Author: Trafficblast

God of War is a great game–one of our favorites of 2018. It’s a pretty good-looking exclusive for PlayStation 4 as well, so we figured that checking out the game on PS5 following the release of its new gen console upgrades was in order.

In the video above, we play through God of War on both PS4 Pro and PS5. We also do a side-by-side comparison of the game’s load times on the two different consoles, providing a clear view of just how much faster the game loads on PS5.

And speaking of loading, did you know that developer Sony Santa Monica had to pull off some exceptionally clever tricks in order to make that scene as awe-inspiring and cool-looking as it did? If you’ve played God of War, you know exactly which scene we’re talking about. On the first episode of Audio Logs, game director Cory Barlog offers his insight into how God of War’s most memorable scene was ultimately created.

If you haven’t yet played God of War, you probably want to skip that episode of Audio Logs until you do. The game is definitely worth your time–as seen in GameSpot’s God of War review, which reads: “In many ways God of War is what the series has always been. It’s a spectacular action game with epic set pieces, big-budget production values, and hard-hitting combat that grows more feverish and impressive as you progress. What may surprise you is how mature its storytelling has become. Like Kratos, God of War recalls the past while acknowledging the need to improve. Everything new it does is for the better, and everything it holds onto benefits as a result. Kratos is no longer a predictable brute. God of War is no longer an old-fashioned action series. With this reboot, it confidently walks a new path that will hopefully lead to more exciting adventures to come.”

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For the upcoming 2021-2022 season, The CW has renewed 12 of its series for new seasons and has ordered additional episodes for current seasons of Walker and Superman & Lois.

Many of the renewals are from CW’s Arrowverse–even though Arrow is no longer on the air, and Supergirl and Black Lightning are coming to an end. The DC superhero universe has been a major force in The CW’s television arsenal for years. Batwoman–which recently began its second season with Javicia Leslie playing the new Batwoman, Ryan Wilder–landed a third season. Additionally, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow were renewed, and the new series Superman & Lois got two additional episodes added to its first season.

Outside of the DC shows, fan favorites like Legacies and Walker also got renewed as well. “Though we’re just a few weeks into the new season, we wanted to get a strategic head start on next season with these early renewals, which allows our production teams to start laying out story arcs and hiring staff, and at the same time, continues to provide us with a strong, stable schedule to build on for next season,” said The CW’s chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz in a press release. “As The CW’s 2020-2021 season kicks into high gear, we are thrilled creatively with the direction of our first new shows out of the gate, Walker and Superman & Lois, that we wanted to order the additional episodes to complete their first seasons, and we are particularly pleased with the huge success of the launch of Walker, which debuted as our most watched series premiere in 5 years.”

t’s a long list, so check out all the renewed shows The CW announced today.

The CW renewals:

• Batwoman (Season 3)
• The Flash (Season 8)
• Superman & Lois (Two additional episodes)
• DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (Season 7)
• Walker (Five additional episodes for Season 1, and Season 2 renewal)
• All American (Season 4)
• Charmed (Season 4)
• Dynasty (Season 5)
• In The Dark (Season 4)
• Legacies (Season 4)
• Nancy Drew (Season 3)
• Riverdale (Season 6)
• Roswell, New Mexico (Season 4)

While DC newcomers Batwoman and Superman & Lois had a crossover event planned, that was recently canceled. “We’re not really able to cross over because physically, we can’t cross crews due to the fear of exposure to COVID,” Batwoman showrunner Caroline Dries told TVLine, who said that the anticipated meeting between Batwoman and Supergirl is off, too. “If Supergirl weren’t ending this year, I would say there would be more of a possibility. But I’m afraid that at least this year, we’re not going to be able to tap into that dynamic.”

Hopefully, the CW shows will return to crossovers in the next year, as they have become a staple of the Arrowverse shows. And while Black Lightning is coming to an end, there is a spin-off in the works.

Universal Japan’s Super Nintendo World has soft-launched in Osaka, and with it has come a pretty extensive playlist from the Universal Parks News Today YouTube channel of videos showing off Super Nintendo World’s rides, restaurants, stores, and other secrets. There’s tons to see, even if you can’t make it to the park in person quite yet.

Through the videos from Universal Parks News Today, anyone can get a glimpse of what Super Nintendo World is like. The park itself has been gamified, with each park-goer receiving a wearable wristband that works in conjunction with a mobile app to take the experience up a notch. Using these bracelets and the app, visitors can explore the park and solve various puzzles to snag digital keys to unlock special attractions and other collectibles like virtual coins and stamps. There’s even a leaderboard for the visitors who earn the most points across the whole day or for specific rides.

