Watch Dogs: Legion – 10 Tips To Know Before Playing

There’s a lot going on in Watch Dogs: Legion. As a member of the hacker resistance group DedSec, your job is to bring down the terrorist organization Zero Day and fight back against Albion, a paramilitary company that has all but taken over London in the wake of an attack on the city. To do that, you have a bunch of tools at your disposal, like the ability to hack all sorts of machinery–and you can recruit just about anyone in the city to serve as a playable character, with each potential recruit bringing their own skills.

There are a lot of systems to keep in mind as you run around London fighting fascism, though. You’ve got your hacker gear, weapons, and a melee fighting system that’s new to the series. You’ll also find all kinds of side quests that have various benefits and with a city full of potential recruits, it can be tough to decide who to bring into your organization.

To help you get DedSec on its feet, we’ve compiled 10 tips you should know about as you begin your career as a cyberpunk insurrectionist. Here’s a rundown of what you should upgrade, what you should look for in recruits, and what you should prioritize in the game’s first few hours. And if you haven’t yet, make sure to check out our Watch Dogs: Legion review.

You can find tech points in the world or get them as rewards for completing missions, but make sure you spend them on upgrades whenever you can.
You can find tech points in the world or get them as rewards for completing missions, but make sure you spend them on upgrades whenever you can.

1. Find Tech Points And Spend Them, Quick

After the first few missions at the start of the game, you’ll liberate your first London district, which reveals the hidden locations of all its tech points. It’s worth going after them (and keeping track of the ones you’re earning for completing missions)–tech points allow you to unlock a host of additional hacks and gadgets. These include weapons, AR cloaking tech, and more, and having access to those gadgets can drastically change how you approach situations. Early on, it’s easy to forget that you’re accumulating tech points and that you can spend them on the Gear menu, but you should identify what you want to upgrade and start making moves to get better gear as soon as you can.

You'll use your spider bot almost constantly on stealth missions and it can be great for keeping your DedSec operatives out of harm's way.
You’ll use your spider bot almost constantly on stealth missions and it can be great for keeping your DedSec operatives out of harm’s way.

2. It’s All About Spider Bot

In Watch Dogs: Legion, you’ll use Tech Points earned from completing missions or found in the world to buy and upgrade different gadgets you can equip to your characters, or to earn additional hacks to your repertoire of abilities. One of the first options you can afford is the spider bot, and you should prioritize it. The spider bot is ridiculously useful–it allows you to send a tiny robot pal into hostile territory, where it can climb through vents, hack most objects, and even flip some physical switches or pick up collectibles and additional tech points you’d otherwise need to reach yourself. The spider bot can’t do everything you need to do in a given area–sometimes you need human hands to work on a circuit board or ctOS breaker–but when the spider bot can do the job, it keeps your character well out of harm’s way. You’ll get a ton of use out of your spider bots, so unlock them and upgrade them early.

Drones can be a real problem in infiltration and combat scenarios. Unlock the ability to shut down the strong ones as early as you can to save yourself some grief.

3. Upgrade Your Drone Hacking

There are lots of drones in London, and they come in many varieties. You’ll start with the ability to hack the most basic ones–your ctOS surveillance drones and traffic drones, essentially–but you’ll find before long that there are tougher, better-armed drones in closed-off areas that can give you trouble. One of your first priorities should be to upgrade your drone-hacking to at least get the ability to shut down Riot Drones and other combat drone types. If nothing else, you want to be able to disable any drone that’s about to spot you (or shoot you) while stealthing through an area. That’ll give you time to reposition or smash the drone before it gets a second chance to sound the alarm.

Further upgrading your drone-hacking lets you hijack combat drones so you can use them to scout an area or even fight enemies, which can go a long way toward keeping your operatives alive. Hacking the right drone can let you go loud and fight a host of enemies without your operatives ever facing danger–which is great if you decide to play in permadeath mode.

Use cameras to scout locations and, most important, to mark targets for easier tracking later.

