Author: Trafficblast

It’s been a long time coming, but Kingdom Hearts III is almost here. Set for a worldwide release on January 29, 2019 for PS4 and Xbox One, the next game in the incredibly complicated yet whimsical action-RPG series will conclude the main story with Sora, Donald Duck, Goofy and other friends as they face off against the evil Organization XIII and the swarming blight known as the Heartless. Since its debut, the Kingdom Hearts series blended together the exuberance and wonder of a Disney spectacle with the mechanics of an JRPG, offering something that really shouldn’t have worked as well as it did.

There’s a lot anticipation for Kingdom Hearts III, but at the same time there’s a number things that will be important to clear up. Just ahead of the game’s release, we’ve compiled a number of important details regarding Kingdom Hearts III, when it first debuted, the platforms it will launch on, and whether it’ll be safe to dive into this game if you’re a first timer. Here’s everything we know about Disney and Square Enix’s upcoming action-RPG spectacle.

What Is Kingdom Hearts III?

Kingdom Hearts III is the next game in the long-running series that debuted in 2002 on the PlayStation 2. Created by Tetsuya Nomura, Kingdom Hearts is an action-RPG amalgamation of the memorable movies and games from both Disney and Square Enix (particularly the Final Fantasy series). Over the course of the series, Sora and his allies have travelled across the expansive multiverse, forming bonds with many familiar characters such as Aladdin, Mulan, and Hercules, while also facing off against foes such as Scar from The Lion King and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII.

Kingdom Hearts III will continue the tradition of offering richly realized worlds to explore, with each locale having a set of iconic characters to team up with. Though technically not the third game in the series–it’s really the eighth–KHIII will be the conclusion of the main storyline focusing on Sora and his friends and their travels across the Disney/Square universe. During their adventure, they’ll encounter many returning characters and explore new worlds, which have a greater level of freedom and advanced combat mechanics.

Can I Start With KH III?

While the Kingdom Hearts series is known for its incredibly involved and complex plot, possessing an interconnected web of character relationships and timelines, it’s still possible to jump into Kingdom Hearts III fresh. Much like other games, KHIII will offer a way for newcomers and fans who need to brush up on the story an opportunity to get up to speed with the new game. There will be numerous text files and docs that detail the major events throughout the series, key characters, and how it all led up to this point.

Debut And The First Trailer

Kingdom Hearts III made its debut during Sony’s E3 2013 press conference, revealing new visuals and designs for Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the locations they would visit–all powered by Unreal Engine 4. In this trailer, we saw some familiar scenes with the key characters before witnessing Sora fight off swarms of Heartless in a reimagined Twilight Town from KHII.

Where Does It Fit In The KH Timeline?

KHIII is the latest game chronologically on the series timeline. Though the numbered entries are seen as the core entries in the series, several important events have happened in the spin-off games that are vital for anyone looking to get the full story. While Kingdom Hearts Union X [Cross] (yes, that’s the actual title) is a mobile/browser title, it also expands the overall plot. It shows off the events prior to the Keyblade War–one of the more notable events referenced throughout the series.Aside from the main games, the side-stories in Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance not only reveal the backstories for many key side-characters, they reveal events that have come to shape the present story in Kingdom Hearts III. Here’s a list of every KH game in chronological order.

The Second Trailer

Debuting at E3 2015, the next trailer revealed footage of the Kingdom of Corona world from Tangled, along with Olympus Coliseum from Hercules. In the trailer, we also got to see footage of the new combat mechanic known as Attraction Flow, and saw two new characters exchange in cryptic dialog discussing the fate of other characters.

What’s New In Kingdom Hearts III?

The gameplay in Kingdom Hearts III is very similar to how it was in Kingdom Hearts II, albeit with a much larger scope. In addition to larger environments to explore, players will now be able to have five characters in a party at once, with two guest characters joining the trio. Continuing from Kingdom Hearts II, Sora will be able to call upon his allies and trigger special combination attacks and special moves. Summoning also makes a return as well, allowing you to call forth famous Disney characters like Wreck-It-Ralph and Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

However, Kingdom Hearts III tosses in several new abilities, which helps to bring combat to the next level. One of the new combat abilities is known as Attraction Flow, allowing Sora to conjure up a vehicle that’s based on a famous Disneyland ride–such as Splash Mountain or the teacups from the Mad Tea Party attraction. By taking control of these rides, Sora can quickly deal heavy damage to multiple enemies. Another new twist is the addition of the various Keyblade transformations. While the previous games had you collect a whole assortment of special keyblades, many of which referenced classic Disney films and Final Fantasy games, KHIII takes things further by having each weapon possess its own signature move–giving you another new skill to use in battle.

