Author: Trafficblast

E3 2019 finally brought us more information on Google Stadia, the upcoming streaming platform. The Connect event revealed lots of hitherto unknown details, such as Stadia’s price, release date, and initial games lineup, as well as a first look at the platform’s buddy pass.

The pass is included in the Stadia Founder’s Edition, and it allows you to give three months of Stadia Pro access to a friend. Now we also know that works across territories, so long as your friend is in one of the countries where Stadia has launched. For example, a US resident could gift their buddy pass to a UK-based friend, since both of those countries will receive Stadia in its launch month of November 2019.

Stadia Pro is the platform’s premium service. It enables 4K video streaming for the games you play. It will also include free access to a selection of games and “exclusive” discounts. It will cost $10 / £9 per month.

For more on Google’s new streaming service, check out everything Stadia can do out of the box. you might also be interested in Stadia’s internet speed requirements.

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THQ Nordic has announced a remake of the 2005 alien action game Destroy All Humans just ahead of E3 2019. The tongue-in-cheek action game is slated for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

IGN reports that this is a remake of the original. Before it was officially revealed, though, Amazon leaked the game through a listing that has since been pulled. That listing had a placeholder 2020 date, and showed several screenshots and details.

The listings stated that the game is set in the 1950s, putting you in the role of an invading conqueror named Crypto-137. You can pose as humans to “infiltrate their fragile democracy,” use powers and weapons like psychokinesis and an anal probe gun, and explore Area 42 in a restored mission.

“The cult-classic returns! Terrorize the people of 1950s Earth in the role of the evil alien Crypto-137,” the product description read. “Harvest their DNA and bring down the US government in the faithful remake of the legendary alien invasion action adventure. Annihilate puny humans using an assortment of alien weaponry and psychic abilities. Reduce their cities to rubble with your flying Saucer! One giant step on mankind!”

This is the third new game announcement from THQ Nordic in only a few days. First it announced a remake of SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Then alongside the recent Google Stadia presentation, the company announced Darksiders Genesis, an overhead Diablo-like action game featuring the horseman Strife. Expect more games and news in all of the upcoming press conferences.

Many gamers can point to studios who’ve lost their trust or respect, whether as a result of implementing brutal crunch periods, misleading players, or communicating poorly. But some studios are trying to do things differently, even if that means admitting mistakes and making big changes based on player feedback.

In a new GameSpot video feature, Jess McDonell dives into the story behind a studio doing just that with The Division 2: Massive Entertainment.

With the advent of the internet, we live in a world where consumers are clued in, wise to technology, and deeply aware of what they want. In the realm of gaming, inviting player feedback can bring about a better product, or simply earn goodwill and show transparency to a loyal playerbase; a currency that is worth quite a lot, especially for ongoing games that hope to retain their players.

In the video feature, Jess speaks with Massive community developers Petter Martensson and Christoph Gansler about how they engage with and incorporate player feedback with the live service game.

Check out the full video above, and come back soon to see our full Q&A with Martensson and Gansler.

Stadia Connect, Google’s pre-E3 2019 press conference, revealed lots more information about its new streaming service, Stadia. The conference brought us information on Stadia’s price, release date, and games lineup, as well as our first glimpse of its buddy pass.

Buddy pass allows you to share your Stadia Pro subscription with a friend for three months. Stadia Pro is the platform’s premium service. It enables 4K video streaming for the games you play. It will also include free access to a selection of games and “exclusive” discounts. Stadia Pro will cost $10 / £9 per month.

Stadia’s buddy pass, meanwhile, is included in the asking price for the Stadia Founder’s Edition, which launches in November for $130 / £120. It also comes with two physical devices–a limited-edition night blue Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra–as well as three months of Stadia Pro, the aforementioned buddy pass, and first dibs on choosing a Stadia username.

At launch, the Stadia Founder’s Edition will be available in 14 countries around the world: the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The buddy pass is region-free between any of those, so if you live in the US, for example, and have a Norweigan friend, you can gift them three months of Stadia Pro. Google says the platform will expand to more regions after launch, although it hasn’t yet specified which.

We learned a lot more about Stadia during the Connect presentation. Google also revealed some of the games that will be coming to the service, including Ghost Recon Breakpoint and the rumored Baldur’s Gate 3. Borderlands 3 will also be there at launch, as will Destiny 2 with its full suite of content, including the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion.

For more on Google’s new streaming service, check out everything Stadia can do out of the box. You might also be interested in Stadia’s internet speed requirements.

Pre-order Stadia Founder’s Edition now »

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During thebig Google Stadia event today, the company announced 30 titles for the streaming service, including Borderlands 3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Baldur’s Gate 3, Metro Exodus, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. They announced 30 titles in all, and it announced partnerships with other studios, like Rockstar Games, that haven’t revealed which of their titles will come to the platform.

It appears the next wave of Stadia game announcements will come during Gamescom in August–and possibly sooner during E3 2019. “We’ll have more game-related news to share at Gamescom,” reads a tweet from Stadia.

Additionally, the tweet mentioned that other publishers will announce Stadia support for their own titles “throughout E3 and beyond.”