4. Scout With Cameras And Mark Targets

This one is a pretty standard Watch Dogs element, but if you haven’t played an entry in the series in a while or this is your first one, it’s worth explaining. Your primary hacking capability is hijacking cameras, which allow you visual access to areas you can’t otherwise reach or would have to sneak into. Cameras can let you scout out an area before you enter it, which is extremely useful for finding a path toward your objective and seeing what opposition you’re facing. You’ll also want to sweep your targeting reticule over enemies as you look around with a hijacked camera. Doing so allows you to “tag” enemies so you can keep tabs on them on your radar and at a distance with a little bit of extra highlighting on your screen. It’s extremely helpful to pan over all the enemies you can find before you head into a restricted area, so use cameras to your advantage. It’s also worth noting that you can often hack objects through cameras if you have line-of-sight on them.

You can hack traps to arm them while you're hijacking cameras, allowing you to take down enemies without ever entering an area.

5. Go All-Out With Traps

As you’re scouting a location through hijacked cameras, you should spot a bunch of interactive items throughout most restricted areas. These are traps you can set that will explode if any enemies wander past them, and if you want to soften up a location and make your job a lot easier, go ahead and arm them all. Enemies on patrol will often just meander into traps and take themselves out, and while that can put other nearby enemies on alert, they’ll never quite figure out what’s going on. In areas with lots of traps, you can knock out a bunch of enemies before you ever even set foot inside the building, which means a lot less opposition or fewer opportunities to get found out. Traps are easy to deal with and they’re just about everywhere, so make use of them when you can.

Stealth is often a lot easier when you ride to your destination on a cargo drone.

6. Cargo Drones Make Stealth A Lot Easier

Though you can go just about anywhere in London early in Legion, you should prioritize getting through story missions early in the game. Though you can go anywhere in London from nearly the start to recruit some extra characters and get access to one of the best abilities in the game: the cargo drone. These big, crate-lugging robots are large enough for a character to ride on, giving you the ability to ascend, Lakitu-like, over the streets of London–and the rooftops of most buildings.

The cargo drone makes infiltration a lot easier in many circumstances. Instead of having to find a way to unlock a front door, bypass a security system, and sneak past guards, often with the use of a spider bot to open the way, the cargo drone lets you just float over walls and above security. It won’t work in all circumstances, but it works in a lot of them, offering different and easier ways to approach some tough stealth situations. You’ll find you can float through an area to reach a tough spot, or get close to an objective and then chuck in a spider bot to finish the job. Prioritize working through the story far enough to get a cargo drone, as you’ll find plenty of opportunities to use it.

The Deep Profiler upgrade gives you a lot of extra information about tough-to-recruit characters.

7. Your Next Upgrade: The Deep Profiler

We’ve recommended several upgrades you should prioritize from the Gear menu, but once you’ve got drone-hacking in place and a spiffed-up spider bot, you’ll want to snag the Deep Profiler upgrade. This thing gives you additional information about possible recruits, and while you won’t need it right away if you’re just following the story, it quickly becomes extremely helpful for getting better, tough-to-sway recruits on your team.

As you profile possible recruits in London, you’ll find that some aren’t too keen on DedSec in general. Without some work to change their opinion of the hacker group, you can’t get them to join up. The Deep Profiler will give you information on those people’s schedules and backgrounds, providing you with information about the tasks you can perform to bring them around to your side, and the places their schedules will take them. With that info, you can work on recruits who can be extremely helpful for your team, like Albion soldiers and police officers. Which brings us to our next point…

You'll want a variety of operatives on your team with skills in different areas--but not every potential teammate is worth recruiting.

8. Build A Well-Rounded Team

The early portions of Legion’s story will net you a few recruits without much difficulty–you’ll pick a recruit near the start of the game from a large batch, get a high-level hacker when you follow the story quests to liberate Camden, and add a construction worker with a cargo drone within an hour or two. But once the story starts to pick up the pace and brings you to tougher locations (around the time you start looking into Clan Kelley), you’re going to start building out your team so that they can handle a variety of situations. At this point, you should begin profiling people whenever you’re wandering around to keep an eye out for teammates who might be helpful.

In addition to a quality hacker, you’ll want teammates who are good in a variety of situations. Look for operatives who are good in a brawl, ones who have a focus on stealth, and ones who get perks in a gunfight. There are also potential recruits who give the entire team benefits–doctors can shorten the heal time of anybody who’s injured, and some recruits provide buffs like making it easier for your squad to escape the cops. And some characters come with uniforms that allow them easier access to certain restricted locations. Take the time to build a team with multiple strengths and you’ll provide yourself with a lot more options for dealing with missions, as well as one that can adapt to unexpected situations more easily. You can always dismiss a recruit from the team if you find someone better later on.