With three keys in hand, attendees can take on Bowser Jr. in an AR duel at one of the attractions. To do so, players have to make their way through a recreation of Bowser’s castle, complete with Bowser family photos and various Mushroom Kingdom graffiti on the walls, to a screen where Bowser Jr. and his cronies are ready to do their worst. Players then have to use their bodies to avoid attacks, swinging their arms to bat away Bob-ombs, ducking to dodge incoming Bullet Bills, and jumping to hit Question Blocks for power-ups. Combining all these movements, it’s time to take on Bowser Jr. and his gang to reclaim the Golden Mushroom for the good guys.

If you want a closer look at what is in the park, the Universal Park News Today channel also has videos that allow viewers to experience a full POV of different rides in the park like Koopa’s Challenge, and even what it’s like to wait in line for them. Or if you want a more atmospheric look at Super Nintendo World, there’s a video that shows off the experience of simply walking around and checking out the sights.

All 11 seasons of the comedy Modern Family are coming to Disney-owned Hulu and NBC’s Peacock beginning February 3, according to a statement. You can start watching the show about the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan in Los Angeles immediately.

“Peacock is home to a massive catalog of iconic movies and shows, so a groundbreaking comedy like Modern Family is a perfect addition and representative of the quality entertainment our free and premium customers enjoy on the service,” said Val Boreland, executive vice president of content acquisitions for NBCUniversal Entertainment, Television, and Streaming. “Because viewers of all ages love Modern Family, we are creating a fan experience on Peacock that goes beyond just episodes of the series to include curated collections, bonus content, and more.”

It’s hard to read that and not think immediately of how Peacock has given The Office the royal treatment by offering Superfan Episodes–re-cut and re-edited episodes of the beloved series that add a wealth of bonus materials, deleted scenes, and even completely new plotlines that never made it to air. Boreland recently told Deadline that “the bar has been set by The Office,” in rolling out classic series on these streaming services, but it’s unclear if Modern Family will be supplemented in a similar fashion.

Modern Family ran from 2009 through to 2020, and according to Deadline there is tentative talk about exploring a spin-off. Not quite something to pin our hopes on just yet, but Modern Family co-creator/executive producer Christopher Lloyd (not that Christopher Lloyd) said last year, “I don’t want to say it’s a long shot, it’s under discussion but we’ll see.” So he’s saying there’s a chance?

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

What do you associate with the term “ninja game”? Perhaps you think of speedy action and superhuman agility, crazy character maneuvers, intense swordplay, or sneaky stealth. Odds are, however, that you also associate video game ninjas with games that are really, really hard. You wouldn’t be wrong; in the long history of ninja-themed games, a lot of the standout titles are known for the formidable challenges they present. Knowing that, you’d likely expect a retro-throwback 2D platformer starring a cyborg ninja to be a tough test of your skills. Enter Cyber Shadow, a game that delivers everything above, especially the difficulty.

Cyber Shadow puts you in the role of the titular Shadow, a cyborg ninja awakened from stasis in the ruins of a massive city. A mad scientist is on the rampage, having fashioned an army of robotic supersoldiers in a crazed quest to revive the dead, and it’s up to you to foil his ambitions. It’s a simple premise, but Cyber Shadow’s story has a complexity that reveals itself as you progress. As you find the souls of your fallen comrades and discover records of the city’s destruction and the lunatic doctor’s experiments, you learn of a backstory far more interesting and tragic than a simple “mad scientist gone rogue” yarn.

Shadow starts the game quite weak, having simple jumping, slashing, and running capabilities. Thankfully, the first level is a merciful introduction, with plentiful health drops, relatively weak enemies, and lots of checkpoints. But it’s not long before things start to ramp up considerably, with early bosses and their bullet-spewing, fast-moving patterns giving you a taste of what’s to come very soon. By the second area, you start to feel the pressure–quite literally, as crushing factory debris and instant-kill compactors make it clear that your mission is not going to be a walk in the park.

Fortunately, Shadow is very adaptable and can even the odds with the challenges his environments and adversaries present. The world of Cyber Shadow is filled with hidden chambers yielding secret enhancements like permanent life- and spirit-increasing upgrade items, just waiting for the eagle-eyed explorer behind destructible walls and out-of-the-way routes. By defeating bosses and completing certain tasks, you earn new skills that greatly enhance combat and movement: a long-range shuriken, a downward stab, a wall cling, a dash and faster-than-light slash strike. Not only do these skills enhance your ability to combat and evade enemies, but they also open up new areas for exploration in previous areas.