All The Confirmed Worlds (So Far)

With every Kingdom Hearts game comes an assortment of levels that strongly contrast with each other. Kingdom Hearts III is no different, and we’ve already gotten a taste of where we’ll be able to travel to in the upcoming game. Though the final game still has a number of worlds that have yet to be revealed, here’s a quick rundown of the worlds we know of so far.

• Kingdom of Corona (Tangled)
• Olympus Coliseum (Hercules)
• San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6)
• Monstropolis (Monsters Inc.)
• Toy Box (Toy Story)
• Arendalle (Frozen)
• The Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean 3)
• Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh)
• Twilight Town (Kingdom Hearts)

The Third Trailer

During D23 2017, Square-Enix and Disney released a new trailer showing off a first look at the Toy Box world from Toy Story. During the footage, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are transformed into action figures and have to battle Heartless in Andy’s room. They eventually meet up with Woody and Buzz Lightyear, and soon find themselves exploring the outside of Andy’s room and towards a massive toy-store where they control large mecha toys and confront another member of Organization XIII.

What Systems Is It On And What’s Its Release Date?

Kingdom Hearts III will be available for PS4 and Xbox One on January 29, 2019. Though the series has mostly been a fixture of the PlayStation consoles, with a few appearances on Nintendo’s handhelds, this game will mark the first time that the series will be available on a Microsoft console. Kingdom Hearts III will be available worldwide for PS4 and Xbox One on January 29, 2019. However, the game will be out in Japan nearly a week before on January 25.

Will It Come To PC?

As of now, there is no word on a PC release for the game. Though it’s not outside the realm of possibility for it to make its way to PC, since Kingdom Hearts III will be the first multi-platform release, Square Enix have been quiet about a PC launch for the series.

How Can I Catch Up?

If you find yourself with the urge to revisit the previous games, or you simply want to see what all the hype is about, then you’ll be pleased to know that Square Enix has re-released both the previous core Kingdom Hearts games in the 1.5 + 2.5 Remix edition for PS4. Originally released on PS3, these collections remaster the two games with new visuals and add in some new content.

Featuring the Final Mix versions of Kingdom Hearts I and II, along with remasters of Birth By Sleep, Chain of Memories, Dream Drop Distances, and Recoded–ReMIX on PS4 also include a brand-new epilogue episode for Birth By Sleep [Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – A fragmentary passage], running on the same engine as Kingdom Hearts III, giving many a brief taste for what’s to come in the next game. Unfortunately, this edition is only available on PS4, so Xbox One owners will have to wait for the digest in Kingdom Hearts III or play the ReMIX on PS4.

Will there be a Theme Song?

Much like other mainline entries in the series, there’s always an opening number to kick off the new adventure–and KHIII is no different. In the new song, Face Your Fears, series vocalist Utada Hikaru returns for the main theme. In an interesting twist, the theme song is also produced by Skrillex, who made a name for himself over the last decade with his work in the dub-step sub-genre. The song will be released shortly before the launch of the game on January 18.

The Fourth Trailer

During E3 2018, we saw the next trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3–revealing the first look at the worlds for Frozen and the return of Pirates of the Caribbean. First shown during Microsoft’s E3 press conference, Sora and friends encounter Elsa in the frozen wilderness, who’s under attack from Heartless. We also saw a return visit to the Pirates of the Caribbean world, adapting the events from the third film At World’s End.

Is There A Special Edition?

Square Enix plans to release a deluxe version of the game on both PS4 and Xbox One for $230. The bundle comes packed with Sora, Donald, and Goofy action-figures based on their appearances in the Toy Box, along with a steelbook and an artbook. There are also plans to release a special PS4 Pro bundle for Kingdom Hearts III, which is available for pre-order on the official Square Enix online store.