Scouting out London will help you pin down where objectives are and help you learn how to escape from chases.

9. Explore The City And Its Districts

Unlike past Ubisoft open-world games, there’s no magic map-revealing towers to climb or outposts to destroy in Legion. If you want to know what’s going on in London, you’ll need to cruise around the streets and figure it out on your own. There are a lot of fast-travel points in the game that can make getting around a little easier, but when you’re first starting out, steal a car and drive as much as you can. You’ll want to get familiar with the boroughs of London for when you inevitably have to flee the police or avoid an Albion checkpoint decked out with turrets, for instance. Uncovering the map will also show you where shops are so you can deck out your operatives in new clothes.

The most useful things to find in any given district, however, are the places you need to attack in order to eventually liberate it from Albion oppression. Each district has several objectives you’ll need to complete, and they won’t all immediately be apparent until you do some exploring. Liberate a district and the map will reveal all its tech points, so you can earn yourself some quick upgrades, should you need them. Uncovering the map as early as you can will give you a lot more information as you make getaways and open up fast-travel locations so you can easily get to missions, and that’ll save you time in the long run.

Liberating districts earns you

10. Make Liberating Districts A Priority

There’s one other major benefit to liberating London’s various districts: every time you do, you unlock a high-level DedSec recruit automatically. These characters are especially good at their roles and come with a bunch of useful passive and active perks, which means they’re going to be very helpful in your quest to bring down Albion and Zero Day. You’ll have to do some extra work to unlock them, though. Each district has objectives you’ll need to complete, like hacking billboards or freeing imprisoned freedom fighters, and once you do that, you’ll unlock a final mission for the district that you’ll need to complete. The effort is worth it, though, especially as you’re building out your team and filling roles to make sure you can handle lots of different situations. Check the districts for what kind of recruits they’re offering and knock out their missions to give yourself a big leg-up in creating a strong, well-balanced DedSec crew.

Now Playing: Watch Dogs: Legion’s Recruiting Is Hilarious

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Borderlands 3 Has Been Certified For PS5 And Xbox Series X Ahead Of Launch

Borderlands 3 is coming to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 at launch, and the next-gen versions of the game have now reached a major milestone. The official Borderlands Twitter account has announced that the game has been certified for release on both systems–meaning, essentially, that it has gone gold.

Owners of the game on PS4 or Xbox One will be able to upgrade for free within the same console family. Because of this, the game won’t come bundled with DLC by default–you’ll need to buy that separately.

These versions of the game will run at 4K/60fps, and support four-player split-screen multiplayer. There’s a second season pass coming to the game, too, so there will be plenty of content updates to keep you playing.

Gearbox had previously announced Borderlands 3 as a launch game for both next-gen systems, but in 2020, nothing is ever really set in stone–so it’s good to have this confirmed. Of course, a game can still go gold and then get delayed, as has been the case for Cyberpunk 2077, but it seems unlikely here.

The Xbox Series X is available from November 10, while the PS5 begins its global rollout on November 12. Borderlands 3 will be available on both systems from day one.

Borderlands 3 scored an 8/10 in GameSpot’s review.

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Watch Dogs: Legion Review

Watch Dogs: Legion releases on Thursday, October 29. While we reviewed the game on PC, other outlets playing the Xbox One version have encountered overheating issues on Xbox One X. Ubisoft says it plans to release an update on October 30 that’s intended to resolve the issue.


Watch Dogs: Legion takes the foundations and ideas of its predecessors and expands upon them exponentially. The core conceit of Legion lies in the old adage of “strength in numbers,” which manifests in the game letting you recruit and play as nearly any character you come across, amassing a ragtag crew of freedom fighters. This open-ended stance to fighting the system is a significant change for the franchise, and it’s bolstered by improved hacking and social-engineering gameplay. Legion’s approach, while admirable, does have some unintended issues that make its powerful message of unity waver at inopportune times, but it still manages to make a profound statement about hope with its novel approach to player agency.

