On Sunday, February 3, the NFL’s NFC and AFC champions will face each other in the Super Bowl. Millions of people across the United States will be tuning in to see which American football team will reign supreme on CBS. Additionally, the halftime show for the evening will be a performance from Maroon 5. But what if you don’t want to watch that halftime show? What if you don’t want to watch the Super Bowl at all? Luckily, there is some counter-programming which may be up your alley.
There was a time that networks planned counter-programming for the Super Bowl Halftime show, like when MTV hosted its Celebrity Deathmatch halftime specials. However, that’s not so much the case anymore. Regardless, there are a few options to avoid having to see Maroon 5 play. Additionally, if football isn’t your thing, there are a few networks hosting TV and movie marathons that might be up your alley.
Below, you’ll find some halftime show options and some non-football options to watch on Superbowl Sunday. Or you can figure out what is new to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video and avoid live TV altogether. We’re kicking this off with three halftime show counter-programs.
Bethesda has released another update for Fallout 76 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. As the developer previously detailed, this patch focuses primarily on implementing various balance adjustments and resolving a “large wave” of bugs and other issues still lingering in the online RPG.
This time around, the patch weighs in at approximately 3.5 GB for PS4 and Xbox One, and 500 MB for PC. Among other changes, Bethesda has capped the carry weight limit to “1,500 pounds over the character’s current maximum carry weight”–meaning if your carry weight limit is 210 pounds, your maximum will be 1,710.
“These limits exist primarily to keep servers from performing poorly, which can happen when we have too many items in the game world,” Bethesda explained in its patch notes. “They also play [a] role in helping to regulate the in-game economy. We do recognize the desire to be able to own more of the cool items that we have in the game, and we are looking into a variety of solutions, including increasing the stash size.”
Additionally, “(Known)” and “(Owned)” tags have been added next to recipes, plans, and turrets your character has already learned or built. Vendors’ recipe and plan inventories are also now no longer randomized, and some Vendors now stock additional plans for wall sets, power connectors, doors, generators, and water purifiers.
Rounding out the update is a handful of balance changes for certain Perks and weapons, as well as a long list of bug fixes. You can read more about these changes in detail in the full patch notes below.
Bethesda still has a lot more updates and new features planned for Fallout 76 this year, one of which is a Survival PvP mode. The mode is expected to launch in beta sometime in March and will remove the restrictions that currently govern PvP encounters in the game, making it a much tenser and more competitive experience.
Performance: Several additional improvements have been made to in-game performance.
Stability: The Fallout 76 game client and servers have received additional stability improvements.
Balance Changes
Perks: The damage bonuses provided by each rank of the Demolition Expert perk have been reduced from +20%/40%/60%/80%/100% to +20%/30%/40%/50%/60% to match other weapon perk damage bonuses.
Perks: The condition loss bonuses provided by each rank of the White Knight and Licensed Plumber perks have been reduced from 30%/60%/90% to 20%/40%/60%, and their repair bonuses have also been reduced, to match the Power Patcher perk.
Dev Note: In looking at the Demolition Expert, White Knight, and Licensed Plumber perks, we felt they have so far been overperforming in their current roles, and we wanted to bring them more in line with similar perks to help prevent them from feeling like mandatory picks.
Weapons: The Explosive legendary mod’s damage bonus has been reduced from +100% to +20% of base weapon damage, with explosive radius damage.
Weapons: The Two Shot legendary effect’s damage bonus has been reduced from +100% to +25% of base weapon damage.
Dev Note: As mentioned in a previous Inside the Vault article, both the explosive mod and two shot weapons could result in dealing very high amounts of damage, and this was compounded if two shot and explosive were combined. We’ve decided to tone both of these damage bonuses back.
Weapons: Flamers, Cryolators, plasma weapons, and laser weapons can no longer spawn with the Explosive legendary mod.
Dev Note: The explosive mod causes weapons to fire bullets that are . . . explosive. The weapons listed above don’t fire bullets, so we’ve temporarily removed the ability for them to spawn with that mod applied so we can make adjustments.
C.A.M.P., Crafting, And Workshops
Scrapping: Loose weapon and armor mods are now protected from autoscrapping when crafting. However, they can still be scrapped manually if a player wants to break them down into scrap components.
Turrets: An “(Owned)” tag will now appear next to the names of Turrets a player has built in their C.A.M.P. or a workshop.
Design And Gameplay
Carry Weight: Is now capped to an absolute limit of 1,500 pounds over the character’s current maximum carry weight.
For example: If your carry weight limit is 210 pounds, then your maximum limit is 1,710 pounds.
Characters will be unable to exceed this new weight limit moving forward.
Characters who already exceed this limit will be unable to add any additional items or caps to their inventories until they have reduced their carry weight below the cap.
Dev Note: These limits exist primarily to keep servers from performing poorly, which can happen when we have too many items in the game world. They also play role in helping to regulate the in-game economy. We do recognize the desire to be able to own more of the cool items that we have in the game, and we are looking into a variety of solutions, including increasing the stash size. We will be sure to talk more about this when they are ready.
Cap Stashes: To help address cap exploits, caps stashes have been turned into containers, which allows them to properly reset and provide players with instanced loot.
