Overwatch 2‘s most major new addition will be a brand-new PvE story mode, which will be set after the first game. At BlizzCon 2019 a mission set in Lucio’s home town of Rio de Janero was playable, hinting at the part Lucio might play in the story. Speaking to Game Informer, lead writer Michael Chu has spoken about what Blizzard wants to achieve with the Overwatch 2 story, and how it will focus on multiple character perspectives.
Chu says that the team working on Overwatch always wanted to depict a future that was bright and optimistic, and where things have gone right, despite all the fighting and the Omnic Crisis. For Overwatch 2, they’ll be exploring what happened after Winston’s transmission to the members of Overwatch in the opening cinematic of the first game. We’ll find out which heroes came back and which didn’t, and the game will deal with the new threats they’re facing and how the world has changed since Overwatch was originally formed and disbanded.
Chu says that players will experience the story “through all of these characters’ eyes,” and that each hero will have a different perspective on what has happened and what Overwatch’s role was and is. It’ll also focus on the relationships between these characters by exploring how they respond to the crisis they face, and how they come together as a team. It should deepen our understanding of the game’s cast.
The story campaign will be exclusive to Overwatch 2, although all PvP content will be released for the first game too. There are multiple new heroes in development, and the work going into Overwatch 2 is why updates for the first Overwatch have slowed down. So far a lot of Overwatch’s lore has come from outside texts; Overwatch 2 will include far more in-game storytelling. A release window for the sequel, which is coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, has not been set.
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Planet Zoo is a beautifully detailed and mechanically rich management sim that sometimes stumbles under the weight of its own systems. The diverse lineup of exquisitely rendered animals is utterly delightful, and the tools you’re given to build your dream zoo with are mostly intuitive, though there are exceptions. Though hampered by slow progression and a frequently cumbersome UI, it’s chock-full of all the detailed options you want from a good management sim and offers both a rewarding and educational experience.
Building a successful zoo is all about making sure everyone and everything in it is happy, working, and well-looked after. Animals need to be kept in the right climate and conditions to keep their welfare in check, which is no mean feat in itself. Career mode is the best place to start out, offering a helpfully structured and much-needed tutorial across its first few scenarios that show you the ropes of how to make your zoo tick along. If you manage to complete all the given objectives you’re free to move on to the next scenario or continue on running the zoo as you please with the training wheels now off. There are also modes that allow you to start from a blank slate, as well as a sandbox mode that eschews the game’s economy entirely.
The Zoopedia–the in-game encyclopedia full of useful animal facts and stats–gives you all the basic information you need to know before setting up an enclosure, but the process really starts once you move your animals in and can properly gauge how they’re feeling about their surroundings. You’re encouraged to really consider the finest of details. Is the enclosure laid out with the right plants from the right continent? Is there enough shelter from bad weather? Is the herd made up of the right ratio of males to females? But while it’s easy enough to spot these problems, finding the right answers can be a pain as you’re forced to trawl through different sub-screens that are hidden within a myriad of menus and icons. While there are warning notifications for these issues, you have to hunt down the right menu yourself just to make the fix.
Conservation credits play a big role in advancing your zoo’s rating with visitors. These credits are an in-game currency you earn for doing various tasks, from logging into your online game and completing community challenges to releasing animals into the wild. They’re used to adopt new animals from the animal trade centre, which helps you expand your zoo as well as encourage breeding. This nets you a spike in visitors–baby animals are cute as heck–and, more importantly, an animal with stronger genes, making it more valuable to trade for cash or release for credits. But while conservation credits are easy enough to earn when using the offline economy, online is a different story, with credits being doled out sparingly at best, especially in the early game. This causes some problems in the game’s online Franchise mode, where the animal trade centre is populated with creatures exclusively from other online players, and almost all of them can only be bought with credits. This slows the pace early on, forcing you into a cycle of breeding and releasing animals until you can finally start populating the zoo with the ones you actually want.
As for the humans in your zoo, visitors need to be both entertained and educated through having a wide variety of animals to see and learn about, and your workers need to have all the right facilities so they can keep things from descending into chaos. Your staff will mostly wander autonomously, though you can create helpful work zones to assign them to watch over. Animals can get upset if their enclosure is always dirty or if their food isn’t being refilled, and while you can set how often some worker types visit an enclosure, work zones let you keep the right people near enough of the right places.
When starting to flesh out the facilities of your zoo, you begin with a small selection of shops and staff quarters, unlocking more by assigning your staff to research them. The more you research, the better and broader variety of buildings you have. Building isn’t perfect–paths will often fail to connect up, and it took some time to wrap my head around the concept of building storefront facades and then placing the store inside them, rather than plonking the store down and having it just work. But it’s ultimately for the better as it creates flexibility for user-created designs.
