2K’s new golf game, PGA Tour 2K21, is almost here. GameSpot was fortunate enough to get some hands-on time with the game ahead of its August 21 release on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
In a new video, we check out the game’s new Career mode by playing a full round at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas for the The Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
PGA Tour 2K21 introduces a number of helpful features for new players, like putt trails, shot feedback, and a power meter, and we made the most of them to go low with a score of 59.
Check out the full gameplay video above, and keep checking back with GameSpot for lots more on PGA Tour 2K21 in the days and weeks ahead.
2K Sports was able to get the rights to feature the likenesses of 12 PGA Tour players for the soon-to-release PGA Tour 2K21, but one of the players–Bryson DeChambeau–doesn’t look right in the game. His player model is simply too small and does not match his current physical look.
As has been widely reported and documented, DeChambeau transformed his body during the PGA Tour’s offseason, and he put on a further 20 pounds during quarantine before golf started back up again in June. He now weighs around 240 pounds and has more muscle than ever before. Only you wouldn’t know this if you play PGA Tour 2K21. His player model, which you can see below, shows him as just a regular-looking guy.
The PGA Tour 2K21 developers captured Bryson’s physical data about a year ago, before his radical transformation, and that’s why his in-game player model looks off.
“So what I can tell you, is we scanned Bryson 1:1 but when we scanned him about a year ago he was in a pretty different physical size than he is now,” HB Studios creative director Josh Muise told GameSpot. “So we’re always looking to refine; we’re always open to that feedback. I would say the radical transformation–full credit to Bryson, certainly changed his game–we’re probably a little bit behind. We need to play catch up on a few things with him.”
Muise wouldn’t say if HB Studios will release a patch to beef up Bryson’s muscles, but that would certainly be entertaining if they did.
Muise went on to say that the team at HB Studios has been engaged in conversations with Bryson’s representation and some of his sponsors, including Puma and Cobra. They, too, are feeling the sting of Bryson’s offseason weightlifting and eating increases.
“It’s too funny. We had a great conversation with Bryson’s representation as well as some of his sponsors. I don’t think we’re alone [in feeling that] we need to play a little catch up on Bryson,” Muise said. “Puma and Cobra said the same thing to us–they said, ‘We’re in kind of a tight spot.’ We took all these great photos before COVID and we worked through to do all this creative media for this year’s tour and then he showed up with a very different body shape.'”
GA Tour 2K21 releases on August 21 for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. It includes 15 real-world courses and 12 officially licensed players–you can see all of them below.
PGA Tour 2K21 Full Player List
Justin Thomas
Matt Kuchar
Bryson DeChambeau
Kevin Kisner
Cameron Champ
Tony Finau
Ian Poulter
Gary Woodland
Jim Furyk
Billy Horschel
Patrick Cantlay
Sergio Garcia
PGA Tour 2K21 Full Course List
Atlantic Beach Country Club
Copperhead Course
East Lake Golf Club
Quail Hollow Club
Riviera Country Club
TPC Boston
TPC Deere Run
TPC Louisiana
TPC River Highlands
TPC San Antonio
TPC Sawgrass
TPC Scottsdale
TPC Southwind
TPC Summerlin
TPC Twin Cities
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The announcement comes alongside an explosive new trailer, which you can watch below. It doesn’t contain any gameplay footage, but if you want to see how Serious Sam 4 looks in action, we’ve got you covered.
“Croteam and Devolver Digital recently announced that the high-powered prequel Serious Sam 4 will unleash both barrels of chaos on Steam and Google Stadia in August 2020, but we meant to say September 24,” the press release states.
No console versions of the shooter have been announced as of yet.
Serious Sam 3 launched in 2011, so it’s been a while since we’ve seen a new mainline entry. Developer Croteam’s most recent previous game was The Talos Principle, a puzzle game that offered a significant change-of-pace.
Those much-loved metalheads Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan will be with us a little earlier than expected. The duo return in Bill & Ted Face The Music, and it’s been confirmed that the film will hit digital platforms, as well as some theaters, ahead of schedule on August 28.
The news was announced by actor Alex Winter, who plays Bill in the movies alongside Keanu Reeves as Ted. Bill & Ted Face The Music was set for release September 1, having moved back twice from its release in August because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new behind-the-scenes featurette has also been released, in which Winter and Reeves talk about returning to their roles after so many years.
The full trailer for the movie was released in July, while the first teaser arrived a month earlier. The cast features a number of actors from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its sequel, Bogus Journey, such as William Sadler as Death, Hal Landon Jr. as Ted’s dad Chief Logan, and Amy Stoch as Ted’s stepmom Missy. It’s directed by Galaxy Quest’s Dean Parisot, and written by franchise creators Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon.
In an interview with Empire, Parisot suggested that much of the new movie takes place in real-time. “We’ve gone from a homework assignment to saving all space and time. We bypassed all those possible traumas in the middle,” he said. “They have an hour and 18 minutes. So they’re in trouble. And let’s say that they have to travel all over the place to try and figure it out.”
Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries is getting more help with the development of the next-generation Halo game. San Jose, California-based studio Sperasoft is now working alongside 343 Industries on the game. They are at least the second co-developer on the game, following SkyBox Labs.
On Halo Infinite, Sperasoft is “contributing to the game’s content across multiple development mandates, developing components of the game and experience, working closely with our new partners at 343,” the company said in a blog post.