The Xbox One’s backwards compatibility catalog continues to grow bigger still. As announced on Twitter by Major Nelson, the new Xbox 360 additions to the backwards compatibility library on Xbox One today include three titles from 2K Games: The Darkness, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, and Duke Nukem Forever.

And in a round of extra-good news, each title is currently on sale. The Darkness, which features Faith No More and Mr. Bungle singer Mike Patton doing the voice of a horrible monster, can be had for only $4 USD. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, which was originally announced as a first-person shooter before changing directions, is also available for $4 USD. Duke Nukem Forever is also available for only $4 USD. The Gearbox Software-developed game is the Chinese Democracy of video games, sort of, in that, like the Guns ‘N Roses album, many believed it would never release. But it did.

As always, if you own these games already, you can simply put the disc into your Xbox One and start playing. If you own them digitally you can find them in your game collection and redownload them. Check out our full list of backwards compatible games for more.

1. Netflix

Netflix is such a powerful force in modern entertainment that it’s easy to take it for granted. In many households it has replaced regular TV as the go-to destination for an evening’s entertainment, and it continues to influence and disrupt more traditional outlets for films and TV. While Netflix does still stream shows and movies made by other studios and companies, it is of course increasingly interested in creating its own content, and 2018 saw it flex its muscles in that area more than ever before. On the TV side, its biggest dramas and comedies continued to pull in major talent, and many of the year’s best shows were Netflix Originals. It’s impossible to think about the year’s TV without talking about The Haunting Of Hill House, GLOW, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Maniac, or Daredevil.

When it comes to movies, 2018 saw the company attract some big-name filmmakers, with such acclaimed directors as the Coen brothers (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alfonso Cuaron (Roma), Jeremy Saulnier (Hold the Dark), David Mackenzie (Outlaw King), and Paul Greengrass (22 July) choosing to make their latest movies for the service. And that’s not mentioning the wealth of documentaries, reality shows, and family content that hit the service on a weekly basis. While it could be argued that the company’s rush to fill its arsenal means that the quality can sometimes suffer, the only real problem is having simply too much to watch.

Next year will see the streaming landscape shift even further, with Disney+ launching as a direct rival. We’ve already seen Netflix canceling the Marvel shows that it has to license from Disney, and questions remain about how many individual streaming subscriptions people are willing to pay for on a monthly basis. But whatever happens, Netflix is going nowhere.–Dan Auty

Epic Games has confirmed that it has stopped actively developing the new, community-infused Unreal Tournament game. Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney confirmed to Variety that the free game is still playable and available to new users, but Epic itself has stopped working on it.

“Unreal Tournament remains available in the store but isn’t actively developed,” he said.

This may be sad for those who were playing and enjoying Unreal Tournament, but it’s no surprise to learn Epic has stopped working on it. Back in September, Epic said the team working on it moved over to Fortnite to support that game’s ongoing development. As of September, the game was officially “on hold,” and that appears to continue to be the case.

Announced in 2014, the new Unreal Tournament was developed on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4 and aimed to be “true to its roots as a competitive FPS.” Epic was planning to develop the game “in the open,” as a collaboration between Epic Games, Unreal Tournament fans, and Unreal Engine 4 developers. Epic also planned to offer a marketplace where fans can buy and sell new content.

Unreal Tournament is not the first game Epic stopped working on after Fortnite grew in popularity. In January this year, Epic announced its free-to-play MOBA Paragon was shutting down, with refunds available to everyone. More recently, some Fortnite: Save the World players have said they feel second-class as the battle royale mode gets seemingly more attention than the paid game. Save the World will transition to a free-to-play game like Fortnite: Battle Royale, but the transition was recently delayed to 2019.

Fortnite is hugely popular on a level that seems unprecedented in gaming, so it makes sense that Epic would pour significant resources into its ongoing development. Still, it remains to be seen if Epic becomes a one-game studio now that Fortnite is riding high. Of course, the studio also operates the massively successful Unreal Engine, while it also announced a new Steam competitor; so even if the studio’s game development output is relatively lower, the studio is absolutely keeping busy with huge projects.

For more on the game, check out GameSpot’s report on how Fortnite’s success has impacted the industry in 2018.