You’re offered a full gamut of individual building parts that you can use to create your own blueprints, which can be shared via the Steam Workshop. Most of the basic pieces–walls of varying shapes, roof tiles, doors and window frames–will snap together on a relative grid, letting you put your designs together like building blocks. Although some of the manipulation controls aren’t immediately intuitive, with a little time, creating your own style of buildings gets simple enough that you can focus more on refining your creative ideas for that new toilet block or burger stand, rather than working out why your walls won’t connect up.
The animals themselves are the absolute stars of Planet Zoo. They’re all gorgeously rendered and look wonderfully detailed up close, their fur waving back and forth as they graze and prance about. Some of their animations can be a tad janky, but for the most part, watching your animals wander and interact is the biggest joy to be found in Planet Zoo. Whether you’re watching a lion cub nervously sidle up to water before turning to squeak at a nearby adult, a herd of springboks pouncing about together, or a lonely adult orangutan sitting on a rock in the tropical rain, I never failed to be moved by how they looked as they went about their business, feeling a real connection with and responsibility towards them.
Despite a slow burn in online mode and a bloated user interface that gets in the way of fully enjoying the finer management aspects of Planet Zoo, there’s still more than enough here to get something out of your time with it. It’s got its janky moments, but the animals are all rendered sublimely, the management sim mechanics are smart, and the sensible building controls will encourage and help you to build the best park you can for the animals in your care.
Shenmue 3, the much anticipated third chapter in the long-dormant series, is finally out now. There was an 18 year gap between Shenmue 2 and this latest release; the second game hit the Dreamcast back in 2001, and Shenmue 3 was only possible thanks to a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. Considering how difficult it was to get Shenmue 3 made, there was speculation that series director Yu Suzuki would use the game to wrap up his saga, which was originally envisioned to span 11 chapters (a few of which were condensed down into Shenmue 2). Instead, Suzuki is planning on making a fourth game to continue the Shenmue saga.
Metro UK has published a letter to fans from Yu Suzuki, which, as VG247 points out, appears in the game after the credits have rolled (so don’t read ahead if you’d rather finish the game yourself to access the letter.)
“To all the fans who have waited many years for Shenmue 3, and to all of the crowdfunding backers who have made this game possible: This project would not exist without your love, support, and the connections we’ve made along the way. With profound appreciation for all that you have done, I am happy to finally present to you Shenmue 3,” Suzuki’s letter begins. He says that the game’s scope expanded during development, and that, “for as long as there are those who wish to see Shenmue live on, I will never give up on my own personal journey to complete its story.”
“I sincerely hope that, together, we can continue to spin the tale of Ryo and his adventures in Shenmue 4,” Suzuki says. He’s previously described the game as a commitment to a 20 year vision.
Our Shenmue 3 review is still being worked on, as review copies were sent out to press shortly before embargo. Reviews are starting to trickle in on Metacritic, though, and the consensus seems to be that it’s very much a game made with fans of the series in mind.
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Black Friday is upon us soon, and the Xbox One Black Friday digital games sale has gone live early. It brings enormous savings to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, who have access to this sale starting now; anyone without Gold or Game Pass Ultimate will have to wait until November 24 to get their hands on these deals.
There are some huge savings here on more recent games, including Resident Evil 2 at 67% off, a half-price NBA 2K20, and a much cheaper Red Dead Redemption 2. We’ve rounded up the best deals below. If you’re picking up an Xbox One in a Black Friday sale, this is a good opportunity to build up your collection. Also be sure to check out the early Xbox Black Friday deals available to you now.
On this week’s episode of IGN’s weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano and Max Scoville to discuss new PS5 controller patents and what they may tell us about the PS5’s new controller. We speculate about, should these patents be true, what the removal of the light bar might mean for PSVR games, and why the touchpad returns, as well as much more analysis.
Plus, the gang discusses some other big news around the world of gaming, and offers their impressions for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, for which Lucy O’Brien also joins the show to discuss her time with Respawn’s new Star Wars game.
With an abundance of streaming providers, including the newly released Disney+ and Apple TV+ platforms, all competing for your hard-earned cash, knowing which streaming service is the best can be a pretty daunting task. If you still have questions about the future of streaming, then you’ve come to the right place. All week long, IGN’s State of Streaming initiative will be debuting reviews and in-depth analysis about current streaming providers like Netflix and Amazon, as well as upcoming services like NBCUniversal’s Peacock and WarnerMedia’s HBO Max. So keep it locked on IGN this week for all of your streaming needs.
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.
Walmart’s Black Friday ad is massive, covering everything from tech and gaming to apparel, toys, kitchenware, and more. There’s an almost overwhelming number of Black Friday deals to browse, and if you don’t have your eye on anything in particular, you’re sure to feel a bit lost when Walmart’s sale begins next week.
