Author: Trafficblast

This episode of New Releases covers the biggest games of February, and the month of love is bringing some titles you might just fall head over heels for. Crackdown 3 is finally arriving after a handful of delays, while Metro Exodus actually moved to an earlier release date. Anime and manga fans can dig into Jump Force, and those who missed out on the original Ace Attorney releases can check out the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. Last but not least, BioWare is flying back onto the scene with its latest adventure, Anthem.

Crackdown 3 — February 15

Available on: Xbox One, PC

Crackdown fans have been eagerly awaiting the series’ return, and the charge is being led by Commander Jaxon, played by Terry Crews. He’ll have to take back New Providence using a bunch of weapons, vehicles, and other destructive toys. You can also level the city with friends in the new multiplayer mode Wrecking Zone.

Further Reading:

Jump Force — February 15

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Shonen Jump is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and with that comes a new fighting game featuring the magazine’s top characters. Heroes and villains from Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, My Hero Academia, and more can all throw down in intense three-on-three battles.

Further Reading:

Metro Exodus — February 15

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Metro Exodus is a departure for the series–and not just because Artyom and company are literally leaving Moscow. This entry leans into open-world level design: each stop along the train track is full of story missions and side quests to complete, supplies to scavenge, and mutated monsters to fend off.

Further Reading:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy — February 21

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

For the uninitiated, the Phoenix Wright series involves finding evidence, questioning witnesses, and bringing everything together in the courtroom to defend your client. This collection includes the first three games in the series–Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Justice for All, and Trials and Tribulations–in pretty HD. Objection!

Anthem — February 22

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Anthem is breaking new ground for BioWare: this multiplayer-focused shooter takes place in a shared world. You’ll still get a healthy dose of role-playing via quests and branching dialogue, but you’ll be suiting up for missions in one of four Javelins. Each has its own weapons and abilities, and you can customize the look of each suit too.

Further Reading:

These are some of the biggest games of February, but they’re far from the only ones coming this month. On the next episode, we’ll revisit a few of these titles and dig into some others, like Trials Rising and Far Cry New Dawn.

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If you’re in the market for an Xbox One X, now is a good time to buy. GameStop is offering all of its Fallout 76 bundles for $100 off, including the store-exclusive white model. That matches some of the lowest prices we’ve seen, including for Black Friday, even without a game.

Each of the Fallout 76 models at GameStop are priced at $400. That includes the 1 TB bundle with the game, and two different versions of the white console: one with the physical disc, and another with a digital copy. That bundle was exclusive to the retailer, giving you options for which neutral color you want to match with your decor.

Usually the Xbox One X goes for $500, and some discounts during the holiday season reduced it by $70-100, usually with some store extras like Kohl’s Cash.

Fallout 76 has had a rocky start. It received low review scores at launch, and then Bethesda was criticized for its advertisements about a special edition canvas bag that was switched for a nylon one. In its attempt to send the canvas bags as a make-good, it leaked personal data. More recently, a bug temporarily disabled nukes, and a series of patches had unintended consequences.

Still, Bethesda has consistently stated its plans to continue supporting the game, having announced upcoming features like a new mode without PvP restrictions and player shops.

“Bethesda has stated it intends to continue supporting the game for a long time, but at launch, Fallout 76 is a poor experience,” critic Edmond Tran wrote in GameSpot’s review. “There are echoes of the series’ admirable qualities, but look past that facade, past the cute Vault Boy animations, past the familiar radio tracks, and you’ll find no heart–just an inconsequential wasteland doomed to be nuked over and over again.”

The Mission Impossible series might be six films and over 20 years in, but the huge success of last year’s Mission Impossible: Fallout proved that the action franchise is just as popular as ever. Earlier this month, it was reported that the next two parts will be shot back-to-back and will arrive in 2021 and 2022. We now have confirmed release dates for both.

As reported by Variety, Mission Impossible 7 will hit theaters on July 23, 2021, while the eighth movie will arrive on August 5. Both films will be written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who helmed both Fallout and 2015’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. While we know Tom Cruise will return as Ethan Hunt in both movies, other cast members and titles are yet to be revealed.

Mission Impossible: Fallout was a massive success commercially and critically. It made more than $791 million worldwide, which represented the biggest box office performance in the history of the Mission Impossible series. It was also well-received by critics, notching a franchise-best 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes; it was heralded as one of the best action movies of 2018.