Legion is set in a near-future, more technologically advanced London. Longstanding hacker group DedSec has been framed for a series of bombings in the city, and its members are branded as terrorists. This, however, was all engineered by the mysterious rival hacker group known as Zero Day. In the chaos after the bombing, London and its citizens are effectively caught in the vice-grip of encroaching fascism and suffocating capitalism due to the occupation of Albion, a private military group, as well as criminal and corporate enterprises taking advantage of the power vacuum. With many key operatives dead or missing, DedSec London starts from scratch by crowdsourcing new members made up of like-minded citizens wanting to liberate the city.

The London in Watch Dogs: Legion is presented as a more advanced and exaggerated version of the real-life London. However, this interpretation of the city still reflects the present mood of 2020, albeit with more of a cyberpunk-dystopia aesthetic. The city’s history and its iconic landmarks are the backdrop for stark futurism. The majesty of Buckingham Palace and the bohemian charm of Camden are washed with parcel delivery drones, holographic advertisements, and self-driving cars that flood your line of sight. Of course, all of this also makes for an exciting playground for your hacking antics.

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In a game with multiple playable characters, the one constant that you’ll have across them is your connection to London itself. Each of the eight districts has its own varied cultures, demographics, and cultural stylings, making England’s capital city an exciting place to explore. It’s cool to see areas like the Tower of London and Piccadilly Circus recreated with stunning detail, and there’s something to appreciate in how much effort went into presenting the locales through a dystopian lens. The game manages to capture the history and the cultural diversity of London, while also juxtaposing it with the banality of evil represented by the presence of Albion, who detain citizens in plain sight.

Much of the flavor and atmosphere of the city is rooted in the now. With Brexit, weaponized social media, and far-right ideologies going mainstream, Legion effectively portrays the inherent angst and bewilderment at seeing your country fall slowly into chaos–poignant for the troubles of the present day. The main story deals with topics relating to nationalism, xenophobia, and which class of people should be in control. At times it can get unnerving to see how real life seeps into Legion’s story, especially when it comes to the inhumane treatment of immigrants.

The main story of Legion is heavy in its subject matter, feeling like a mix of Black Mirror and Mr. Robot. It grapples with themes around nationalism, capitalism, classism, and of course, policing. Although the execution is somewhat scattershot, the moments in which the game chooses to shine a light on these pervading issues can be sobering. The most notable example involves a guest appearance by British grime rapper Stormzy, who gives a rousing and powerful performance confronting systemic racism. He takes the stage and confronts the people with a truth of Legion’s world, and it packs a powerful punch because it reflects the realities of our own. “I am the one they fear the most,” he says. “I’m a black man with money.”

Through text messages, podcasts, and other supplementary means of delivering narrative, Legion lays bare even more of the issues plaguing society. Text messages reveal that Albion, effectively a police force, is targeting and harassing citizens in public, and recalling this information as you watch people out on the street fall victim to these practices can sting. Radio shows mock the in-game right-wing ideologies which, when described, sound ridiculous and the stuff of fiction, but aren’t all that far from what we hear in real life.

What really hits home about Watch Dogs Legion is that, as the cartoonishly bleak world comes into focus, it becomes difficult to ignore the immediate parallels to our own real-world society. Sure, it might not interrogate the issues and explore the nuances with a great deal of depth, but the broad strokes of the brush are enough to blur the line between fiction and reality, and at that point you have to confront just how far our own society has fallen. Ubisoft games have often used real-world politics as set dressing, but on this occasion, it feels like a genuine attempt to at least identify the problems it is leveraging as narrative milieu and present their cold hard truths.

For the most part, the main narrative does a good job of tackling these topics, but the impact is lessened somewhat because of the open-world format of the game. The game’s scope is too wide to deliver its messages in a sharp and concise way. As a result, the 25-hour main plot can feel like it drifts into the periphery as the core narrative becomes secondary to the moment-to-moment actions and events that occur when the open-world mechanics are at work. The knock-on effect is that the side activities are left to do a lot of the heavy lifting on exploring the nuance in these themes, which they do reasonably well.

Like previous games, Watch Dogs: Legion hinges on the familiar loop of open-world gameplay, which entails exploration, combat, stealth, and in-game narrative events. While Legion uses a more streamlined hacking system, it leans much further into the systemic effects of hacking and manipulating social threads to fulfill your goals. Depending on how you utilize the city’s ctOS infrastructure–which consists of cameras, phones, computers, AI drones, and other machines you can hack–you can accomplish many of your goals with your enemies being none the wiser, giving you the sense that you’re always on a heist.