Plans and Recipes: When viewing a plan or recipe in a menu, a “(Known)” tag will now appear next to the names of recipes and plans the player has already learned.
Vendors: Recipes and Plans in Vendor inventories are no longer randomized and can now be reliably sourced from those Vendors, with the exception of some minor Workshop and C.A.M.P. Plans.
The appearance of many Plans and Recipes in Vendor inventories is based on player level and they will show up once the proper level has been reached.
Additional structural Plans for wall sets, power connectors, doors, generators, and water purifiers have also been added to some Vendors.
PVP
Hunter/Hunted: A server-wide message will now appear when a player joins the Hunter/Hunted queue.
This message will only be displayed once per player to avoid spam.
An additional server-wide message will be displayed when Hunter/Hunted is ready to begin in order to give other players a final chance to join.
Quests And Events
Belly of the Beast: A new “Ultracite Power Armor” entry has been added to Taggerdy’s Terminal on the top floor of Fort Defiance, offering Ultracite Power Armor plans to those who read it.
First Contact: A new miscellaneous objective will now appear upon reaching the Overseer’s C.A.M.P. for the first time, prompting the player to place a C.A.M.P. of their own.
Gauley Mine: A new miscellaneous objective will now appear at Gauley Mine to introduce players to Ore Deposits.
Monster Mash: The amount of XP awarded per round during this event has been reduced from 350 to 100.
Bug Fixes
ART AND GRAPHICS
Lighting: Lighting no longer flickers throughout Arktos Pharma.
Apparel: Fixed an issue that could cause a character’s legs to show through the Rose Dress while it is equipped.
C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPS
Artillery: Fixed an issue that could prevent Artillery from being placed in valid locations.
Blueprints: Addressed an issue preventing players from placing a stored blueprint containing posts that were placed partially underground when the blueprint was originally saved.
Budget: Scrapping a stored blueprint that contained wires will now correctly remove those wires from the C.A.M.P. budget.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to duplicate their stored blueprints.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to reduce their carry weight to a negative value.
Foundations: Fixed an issue that could cause a “Cannot place item: Needs support” message to display when editing a partially floating foundation.
Power Armor Station: Players can no longer view power armor they do not own when attempting to access a power armor station that’s occupied by another player.
Scrapping: Ignition Cores crafted for the Earth Mover event are no longer automatically scrapped when using the Scrap All Junk option at a Workbench.
Scrapping: Junk items that need to be manually scrapped are no longer automatically scrapped for components when attempting to craft.
Stored Objects: Repeatedly attempting to place an Atomic Shop variant of an object the player had stored but does not own no longer prevents them from placing other variants.
Structures: Fixed an issue that could prevent a C.A.M.P. or workshop structure from being edited when building levels had been merged or split several times. This fix is not retroactive and will not apply to structures built prior to today’s patch.
Terminals: Powered terminals contained within a stored blueprint now work correctly when the blueprint is placed in a new location
CHALLENGES
Collect Holotape Games: Nuka Tapper sub-challenge can now be completed by playing the Nuka-Tapper holotape game.
Formal Wear Challenges: Pantsuits and Shortsuits now correctly count as formal wear when completing challenges.
Gather Building Supplies: The “Scrap items to produce fertilizer” condition has been updated to “Collect Fertilizer” and can be completed by salvaging or crafting it using spoiled fruits, vegetables, and meat.
Learn Cooking Recipes: This challenge will now recognize many additional cooking recipes when they are learned for the first time. Retroactive credit will not be awarded for recipes learned prior to today’s patch, but that is planned for a future update.
ENEMIES
A.I.: Fixed an issue in which some enemies could chase the player farther than intended and become frozen in place.
Exploit: Addressed several XP exploits by adding a limit to the maximum amount of XP granted by a single kill.
Looting: Fixed an issue that could prevent players from looting goo and ash piles after killing an enemy with a laser or plasma weapon.
GENERAL
Loading: Fixed several issues that could cause characters’ body parts, equipped apparel, or armor to become temporarily invisible to other nearby players or teammates after loading into a world.
Monorail Elevator: Fixed an issue that prevented the Monorail Elevator near the edge of Cranberry Bog from taking players to the top floor.
Performance: The Scorched Earth event has received optimization improvements.
Performance: On laptops with more than one graphics card, Fallout 76 will now default to using the dedicated graphics card rather than an integrated card.
Performance: Launching the Traditional or Simplified Chinese game clients on Xbox One no longer causes a 6 second hitch when the launch video begins to play.
ITEMS
Bobbleheads: Using multiple Explosive Bobbleheads no longer causes their effects to stack.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow players to duplicate items using MODUS Vendors.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit in which the Vampire legendary effect could restore health through unintended means.
Magazines: Removed magazines from several locations where they were unintentionally guaranteed to spawn.
Tomahawks: No longer become stuck in mid-air after striking a hostile creature or player.
Magazines: Guns and Bullets #5 now correctly provides bonus components when scrapping weapons, but no longer specifies a 50% increase.
Magazines: Tesla Science #6 now correctly grants bonus Rad Resistance.