Madden NFL 19 is erasing Kareem Hunt. After TMZ posted a video of the former Kansas City Chiefs running back assaulting a woman, Hunt was quickly dropped by his team, and now EA Sports is wiping the digital version of Hunt from the newest Madden games. Hunt is being erased from the main game, the mobile game Madden Overdrive, and the card-based Ultimate Team mode.

“We are in the process of removing Kareem Hunt from the Madden NFL 19 roster, Madden Overdrive, and Madden Ultimate Team,” an EA Sports representative told TMZ.

Anyone who has Hunt on their Ultimate Team roster will receive a replacement player who has identical stats.

Removing a player from Madden is not unprecedented. EA also wiped Aaron Hernandez and Ray Rice from Madden after their own assault charges emerged. Rice was removed after video emerged of him punching his then-fiancee, while Hernandez was dropped after he was charged with murder.

TMZ released a video last Friday that showed Hunt assaulting a woman in a hotel back in February. The Chiefs cut Hunt from their roster after the video emerged, and no team has picked him up.

EA Sports also found itself in the midst of controversy this year when the rape investigation into FIFA 19 cover star Cristiano Ronaldo was re-opened.

Best of the Year: Evolution

In 2018, WWE made gigantic strives to try an elevate the women’s division as much as possible, which all culminated in October’s all-women’s PPV, Evolution. Since we started reviewing the PPVs earlier this year, Evolution scored the highest between the two reviewers scoring the show an average of 7.8 for all its matches. And yes, the 6-woman tag match between The Riott Squad and Natalya, Sasha Banks, & Bayley was the quintessential pee break/filler for the evening, but when you look at what transpired before this match and after it, you understand why this Sunday Night Raw match was on the card.

Prior to that, there was the Mae Young Classic finals between Toni Storm and Io Shirai, which Chris E. Hayner said, “They threw out the best they had for this match and it was the exact kind of match I love.” And Mat Elfring said, “This match was a gateway drug to indie wrestling. It felt like something you’d seem more in NJPW or ROH rather than a WWE event.”

Then after the filler match, there were two of WWE’s best matches of the year. First, it was Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Bazsler for the NXT Women’s Championship, which gave the average WWE viewer just an idea of how great NXT is, week after week. Following that was the Last Woman Standing match between Becky Lynch and Charlotte for the Smackdown Women’s Championship, which was undoubtedly the best WWE match of the year. Even the Ronda Rousey match against Nikki Bella was a lot of fun

It is easily the strongest main roster WWE PPV of the year, and while NXT tends to put on a brilliant PPV product, this is the only WWE show which highlighted the main roster, superstars from the past, NXT, and stars who have yet to make a name within WWE with the Mae Young Classic. It is a total package for what WWE’s women’s division has become the past two years, which all culminates with this moment. — Mat Elfring

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Wreck-It Ralph takes his wrecking ways online in Disney’s new movie sequel, Ralph Breaks The Internet. In a fitting addition to that story, video game characters Ralph and Vanellope get a chance to do some damage to virtual reality in The Void’s new tie-in VR experience, Ralph Breaks VR–and participants get to join them in the digital world of the internet that feels like a little more than a video game.

Ralph Breaks VR goes beyond what headset owners at home experience. The Void is a room-scale VR platform built on stages that incorporate real objects into its virtual worlds. That means when you step on a virtual tram and ride the information superhighway to the digital city that is the movie’s version of the internet, you’re enclosed by real walls that you can reach out and touch. In addition to wearing a VR headset and carrying the necessary tech to render its images in a backpack, participants also wear haptic vests that vibrate when something touches them, providing another level of interaction between your real body and the virtual experience. The Void’s mix of real and virtual takes the idea of VR to a different level, and it’s perfectly suited to the Wreck-It Ralph franchise.

Ralph Breaks VR starts with participants disguising themselves as Netizens, the colorful folks who live in the internet in the movie, each with a different bit of personality–such as a stuffy nerd or surfer dude. With your new identity in place, you head onto the real stage, which matches the images you see in the headset. So as you move through darkened rooms or cross walkways high above the city streets, you’re walking through physical places that you can actually run into.

The four participants in Ralph Breaks VR meet up with Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), who take them on a guided tour of the internet, although it’s mostly an experience of playing games with and against the other people in your group. Look at your virtual wrist in the experience and you’ll see a watch displaying the names of everyone in the session, along with the points they accrue as they play, giving the whole thing a light air of competition.