Before we see more of Ethan Hunt, Cruise will reprise another iconic role next summer. Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 classic Top Gun, is currently in production and hits theaters on June 26, 2020. Cruise will play Pete “Maverick” Mitchell once more, and the cast also includes Glen Powell (The Dark Knight Rises), Jay Ellis (Insecure), Jennifer Connelly (Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Miles Teller (Whiplash). Additionally, Top Gun alumni Val Kilmer has been cast to reprise his role as Commander Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. McQuarrie is one of the writers on the movie.

Microsoft plans to expand Xbox Live to other platforms, including Nintendo Switch and mobile. The company says bringing the network to more consoles will “enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.”

The move was teased in the description for an upcoming session at GDC, where the plans will presumably be revealed in more detail. The session, titled Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and PC (Presented by Microsoft), will include details on the expansion, which Microsoft says will take Xbox Live to “over 2 billion devices with the release of our new cross-platform Xbox development kit.”

The description continues: “Xbox Live players are highly engaged and active on Xbox and PC, but now they can take their gaming achievement history, their friends list, their clubs, and more with them to almost every screen.” Further details are scant at present, but we’ll learn more during GDC, which takes place from March 18-22.

Taking Xbox Live to other consoles seems like the natural next step after the cross-platform play that exists within certain games, such as Fortnite or Minecraft. Sony has been less cooperative when it comes to cross-platform play and allowing other services on to its PlayStation Network, and it appears this Xbox Live expansion will not apply to PS4 as yet. However, Sony did enable Fortnite cross-play as a beta late last year, so perhaps further integration of the major gaming platforms will become a possibility down the line.

After a long wait, Kingdom Hearts 3 is finally out, and its release has clearly struck a chord with UK gamers. Square Enix’s RPG has debuted at the top of the UK physical sales chart for the week ending February 2.

The Disney-Final Fantasy crossover pushes last week’s No.1, Resident Evil 2, down to No.2. Below that are perennial high achievers Red Dead Redemption 2, FIFA 19, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in Nos. 3, 4, and 5, respectively.

Aside from Final Fantasy, only one new release entered the chart this week. DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders, a tie-in to the new How to Train Your Dragon movie, debuts at No.37.

Kingdom Hearts 3 has received a positive critical reception since its launch, including an 8/10 from GameSpot. “The story of Keyblade wars, time-travelling villains, body-hopping also-rans, and world-ending darkness isn’t what I’ll remember about Kingdom Hearts 3 or the series as a whole,” wrote Tamoor Hussain in our Kingdom Hearts 3 review. “What sticks with me is the exciting battle against elemental titans with Hercules, taking Rapunzel out into the unfamiliar wide world for the first time, snapping selfies with Winnie the Pooh, and going toe to toe with Davy Jones. In 2002, as Sora, I left Destiny Islands to travel across the universe and make new friends. In 2019 I brought old ones home, and I had so much fun doing it.”

You can read the full top 10 sales chart for this week below, courtesy of UKIE and GfK Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.

1. Kingdom Hearts 3
2. Resident Evil 2
3. Red Dead Redemption 2
4. FIFA 19
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
6. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
9. Grand Theft Auto V
10. Spyro Reignited Trilogy

As expected, Super Bowl LIII has given us plenty of new trailers to watch. On top of a new Avengers: Endgame spot, Marvel and Disney offered viewers another quick look at Captain Marvel, which releases in theaters next month. The trailer begins with Carol Danvers getting ready to hop in a jet, saying she’s ready to go “higher, further, and faster.” You can get a full rundown in our Captain Marvel Super Bowl trailer breakdown.

From there, there’s quick cuts between hard-hitting moments of action, with Carol training, standing in the midst of some destruction in her Captain Marvel costume, being subsumed by energy, and flying into outer space where she launches projectiles at enemies. The whole time an almost robotic female voice can be heard saying, “higher, faster, further.” It’s pretty badass and you can watch it above–it’s all a bit more optimistic than the Endgame trailer, where things remain fairly bleak.

Captain Marvel follows the shocking conclusion of Avengers: Infinity War, during which Nick Fury put out a distress signal to Carol. How that moment plays into the ongoing broader story remains to be seen, but a younger version of Fury plays a central role in Captain Marvel, so we’ll see plenty of him anyway. As for Captain Marvel herself, yes, the character is a woman.

Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8. Check out one of the other trailers for the movie to get acquainted with the character before the movie releases, and before she becomes a big part of Avengers: Endgame too. Avengers: Endgame comes to theaters on April 26.

Head over to CBS Sports to watch Super Bowl LIII, along with the adverts and trailers, live.