Rad-X: Consuming multiple Rad-X or Diluted Rad-X no longer causes their effects to stack.
Health Bonuses: A player with very low health who unequips an item that provides bonus health will no longer be instantly killed if removing that item that would cause their health to drop to or below 0.
Paper Bags: Fixed multiple issues in which transferring items into an empty paper bag as the bag was despawning caused those items to become lost.
Pip-Boy: Fixed a rare issue that could cause a character’s Pip-Boy to go missing.
Power Armor: Entering a suit of power armor no longer occasionally causes it to become invisible to nearby players.
PERKS
Butcher’s Bounty: Searching a dead Tick with the Butcher’s Bounty perk equipped can now correctly produce additional Tick Blood.
Cap Collector: Now requires players to search caps stashes, much like other perks that grant a search option for containers.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit affecting the Curator perk.
Fireproof: Flame attack damage reduction provided by the Fireproof perk now correctly applies to Molotov fire damage.
Serendipity: A notification will now appear on-screen and sound effects will play whenever the Serendipity perk’s effects are triggered.
Super Duper: Can no longer trigger when crafting quest items.
Traveling Pharmacy: Now correctly applies its weight reduction effect to Radaway, Diluted Radaway, Stimpaks, Diluted Stimpaks, Bloodpacks, Glowing Bloodpacks, Disease Cures, and Antibiotics.
PVP
Respawn: Fixed an issue that could prevent a player who was killed in water from correctly ending PVP upon respawning.
Stealth: Addressed an issue in which stealth damage bonuses could still be applied by a sneaking player’s attacks during PVP even that player was within their target’s direct line of sight.
Wanted: Fixed an issue that could cause the bounty amount for a Wanted player to appear halved on the map when approaching that player in the game world.
QUESTS AND EVENTS
Breach and Clear: The Meteoric Sword now correctly has a slim chance to spawn in containers during the Breach and Clear event.
Early Warnings: Quest progress will no longer become stuck when crafting Upgraded Motors and logging out after crafting Upgraded Motors will no longer reset the quest tracker to 0/5.
Events: Fixed an issue that could allow a player to simultaneously join two different events.
Events: Fast traveling after joining an event will now correctly remove the player from that event and will no longer prevent them from joining proximity event at their fast travel destination.
Flavors of Mayhem: Rose will no longer occasionally play unrelated voiceover lines when attempting to turn in Flavors of Mayhem, and the player is no longer prevented from correctly completing the quest.
Signal Strength: Fixed an issue that could prevent Rose’s introductory voiceover lines from playing when the player approaches Top of the World.
Second Helpings: An area marker will now appear for the “Find Delbert Winters in Flatwoods” objective to better inform players about their options for proceeding through the quest.
SURVIVAL
Diseases: The Rad Worms disease now correctly increases rad damage taken by 50%.
SOUND
Weapons: Breath sound effects will now play correctly when activating the Hold Breath option while zoomed.
USER INTERFACE
Display: Fallout 76 will now better autodetect AMD 7900/8900 series and AMD Radeon R9 200 Series graphics cards.
Field of View: Addressed an issue causing camera clipping near walls when using a very high Field of View setting.
Hotkeys: Fallout 76 now better supports French AZERTY keyboard layouts and the game’s controls will adjust accordingly.
Hotkeys: While using a French AZERTY keyboard, the “/” key can now be properly rebound in the controls menu.
Loading Screens: Fixed an issue that could cause loading screens to appear cut off or black at different resolutions when entering a building’s interior.
Map: Character levels no longer appear truncated on the map for players over level 100.
Nameplates: Fixed an issue that prevented player nameplates from appearing while inside the nuke zone during the Scorched Earth event.
Nameplates: Fixed an issue that prevented the crown icon from displaying next to legendary enemy nameplates.
Social: On Xbox, after sending a friend request to another player a notification will now display to confirm that a friend request has been sent.
Social: The “Invite to Team” option no longer appears for players who have already joined the team.
Social: If an attempt to fast travel to a friend or teammate using the Social Menu fails due to nearby enemies the player will now be notified by an error message that states “You cannot fast travel when enemies are nearby”.
Trading: Decreased the wait time required between trades when making multiple trades with another player. If players attempt to make multiple trades too quickly, a new “Trade failed due to frequency, wait a moment and try again.” error message will now display rather than the previous “Trade Failed on Server” message.
Trading: Fixed an issue on PC that could cause the player’s cursor to appear on both sides of a trade menu at the same time.
Tutorials: New players will now receive a tutorial message informing them of the Change Appearance option in the Main Menu.
VATS: Now selects targets more consistently across different field of view (FOV) values. For example, VATS will no longer target enemies that are visible in peripheral vision at high FOV values, but would be off-screen at default FOV values. This fix will help prevent VATS from providing an advantage to players who use high FOV settings.
VATS: Fixed an issue that could cause the VATS interface to rapidly flicker on and off.
Voice Chat: Fixed an issue preventing the speaker icon from appearing to others while a player is speaking over voice chat.
Workshop Previews: The player’s current Atom balance no longer appears truncated when viewing an Atomic Shop item in the workshop preview at 16:10 and 21:9 resolutions.