If you’re looking for more information about Walmart’s Black Friday sale and an overview of the Black Friday deals available at the ubiquitous retailer, we have a comprehensive look at Walmart’s Black Friday ad. Here, we’ve highlighted the absolute best deals at Walmart this Black Friday, which includes the lowest prices on some of this year’s biggest games; consoles bundles for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch; and 4K TVs for astonishingly low prices. Please note this story will be updated as more great deals go live at Walmart before and during Black Friday.
While most of these deals won’t go live until Wednesday, November 27 online and Thanksgiving Day in stores, some of the deals below will be available on Walmart’s website starting November 23 at 9 PM PT (midnight ET).
Walmart’s Black Friday schedule
November 27-29: All Black Friday deals will be available
Online deals start Wednesday, November 27 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET
See Black Friday store hours below
Walmart store hours
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28: Black Friday deals start at 6 PM local time.
Friday, Nov. 29: Check with your local store. Many Walmart stores are open 24 hours/day.
Walmart has revealed its Black Friday 2019 ad, which has great Black Friday deals in gaming, tech, and entertainment. It’s a little later to the Black Friday party than Target and Best Buy, but it’s coming in strong. Walmart will have tons of games on sale, and will also slash prices on TVs, laptops, Chromebooks, and much more. It will also be the first store to sell the fantastic PS4 Slim holiday 2019 bundle–it’ll sell the deal starting November 23 at 9 PM PT.
Walmart Black Friday 2019 store hours and start times
Walmart’s in-store deals run for only two days, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Online shoppers can start filling their virtual carts Wednesday, November 27 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET. Walmart will also launch its official pre-Black Friday deals on Saturday, November 23, with many of those deals continuing through Cyber Monday while supplies last.
Walmart’s Black Friday schedule
November 23-December 2: Pre-Black Friday sale begins at 9 PM PT on November 23 / midnight ET on November 24. Early deals continue through Cyber Monday, while supplies last.
November 27-29: Limited-time Black Friday deals will be available
Online deals start Wednesday, November 27 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET
See Black Friday store hours below
Walmart store hours
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28: Black Friday deals start at 6 PM local time. Check with your local store, but typically Walmart lets you come early and fill up your cart before Black Friday sales officially start. You just have to wait until 6 PM to checkout.
Friday, Nov. 29: Check with your local store. Many Walmart stores are open 24 hours/day.
You can browse all of the deals in Walmart’s Black Friday ad. We’ve curated the best gaming, entertainment, and tech deals below.
Best Black Friday video game deals
Walmart’s Black Friday video game deals are wide-ranging this Black Friday. Numerous Nintendo Switch exclusives will be available for their lowest prices yet. Meanwhile, you can save big on recently released PS4 and Xbox One games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Need for Speed Heat, and a handful of sports sims.
Nintendo Switch
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Best PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch console deals
Walmart’s PS4, Xbox One, and Switch console bundles are the garden variety this Black Friday; there are no surprises here based on what we’ve seen from other retailers. That means Walmart will have a few great PS4 and Xbox One bundles–and one underwhelming Switch bundle.
Walmart’s Black Friday pre-sale begins at 9 PM PT on November 22 (midnight ET on November 23) and will include many of the retailer’s console bundles, gaming accessory deals, and some Arcade1Up machines. The full wave of Walmart Black Friday deals will be available online Wednesday, November 27 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET.
PS4 Slim Bundle with God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Last of Us: Remastered – $200
PS4 Slim (1TB) with God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, and The Last of Us Remastered | $200
PSVR Mega Pack – $200
PlayStation VR Mega Pack with five games | $200 ($300)
PlayStation 4 Pro – $300
PlayStation Pro | $300 ($400)
Xbox One S 1TB bundle with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – $200
Xbox One S (1TB) with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | $200 ($300)
Xbox One X 1TB bundle with Gears of War 1-5 – $350
Xbox One X (1TB) with Gears 1-5 | $350 ($500)
Xbox One S All-Digital bundle with Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Fortnite DLC – $149
Xbox One S (1TB) All-Digital Edition with Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Fortnite DLC | $149 ($250)
Nintendo Switch (older model) bundle with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – $300
Nintendo Switch (older model) with free digital copy of Mario Kart 8 | $300
32GB Oculus Go – $149
Oculus Go (32GB) | $149 ($200)
Best accessory deals
Walmart won’t have too many accessory deals, but you’ll be able to save a good chunk of change on PS4 and Xbox One controllers.
Xbox One wireless controllers – $39
Xbox One wireless controller (colors vary by store) | $39 ($60)
Like most retailers, Best Buy has already revealed what it plans to have on sale during Black Friday 2019. As with Target, Best Buy’s Black Friday ad has been released early, and it features several PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch deals along with the usual excellent savings on TVs, computers, movies, and numerous other items.
