Rise of the Triad Started Out as a Wolfenstein Sequel

Killing Hitler in a Wolfenstein game is about as old of a video game tradition as stomping goombas in Super Mario World. What some Wolfenstein fans may not know is there was once a significantly different kind of Wolfenstein game lying in wait, but competition between id Software and 3D Realms resulted in the release of Rise of the Triad instead. 3D Realms’ Scott Miller sat down on this month’s IGN Unfiltered to dish details on how a proper Wolfenstein sequel got derailed.

“The game was going to be called Wolfenstein: Rise of the Triad,” Miller said. “It was going to be this continuation to where Hitler was just the puppet all along, but there was this triad, a sort of cult of background leaders who were involved with all these things. id Software was like, ‘Boom, we’re in on this.’ We had an agreement, it was going along, and about eight months into it, they decided to cancel the agreement. They had the rights to do that. I think they felt like our game was going to maybe butt heads with Doom a little too much and they didn’t want that.”

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Pokemon Go: Last Chance To Get Mewtwo

After initially being limited to the invite-only EX Raids, the Legendary Psychic Pokemon Mewtwo made its debut in standard Raid Battles last month, giving many Pokemon Go players their first opportunity to capture one. If you haven’t yet done so, your time is running out, as Mewtwo is set to leave Raids very soon.

The Legendary Psychic Pokemon is scheduled to depart from the game at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET on October 23, so you have until then to encounter one at Gyms. As is the case with all other Raid Bosses, you’ll first need to team up with other players in-person and battle it. If you manage to defeat the Legendary, you’ll earn a handful of Premier Balls and the chance to capture it.

Mewtwo remains one of the most popular–and powerful–Legendary Pokemon in the entire series, making it a formidable challenge. On top of that, one of the possible Charged Attacks it can know is Focus Blast, which is super-effective against many Pokemon that would typically have an advantage over it. Your best bet is to challenge Mewtwo using Bug, Dark, and Ghost Pokemon such as Scizor, Tyranitar, and Gengar.

A lot has been happening in Pokemon Go as of late. Earlier this week, Niantic rolled out the first wave of Gen 4 Pokemon, including the Sinnoh starters Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup. There are also a handful of region-exclusive Gen 4 monsters, which have only been appearing in certain parts of the world. No Gen 4 Legendaries have debuted in Pokemon Go just yet, but one–Giratina–was teased at the end of the game’s latest trailer, suggesting it could be on its way fairly soon.

Meanwhile, Pokemon Go’s next Community Day event takes place this Sunday, October 21. During it, players will have a much easier time of finding Beldum and hatching Pokemon. If you manage to evolve one into a Metagross, it will also learn the powerful new attack Meteor Mash. You can read everything you need to know about October’s Community Day here.

Some Great Nintendo Switch Deals On The US Eshop

Everyone likes saving money, and if you’re a Nintendo Switch owner, you can get some appealing deals on the Eshop right at this very moment. But because the Eshop doesn’t do scheduled weekly sales like many other digital game sellers, the prices here go back up on different dates depending on the game. So if you see something you want, grab it. With that in mind, let’s see what Switch games we can save money on for the next few days.

Now that the NBA season has begun, you might have basketball on the brain. If so, you can channel that sporting passion into NBA 2K19, which is on sale for $40. That’s a great deal, considering the game just came out last month and normally sells for $60. If you want to add a bunch of digital extras (you can see what’s included here), you can pick up the 20th Anniversary Edition of the game for $80, down from $100.

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Also on sale this week are Mega Man X Legacy Collection, which comes with games 1-4, and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2, which finishes off the series with games 5-8. They’re on sale for $15 each, which is $5 less than you’ll have to pay when they go back up to full price on October 24.

If you’re in the mood for a spooky game to get ready for Halloween, you have several choices on sale right now. Layers of Fear: Legacy is on sale for $14. It’s an adventure game about a painter who’s slowly going mad. Darkest Dungeon, on sale for $19, also deals with the loss of sanity, but packages it in a roguelike RPG. And if creepy puzzle games are more your thing, you can grab The Room for $9.

You can find more of our picks below, or check out the full selection of Switch, 3DS, and Wii U games on sale right now here.