Treyarch has revealed the full patch notes for the final January console update–titled 1.12–for Black Ops 4, which is now live. The update implements many changes in the console versions of the Call of Duty game, with Multiplayer, Blackout, and Zombies mode all being affected. Treyarch also wrote that additional content is “planned for later this week.”
Update 1.12 adds Blackjack’s Gun Game, Hardcore Moshpit, Endurance Chaos Moshpit, Mercenary Capture Moshpit, and Safeguard to the featured playlist in Multiplayer. In Zombies, classic and loot weapons have been added–which include the MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45–and several bugs have been addressed.
For Blackout, all three levels of armor are being nerfed, with level three armor no longer fully protecting you from explosives or melee attacks. The radius and effectiveness of concussion grenades has also been reduced, while the fuse time and damage of the cluster grenade has increased. The new Blackout gametype Ambush has also debuted on PS4 with the new update, and is scheduled to come to Xbox One and PC next week.
Update 1.12 also adds the Barbarians special event–which was already live on PS4–to Xbox One and PC, allowing you to earn an additional 25 tiers of loot. Below, we’ve outlined the rest of the more minor changes coming in update 1.12. Again, these changes are only live on Xbox One and PS4, but come to PC next week.
Black Ops 4 Update 1.12 Patch Notes
Multiplayer
Featured Playlists
Blackjack’s Gun Game added as Featured Playlist.
Limited-time free-for-all with new rotating weapon selection, including the KAP 45 full-auto pistol.
Hardcore Moshpit added to Featured category (first-time addition).
Endurance Chaos Moshpit, Mercenary Capture Moshpit, and Safeguard added to Featured category.
Game Modes
Heist
Ghost Perk now properly works against the mode’s auto-UAV sweep.
Players can no longer spend cash on purchasing max ammo when they currently have max ammo.
Resolved an issue that could lead to multiple purchases of an item if the player had the Specialist selection menu open during round transition.
Specialists
Prophet
Resolved an issue where the Tempest could gain an extra charge if an enemy was killed by a player-owned Seeker or Scorestreak.
Ajax
Resolved an issue where grenade fuses could expire faster while the Ballistic Shield was in use.
Ruin
Resolved an issue where the Gravity Slam would not properly trigger if the player landed directly on another player.
Perks
Tracker
Tracker’s detection icon will no longer display after the player switches to a class without Tracker equipped.
Gear
Acoustic Sensor
Resolved an issue where Acoustic Sensor could stop working if the player switched their class after spawning.
Challenges
Crash Landing
Players should now properly gain progress toward this Challenge each time after earning a Gravity Slam Shutdown medal.
Weapon Customization
Mastercrafts applied to secondary weapons will now update in real time.
Resolved an issue where a Gold Camo weapon could display a higher visual state when switched to after a new visual state was reached on a weapon with a Mastercraft applied.
Resolved an issue where a dropped Diamond Camo weapon could display a higher visual state when picked up by another player.
Resolved an issue where a teammate’s Gold Camo weapon would have a purple visual state in third-person when killed by an enemy with a Gold Camo weapon.
Custom Games
Sweeping and Constant Mini Map custom rules settings now function as intended.
Team Deathmatch Round Score Limits greater than 500 are now available.
Miscellaneous
Grenade Equipment charge will no longer be lost if the player dies during the throwing animation.
Players can no longer gain XP for killing teammates in Hardcore Search & Destroy and Hardcore Control.
Closed an exploit that could briefly speed up a player’s movement when rapidly ADSing in and out.
Removed custom reticles on ABR 223 and Paladin HB50 Mastercraft default optics, due to feedback on the reticles adversely affecting aiming during gameplay.
Blackout
Gameplay Tuning
Armor
Level 1 Armor damage protection reduced from 30% to 15%.
Level 2 Armor damage protection reduced from 40% to 25%.
Level 3 Armor damage protection reduced from 50% to 35%.
Removed explosive damage resistance from Level 3 Armor.
Removed melee weapon damage reduction from Level 3 Armor.
Increased Armor Plates required to repair a single durability pip of Level 3 Armor from 1 to 2.
Concussion Grenade
Reduced status effect duration.
Reduced area of effect radius.
Reduced throw distance.
Reduced opacity of the white flash when initially concussed.
When concussed, players can now use Equipment, continue holding Equipment, perform melee attacks, and switch weapons.
Reduced hip-fire spread while concussed.
Cluster Grenade
Increased time to detonate after impact.
Reduced damage of mini-Cluster Grenade explosions.
General
Players can now aim down sights immediately after interacting with a door.
Miscellaneous
“Longest Shot” on the Scoreboard now properly matches the After Action Report.
Zombies Ultimis character voiceovers now play as intended.
Zombies
Classic and Loot Weapons
MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45 weapons added to the Mystery Box on all maps.
MP 40 and Grav camo progression now available in the Armory for all players.
Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45 camo progression and customization now available in the Armory once unlocked in the Black Market.
Stability
Global
Resolved a rare crash that could occur when players idled too long in a lobby.
Resolved a crash that could occur during a 4-player splitscreen session as players were bleeding out.