Some of these deals are even live now and will refresh daily in the days leading up to Black Friday proper, so make sure to check back every day to see what’s on sale for its Black Friday price. But you’ll have to wait for the big Black Friday sale itself to get most of the deals, which include offers like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for $40 on PS4 and Xbox One, Resident Evil 2 Remake for $15 on both consoles, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Switch for $45.
There’s a lot to take in, so be sure to check out our roundup of the Best Buy’s best deals, or read on for a more comprehensive look at the sale, when the Black Friday prices start, and more.
Best Buy Black Friday 2019 Start and End Times
Best Buy’s Black Friday deals kick off properly on Thanksgiving, both online and in stores. But keeping with the holiday shopping season trends, Best Buy will have deals all month long. Best Buy is currently offering one doorbuster deal from the ad each day through November 20. It’s possible you could get a good portion of your holiday shopping done at Best Buy before the Black Friday madness truly begins, if you keep up the deals for the next couple of weeks.
Best Buy’s Black Friday schedule
November 11-20: For 10 days throughout November, Best Buy will make one doorbuster available for purchase.
November 28-December 1: All Black Friday deals and doorbusters will be available.
Online deals start on Thanksgiving (unknown time)
See Black Friday store hours below
Best Buy store hours (local time)
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28: 5 PM – 1 AM
Black Friday, Nov. 28: 8 AM – 10 PM
Saturday, Nov. 30: 9 AM – 10 PM
Sunday, Dec. 1: 11 AM – 8PM
You can browse the full selection of deals in Best Buy’s Black Friday ad, including the deals that are available right now. We’ve rounded up the best gaming, entertainment, and tech deals below.
Best Black Friday video game deals
Best Buy will have a dizzying number of games on sale across all three major console platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. As always, it’s smart to compare Black Friday prices between retailers before buying, but Best Buy’s game deals are extremely impressive.
Nintendo Switch
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Best Buy’s ad doesn’t show nearly as many Xbox One games as PS4 and Switch games. However, Best Buy clarified to GameSpot that most multi-platform games in the ad will be on sale on both PS4 and Xbox One.
Best PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch console deals
Best Buy has a few Xbox One bundles and the excellent PS4 holiday bundle. As for the Nintendo Switch, it’s a repeat from last Black Friday: the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle.
PS4 Slim (1TB) with God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, and The Last of Us Remastered | $200 ($300)
Xbox One X (1TB) with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Deluxe Edition and 3-month Xbox Live Gold | $350 ($500)
Xbox One S (1TB) with NBA 2K20 | $200 ($300)
Xbox One S (1TB) All-Digital Edition with Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Fortnite DLC | $150 ($250)
Nintendo Switch with free digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and screen protector | $300
PlayStation VR Mega Pack bundle with camera and five games | $200 ($300)
All PSVR bundles will be $100 off:
Best accessory deals
Best Buy has a wide range of gaming accessory deals, from controllers to headsets to racing wheels and much more.
Nintendo Switch Joy-Con (L/R) Neon Red/Blue or Gray | $60 ($80)
As a major retailer of TVs, you can always bet on the fact that Best Buy will have a ton of steeply discounted TVs available for the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Yes, there’s a lot to choose from here, and a number of these TVs are already on sale for their Black Friday prices, so you can start shopping early.
Insignia 58″ Smart 4K UHD with HDR TV (Fire Edition) with free Amazon Echo Dot | $200 ($480)
Samsung 75″ Q60 Smart TV (4K UHD with HDR) | $1,500 ($2,000)
More Samsung TV deals
Other TV deals
Best laptop, desktop, Chromebook, and tablet deals
Best Buy is also offering Black Friday prices on many laptops, desktops, and tablets right now. The list of deals includes MacBooks, gaming laptops, Chromebooks, and more.
Asus 15.6″ Gaming Laptop | $580 ($850)
MacBook Air 13.2″ (latest model) | $900 ($1,100)
MacBook Pro 13″ (latest model) | $1,100 ($1,300)
HP Spectre x360 15.6″ 4K Ultra HD (Intel i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) | $1,100 ($1,600)
iPad Pro 11-inch (64GB) | $650 ($800)
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 12.3″ | $599 ($959)
More laptop deals
More tablet deals
Chromebook deals
Desktop deals
More great tech deals
Save up to $300 on Apple Watch Series 4
Sony – WH-CH700N Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones | $90 ($200)
Beats by Dr. Dre Studio Noise-Canceling Headphones | $200 ($350)
Amazon Echo Smart Speaker with Alexa | $60 ($100)
Amazon Echo Show 5 Smart Display with Alexa | $60 ($90)