But even getting to the bosses that hold these skills can be a trial by fire. To ease the pressure, you can make good use of the game’s checkpoint enhancement system. Many of Cyber Shadow’s checkpoint terminals have optional boosts you can activate by choosing to spend collected essence points. These enhancements include full health and spirit restores along with robot helper items like a charge cannon and a shot-absorbing drone. Once you pay for the enhancement, it will always be available from that checkpoint–and if you die and respawn, you’ll come back with those enhancements in tow. This system adds a level of resource-management strategy to the game while also enabling you to make use of some really cool weaponry that can aid you in facing upcoming obstacles.

Even with enhancements, though, getting through the stages requires you to stay alert, figuring out enemy and obstacle patterns while making good use of the skills and resources available to you. There are a lot of great and satisfying “a-HA!” moments in Cyber Shadow, where suddenly an inaccessible item or area can be reached with a skill or a difficult enemy can be safely eliminated using a ninja skill or helper weapon wisely.

Once you do reach the boss battles, you’ll be in for some very fun and challenging fights. These encounters are where Cyber Shadow really reaches its peak, featuring imaginative and unique boss and attack designs that require both fast thinking and reaction to successfully fend off everything that gets thrown at you. Each boss does something new to put the skills you’ve honed through the stages to the test, and every win feels like a satisfying, hard-fought victory. One boss, the Mekadragon, has a particularly unique gimmick that I won’t spoil here, but I know I’ll be remembering what a blast that particular fight was for years to come.

However, as you get further in the game, Cyber Shadow’s stage difficulty begins to take a turn toward being plainly brutal. Strangely, as you get more skills for your attack and movement repertoire, the game puts less and less emphasis on creative combat and reaction, instead relying on obnoxious elements like instant-kill spikes and offscreen enemies in very bad places. At several points in the latter half of the game, I felt like I was being forced to do overly precise and specific actions with absolutely no room for error over and over again until I got things exactly right. The increasingly sparse checkpoints, along with limited health pickups and hazards that have a bad habit of blending into the other visuals, made traversing many of these areas feel like an arduous task. I had to put the game down more than a few times because I was on tilt from dying repeatedly in certain areas, sometimes only noticing an inconspicuous instant-kill spike after my death.

While you can go back to earlier areas to find upgrades to make the late game a little bit easier, the way Cyber Shadow handles backtracking is quite messy. There are limited warp terminals in the game, and you’ll sometimes go far very long stretches without seeing one. You can always attempt to backtrack the long way, as many of the stages are interconnected, though the ways they intersect are confusing–and the game’s limited map does little to help. A more detailed map system would have done wonders in assisting players with exploration and finding all of the game’s hidden areas and items, as well as making the world feel a bit more cohesive overall. It makes exploration more of a chore than it should be, and that’s unfortunate.

Cyber Shadow is a solid retro throwback with a few things that drag it down. The feeling of becoming more powerful and being able to take down huge enemy threats with your wits and skills is very rewarding, and the levels when you can use your abilities more freely to overcome challenges are quite fun. It’s the trial-and-error areas littered with cheap deaths, demanding exact precision over long and frustrating stretches, that hamper the experience. Still, if you’re looking for an old-school-styled ninja game that will test your skills (and sometimes your patience), Cyber Shadow is a worthy contender.

Amid the ongoing drama around GameStop’s stock price, the video game retailer has announced the hiring of new executives to help lead the company’s efforts in the digital and e-commerce markets, as well as other units.

GameStop has hired Matt Francis, the former engineering lead at Amazon Web Services, to become the retailer’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer. His first day will be February 15.

In his role, Francis will lead and oversee the team that runs GameStop’s technology and e-commerce units.

GameStop announced two more high-profile hires as well. Kelli Durkin will become the senior vice president for customer care when she starts on March 1. Durkin previously worked at the pet food company Chewy as its vice president of customer service. She’s just the latest Chewy veteran to join GameStop, as the billionaire founder of Chewy, Ryan Cohen, is now on the company’s board of directors.

The other new hire is Josh Krueger, who will become the vice president of fulfillment at GameStop when he starts on March 1. Krueger previously worked in high-level fulfillment roles with Walmart, QVC, and Amazon.

GameStop has yet to discuss the recent activity surrounding the company’s stock price, so we don’t know yet what the company thinks about what’s happening or how it might affect the business going forward.

The company’s share price has since come back down to Earth, trading at around $100 on February 3. However, this still represents a gigantic surge over the past year, as GameStop was trading below $5 per share last summer.

Multiple adaptations of the events of the short squeeze are being planned, with James Bond studio MGM picking up rights for a film. Netflix is also producing a movie of its own with the writer of Zero Dark Thirty.