Watch Dogs: Legion reaches its highs when channeling elements of immersive sims, where many of your choices can cascade into a satisfying chain of reactions that yield the desired result. Hacking is your core connection to the world, and it opens up many clever opportunities when it comes to figuring out how to achieve your present goals. In one mission, I came up to an enemy base that had a vehicle I had to recover. While I could have snuck in, knocked out the guards with my non-lethal instruments, and taken the vehicle, I instead went with a more elegant solution. Using the cameras, I was able to remotely examine and download data keys from their tablets to gain access to the base’s gates. With the gates now opened, I hacked into the vehicle and had it accelerate forward out of the base. I made a dash for the car and rode off while the guards were left stewing in their confusion. All of this was done without ever setting foot in the base, and it felt incredibly satisfying getting the best of them. Coupled with the randomly generated playable characters, Legion presents many interesting opportunities to take advantage of, and its core gameplay represents the prospect of the Watch Dogs hacker fantasy at its best.

Legion’s true stars are London’s citizens, all of whom are randomly generated based on various professions, ethnic backgrounds, and other personalized details. The previous games allowed you to learn cursory information about citizens around you, but in Legion, you can use this information to scout prospects. Depending on if they favor DedSec, they’ll ask you to complete minor objectives to seal the bond. In a clever mechanic, the citizens of London will remember and react to decisions you make. For example, I was surprised a potential recruit disapproved of DedSec because a different character I played as accidentally hit them with a car–the game even makes note of this in their file.

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With such a vast list of characters, you’ll likely find yourself leaning on a select few operatives as your A-team, especially if they are gifted when it comes to hacking, driving, or melee combat. Still, Legion has a way of tossing in a curveball recruit that could be in the running for your new favorite. A particular standout for me was a gold-painted performance artist who could hide in plain sight to complete his goals–and collect tips while he was at it. It can be bizarre seeing what sort of characters you can pull in on your crusade, and it’s solid fun getting to use whatever skills they have in some critical missions to succeed by the skin of their teeth.

While each operative is capable, missions can and will likely turn sour after a wrong decision, resulting in all sorts of enemies coming down on you with assault rifles and combat drones. Even failing recruitment missions can set you back, prompting you to work extra hard to get back into a potential candidate’s good graces. Adding to this stress is the option to enhance the campaign to include permanent deaths for your operatives–meaning once they fall in a mission, they’re gone for good. It’s a clever addition that adds a bit more realism and a greater sense of consequence to the campaign, which can make some of the more daring missions feel more stressful, especially knowing that losing a favorite operative will leave a lasting sting. But even without permadeath, the difficulty can still be quite challenging, with failure taking your operative out of the game for a set amount of time.

I often found myself falling down a rabbit hole to gain new operatives and explore more of the city to complete the laundry list of objectives required to recruit them. In some cases, I found members of my team kidnapped by their own personal rivals, and I had to undergo an impromptu rescue mission–all of which was randomly generated. The game’s constant stream of characters and the opportunities that pop up certainly makes it inviting to break off on tangents to meet the requirements needed to recruit them. However, you’ll eventually also fall into a repetitive loop of recycled objectives and dialogue set in all-too-familiar areas, albeit with different voice overs. This repetition also makes London feel a bit small, considering the amount of ground you’ll have to retread constantly. As engaging as it is to constantly bounce around characters, over time, Legion’s many wacky excursions can also give rise to periods of aimlessness without a centralized viewpoint and structure to guide you.

Watch Dogs: Legion does a lot to confront topics like fascism, inequality, and the idea that new technology exposes and amplifies old fears and hatred.

And while these characters have great personalities on the surface, they can appear mismatched for the moment and context of what’s happening. This can lead to some unexpected and bizarre shifts in tone. For example, during one of the game’s more haunting plot threads, DedSec unearths an underground organ-harvesting operation, with its products coming from kidnapped immigrants who are kept in a detainment camp located within London. On its own, this is an incredibly gut-wrenching and profound moment where the game’s drama and narrative chops are hitting its highs. However, I made the unfortunate choice of using one of the more flashy characters in the lead-up to this mission–a cosplayer who wears a bright reflective jacket and glowing holographic cat ears. Seeing her walk down the dark and bloody hallways was jarring and undermined the moment. When you couple this with the aimless structure, it can be easy to detach from what’s going on or not buy into the sense of urgency the narrative wants you to believe there is.

