Author: Trafficblast

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite may be out now, but that hasn’t slowed Niantic’s support for Pokemon Go. The studio has rolled out another new update for the game that completely overalls its appraisal system, making it much easier to see how your Pokemon’s stats measure up. That’s not all, however; after numerous teases, it appears Team Rocket will also begin invading Pokemon Go soon.

According to the latest patch notes, the new update adds Team Rocket to Pokemon Go. While the villainous team hasn’t begun appearing in the game yet, it seems players will be able to challenge Team Rocket grunts in battle. On top of that, players will have a chance to catch Shadow Pokemon that are abandoned by the Rocket grunts.

Shadow Pokemon aren’t an entirely new concept in the series. GameCube’s Pokemon Colosseum and its follow-up, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, both featured Shadow Pokemon, which were denoted by a dark aura swirling around them. In those games, players needed to rescue the Shadow Pokemon from villains and then gradually “purify” them by using them in battle. It’s unclear if Pokemon Go’s Shadow Pokemon will work the same way, but the concept certainly sounds similar.

In addition to Team Rocket, the new Pokemon Go update overhauls the game’s appraisal tool. Now when you appraise a Pokemon, you’ll see a clear overview of the monster’s Attack, Defense, and HP stats, with a one- to three-star rating signifying its overall potential. You can see the full patch notes for the update below or on the App Store.

Pokemon Go’s next Community Day event takes place this Sunday, July 21. This month, the featured Pokemon will be Mudkip, one of the three starters from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. A One Piece crossover event is also happening in the game beginning next week, which will give players a chance to catch a Pikachu wearing Luffy’s iconic straw hat. Finally, there’s still time to catch Armored Mewtwo in the game; the Legendary Pokemon will appear in five-star Raids until July 31.

Pokemon Go Version 1.117.0 (iOS) Patch Notes

Here’s what can you expect in this release.

• New Challenges: Take on Team GO Rocket Grunts in battle!
• Shadow Pokemon: Catch the mysterious Shadow Pokemon Team GO Rocket Grunts leave behind! Is there a way to help these Pokemon?
• New Appraisal Tool: You can now learn even more about your Pokémon when appraising them.
• Battle Minigames: Charged Attack gameplay includes new minigames.”

A plane full of lucky passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight got more than a bag of pretzels on their trip to San Diego. They received a free Nintendo Switch system and a copy of the recently released Super Mario Maker 2, perfect for staying occupied while hurtling above the earth in a metal tube.

The first indication of the giveaway came from Nicholas Friedman, a social media manager at Funimation, who posted about it on Twitter. GameSpot confirmed the giveaway with Southwest Airlines, which said it partnered with Nintendo for the promotion. An image shared by Friedman shows a voucher, which he said could be redeemed for the system and game when the passengers land.

This isn’t Nintendo’s first cross-promotion with Southwest. The airline also gave away Wii U consoles, and the original Super Mario Maker added a special airline-inspired course, complete with a special costume to unlock.

The Southwest promotion was well-timed. It came just as Nintendo made a flurry of other announcements regarding upcoming hardware and software. A revised Nintendo Switch with better battery life is coming in mid-August in the U.S., new Joy-Con colors were announced, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 got a holiday release date. Plus this is all coming shortly after the announcement of the portable-only Switch Lite.

July’s free NES games are now available for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. This month sees two more titles join the system’s slowly expanding NES library, along with a special version of a previously added game and a handy new feature.

The new additions this time are Donkey Kong 3 and Wrecking Crew. Nintendo has also added a special save state of Mighty Bomb Jack, which joined the service back in November 2018. This version starts you off in the final zone, with the conditions to see the best of the game’s four possible endings already met.

On top of the new titles, Nintendo has added a “rewind” feature to the NES library. As the tweet above demonstrates, this can be activated by holding the ZL and ZR buttons, and it allows you to go back a few seconds and try again if you mess up. The rewind feature can be used with every NES game in the library, and it should prove to be useful for some of the service’s more difficult titles like Ghost ‘n Goblins or Ninja Gaiden.