“It’s an honor to contribute to the most famous FPS series in the world and to support the next generation of the Halo franchise,” Sperasoft’s Denis Larkin said in a statement.
Some people on Twitter wondered if the addition of another co-developer meant that Halo Infinite might be in trouble or that it could lead to a “too many cooks” situation, but this is not the case, according to Halo community manager John Junyszek.
“As a few others have said in the replies, it’s normal for big games these days [to have co-developers] and Sperasoft are pros. Additionally, as noted, they’ve been partnered with us for a while so this isn’t really new news or cause for alarm,” Junyszek said.
Tetris 99 will launch its 16th Maximus Cup next week, starting from August 14, and players who earn enough points will have a chance of unlocking some previous themes that they might have missed out on. These themes, based on some of the biggest Switch games of the last year, can be earned by scoring just 50 points this time–down from the usual 100.
Round 1 (August 14 to 16) will let you earn the Animal Crossing: New Horizons theme. In Round 2 (August 17-19) the Luigi’s Mansion 3 theme returns, and Ring Fit Adventure is back for Round 3 (August 20-22). These allow you to skin your Tetris experience with new looks based on these games.
If you haven’t played in a while, though, prepare for a challenge–the online community has gotten pretty good at Tetris 99.
Standout NFL player George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers is a big fan of Halo. He enjoys the sci-fi series so much that he recently got a nice-looking Master Chief tattoo on his arm.
Thankfully, Kittle documented the experience and you can check out his video below. Note that Kittle says he is partnered with Xbox, so this is a promotional video and you can likely expect more Halo-branded content from the tight end in the lead up to Halo Infinite‘s release this year.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer responded to Kittle’s video, saying he’s willing to cheer on this video even though Kittle plays for a rival team because “everyone is welcome on Xbox.”
“We’ve always said that gaming is a great unifier…even with most of Team Xbox in Seahawks territory, everyone is welcome on Xbox,” Spencer said, referencing the Seattle Seahawks that are the home team in Microsoft’s city.
Kittle was drafted by the 49ers in 2017. He has gone on to perform well on the team, earning a spot in the Pro Bowl twice. He had a particularly successful 2018 season where he tallied 1,377 receiving yards to set a new single-season record for a tight end.
With a 98 OVR rating, Kittle is the highest-rated tight end in Madden NFL 21 and among the highest-rated players in the game overall.
When Final Fantasy VII Remake launched in April, it included some DLC that could only be unlocked in the US–and only by players with a penchant for a certain chocolate bar. The game’s somewhat infamous Butterfingers DLC could only be redeemed by purchasing chocolate bars, and fans found that they had to buy a lot of them to get everything.
But now, that DLC is available–and free–for all players around the world. There are five new free pieces of DLC available for the game, all of which were previously made available through Butterfinger.
The items are:
Corneo’s Armlet
Mako Crystal
Midgar Bangle
Shinra Bangle
Superstar Belt
Redeem them now and you can outfit Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith with this equipment.
This coincides with a sale that brings Final Fantasy VII Remake down to its lowest price yet. It’s a good time to jump into one of GameSpot’s rare 10/10 games.
In other Final Fantasy VII Remake news, we recently learned that the game’s development team had a grim nickname for Tifa’s dad.
Following the gigantic Warzone Season 5 update, Infinity Ward has now pushed out a smaller update, but it could have big implications.
The update makes some tuning changes to the Juggernaut crate and the Most Wanted contract for the BR Buy Back Solos mode, while it also changes the drop rate of Juggernaut crates. But perhaps more intriguingly, this new patch activates keypads on the map.
“Keypads…are now active,” Infinity Ward said elusively.
A small patch is going out now across all platforms to adjust a few things in #Warzone! · Removing the Juggernaut crate and Most Wanted contract in BR Buy Back Solos · Lowered the drop rate of Juggernaut crates and how often they appear · Keypads…are now active. pic.twitter.com/CyH54Vugsr
Infinity Ward didn’t share any more details on the keypads that are now active in Verdansk, but this is not uncharted territory for Warzone. Previously, players discovered they could input codes on keypads to unlock special areas of bunkers. Some of these bunkers contained very precious loot, while others provided what appears to be more teases for 2020’s new Call of Duty game.
The new game is confirmed to be in development at Treyarch and Raven Software for a release later this year. Activision said the game–rumored to be Black Ops: Cold War–will be announced “fairly soon.” 2020 marked the first year in a decade that Activision did not announce the year’s new Call of Duty game in May or June.
Among the numerous new additions to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone in the Season 5 refresh is a finishing move called “Nevermore.” Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s 1845 poem, “The Raven,” the finishing move sends in a raven to finish off your foe.
As you can see in the gameplay clip below, it is a very brutal finishing move. The raven swoops in and pecks at your foe’s face until they die. Since it’s a finishing move, you won’t see it very often, which is probably for the best–it’s a real stomach-turner.
The Nevermore execution is available at Tier 20 in the Season 5 Battle Pass. It can be used by any character, and you can equip it from the Operator menu.
Nevermore is just the latest animal-themed finishing move in Modern Warfare/Warzone. The “Top Dog” finisher calls in a dog who mauls your foe to finish them off.
Season 5 is another huge update for Modern Warfare and Warzone. It introduces a series of new multiplayer maps, a Mini Royale mode, and lots of new cosmetics and gear from the Battle Pass.