The first stop is a TRON-like area of the web, called Dunderdome, that is dedicated to video games, where you play a version of arcade classic Space Invaders. But instead of running the game on a screen and battling extraterrestrials with a controller, participants find themselves at the ground level of the game, using a control panel to move around the tanks normally found at the bottom of a Space Invaders screen. Broken into teams of two, one player controls the tank’s movement and fires its main gun, while the other controls air strikes and protects the tank from attackers.

Once the game of life-size Space Invaders is over, things take a turn–the software that protects the internet flags the humans as viruses and sets out to eradicate them, while Ralph and Vanellope work to try to get them to safety.

In practical terms, that means players are quickly moving from room to room as they try to find their way out. Before long, you find your way into the mobile game Pancake Milkshake from the movie. In the film, Ralph invades the game, which is about feeding pancakes to a bunny and milkshakes to a kitty, where he overstuffs the rabbit to the point of explosion. Ralph Breaks VR expands on the concept with the bunnies and kitties out for revenge as they whip their favorite treats back at the participants. Luckily, you can pick up a blaster that fires both foods, so you can return fire as you dodge incoming sweets. The scenario even gives an extra nod to the film by awarding you with more points if you zap the right food at its corresponding animal. With Ralph and Vanellope’s help, participants fight their way out of the internet and back to safety.

Ralph seems like a unique fit for The Void’s VR experiences. That’s what both the Void team and ILMxLab, Lucasfilm’s immersive experience company, thought as they began working on the project, which is part of a six-experience deal with Disney.

“[It was] serendipity, and it’s such a great property, as far as how it fits into what The Void as a platform can do,” said Curtis Hickman, co-founder and chief creative officer at The Void. “There’s something that I think is really fascinating about putting on this equipment and going into VR. You are stepping into a video game in a sense, and what story really encapsulates that? Wreck-It Ralph.”

The experience is also full of Easter eggs for Ralph Breaks The Internet fans. The Void and ILMxLab worked closely with the movie’s screenwriter, Pamela Ribon, who wrote the experience’s story as well, to keep Ralph Breaks VR true to the movie on which it’s based. The VR world is full of visual callbacks from the movie, such as the signs scattered throughout the internet cityscape. And Reilly and Silverman reprising their roles as Ralph and Vanellope deepens the experience even more.

VR technology is breeding a lot of interesting ideas like The Void, but is still developing its hardware to be less expensive. While it’s not clear exactly where VR will go in the future, experiences like Ralph Breaks VR offer something that doesn’t exist anywhere else. It’s particularly fun if you’re a big fan of the Ralph series, but you don’t have to be: beaning cute animals with pancakes is a good time no matter who you are.

On the first Tuesday of each month, Sony makes a new set of games available for free to PlayStation Plus members. We’ve passed that milestone for December, which means the month’s free PS4, PS3, and PS Vita games are now available. Add them to your library, and they’ll be yours to download and play as long as you have an active PS Plus subscription. You can get all of the free games right here.

On PS4 this month, you can grab Soma, a game that’s decidedly not filled with holiday spirit. In this atmospheric horror game, you’re tasked with exploring a seemingly deserted underwater facility to discover what happened to the human and AI occupants. The other PS4 freebie is Onrush, an off-road online racing game that’s more about takedowns and teamwork than about finishing first.

On PS3 this month, you can grab Steredenn: Classic, a pixelated space shooter that mixes retro-arcade action with procedurally generated levels and massive boss fights. The other PS3 freebie is SteinsGate, an anime-style visual novel about teenage scientists who discover a way to send messages to the past–which you can bet begin to affect the future.

This month’s PS Vita games are the customs agent sim Papers, Please and the Metroidvania-style side-scroller Iconoclasts, the latter of which is also playable on PS4 thanks to Cross-Buy. Make sure to grab your free games by Tuesday, January 1, because that’s when a new batch will come and take their place.

Free PS Plus Games For December 2018

PS4

• Soma
• Onrush
• Iconoclasts (also on PS Vita)

PS3

• Steredenn
• SteinsGate

PS Vita

• Papers, Please
• Iconoclasts (also on PS4)