Dead of the Night
Fixed a crash that could occur when the player disconnected while loading into the boss fight.
Fixed a crash that could occur during the opening cinematic if the user quickly restarted a custom match just after leaving one.
Miscellaneous
Global
Resolved an issue where Pack-a-Punch would be unusable for the rest of the match for all other players if a player disconnected while their weapon was still in the Pack-a-Punch machine.
Resolved multiple pathing issues caused when throwing a Homunculus.
Resolved inconsistencies in the armor gained between the Hellfire and the Hammer of Valhalla.
Resolved an issue where, if the player struck an electric Catalyst zombie while disoriented by its electric wave, UI may disappear when being damaged by other zombies.
Resolved an issue where the player could still have armor after being revived if the player triggered the Special Weapon, then immediately went down.
Resolved an issue where players received an error when loading into an online Zombies match, which was followed by the match continuing without UI.
Resolved a rare issue in high rounds where the Hammer of Valhalla’s Lightning Bolt would stop damaging zombies.
Resolved a rare issue where players were unable to use Perk Up after bleeding out.
Resolved a rare issue where the Chakram’s Whirlwind attack FX could persist after it was used.
Blood of the Dead
Resolved an issue where the Spectral Shield Key attack could persist while using an Elixir.
Closed an exploit where players could access exploitable areas using the Ragnarok DG-5.
Dead of the Night
Limited the maximum damage that can be dealt to the boss by any attack to prevent several exploits.
Resolved an issue where enemies could fall out of the map on spawn during the Wonder Weapon Crimson Nosferatu event.
Resolved an issue where the Crimson Nosferatu bite could deal lower than intended damage or no damage to the player.
Resolved an issue where Nosferatu affected by the Wonder Weapon’s charged shot could still target the player without attacking them.
Resolved an issue where Alistair’s Folly was not present in the Library and could not be obtained in the Mystery Box before the power was turned on.
Resolved an issue where, if the player quit a Custom Mutations game that had the setting for all doors to be open, the player could hitch for an extended period of time and encounter an error message.
Resolved an issue in Custom Mutations where the player could encounter a kill trigger in the Master Bedroom or Trophy Room if they had doors set to open and used Anywhere But Here!
Resolved an issue where the player could encounter an error message in Custom Mutations with doors set to open and barricades set to off.
Resolved an issue where Alistair’s Annihilator was slightly misaligned to the left.
Classified
Resolved a visual corruption that could occur when players were damaged by electric traps (Xbox One only).
Resolved an issue where the camera was not aligned to the player during the teleporter transition if the player was coming from Groom Lake.
Gauntlets
Resolved an issue where Gauntlet mode was not available in Local play, even if connected to the Internet.
Resolved an issue where the After Action Report in Local play would not show completed rounds.
Rush
Resolved an issue where collectible icons could spawn without glow FX.
Tutorial
Fixed a progression break that could occur if the player attempted to interact with the Fast Travel before interacting with the Pack-a-Punch pedestal.
Welcome to our first ever Review Q&A, where GameSpot reviewers and friends take a deep dive into our review process (and hopefully answer some of your biggest questions). First up: Kingdom Hearts 3! Reviewer Tamoor Hussain and superfan Lucy James talk about the 14-year wait for Kingdom Hearts 3, the hardest parts of the review, and how nostalgia factors in to it all. Make sure to let us know if you’d like to see more behind-the-scenes reviews features like this one and how we can make them even better–but first, enjoy!
Tamoor Hussain is UK Editor and Global Head Of News for GameSpot. He reviewed Kingdom Hearts III, giving it an 8/10. On top of working at GameSpot, he’s got a side hustle as a full-time weeb. More importantly, he has been a lifelong fan of Kingdom Hearts since the series began.
Lucy James is Senior Video Producer at GameSpot. She’s a part-time weeb who cried in the audience of the Sony 2013 E3 press conference when Kingdom Hearts III was announced. She can and will explain the plot of the series to you if you ask nicely.
Tam: When you walk away, you don’t hear me say, “Pleaaaaaaaaaase, oh baby, don’t go.” Simple and clean is the way that you’re making me feel tonight. It’s hard to let it go….
Lucy: Hi Tamoor. Thanks for that Simple And Clean intro. We both have a very storied history with Kingdom Hearts. We’re probably the biggest fans on staff, and we’ve both been very excited to play III for… jeez, well over a decade now. I think my first question to you has to be: Just how the hell did you prepare to do this review?
Tam: Like this:
Lucy: Oh good grief.
Tam: Okay so, let’s break that picture down. Left hand: Full-size Keyblade that lets the world know that I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan. Right hand, flipping the bird to the world to say, “Yeah, I love Kingdom Hearts and I don’t care what you think.” Up top: Sunglasses because I’m quite sensitive to light and the brightness was giving me a headache.
Lucy: Fair. San Francisco was pretty sunny that day. I wore a leather jacket and remember deeply regretting it.
Back to my question: what kind of mindset were you in when you tackled the review? When we played the game at a preview event back in June 2018, we both came out of it saying, “That’s a game Kingdom Hearts fans will love, but I wonder how people unfamiliar with the series will react to it.” We didn’t say that in unison, though. That’d be weird.