In moments like this, the overall narrative and tonal issues that Watch Dogs: Legion has can force their way to the front of mind, but the core gameplay of hacking the world, making connections, and seeing your favorite operative succeed is satisfying enough that it makes it easier to not get hung up on them. The main story hits some impressive highs during the latter half thanks to the aforementioned Stormzy mission and the podcasts, emails, and even chats with your fellow DedSec members that tackle the heavier subject matter. At its best, Legion manages to stay on message while keeping things fun and exciting. And in some ways, the goofy absurdity of Legion’s characters and wacky side activities feels like an appropriate match for the sad absurdity of Legion’s world.

In the past, Ubisoft has had an unfortunate history of missing the mark when it comes to utilizing real-world events, politics, and other hot-topic issues for the backdrop of their games. However, Watch Dogs: Legion does a lot to confront topics like fascism, inequality, and the idea that new technology exposes and amplifies old fears and hatred. Legion not only does an effective job of showing the banality of evil in plain sight, but also, in a more optimistic light, shows how the citizens look to London’s culture and to each other to overcome oppression.

Watch Dogs: Legion is an anti-fascist game, and it’s admirable that it sticks to that message and sees it through to a satisfying and affirming conclusion. It also bolsters the franchise’s clever hacking gameplay to offer more creativity than ever. One of Legion’s more profound messages is about what it means to be a true Londoner, and by the game’s end, you’ll have a DedSec crew made of wildly diverse and disparate citizens from unique cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds–all united in their goal to restore their home. If anything, that’s as powerful a message for the game as you can get.

Now Playing: Watch Dogs: Legion Video Review

Part Time UFO, A Brilliant Mobile Game From Kirby’s Creator, Is Out Now On Switch

During Nintendo’s most recent Direct Mini presentation, a new game dropped on the Switch Eshop–well, kind of. The game, Part Time UFO, was released on mobile in 2018–but the Switch version comes with various new features.

Part Time UFO, from Kirby developer HAL Laboratory, casts players as Jobski, a sentient UFO catcher who just wants to help out. Each level in the game features different objectives to complete, and as you progress you unlock money that can be spent on perks to improve your performance.

This Switch version has a co-op feature, letting you play levels with a friend, as well as a new, more difficult set of levels after the main campaign is done.

Watch the trailer below, but beware–the game’s theme song is a real earworm.

You’ll notice a little cameo from some Kirby characters in the trailer, so there could potentially be some other Nintendo-specific content in the game.

Back in 2018, Part Time UFO was one of GameSpot’s five mobile games of the year. It was described as “exactly the kind of charming game you’d expect from HAL Laboratory: easy to pick up, devilishly difficult to put down.”

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November 2020: Major Game Releases For PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Switch, PC

November is nearly here, which means the next-generation of consoles is about to begin. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S and Sony’s PlayStation 5 are releasing on November 10 and 12 respectively, so excitement around the games industry couldn’t be any higher than it is now. You can expect a pretty packed month of games releases in November, seeing as both Microsoft and Sony are wheeling out their lineup of console launch games on top of an already full third-party release schedule.

As to be expected, the biggest names in gaming headline the month, with new entries in franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, and Spider-Man. Though that doesn’t include other massive games coming out, like the Demon’s Souls remake, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Godfall, the new Destiny 2: Beyond Light expansion, and a whole lot more.

Below, we’ve rounded up all of the biggest November 2020 game releases for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. For a closer look at the titles still to come this year, look at our list of game release dates in 2020. Otherwise, check this article throughout the month, as we’ll be sure to update it with more new release dates that get announced.

If you’ve not yet secured a preorder for either of the next-gen consoles, be sure to check out our handy preorder guides for Xbox Series X and PS5.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC) — November 10

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the latest in the long-running open-world franchise. Set in Anglo-Saxon England in late 800 A.D., you play as a Viking named Eivor, who, alongside their clan, has left Norway in search of a new home in England. Like Origins and Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an open-world action RPG. New this time is the focus on building out your protagonist’s clan settlement, pushing you to pursue various story-missions that take you all across the land so that you can gather the necessary resources to develop your home. Combat also sees a change that emphasizes all-out aggression thanks to a new dual-wielding system where you can choose which weapons you hold in Eivor’s dominant and off-hand. Lastly, social stealth returns after being absent in the last two games.

