narrated by Pete Samuels, the CEO of Supermassive games and the director of The Dark Pictures. He says that Little Hope has similarities and differences from Man of Medan, explaining that the game will follow a group of five students who become trapped in the abandoned town of Little Hope by a “dense and mysterious fog”.

The game is inspired by the Andover and Salem Witch Trials, as well as movies like The Witch and Blair Witch. Other inspirations cited include Silent Hill (hence the thick fog) and The Omen–in fact, that studio where the game is being worked on is apparently within walking distance of the cathedral used for Richard Donner’s 1976 film.

The video gets into how the in-game costumes were designed, and explains some of the improvements being made after feedback Man of Medan attracted. You’ll have stronger camera control this time, and a greater range of walk speeds, so you won’t be forced to move very slowly at all times. The controls and interface have been reworked a bit based on feedback, and there will be more context for your interactions with environmental objects.

The game’s couch and online multiplayer modes will be similar to those in its predecessor, which is good, as multiplayer was that game’s best feature. If all of this looks good to you, it’s also worth checking out the studio’s earlier, bigger horror game, Until Dawn.

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope will release in Q3 2020. Check out our preorder guide so you can nab it on day one.

While Animal Crossing: New Horizons remains a Nintendo Switch exclusive, there are ways to utilize your PC for creating the best island for you and your residents. The Island Planner, created by Rob Fichman, allows players to plan out their own island layout before they start terraforming on the Switch.

The Planner allows players to organize where buildings, rivers, bridges, and ramps can go. This is a big help, as once you’ve set these things down in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it will cost a fair chunk of bells to move them again.

This is only an early build of the Island Planner, so there may be some bugs. The developer is continuing to work on improving the planner as time goes on, with the intention of even adding some blocks to act as furniture in the planner. The current build is available for free on itch.io, with a donation page linked for anyone who would like to support Fichman in continuing the project.

Once you’re happy with your plan, the next step is to start terraforming your Island. For tips on just how the terraforming mechanic works in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, head over to our full guide.

In a lengthy profile on filmmaker Josh Trank by Polygon, details were revealed about why Trank departed the Boba Fett movie he had signed on to write and direct mere minutes before it was supposed to be announced at Star Wars Celebration 2015.

In 2014, Trank, coming off the success of Chronicle, was brought on by Disney to develop a Boba Fett solo movie, although at the time we only knew of it as an untitled Star Wars spin-off project. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy sung his praises in a public statement, saying, “He is such an incredible talent and has a great imagination and sense of innovation. That makes him perfectly suited to Star Wars.”

One year later, according to Polygon’s report, word of the troubled production on Trank’s 2015 Fantastic Four movie had reached Disney and Kennedy. No one had seen a cut of the film that would go on to become one of the biggest commercial and critical flops of the year, but hearing about all of the issues involving Trank were enough to cause Kennedy to lose confidence in him.

Trank explained that Kennedy and he agreed he should cancel his appearance at April’s Star Wars Celebration where he was going to share the first details of his Star Wars movie with the world. At the time, he had tweeted he had come down with the “worst flu of my life.”

Days later, industry insiders reported he was fired from the project. Trank said in a personal statement that he had departed the film “to pursue some original creative opportunities.”

Now, Trank claims, “I quit because I knew I was going to be fired if I didn’t quit.” Trank shared that he privately told his managers that he was done looking for work making blockbuster movies.

At the time, it was a shock for a director to depart a Star Wars project in such fashion, but since then the list of would-be Star Wars filmmakers has only grown, with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss leaving the trilogy of Star Wars movies they had signed on to develop, Phil Lord and Chirs Miller being fired from Solo during production, and Colin Trevorrow being fired from Episode IX, not to mention director Gareth Edwards being sidelined on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=star-wars-and-its-weird-recent-history-of-director-drop-outs&captions=true”]

Trank has been laying low for the past several years, but recently made headlines when he decided to post a review of his own Fantastic Four movie four years after its release. He’s now gearing up for the release of Capone starring Tom Hardy, a film he wrote and directed.

You can watch the new trailer for Capone below:

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/16/capone-official-trailer-1″]

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

The first of Microsoft’s new Xbox 20/20 events, the Inside Xbox briefing on May 7, will run for under one hour. Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg confirmed the runtime on Twitter, though he did not get any more precise than stating the sub-hour time.

During the show, Microsoft will showcase Xbox Series X gameplay for a series of third-party games, including Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. That’s the only confirmed title for the show as of yet.

The Inside Xbox briefing on May 7 begins at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET on May 7, and you’ll be able to watch it live on a variety of places, including here at GameSpot. Keep checking back for the latest.

After the May event, Microsoft will release more Xbox Series X details in June as part of its Xbox 20/20 series that will bring more news every month through the end of 2020. Greenberg said June’s event will be “done differently” than the May Inside Xbox event. Importantly, not every one of the Xbox 20/20 events will take the form of an Inside Xbox briefing, Microsoft has said.

In July, Microsoft will hold another Xbox 20/20 event that will focus on titles from Xbox Game Studios, including Halo Infinite (we hope!). This July event will provide an update on what Microsoft’s global studios are working on, and it will include new game announcements. Microsoft also recently confirmed that all 15 of its internal studios are working on Xbox Series X games.

This is all happening to hype up the release of the Xbox Series X this holiday. Microsoft moved to this new Nintendo Direct-style approach after the cancellation of E3 2020.