WWE Evolution: Match Card, Date, And How To Watch The First All-Women PPV

The women’s evolution in WWE has been making strides the past year, and finally, the company’s female superstars will get their own PPV, aptly named Evolution. The show will showcase current talent from the women’s roster at the company while bringing back some iconic stars from the past.

Evolution comes to the WWE Network on Sunday, October 28 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET / 11 PM GMT. At this time, we’re unsure if a Kickoff Show will open up the show an hour prior. WWE’s Evolution will be held at NYCB Live in Uniondale, New York. If you’re in the area, tickets are still available for the upcoming event. If you want to check out the event for yourself, you can subscribe to WWE’s streaming service for $10 a month, or sign up for a free month and cancel at any time with no obligation.

Thus far, everything on the card is straight fire. The glorious pirate Kairi Sane and her amazing elbow drop continues her rivalry with the Queen of Spades, Shayna Baszler, for the NXT Championship. Also, Charlotte gets a rematch for the Smackdown Women’s Championship against the super-arrogant–and super-wonderful–Becky Lynch in a Last Woman Standing match, and the buildup to that match has been phenomenal over the past few weeks.

As of this writing, there are only five matches on the card. There is a week left to go before the show, but we’ll keep you updated as more matches are announced.

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Evolution Match Card:

  • 16-Woman Battle Royal
  • Kairi Sane (c) vs. Shayna Baszler (NXT Championship)
  • Trish Stratus & Lita vs. Alexa Bliss & Mickie James
  • Becky Lynch (c) vs. Charlotte Flair (Last Woman Standing Match for the Smackdown Championship)
  • Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Nikki Bella (Raw Championship)

Make sure to come back to GameSpot on Sunday, October 28 for live coverage of the event.

Black Ops 4 Double XP Weekend Coming Alongside Patch

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is off to a rousing start, and players who have jumped in already can get a leg up this weekend. Treyarch announced another patch, and alongside it comes the first Double XP weekend. Not to be outdone, the Zombies mode features Double Nebulium Plasma as well.

This comes alongside a substantial update to the game, with several fixes and improvements across each of its three modes. The studio specifically noted that it will include stability fixes for the Zombies mode. This comes shortly after another stability patch, so Treyarch isn’t resting on its laurels. The 2XP and Plasma is the headliner though, giving early adopters a chance to speed ahead and make some major progress quickly.

Black Ops 4 is the first game in the series to drop the bombastic single-player story campaign, instead focusing its efforts on three separate multiplayer modes: traditional competitive multiplayer, the popular Zombies mode, and the new battle royale Blackout. It does carry some story that ties into the Black Ops fiction, in the form of single-player missions following each of the multiplayer mode’s specialists.

That change doesn’t seem to have cooled its reception. The early sales are promising for Activision, and the critical reception has been generally positive. In GameSpot’s Black Ops 4 review, critic Kallie Plagge said the absence didn’t impact her enjoyment.

“Black Ops 4 isn’t short on content, and its three main modes are substantial,” she said. “Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don’t hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own. Sure, there isn’t a traditional single-player campaign, but with the depth and breadth of what is there, Black Ops 4 doesn’t need it.”

Hitman Offers Free Halloween Pack With Full Mission And Special Costume

To celebrate Halloween, the team at IO has flung open the doors of Hitman by offering a whole stage playable for free for a limited time. Plus since Agent 47 is known for dressing the part, he can take on the missions disguised as a spooky scarecrow.

According to the announcement, the Halloween Pack offers the Colorado location for free for anyone to download. You can access the Freedom Fighters mission, all of the Escalation and Featured Contracts, and make your own Contracts. Plus IO has made ten new Featured Contracts with a Halloween bent–telling spooky stories, causing wanton destruction, or dressing up in disguises.

Speaking of disguises, the pack also includes the very fashionable scarecrow outfit for 47. The whole pack is only available for a limited time, but IO didn’t detail when it will expire. Your game progress will transfer to the full game if you purchase it.

This appears mostly aimed at giving users a taste for Hitman’s brand of clockwork assassination-puzzles in time for Hitman 2. The sequel, which eschews the episodic model of the first, is due out on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 13. IO recently announced that actor Sean Bean will play its first Elusive Target in a limited-time mission available starting November 20.