The NES library is only available to those who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service. It features more than 40 classic games, including Super Mario Bros. 3 and Punch-Out, with additional titles being added on a monthly basis. Other perks for subscribing include the ability to play online with others, cloud save backups, and some exclusive offers, such as the Nintendo Switch voucher program and Tetris 99, which is free to download and play for subscribers.

Individual Nintendo Switch Onlien subscriptions run for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year. Nintendo also offers an annual Family Membership, which runs for US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55 and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple systems.

The final piece of major story-driven DLC for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is out today. Judgement of Atlantis is the third and final episode in Odyssey’s The Fate Of Atlantis DLC, the second story expansion for the Assassin’s Creed game.

Judgement of Atlantis takes place in the underwater city and sees Kassandra/Alexios aid Poseidon. Of every Assassin’s Creed game, comic, and animation to date, Judgement of Atlantis is seemingly the most lore-driven when it comes to the characters that drive the overarching plot of the franchise: the Isu. Also referred to as “those who came before,” the Isu have largely remained a mystery in Assassin’s Creed, despite being one of the most important groups in the franchise since 2009’s Assassin’s Creed II. The previous episodes of The Fate Of Atlantis dealt with Persephone and Hades, but primarily handled the Isu as the god-like beings they’ve always been portrayed as. Judgement of Atlantis dives deeper into the lore behind these figures, revealing their almost human-like history, beliefs, and customs.

Instead of returning to an annual release schedule, Assassin’s Creed took a break after the release of Odyssey in 2018 and scheduled a series of episodic story-driven DLC to primarily release in 2019. Odyssey’s main campaign is broken into three separate storylines, and the two DLC expansions add additional context to two of them. Legacy Of The First Blade takes place within Odyssey’s “Hunt The Cult Of Kosmos” storyline and reveals how those events connect to 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. The Fate Of Atlantis occurs after the “Between Two Worlds” storyline and further explains the Isu’s involvement in the Assassin and Templar conflict.

With Odyssey’s story now officially concluded with the release of Judgement of Atlantis, we can begin to look forward to Ubisoft’s next game in the franchise. Clues in The Division 2 seem to imply 2020’s Assassin’s Creed game will take place in a Viking setting. If true, the game would discount the 2016 leak/rumor that Ubisoft had planned a trilogy of games to take place in Egypt, Greece, and Rome (though getting two out of three isn’t all that bad). Vikings do make sense for topping off this latest trilogy though. Origins and Odyssey are not traditional Assassin’s Creed games in terms of combat and world-building, but both have acted as origin stories for the Assassin and Templar conflict. The Age of Vikings takes place just before the events of the original Assassin’s Creed, so a game in that setting could act as the final piece of the mystery as to how the two groups ultimately formed.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The game will be included in Ubisoft’s upcoming game-focused subscription service, Uplay+, along with the other 17 mainline Assassin’s Creed games. Exclusive to PC, Uplay+ is scheduled to launch on September 3 with over 100 games.

Nintendo announced a revised Nintendo Switch model sporting better battery life, but that wasn’t the only new piece of hardware it had to reveal. The company also announced two new sets of colors for its Joy-Con controllers: Blue with Neon Yellow, and Purple with Neon Orange.

As usual with Joy-Con sets, the colors pairings represent the left and right Joy-Cons, respectively. Each package will cost $80 at launch, and they’ll be available starting October 4 in the United States. Other Joy-Con colors include Gray, Neon Pink, and Neon Green, and the removable nature of the controllers means they can be mixed and matched. Nintendo has not announced if they’ll be for sale individually, as it offers for some colors.