Further Reading:


Destiny 2: Beyond Light (PS4, Xbox Series X, PC) — November 10

Beyond Light is the next expansion for Destiny 2. Developer Bungie continues to support the live service game, and it’s clear that they’re looking to stick with it for many more years to come. What makes this latest expansion a big deal is that it promises to be a substantial shakeup to Destiny 2 as we know it. The most prominent way that Beyond Light changes the game is an influx of story missions and activities to pursue on Europa, a new large area to explore, and the future addition of Destiny 1’s biggest content, including the Vault of Glass raid. To make room for the new stuff (and keep the game’s massive install size in-check), older content that has been in Destiny 2 since its release, like locations, raids, and strikes, are being removed. Also worth noting is the onboarding experience for new players will also change to accommodate those to the complex web of mechanics that currently make up Destiny 2’s gameplay loop. If you’re looking to play Destiny 2: Beyond Light on next-gen consoles, note that those upgrades aren’t coming until December.

Further Reading:


Demon’s Souls Remake (PS5) — November 12

From Software’s Demon’s Souls is getting the remake treatment. With development being handled by Sony-affiliated developer Bluepoint Games (Shadow of the Colossus Remake), the remake features overhauled visuals built from the ground up for PS5, haptic feedback via the DualSense controller, and Tempest 3D AudioTech support for those looking to immerse themselves in the game even further. As one of Sony’s biggest PS5 launch exclusives, there’s a lot of anticipation for this one in particular, which is no surprise given its cult status. Regardless, if you missed out on the original back in 2009, consider this upcoming remake as Sony’s redemption for refusing to publish Demon’s Souls all those years ago.

Further Reading:


Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5, PS4) — November 12

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is one of the other big PS5 launch exclusives coming out in November. It’s a spin-off sequel to the incredibly successful 2018 Marvel’s Spider-Man from Insomniac. As its subtitle suggests, Miles Morales takes center-stage with his own set of Spidey powers and rogues’ gallery to fight. Unlike some other launch titles on Sony’s docket, Spider-Man: Miles Morales will also be launching on PS4 on November 12. Regardless of which version you choose to play at launch, the game does support cross-gen save transfer, so you won’t be forced to start over if you play the game on PS4 first.

Further Reading:


Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC) — November 13

Just when you thought November was already packed with tons of big releases, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is also coming out both on next- and current-gen consoles. Black Ops has been one the Call of Duty series’ biggest brands since its inception, and developer Treyarch’s games are known for their chaotic multiplayer modes. That continues this year with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which promises another expansive multiplayer offering and the return of a single-player campaign, which is a direct sequel to Black Ops 1.

It’s important to note that Black Ops Cold War will not have its own dedicated battle royale mode, instead emphasizing the already released standalone Warzone mode, sharing content and progression features and allowing access to special inventory items that can be used across both games. Activision also confirmed that multiplayer will sport cross-generational support and cross progression to accommodate all platform-users.

Further Reading:


Full November Release Schedule

Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S both launch on November 10.
Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S both launch on November 10.
Release Date Game Platforms
November 3 Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia Switch
Jurassic World: Complete Edition Switch
November 6 Dirt 5 PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered PS4, Xbox One, PC
November 10 XIII PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC
Dirt 5 Xbox Series X
Destiny 2: Beyond Light PS4, Xbox One, PC
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition Xbox Series X
Enlisted Xbox Series X
The Falconeer Xbox Series X
Fortnite Xbox Series X
Fuser Xbox Series X
Gears Tactics Xbox Series X
Manifold Garden Xbox Series X
NBA 2K21 Xbox Series X
Observer: System Redux Xbox Series X
Tetris Effect: Connected Xbox Series X
Watch Dogs Legion Xbox Series X
WRC 9 Xbox Series X
Yakuza: Like a Dragon Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PC
November 12 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla PS5
Astro’s Playroom PS5
Bugsnax PS5
Demon’s Souls Remake PS5
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition PS5
Fortnite PS5
Godfall PS5
Just Dance 2021 PS4, Xbox One, Switch
NBA 2K21 PS5
Observer: System Redux PS5
Sackboy: A Big Adventure PS5
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales PS5, PS4
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered PS5
Watch Dogs: Legion PS5
November 13 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered Switch
November 20 Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Switch
Katamari Damacy Reroll PS4, Xbox One
November 24 Just Dance 2021 PS5, Xbox Series X
Sony's PlayStation 5 is launching on November 12.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 is launching on November 12.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Path Of Exile’s Next Expansion Has Been Delayed Because Of Cyberpunk 2077

Path of Exile has delayed its 3.13 endgame expansion out of December, but not because developer Grinding Gear Games won’t be able to complete it by then. Instead, it’s been delayed because of an entirely different delay–Cyberpunk 2077 moving its release date to December 10 has messed up their plans.