Tam: Honestly, I was very nervous. I remember when our all-powerful reviews editor Kallie asked me if I’d be up for it and I knew I wanted to do it. I wanted to take on that challenge, but a part of me did think about how stressful it’d be. Now, let’s be clear, I was reviewing a game–hardly a thing to get upset about, but I was thinking about what that game represents and how much it means to fans. I feel okay saying this because I am a Kingdom Hearts fan, but Kingdom Hearts fans are INTENSE. Like, in my review I open by saying how hearing Dearly Beloved emotionally cripples me every time, and there’s loads of people saying I’m not a fan and I don’t have any experience with the series.
But anyway, I started second-guessing myself, thinking, “Do you really know everything you need to know about Kingdom Hearts? Because if you get one thing wrong, you will hear about it.” In the lead-up I thought it would be a good idea to refresh myself on everything, but that turned out to be a bad idea because then I started treating it like studying for an exam. I am not good in exams. I threw up in my GCSE maths exam and got sent out. Also I am not good at maths.
Lucy: I was going to make a maths joke about 358/2 Days here, but thought better of it.
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Tam: Eventually I just stepped back and reminded myself that I love this series, I’ve played the games, I know the characters, I’ve followed the story, and all I needed to do was approach it in a genuine way. I focused on taking my experience as a reviewer that’s critiqued and analysed many games and properly balancing that with my passion for the series.
I hope that comes through in the review, which echoes what you said and what we discussed after the preview event. I think fans of the series will love it for sure, but one of the strengths of Kingdom Hearts as a series is there’s always something to enjoy regardless of whether you’re a long-time fan or not. Since publishing the review I’ve talked a lot of people who, for one reason or another, are considering playing the game. Many of them say they don’t know Kingdom Hearts, but I tell them that the Disney worlds are still fantastic on their own, the combat is a lot of fun, and it’s overall just a joyous game. Sure, it does get a bit tied up in its own mythos and has some rough patches, but as a whole it’s still a fun and charming game.
Tl;dr: It was daunting. You’ve got it now, how are you finding it?
Lucy: I think daunting is the right word for it. I’ll say that it wasn’t an easy start. It honestly took me a couple of hours to get into the swing of it. The game starts with a pretty scrappy prologue, Kingdom Hearts 2.9 (I’m not joking), where it’s dropping in story beats, and getting the player up to speed with the combat changes, etc. Honestly, I was pretty worried for a second, because the whole thing didn’t feel very cohesive. I think while I was mid-music video (the second or third), I texted you “REALLY??????”, because I genuinely thought it was going to be indicative of the rest of the game.
I hit the Kingdom Hearts 3 title screen, and it just felt like everything… eased, and I’m really enjoying it now. Pretty familiar to the start of Kingdom Hearts II in that regard, really. I feel like because I did the History Of Kingdom Hearts recently, I’m as familiar as I can be with the intricacies of its story, and I’m starting to get these payoffs, and they’re really hitting. I know in your review you called out the game for getting bogged down in its own lore–how intense is that stuff going to get?
Tam: So one of the things I tried to do is to think about how the game would feel to people with various levels of familiarity. I think that was important to do because, like you, I know the story, so how “intense” it felt was different from someone who doesn’t know it. And also there’s sure to be plenty of people who are attracted to Disney that decide to play the game, with little to no prior experience, so I think that was an important consideration.
The funny thing was, even with my familiarity it felt very intense at times. Like I said in my review, I think the problem is that it tries to do too much and resolve–or at least reference–every narrative thread or lingering question about a character, and that’s to its detriment. Thankfully, for the most part these moments are bookends to the Disney world and stories. You’ll arrive on a planet, have the Kingdom Hearts story, then play through a nice little Disney adventure, then have another Kingdom Hearts story. That made it way more manageable. However, the final third of the game is pure Kingdom Hearts bants and it is very overwhelming.
I’m going to put my cards on the table here and say, in hindsight, I think Organization XIII is the worst part of the game. In previous games they’ve been likable characters–I know Axel is your guy–but, for me, in KH3 they dilute the story and there’s just far too many of them. They also enable the laziest kind of storytelling, where a character waffles on about nothing in particular while acting shady and mysterious. To me, that just says the character didn’t really serve any purpose in the story and is just there for the sake of being there. That’s particularly evident in this game, which tries to give fans of all of these lads and ladettes some time in the spotlight. Honestly, I didn’t need it–it just made the overall story worse.
Lucy: I know that diehard fans will appreciate that though. To me, Kingdom Hearts 3 seems to be all about the story payoffs so far.
Tam: I’m suddenly very aware of how negative that sounded and the fact that you’re very early, so I’m going to temper that by also saying there’s wonderful stuff throughout, even at the end. The story has some really nice moments too, so don’t feel discouraged by me being a grump.
I’ll be honest, there are some games that I just needed to enjoy.