PES 2019 Data Pack 2 Brings Two New Licensed Leagues And More

PES 2019 will receive a big update in the coming days to add two new licensed leagues, new stadiums, updated player faces, and more. Data Pack 2.0 will include the Chinese Super League and the Thai League in an official capacity, as well as new boots and gameplay enhancements.

Publisher Konami says “the full list of the CFA Super League and Thai League club teams and logos” will be added when the update comes to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 25. In addition, the patch will make tweaks to AI performance: Konami states COM opponents will now include more variation in their attacking styles and goalkeepers will perform better in one-on-one situations. More improvements will be seen in chip shot accuracy, heading ability, and defender positioning, Konami says. New boots from Puma, Nike, and Adidas are included in the update, along with two new stadiums: AS Monaco’s Stade Louis II and esports venue the eFootball.Pro Arena.

PES 2019 launched in August to critical acclaim. We awarded the sports sim a 9/10 in our PES 2019 review, with critic Richard Wakeling saying the series “continues to make brilliant strides on the pitch.”

“For as long as EA continues to develop FIFA and hold a monopoly over official licences, PES will be the scrappy underdog just hoping for a surprise upset, even when it’s fielding the likes of London Blue and PV White Red,” he wrote. “The lack of licences for top-tier leagues remains a disheartening sticking point, but PES continues to make brilliant strides on the pitch, building on what was already an incredibly satisfying game of football to produce one of the greatest playing football games of all time. It might be lacking off the pitch, but put it on the field against the competition and a famous giant killing wouldn’t be all that surprising.”

For more on Konami’s challenger, check out our look at how EA and FIFA beat PES to football’s biggest licenses.

PUBG’s Limited-Time Platoon Mode Canceled Due To “Critical Error”

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds‘ latest Event Mode, a 50v50 match called Platoon, will no longer go ahead this week, developer PUBG Corp. has confirmed. In a message on Twitter, the studio stated the event has been canceled “due to a critical error.” The company apologized and said: “Event Mode: Platoon will not be returning next week, but will return at a later date.”

Platoon splits the usual count of 100 players into two teams of 50, each containing five squads. The mode was due to launch on October 18 at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET (3 AM BST / 1 PM AET on October 19), but will now not arrive until “a later date.”

This isn’t the first time PUBG has tried its take on the 50v50 mode. It briefly ran a similar event back in May, when it was dubbed “Desert Knights,” but server issues and crashes led to the mode’s discontinuation within 24 hours. PUBG has been beset by issues in recent months: as an apology, PUBG Corp. has offered some free in-game loot for players who log in on PC this weekend.

Of course, PUBG has a new challenger on the market in the form of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s Blackout mode. For more on those two and the third big battle royale game, check out our look at how Black Ops 4’s Blackout compares to Fortnite: Battle Royale and PUBG.

New Halloween Movie Is Expected To Break Box Office Records

The new Halloween movie that brings back Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle is hitting theatres this weekend, and it’s expected to be a box office smash. According The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures is projecting it to make $50 million or more for its opening weekend in the US.

However, that may be an intentionally conservative estimate, as THR explains that tracking suggests it’s on pace to make $70 million or more over the weekend. The R-rated movie only cost about $10 million to make, so it could end up being enormously profitable.

The new Halloween is directed by David Gordon Green, who previously helmed the Seth Rogen stoner movie Pineapple Express, as well as the Sandra Bullock film Our Brand Is Crisis.As mentioned, Jamie Lee Curtis returns to play Laurie Strode as she yet again fights against the masked murdered Michael Myers. Nick Castle played Michael Myers in the original, and he’s returning for the new Halloween. John Carpenter, who directed 1978’s Halloween, is attached to the new film as a creative consultant.

GameSpot’s review of the new Halloween was mostly positive.

Halloween doesn’t reinvent the wheel or create a new subgenre of horror. What it does is take the best parts of all the films in the franchise, and deliver the ultimate companion piece to Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece,” reviewer Rafael Motamayor said. “It’s a film that not only has something to say about trauma and PTSD, but also delivers a bloody, fun time at the theater. Will Michael Myers return again? Who knows, but we sure as hell welcome him home.”

For more on the Halloween franchise, check out GameSpot’s ranking of the Halloween films. You can also check out GameSpot’s interview with producer Jason Blum where he talks about how they were able to convince John Carpenter to return.