“We were previously targeting a launch date of December 11 for our 3.13 end-game expansion,” the developer said on its forum. However, now that Cyberpunk 2077 is releasing at the same time, the developer is pushing the update back to January.

“We still expect to finish 3.13 by early/mid-December,” the post reads. “The scope of this expansion will remain unchanged. During the month of delay before release, we will start work on the 3.14 expansion.”

This means that if Cyberpunk 2077 gets delayed again–and let’s be honest, it very well might–Path of Exile could potentially move the date forward again, as their main concern is that they “do not want to put our players in a position of having to choose between these two games.”

The game will, however, run a multi-week event over the holiday period, although the exact details of this have not been figured out yet.

A Path of Exile sequel, Path of Exile 2, is also in the works. A beta will happen, but at this point it’ll likely be in 2021 at the earliest.

Now Playing: Path of Exile: Harvest – Official Trailer And Developer Commentary

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11 Best Horror Movies Streaming On Shudder Right Now

There are maybe too many streaming services, but when looking for the best horror movies to watch, Shudder is unmatched. While there are plenty of quality scary films to choose from on the streaming service, here we have narrowed it down to the 11 best, plus some related recommendations.

Our top 11 horror movies on Shudder include Terrified, Host, Scare Me, Impetigore, Color Out Of Space, Train To Busan, and more. Watch the video above for our full list!

Another Story Of Seasons Is Coming To Switch, And It Looks Relaxing

Amid all the exciting action games announced or shown in the latest Nintendo Direct Mini, one game stood out for how relaxing it looked. Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is, effectively, the latest game in the long-running Harvest Moon series (due to some complicated rights issues that necessitated a name change), and it looks lovely.

The game has a familiar set-up: you play as a character who has decided to take over their grandfather’s run-down farm, cleaning it up and becoming a member of the community, leaving your city life behind. It sounds a lot like Stardew Valley, which was, of course, inspired by Harvest Moon.

As of right now, the game has only been announced for Nintendo Switch.

The trailer, below, shows off all the wood-chopping, farm-building, and villager-romancing we’ve come to expect from the genre. Seeing that well-maintained vegetable plot will be enough to make genre fans itch to build something.

There are shades of Animal Crossing: New Horizons here, too–Olive Town is a seaside town, so there will be fishing mechanics to enjoy.

Earlier this year, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town released on Switch, which was an expanded remake of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. It received a 5/10 in GameSpot’s review.

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Amazon Paid $80 Million For Borat 2, Report Says

Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, was a big success for Amazon, racking up “tens of millions” of views right out of the gate. However, the film was not originally planned for a digital release, it seems.

Deadline reports that Baron Cohen and director Jason Woliner filmed the movie with Universal Pictures with an eye on releasing it in theatres just before the US election. However, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a change in plans, and Universal gave Baron Cohen the go-ahead to shop it to streamers.

Amazon won out in the end, paying a reported $80 million for the film–and that’s before the marketing budget–according to Deadline’s report. Sources told the site that Borat 2 was a gigantic success for Amazon, becoming the biggest Amazon Prime movie ever, presumably in terms of views.

Negotiations to buy Borat 2 took some time, the report said, because Baron Cohen was filming the movie on the fly and showing different versions to networks based on what he had at the time. Go to Deadline to read the full report.

“With the tremendous launch of this global, tentpole movie, it’s clear our customers around the world want content that is both relevant and entertaining,” Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke said in a statement.

Our own review calls Borat 2 an “absurdly timely movie” that’s actually “pretty damn funny” while avoiding the pitfalls that have caused the original film to age poorly.

Now Playing: Borat 2 Review: A Surprisingly Funny And Absurdly Timely Sequel