Google Stadia boss Phil Harrison said during the event that Google is working with “hundreds” of publishers and developers to bring their titles to Stadia. A graphic shown during the stream, which you can see above, shows that publishers like Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Rockstar Games, Sega, Warner Bros., Capcom, and Square Enix are some of the other partners.

Nearly every genre of video game will be available on Stadia, including RPG, sports, racing, fighting, first-person, and more.

Google Stadia launches in November in 14 countries, including the USA, UK, and Canada. It is a streaming service that allows you to play games on your computer or phone. A Stadia Pro subscription costs $10/month, and that gets you access to a library of titles with others available to buy individually. A $130 Founder’s Edition comes with a Chromecast UItra, a Stadia controller, three months of Stadia Pro for you and a friend.

For more on Stadia, check out the stories linked below.

The Netflix Marvel shows went through their ups and downs, but now that they’re all canceled for good, at least they’re going out on a high note with Jessica Jones Season 3.

Netflix sent us eight of the final season’s 13 episodes, so this review is based on those alone–although we won’t get into any spoilers.

Jessica Jones’ first season was one of the strongest shows produced in Netflix and Marvel’s partnership, but Season 2 was a major letdown. Even in a world set after the Defenders defeated The Hand–which we had hoped would improve this TV universe moving forward–Jessica Jones’ sophomore season didn’t hold up, due to issues ranging from poorly written new characters to the lack of a narrative throughline. But like Daredevil’s final season, Jessica Jones Season 3 is a return to form–and then some.

As always, Jessica Jones follows the titular super-powered detective as she chases down leads, fights bad guys, and wrestles with her own soul-crushing nihilism. Krysten Ritter remains an inspired casting choice, and her version of this character retains all the complexity she’s always had. You want Jessica to get it together, but at the same time, it’s hard to argue with her worldview. Almost everything about Jessica Jones’ last season is great, but the show really works because of Ritter.

Season 3 is a direct follow-up to Season 2, but in case you didn’t watch that–and we can’t really blame you–here’s a quick recap: Trish (Rachael Taylor) has powers now (she’s Hellcat in the comics), but Jessica is mad at her because Trish killed Jessica’s mom, who wasn’t actually dead like Jessica thought, but unfortunately turned out to be kind of a psycho murderer.

Much of Season 3 is about the possibility of Jessica and Trish’s reconciliation. As the audience, you’ll want Jessica and Trish to team up, for obvious reasons–they’re awesome badasses. But there are plausible reasons why they can’t. A lot of the tension this season comes from their relationship, which feels true to life. The direction things are headed at the conclusion of Episode 8–the final episode Netflix sent us–is extremely promising, and the rest of the Season seems perfectly poised to stick the landing.

Unlike Season 2, Jessica Jones Season 3 does have a villain. We won’t spoil who it is, because there’s a gradual buildup. But even if you’re well read in the comics world, you might not know this villain off the top of your head. It’s a strange choice, but one that completely works within the world of Jessica Jones. And the casting for said villain–Jeremy Bobb, who we last saw earlier this year in Netflix’s time travel dark comedy, Russian Doll–is a wonderfully terrifying foil for Jessica’s raw power.

Most of Jessica’s side characters are along for this final ride as well. Carrie-Anne Moss is back as ruthless lawyer Jeri Hogarth, who is still dealing with her slowly developing ALS, a disease that will eventually kill her. After the events of Season 2, Jessica’s former assistant Malcolm (Eka Darville) is working for Hogarth, doing some things he’s not entirely comfortable with. Trish’s mom, Dorothy (Rebecca De Mornay), is an irritating presence (as always). And there are some new additions who play interesting roles, particularly Benjamin Walker’s Erik, a rare love interest for Jessica.

Jessica Jones Season 3 gets back to what the show is good at: gritty, noir-tinged detective stuff. Despite her powers of super strength and semi-invulnerability, Jessica tends to lay pretty low, using these powers mostly to pry into cases by intimidating suspects or punching through locked doors. And Season 3 is full of that stuff, with great pacing that will make you want to keep watching, at least through the first eight episodes. That said, as was almost always the case with these shows, 13 episodes still feels too long.

This season is also largely concerned with power as a concept–what individuals are willing to do to get it, what they do with it once they have it, and the effect it has on the lives of the people around them. This emerges through Trish’s new super-powered activities, but also through Jessica’s relationship with her new villain. At least one other powered character is introduced early on, and all three have to make hard choices about the responsibilities of the life they’ve chosen–or that chose them, in some cases, including Jessica’s.

That may sound like typical superhero fare, and in a way, it is–we’ve seen Season 3’s themes and narrative arcs many times before. But when this superhero comfort food is done well, it can resonate with viewers nonetheless. And that’s the case with Jessica Jones Season 3.

It’s fitting that the Netflix/Marvel universe is coming to an end with a season that reminds us how good these shows were at their best–fitting, and more than a little bit sad. I’m going to miss bingeing these shows a few times a year, because even at their worst, they were watchable junk food TV. At their best, they were much more. I can’t wait to watch Jessica Jones Season 3’s last five episodes and see how it all will end.