Nintendo also announced a new model of Nintendo Switch, which boasts up to 9 hours of battery life as compared to 6.5 with the launch model. Other than that improvement, though, it appears identical to the old version, so you may want to read up on how to tell the difference. The revised models will launch in mid-August in the U.S.

A much bigger change to the Switch hardware is represented by the Switch Lite, a smaller and budget-priced version of the hardware that removes the docking functionality to be a portable-only system. That version has its controllers permanently affixed to the body of the console, unlike the standard Switch. However, you could still use separate Joy-Cons for local multiplayer games.

See Blue/Neon Yellow Joy-Cons at Best Buy

See Purple/Neon Orange Joy-Cons at Best Buy

Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.

PUBG Corp. has released a new cinematic trailer for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The trailer, which can be watched below, showcases the origin of PUBG’s first map, Erangel, and introduces the story behind the battle royale game.

In the trailer, a man recounts the time when he was a young boy in 1965 and his home, Erangel, was bombed by some unknown force. Resolving to live, the boy went on to survive by scavenging for weapons, medicines, and materials until he was the only person left alive on the island. Fast-forwarding to the present day, it’s revealed the matches in PUBG are a series of live-streamed (and possibly televised) battles to the death–similar to The Hunger Games.

These matches are orchestrated by the man, now incredibly wealthy, who designed the battle royale games to be a test for discovering humanity’s true survivors. The trailer ends with the man confirming these are his battlegrounds, identifying himself as the mysterious unknown player in PUBG’s title.

Though PUBG’s maps have hinted towards some sort of overarching narrative, this is the first confirmed lore for the battle royale game. PUBG Corp. hasn’t revealed whether more story-focused trailers will be revealed in the future, but game theorists at least now have a starting point for piecing together PUBG’s backstory.

The new trailer also acts as an announcement for the start date of PUBG’s upcoming season, Season 4, which is scheduled to begin July 24. Season 4 is a massive update for PUBG, completely reinventing Erangel with new visuals, adding parkour movement mechanics, and introducing brand-new weapons, vehicles, and items. There’s a new battle pass to work through as well, and it contains challenges that can be tackled cooperatively with your squad.

Season 4’s start date closely follows a major PUBG update on Xbox One and PS4 that added Apex Legends‘ auto equip weapon attachment features to the console versions of the game. If you want to try out all the changes in Season 4, the patch is currently live on PUBG’s PC test servers. On console, you’ll need to wait for the update to officially launch to play through the changes.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. A mobile port, called PUBG Mobile, is available on Android and iOS devices. Despite being relatively new, PUBG is one of the most influential games of the 21st century for popularizing one of gaming’s most popular subgenres.

Though not a sequel, a new PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds game is in the works. The upcoming game is being developed by Striking Distance, a studio helmed by ex-Call of Duty and Dead Space developer Glen Schofield. Described as an “original narrative experience within the PUBG universe,” the game is still in its infancy. Schofield has hinted the game may not necessarily be a battle royale like PUBG though.

It’s been a busy week for deals as Amazon Prime Day 2019 came and went, offering thousands of discounts and special bundles across every category, including gaming. Prime Day included quite a few noteworthy deals, like a PS4 Pro bundle with Spider-Man and Horizon Zero Dawn for $300 that sold out in a blink, but if you missed your chance to grab a new console, accessory, or specific game on your wishlist, there are still plenty of deals to be had at Walmart and other retailers this week.

Walmart’s Summer Savings event kicked off on Sunday and continues through Wednesday, July 17, offering free two-day (or faster) shipping on all orders over $35. GameStop’s major summer sale, which began a full week before Prime Day and continues until July 20, has some solid game deals, trade-in offers, and collectibles worth checking out. Plus, you’ll find some solid deals still floating around at places like Google Express, so don’t fret if you missed out (or decided to boycott) Amazon’s shopping bonanza.

See some of the best post-Prime Day deals still available below.