So one of things I think about a lot, especially for a series as storied as this, is at a certain point people are so invested in something that they’re able to ignore a lot of the issues with the thing they love and have loved for years. When you’re reviewing a game, you don’t have that luxury. You’ve reviewed games before, so it can be difficult to switch that part of your brain off, but for something like Kingdom Hearts I imagine you might be able to–I certainly can with stuff like Metal Gear. I’ll be honest, there are some games that I just needed to enjoy, like MGS4, which is a flawed game in many respects, but I needed to love it, if you get what I mean.
Lucy: Metal Gear is such a fantastic example of what you’re talking about, because the highest of the highs totally outweigh the lowest of the lows, and that’s what you end up remembering about those games. When I think of Kingdom Hearts 2, for example, I immediately think of a dozen incredible things I loved in that game: the music, the varied Disney worlds, fighting Sephiroth, battling Organization XIII, etc., before things like the slow opening or Atlantica’s daft music mini-games even come into my mind. It’s like a rising tide raises all (Gummi) ships.
I know that you got through Kingdom Hearts 3 pretty quickly so that everything would be ready for the review embargo. Do you think you lost anything from the experience? And for someone who’s been waiting just as long as I have, were you sad that you had to play it that way?
Tam: I did have to get through it quite quickly, but I don’t think I lost anything from the experience because of that. In fact, I think it helped me push through rougher spots where, without a deadline, I probably would have walked away from it for a day or two.
Whether I was sad about having to do that goes back to what I said earlier. This is one of those games that I also needed to enjoy, but since our wise and benevolent reviews editor Kallie asked if I wanted to review it, I had to pick between that and taking on the challenge of writing a review for it. In the end, I felt that it would be better and more beneficial for me to do the review. I didn’t mention it above but, at the same time as being nervous about the whole thing, the challenge of reviewing the game was also very appealing. I knew that it had to be on point, and since there would be a lot of people reading it, both internally as part of QA and externally by the general public, it was also an opportunity to kind of get a measure of how I’m doing as a reviewer–it doubled up as a reviewer exam, in a way.
Lucy: So you’re saying this review was your Mark of Mastery exam?
Tam: Hahah, very good. Yeah–but did I pass like Riku or am I still an apprentice like Sora? That is the question! [Wise and benevolent editor’s note: He passed.]
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So, yeah. I would have loved to have played at my own pace, but like I said, I don’t think I lost much by not doing so. Also, playing it for review meant I could play it early and make myself impervious to spoilers, which was big factor too. I do think that playing it in smaller chunks like you are is a good way to go about it. Like I said previously, each of the worlds are neatly contained–as with past entries–so it makes it easy to split up sessions. A Disney world a day keeps the Heartless at bay.
One of the things I was thinking about for the review, but didn’t end up using as an angle in this exact way, is nostalgia. A lot of people came to Kingdom Hearts because of their love for Disney or Final Fantasy and their nostalgia for it. But over time that element of the series has shifted in different ways. For Final Fantasy, it’s completely dropped off, and for Disney, the emphasis is more on the modern era, for which the nostalgia isn’t as potent. How do you feel about that? Is that important to you? Or do you think Kingdom Hearts as a whole has distinguished itself enough to no longer rely on those elements?
Lucy: That’s an interesting point about nostalgia, and to be honest, I think it does still rely on it to an extent. Square has been really clever about the choice of Disney worlds, and I feel they’ve struck a good balance between older versus newer movies. I certainly feel less of an emotional connection to Frozen and Big Hero 6, y’know, but at the same time, flying around with Baymax is cool as heck, so I’m glad they’re experimenting with new worlds. I’m also incredibly glad they’ve put new twists on returning worlds. Not just that they look better, or have a better layout, but in the case of a world like Olympus, it’s a completely new side to that place that we haven’t seen before.
I think that’s nice that it’s come full circle–a game that could only exist because it’s built on nostalgia now inspires its own.
Kingdom Hearts has been around for so long now that my feelings of nostalgia are less about the Disney and Final Fantasy parts and more toward the little threads between the games. The menu sounds, movement, combat, in particular the music. Like said in your review, when you hear the opening bars of Dearly Beloved, it’s like this gut punch that opens the nostalgia floodgates. I think that’s nice that it’s come full circle–a game that could only exist because it’s built on nostalgia now inspires its own.
With that all said, with everything riding on Kingdom Hearts 3, do you think it lived up to expectations? Was it worth the wait?
Tam: It did live up to expectations for me. It gave me the same feelings that I had when I played the original on the PS2 and fell in love with it–and that’s quite an achievement if you ask me. Ultimately, the issues the game has are overshadowed by everything else. Though they can’t be discounted, they don’t get in the way to the point where they ruin the experience. I had a blast playing it, so, yeah, it was worth the wait for sure.
I just hope that, now that the Dark Seeker Saga is complete, the wait until the next chapter of the Kingdom Hearts story isn’t as long.
The Humble Bundle has partnered with PlayStation for a sale on a bundle of indie titles along with bonuses. The Humble Indie PlayStation Bundle offers up to nine PS4 games, with some proceeds going to charity, for a limited time.
Those nine games are joined by the soundtracks for Grim Fandango and InnerSpace at the dollar level, and the Layers of Fear and Broken Age soundtracks at the more-than-average level. As always you can pay what you want and select how the money is distributed to Humble, charity, and developers.