Best console deals

Nintendo Switch + Xbox One S All-Digital Edition bundle

$400 ($550 value)

Use promo code GOTURE at checkout to see the price slashed to just $400 on this crazy bundle with the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One S All Digital-Edition (plus digital downloads for Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3, and Sea of Thieves).

See deal at Google Express

Xbox One X (Black)

$314 ($500)

Normally priced at $500, the Xbox One X is on deep discount at Google Express via seller Antonline. In checkout, you’ll see an initial $166 markdown, and once you apply promo code JULY20SAVE, that will increase to $186 off, dropping your price to just $314 (plus tax).

See deal at Google Express

Xbox One X + PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds digital download bundle

$314 ($500)

The same Google Express deal mentioned above also applies to this Xbox One X bundle with PUBG. $314 is a fantastic price for one of the most powerful consoles out there; plus, it doubles as a 4K UHD player.

See deal at Google Express

Xbox One S + game + bonus controller + headset bundle

$300 ($450)

Ready to go all-in on the Xbox One S? This bundle has an MSRP of $300 on its own, so getting a bonus controller and headset doesn’t hurt one bit.

See deal at Walmart

Nintendo Switch + game of your choice + bonus accessory bundle

$329 ($358.96)

Unfortunately, the only accessory left for this bundle is an Ematic Paw Patrol-themed carrying case–but getting the Switch and a first-party Nintendo game for essentially half off is still a good deal.

See deal at Walmart

PS4 Slim + bonus Crystal DualShock controller bundle

$300 ($359.96)

Prime Day saw quite a few markdowns on the PS4 Slim, but the last bundle left is this modest one at Walmart, which basically throws a bonus Crystal DualShock 4 controller in for free.

See deal at Walmart

Best game deals

The good thing about games is that once they get discounted by one store (looking at you, Amazon), they tend to get price-matched by all the major retailers. There are some solid deals still available, such as Kingdom Hearts 3 for $20, Days Gone for $40, and Red Dead Redemption 2 for $30.

• Anthem: Legion of Dawn Edition — $15
• A Plague Tale: Innocence — $35 ($50)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 — $28 ($60)
• Days Gone — $40 ($60)
• Doom Eternal — $49.94 ($60)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition — $22 ($39.82)
• Fallout 76 — $17 ($60)
• FIFA 19 — $20 ($60)
• Final Fantasy X/X-2 — $35 ($50)
• Hitman 2 — $30 ($60)
• Metro Exodus — $30 ($60)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War – Definitive Edition — $15 ($50)
• MLB The Show 19 – MVP Edition — $50 ($70)
• NBA 2K19 — $15 ($60)
• Nier Automata – Game of the Yorha Edition — $24.65 ($40)
• Rage 2 — $40 ($60)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 — $30 ($60)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Ultimate Edition – Only at GameStop — $49.97 ($100)
• Resident Evil 2 — $38 ($60)
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy — $22 ($39.88)
• Starlink: Battle for Atlas — $30 ($60)
• Tetris Effect — $26.28 ($40.77)

More great deals still available

Aside from games and consoles, there are still plenty of markdowns on controllers, headsets, PC accessories, retro arcade machines, and more–see some of the best deals we found that are still up for grabs below.

Xbox One Phantom White Special Edition wireless controller

$50 ($70)

See deal at Ebay

Street Fighter 2 Arcade Machine

$200 ($300)

See deal at Walmart

GameCube-style Gold or Silver Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch

$40 ($50)

See deal at GameStop

PlayStation Plus: 12-Month Membership

$36 ($60)

See deal at MassGenie

PlayStation Platinum Wireless Headset

$119.40 ($160)

See deal at Amazon

HP 27″ Edge-to-Edge Full HD Gaming Monitor

$140 ($200)

See deal at Ebay

Thrustmaster TMX Force Feedback Racing Wheel

$126.37 ($200)

See deal at Amazon

FastSnail Joy-Con Grips

$13 ($20)

See deal at Amazon