These discounts will be available through February 12 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET. Most of the games are individually priced at or more than the cost for all of them combined, so it’s a good deal to get a lot of games you may have missed for cheap.
The much-anticipated new movie adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel series Dune continues to add some big names. Following the news earlier this month that MCU stars Dave Bautista and Stellan Skarsgård will play key roles, it has now been reported that Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac is in talks to join the cast.
According to Variety, Isaac is in negotiations to play the role of Duke Leto, the father of lead character Paul Atreides, who will be played by Timothy Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name). As well as playing Poe Dameron in the recent Star Wars movie, Isaac is known for roles in Ex Machina, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Annihilation.
Skarsgård is set to play the evil Baron Harkonen, while Bautista will appear as “Beast” Rabban, Harkonen’s nephew. The cast also includes Mission Impossible star Rebecca Ferguson, and the movie will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, who previously helmed Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival. Dune does not yet have a release date.
The multi-book series was written by Frank Herbert, and the first volume was published in 1965. The movie was first announced in February 2017, when Herbert’s son Brian suggested that it could be the first part in a series of films. It was previously adapted for the big screen in 1984 by David Lynch and starred Kyle McLachlan, Patrick Stewart, and Sting. While this version was a commercial failure, it has since gained a cult reputation.
The Sci-fi Channel (since re-branded Syfy) also produced a Dune mini-series in the early 2000s. There have been several unsuccessful attempts to get a new movie version off the ground, most recently with Patriots Day director Peter Berg at the helm.
On top of the ongoing PS Essentials sale, a new selection of PS4 game deals has gone live on the US PlayStation Store. From now until February 5, Sony is holding the PS Plus Specials sale, which offers discounts on an array of PSVR-compatible games–but only for PlayStation Plus subscribers.
Capcom’s critically acclaimed horror game, Resident Evil 7, is one of the many titles on sale this week. The standard edition is available for $15, while the Gold edition–which includes all of the game’s DLC–is $25. You can also pick the DLC up individually at a discount; Banned Footage Vol. 1 is $5, Banned Footage Vol. 2 is $7.49, and End of Zoe is $9.
Both the PS Plus Specials and PS Essentials sales are scheduled to end on February 5, so you have until then to take advantage of these offers. While the PS Essentials sale is open to everyone, PS Plus members will take an additional percentage off of every item, so you can grab some of 2018’s biggest games like God of War and Battlefield V at a great price.
GameStop has announced that it is no longer trying to sell itself to another company. The video game retail company did not provide further details as to what that means for its future, but its stock price has plunged dramatically as a result.
“GameStop’s Board has now terminated efforts to pursue a sale of the company due to the lack of available financing on terms that would be commercially acceptable to a prospective acquirer,” GameStop said in a blog post. The announcement caused investment stock in GameStop to plummet, with the trading value decreasing by more than 25 percent to $11.24 USD at the time of this writing.
The company first began looking for a potential buyer in June 2018. GameStop went into talks with private equity firms and also hired a financial advisor, according to sources familiar with the situation. However, GameStop never confirmed a sellout was a definitive final outcome, and said in a statement that it was exploring other solutions to its financial difficulties as well.
In a report by Variety, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said that GameStop’s decision to shift gears might mean that company was simply unable to find an investor. “A new console without a disc drive–unlikely, but possible–could kill [GameStop’s] business,” Pachter explained. “And all this talk of Amazon, Apple, and Google [streaming games] causes some to question whether there will be consoles at all.”
GameStop has struggled to remain a relevant part of the game consumer model with the rise of digital distribution. As a result, the company has tried to account for lost sales by increasing its pivot towards used game sales and pop culture collectibles. However, the former has most likely been a shrinking margin for the company as well, with subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass, Games With Gold, and PlayStation Now offering a steady stream of older titles for less than their combined retail price.
Grand Theft Auto Online is debuting a new RC toy car with all sorts of custom options and dangerous weaponry to pack a tiny wallop. But if you’re not sure you want to buy yet, you can sample it in a series of new races and earn double rewards in the process. Plus just logging in can net you some free cash.
First off, logging into GTA Online each weekend in February will get you $250K in GTA cash, so coming back over and over will net you a total of $1 million. Each week’s reward will populate into your Maze Bank account the following weekend.
You can also get both double cash and RP in any of the eight new races centered around the new RC Bandito: All Downhill From Here, Trailer Park Dash, Air Traffic Control, Beach Please, Docking Around, Paleto Bae, Go For ‘Broke, and Tee’d Off. In addition, you can get double cash and RP from any Stunt Race, or from the Running Back (Remix) mode. Rockstar teases that a variety of modes will spit out double cash and RP the whole month of February as well.
To make the RC Bandito your own, you’ll need to first own an Arena to store it. Several Arena items are on sale now for 30% off, including Workshop Mechanics, Boost Upgrades, and more. Then you can head to Southern San Andreas Super Autos, which comes with its own workstation to modify it. You can add special liveries and lids, or mod it to make vertical jumps or drop mines.
Finally, a variety of vehicles are 30-35% off, including several high performance machines and aircraft. Those include:
