Talking to BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, Ryan would not confirm a price, but did state that the pandemic had not changed PlayStation’s pricing plans. He also believes COVID-19 will not impact distribution of the console.
“It’s obviously introducing a level of complexity any business would prefer not to have to deal with,” he said. “But we’re feeling really good about the supply chain, we’re going to launch this year and we’ll be global.”
While he notes that hardware engineers have been unable to get to China to complete their work on finalising prototypes, Ryan states that “everybody’s just rolled their sleeves up and got on with it”.
Breaking from longstanding tradition, the next round of PlayStation Plus freebies began before the new month even arrived. PS4 users can now grab one of June’s free games, Call of Duty: WWII. The second freebie, Star Wars Battlefront II, will be free starting June 2, the first Tuesday of the month. This is one of the strongest free games lineups we’ve seen this year.
Developed by Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: WWII released in 2017 and brought the series back to its original World War II-era setting for the first time since World at War in 2008. Call of Duty: WWII is particularly known for having a strong single-player campaign, which clocks in around six hours. The online servers are still live, and while they aren’t extremely active, you can expect the player count to tick up since far more people will have access to it on PS4.
In addition to the campaign and traditional multiplayer playlists, WWII also has a fun narrative-focused War mode with unique maps and lengthy attack/defend objectives. The strong package earned the first-person shooter a 9/10 in our Call of Duty: WWII review: “Ultimately, if every shooter set in the European Theater of World War II is measured by how it depicts its D-Day landing–assuming it has such a mission–Call of Duty: WWII emphatically succeeds in its impactful designs and delivery. The sensation of riding the troop carrier as it approached the beach filled me with depression more than dread, knowing I’d survive eventually while many of my surrounding brothers in arms wouldn’t. While not equally emotional, this battle’s reinterpretation in War mode proves to be a highlight in a superb suite of competitive modes,” we wrote. If you’re looking to jump in, check out our Call of Duty: WWII tips and tricks roundup for all of our guides.
Best PlayStation Plus deal
Meanwhile, Star Wars Battlefront II has evolved to become a fairly solid multiplayer experience since launching back in 2017. It earned a 6/10 in GameSpot’s Star Wars Battlefront II review. EA has offered consistent support since release, listening to fan feedback along the way. The game recently received its last major update, so if you’re diving in for the first time, you’ll experience Battlefront II in its final form. Battlefront II has a fun, if a tad underwhelming, campaign and a suite of multiplayer modes to enjoy online with friends.
As a console that can be played both on a TV and in handheld mode, the Nintendo Switch occupies a unique space. Sure, you could choose to leave it in the dock forever and only play with one of the many great Switch controllers, but chances are you also like popping out of the Switch dock the convenience and portability of Nintendo’s nifty gadget. That’s why finding the best switch case should be one of your top priorities after you buy a Switch. You should take care to protect your Nintendo Switch console from damage, after all–a simple screen protector won’t cover every kind of accident, after all. And if you own the handheld-only Switch Lite, it’s arguably even more important to pick up a nice carrying case. We’ve rounded up our picks for the best Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite case you can buy today, and a significant number of them are a bargain, honestly.
In addition suggestions for a Switch case, we’ve also included the best Switch grips that make playing any Nintendo Switch game handheld mode more comfortable, backpacks and messenger bags for comprehensive travel options, and shells to snap on while playing. We’ve separated the Nintendo Switch cases from Switch Lite options, so make sure you grab a case that fits your model. After picking out the best Nintendo Switch case for youi, take a look at our best Nintendo Switch accessories guide to find more helpful products for your Switch.
Quick look: Best Nintendo Switch Cases
…and more
The Nintendo Switch console has become a hot commodity over the past few months due to limited stock and increased interest while more people are staying at home. While it’s still quite challenging to find a Switch console, the Switch Lite is restocked at least a couple of times per week. We’ve been keeping track of Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite stock, so make sure to check out our guide to finding a Switch if you’re looking for one. GameStop also sometimes has Switch bundles that include games and accessories.
Officially licensed by Nintendo, the RDS Industries Deluxe Travel Case is a great option. With recesses designed specifically to house the Switch with Joy-Con, you don’t have to worry about your console moving around. The hard shell design protects the Switch from drops, and it also comes with a zippered mesh pocket to store small accessories, a pair of plastic cases that hold four games each, and two microSD card cases. This Nintendo Switch case is available in plain black, Zelda-themed, and Mario Kart-themed.
A slim-fitting case that mimics the look of the Switch itself, this Tomtoc hard shell case is ideal for those looking for something that won’t take up much room in their backpack. Despite being so small, it still has an insert to store up to 10 games. It’s available in gray, black, pink, camouflage, and red.
Orzly’s hard shell Nintendo Switch carrying case comes with a substantial mesh pouch that is big enough to store two pairs of additional Joy-Con and a charging cable (and maybe even an HDMI cable, if you’re feeling fancy). It also has an eight-card insert to store games.
Hori’s officially licensed Alumi Case has a slick metal exterior that protects your console from drops. It’s minimalistic on the inside, with just a five-card insert to store games, so it’s definitely more of a protective case. The real draw of Hori’s Nintendo Switch case is the Nintendo-themed designs featuring Zelda, Mario, or Pikachu, each of which really pop.
PDP’s Deluxe Travel Case comes in three styles: gray, Pikachu, and Poke Ball. It’s ideal for those with larger libraries of games, as it holds a whopping 14 game cartridges. The hard shell Nintendo Switch case also has a mesh pouch to store earbuds, cleaning cloths, and small cables as well as a strap to lock Joy-Con sliders into place. PDP’s travel case is also officially licensed by both Nintendo and The Pokemon Company.
This hard shell Nintendo Switch case is built with shock resistant polyester, has a spacious mesh pouch, and includes an attached cartridge holder to store up to eight games. The Switch fits snugly, with recessed slots for the Joy-Con, and nylon straps to hold the console in place. While it’s not much to look at, it gets the job done and has a non-slip handle.
Arguably the most stylish Nintendo Switch case out there, Cityslicker’s leather case comes in blue, black, chocolate, crimson, and grizzly. It’s significantly more expensive than most cases on this list at $79, but hey, it’s formal enough to take into a Wall Street office. The case has a spacious zippered pocket to store small accessories, and you can add extra features like matching game card holders and straps.
For ultimate safety when traveling with your full Switch setup, RDS Industries Deluxe Travel System Case is your best bet. It has dedicated slots for the console, dock, cables, and an extra controller (Joy-Con with grip or Pro controller). The Deluxe System Switch case is officially licensed by Nintendo and comes with a pair of four-card game cases.
HyperX’s ChargePlay Clutch doubles as a portable charging dock to give your Switch extra juice during your commutes. The grip case has a 6,000mAh extended battery that adds up to five hours of playtime. The ChargePlay bulks up the Switch to make it more comfortable to hold for extended sessions. Alternatively, you can separate the console stand from the Joy-Con stand to play in tabletop mode or simply charge your devices. The ChargePlay is one of the best Nintendo Switch grips you can buy.
If you find playing the Switch in handheld mode uncomfortable, grip cases can work wonders. JETech’s Nintendo Switch grip case is budget-friendly while adding nice back grips that make playing for extended periods of time less stressful on your hands. It also lets you grip the console in a more natural way, especially if you have big hands. This Nintendo Switch case comes in four colors: black, green, blue, and plum.
Mumba’s Nintendo Switch grip case has the added benefit of being dockable, so you don’t have to remove it when playing in console mode. The clear back panel design lets you still see the Switch logo, while the grip itself is wonderfully ergonomic. Also, the case is scratch and shock resistant.
Skull & Co.’s Nintendo Switch grip is easily one of the best around, as it comes with three interchangeable handles to help make it comfortable no matter who is playing. It also increases the size of the ZL/ZR triggers, which is great considering the default Joy-Con triggers are a tad small. This particular set also includes a Nintendo Switch case with 10 game card slots and a mesh pocket, but you need to remove the console from the grip to use it. While the Switch is technically dockable with the grip attached, it’s a really tight fit.
If you’re mainly worried about scratches and dings, Fyoung’s clear shell Nintendo Switch case preserves the look of the console while protecting it from casual wear and tear. This plastic case covers the entire console while retaining the ability to dock the Switch for console mode. It’s not extremely heavy duty, nor does it have the egonomic feel of grip cases on this list, but it’s a nice option for those who want to keep the out-of-the-box look.
Satisfye’s Switch grip is one of our favorites, and this bundle is a worthwhile investment. It comes with the stellar ergonomic grip and a Nintendo Switch carrying case specifically designed to carry the Switch while it’s in the grip. The hard shell case can also hold 10 games.
If you’re shopping for a backpack, you may want to consider PDP’s Elite Switch System Backpack. Specially designed to hold the Nintendo Switch, Pro controller, dock, and cables, this backpack would be great for anyone who regularly takes their Switch with them on trips. It also has a dedicated laptop compartment and a front zippered pocket to store other small essentials.
For those who favor messenger bags, PowerA has a nice option. The Everywhere Messenger Bag has cozy compartments for the dock, cables, Pro controller, and console–though we’d still recommend storing the Switch in a hard shell Nintendo Switch case to be safe. It comes in black, Super Mario-themed, and Zelda-themed.
Hori’s Adventure Pack is a compact shoulder bag that safely stores your Switch, dock, controllers, cables, and other accessories. Plus it comes in four cool designs: Poke Ball, Pikachu, Zelda, and Super Mario.
Basically a starter kit for your Switch Lite, Orzly’s accessory bundle is an incredible value. It comes with a grip case with attached kickstand, a Nintendo Switch Lite carrying case that holds eight games and plenty of accessories in its pair of mesh pockets, and much more. You get two tempered glass screen protectors, a stylus (great for Super Mario Maker 2), a game cartridge case, earbuds, USB-C charging cable, and six thumb grips. If you recently bought a Switch Lite, this bundle is arguably the best you can get for your money at $40. It comes in several colors, including blue, gray, pink, red, yellow, and black. The black bundle only costs $35, too.
A solid Switch Lite travel case at bargain price, the Ztotop carrying case safely stores your Switch while offering a surprising amount of room for accessories thanks to a mesh pocket and cartridge holder to store up to 10 games. It comes in several colors, including gray, blue, and black.
Best for those looking for a sleek Nintendo Switch Lite case, Tomtoc’s hard shell carry case offers military-grade protection without the bulk. That said, it still has an insert to hold up to eight game cartridges.
ButterFox’s Slim Compact Case is ergonomically designed to store the Switch and keep it in place without taking up much room at all. It’s also loaded with a surprising amount of storage space, as it’s capable of holding 19 games, two microSD cards, and small accessories in the zippered mesh pocket. The case also comes in a bunch of different colors, including gray, yellow, pink, and turquoise to match the four Switch Lite models.
ProCase’s carrying pouch resembles a wallet, which makes it quite a bit different than most of the cases on this list. While it won’t provide as much protection against drops, it does have an appealing look. The carrying pouch has five game card slots, too. It’s available in turquoise and yellow.
Nintendo’s Flip Cover keeps both the front and back of the Switch safe much like Apple’s Smart covers for iPads. Simply flip it over to play without detaching the case. The convenient design keeps the screen free of dust when not in use.
JETech also makes a great grip case for the Switch Lite. Crucially, it’s clear, so you can still see the snazzy yellow, turquoise, coral, or gray finish on your console while using it.
Almost identical in design to Mumba’s Switch grip, this Switch Lite grip case bolsters the ergonomics of your Switch Lite while retaining access to all of the essential ports and keeping the majority of the finish exposed but safe from scratches.
Satisfye’s Switch Lite grip mirrors the excellent design of the regular Switch grip, which makes it a no-brainer if you’re looking to add some extra comfort to your Switch Lite. Its ergonomic design really does make a huge difference, especially for those with larger hands. This bundle comes with a hard shell case that is large enough to fit the Switch Lite while attached to the grip. Alternatively, you can buy the grip by itself for $27.
Hori’s DuraFlexi Protector covers the entire Switch Lite with clear plastic to keep the console safe from scratches and dings. It easily snaps on and off, making it an ideal choice for those who are happy with the original design but want a little more peace of mind.
Will Disney still release its live-action reimagining of Mulan in theaters in July as it’s long claimed it would? Obviously, any theatrical release is entirely dependent on when cinemas reopen following worldwide COVID-19 closures but a Wall Street analyst claims Disney may ultimately opt to “kill” Mulan’s theatrical release in favor of a digital debut. And that such a move may ultimately be better for Disney’s business than pushing it out to theaters that cannot run at full capacity.
Analyst Michael Nathanson of the firm MoffettNathanson said on an investors’ conference call that if Mulan can gross even half of the usual $1 billion Disney’s pre-pandemic spate of blockbusters usually made “it will be a freakin’ home run.”
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=%22I%20don%E2%80%99t%20think%20it%E2%80%99s%20a%20given%20that%20Mulan%E2%80%98s%20going%20to%20be%20released%20as%20we%20think.%22″]As Deadline reports: “Exhibitors and Disney alike have held firm that they are moving forward with the July plan, but Nathanson isn’t sure the studio will follow through. Beyond the viability of theaters, he said, the company would have to ‘un-furlough a lot of their employees’ in distribution and marketing. ‘I don’t think it’s a given that Mulan‘s going to be released as we think.’”
As with Tenet, Hollywood’s other major July release, Mulan’s theatrical run depends on 80% of cinemas worldwide being open within the next three weeks, including major American markets like New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. (And, remember, theaters will still be required to practice social distancing so attendance will be limited.) If theaters in such markets still remain closed, it’s likely Disney will have to push Mulan’s release date again. Or, as analyst Nathanson suspects, Disney will opt to release Mulan digitally instead.
He believes a Mulan digital release could serve as “a bit of a boost” to Disney+ and help Disney’s stock in the long run: “If they do kill Mulan, that could help the narrative. In a perverse way, that could be better for Disney stock in the long run than having Mulan go to theaters.” (It should be noted that Mulan was tracking to be the biggest box office hit of 2020, domestically, before the pandemic struck the U.S.)
This analysis doesn’t appear to account for what sort of backlash Disney could face from theatrical exhibitors should it pull such a high-profile movie as Mulan and release it on digital instead. AMC Theaters is at war with Universal over the studio’s decision to drop theatrical releases for Trolls World Tour and The King of Staten Island in favor of VOD, and Warner Bros. has been careful to reiterate that Tenet will be a theatrical release after shifting Scoob! to digital.
Would you be more willing to watch Mulan in theaters or on digital? Let us know in the comments!
More than ever, people are turning to streaming services in order to get their entertainment. Whether it be watching moves, TV shows, or originals content, these services offer up programming just as good–and sometimes higher quality–than what cable or satellite TV can provide. And watching on-demand services has never been easier, as users can watch on-demand video on their computer, television, phones, and video game consoles. Premium channels like HBO and Showtime are also getting into the streaming game as well, offering standalone apps. But for those who aren’t ready to leave cable, there are also services streaming local channels to your streaming device as well. Live TV streaming services are also a legitimate rival to TV, and that’s not changing anytime soon.
The days of an Netflix merely complimenting your cable package are gone. There are a ton of options out there now, for better and worse. Subscribing to one streaming service is a steal compared to cable, but sticking to just the best TV streaming service isn’t as convenient as it used to be. Most services don’t have access to all the TV channels like Comedy Central, As you rack up subscriptions to other services, the combined price can start to look a lot like that cable bill you were so eager to ditch. Even just a combination of the most popular services–Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Prime Video–will cost you $30 a month on the low end.
To help you make the best decisions, we’ve put together this handy guide outlining the best TV streaming services to consider in 2020. We weighed both cost and content and will continue to re-evaluate over time as services change and new options become available.
Price: Basic – $9/month, Standard – $13/month, Premium – $16/month
Notable original content: Black Mirror, BoJack Horseman, The Haunting of Hill House, Stranger Things, The Witcher, Russian Doll, The Irishman, Ozark, Mindhunter, Aggretsuko
Supported Devices: Roku, Roku Streaming Stick, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Fire Stick, Fire Tablet, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Android TV, Android phones, Android tablets, Google Chromecast, Nvidia Shield, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, and web browsers.
Bottom line: If you can only subscribe to one streaming service, Netflix is the clear winner.
Netflix is the reason competition in the streaming space exists. The online DVD retailer turned video streaming giant has had a far larger impact on the home media industry than any of the other services on this list. Even with its stranglehold over the streaming industry, Netflix hasn’t rested on its laurels. It remains the most popular streaming service for a reason–well, many reasons. Netflix has the largest and most varied collection of programming of any of the services available today. Its library includes a diverse array of original movies and TV content with a bounty of cable shows and popular films, including a nice selection of great anime and even some original anime. But Netflix doesn’t just produce multi-episode series that’ll keep you binge-watching through the weekend: it also makes feature films and documentaries that eat only a couple of hours of your time.
It’s a cliche, but Netflix really does have something for everyone. If you’re a fan of superheroes, The Umbrella Academy and a slew of (now-canceled) Marvel shows are available to stream. If you want to watch some of the most innovative modern comedies, Russian Doll and I Think You Should Leave have you covered. If you like horror, The Haunting of Hill House is there to make you sleep with the lights on. True crime buffs can don their thinking caps during Making a Murderer. And it’s the only place to watch Martin Scorsese’s latest film, The Irishman. Netflix even has a dedicated section for children’s TV shows and movies that’s filled with enough animation to keep the kiddos content for the long haul. Anime fans can also enjoy some excellent original anime like Carole & Tuesday, Aggretsuko and Devilman Crybaby, and some popular shows like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Death Note, and Fairy Tail. One of the few drawbacks for sports fans is Netflix’s lack of live sports coverage. Unless you count the occasional MMA documentary, Netflix isn’t the place for sports, and certainly not live streaming sports.
Netflix subscriptions start at $9 per month, which lets you watch on one screen at a time in standard definition. For $13 per month, two users can watch at once, and the resolution is bumped up to high definition. If you’re sharing your subscription with your family and friends (everyone does it), the $16 premium subscription is the way to go, as it allows four users to watch simultaneously and supports 4K Ultra HD for compatible content. It’s also the service most likely to be compatible across all of your streaming devices, which makes this app hard to pass up for pure convenience alone.
Price: $6/month (with ads), $11/month (no ads), $45/month for Hulu + Live TV
Notable original content: Marvel’s Runaways, The Handmaid’s Tale, Ramy, Castle Rock, Shrill, The Path, Veronica Mars, The Mindy Project, 11.22.63, The Act
Supported devices: Amazon Fire TV, Android, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Roku streaming stick, Roku streaming TV models, select Samsung and LG smart TVs, Echo Show, PS4, Xbox One, and web browsers.
Bottom line: Hulu is best for those who want to get into current TV streaming.
Hulu’s main draw is its plethora of cable TV shows, making it a different style of streaming service than Netflix. Hulu adds a significant number of episodes the day after they air on TV, making Hulu the natural choice for those who are hesitant to abandon traditional cable. In the same respect, Hulu is probably not the best bet for those who still have cable. While Hulu has some great original programming, including The Handmaid’s Tale and Castle Rock, the brunt of the library features shows that you can easily find each week or on-demand TV. Hulu occasionally has some good movies to stream, but television is definitely the focus here.
Hulu’s cable TV content is extremely varied and includes shows from ABC, Adult Swim, Fox, FX, NBC, and many other networks. There are far too many shows to list here, but here’s a snapshot of what Hulu has to offer when it comes to scripted shows: This Is Us, The Good Doctor, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, Rick and Morty, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Preacher, The Terror, and NOS4A2. Popular reality shows like The Bachelor and Survivor are also available. Hulu even has a nice collection of anime, including popular series like Naruto Shippuden, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Cowboy Bebop, and Sailor Moon.
For now, Hulu remains a great option for recent cord-cutters. And if you haven’t cut the cord just yet, subscribing for a month or two to binge some of the original content is certainly worthwhile. Hulu subscriptions start at $6 per month. It’s a bargain for sure, but the $6 tier has ads. For $11 per month, you can enjoy all of Hulu’s content without ads. With PlayStation Vue out of the picture, Hulu is the clear winner when it comes to breaking away from cable.
If you mainly use your cable subscription to watch sports or other live events like awards shows, the Hulu Live TV package is a stellar alternative to your set-top box cable, especially if you have smart TV. For $45 Hulu becomes a mostly complete TV streaming service; you get access to Hulu’s streaming content and a ton of channels, including ESPN, Fox Sports 1, and major news networks. Hulu Live TV users get to follow their favorite sports teams from the NFL, NCAA, NBA, MLS, MLB, and NHL, and it allows sports fans to record their games, provided they’re available. And if there’s a major cable channel, chances are you’ll get it or be able to pay for it.
Notable networks: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Disney Channel, ESPN, AMC, Fox Sports
Supported devices: Android phones, Android tablets, Android TV, Apple TV, Iphone, Ipad, Google Chromecast, iOS, Nvidia Shield, Roku, Chrome web browser, PS4, Xbox One, Vizio SmartCast TVs, and select Samsung and LG smart TVs
Bottom line: YouTube TV offers the experience of cable at a lower price.
There aren’t too many Live TV streaming services quite yet, and YouTube TV is essentially your current cable service at a lower price with the backing of Youtube and Google. Unlike Sling, YouTube TV comes with live-streaming of the four major TV networks: ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. Overall, it offers more than 70 channels, including all of the most popular news and a large number of sports networks. YouTube TV does fall a bit short in device support, especially compared to the other competitors covered. What it does have is the most flexible cloud DVR, which allows users to store their programming for up to nine months after recording, including standard pause/rewind and fast-forward features available.
YouTube TV is a better service than Sling TV simply because it gives you more options. You pay for those added options, though. YouTube TV costs $50 per month. It’s also more likely to be included on third-party devices like Fire TV. Add-on networks include Showtime, Fox Soccer Plus, Shudder, Sundance Now, and Starz. Like Sling TV, HBO isn’t available on this service. You can stream simultaneously on six devices, which means you can share your service (and split the cost!) with family and friends.
Price: $30/month for Blue or Orange, $45/month for Blue + Orange
Notable networks: ESPN, TBS, TNT, AMC, FX, Cartoon Network, USA, TLC, History, Disney Channel, Nick Jr.
Supported devices: Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire tablets, Android, Apple TV, Airplay, AirTV, AirTV 2, Google Chromecast, iOS, Mac, Nvidia Shield, Select LG Smart TVs, LeEco devices, Roku Streaming Stick, Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, web browsers, PS4, Xbox One, Xfinity X1, Xiaomi Mi Box, ZTE devices, and Oculus devices.
Bottom line: Sling is the best live TV streaming option for sports fans.
Sling TV is for cord-cutters who don’t want to drop the cable experience. Sling TV offers live TV streaming for more than 50 networks, including ESPN, TBS, TNT, FX, CNN, and many more. It also houses a library of on-demand TV shows and movies from its supported networks. What you won’t find on Sling TV are major networks channel like ABC, Fox, CBS, and NBC.
As a cable alternative, Sling TV is pricier than the more traditional streaming services on this list. There are three plans available: Sling Blue, Sling Orange, and Orange & Blue. Both Sling Blue and Sling Orange cost $30 per month (first month is $20). There’s some crossover between the two plans in terms of channel lineup, so you’ll have to compare the two to see which one has more of the channels you want. Alternatively, you can get all of Sling’s live TV channels in the Orange & Blue plan for $45 per month (the first month is $35).
Notable networks: AMC, BBC America, Comedy Central, Discovery, Food Network, Game Show Network, History, MTV, Nickelodeon, Travel Channel, Vice
Supported devices: Mac and Windows (on a web browser), iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, Android TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV
Bottom line: Philo offers up cable channels that other streaming services may not have, primarily channels like MTV, Travel Channel, and others–58 in total. It’s a straight-forward service that features live TV, recording content as it airs, and VOD for a very reasonable price. In fact, compared to Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV, and Sling, Philo is the cheapest of the services.
However, that may be because it’s missing channels you may want to watch. Local affiliate networks are not on the service, and you won’t find any sports channels here either. If you’re planning on staying informed with the news, you’re not going to get that here. Philo is strictly entertainment television, ranging from music to comedy to reality TV, and the vast majority of the channels included on the service you know or have heard of. There isn’t a lot of bloat here. If you feel like YouTube TV or Sling is a bit too pricey and offers up too many channels you don’t want to watch, you may want to move to Philo.
As for using the service, the UI on both desktop and on apps is easy to navigate and understand. The layout all makes complete sense, and searching for a TV show or movie is easy. If you like a certain TV show, you can favorite it, so it always pops up right at the top of the home page. Additionally, if you like a specific channel, you can do the same, and it will be the first channel you see in the guide. Philo has a great understanding of what its users want in an app.
Notable content: The Mandalorian, Forky Asks A Question, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, scores of Disney, Pixar, and Marvel movies
Supported Devices: Amazon Fire TV, Android phones, Android tablets, Android TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Iphone, Ipad, LG smart TVs, Nvidia Shield, web browsers, PS4, Xbox One, Roku, and Samsung smart TVs
Bottom line: Disney+ is the best streaming service for kids and young adults who want to relive their childhoods.
Disney+ launched to much fanfare in November 2019 thanks to the debut of the first live-action Star Wars show, The Mandalorian, and an eclectic library filled with a treasure trove of Disney and Pixar movies. If you’re mainly subscribing to a streaming service for your kids, Disney+ is the way to go.
Though Disney+ is rather limited when it comes to fresh original content right now, there are plenty of original TV shows in the works to get excited about, especially for Marvel fans. WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are slated to arrive in 2020, while Loki, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk are on the docket for 2021. There’s also the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars series to look forward to.
For now, the main draw of Disney+ is its vast library of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, National Geographic and Star Wars content. This includes classic Disney animated films like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, Pixar hits like The Incredibles 2 and Wall-E, the first eight films in the Skywalker saga, and the majority of the MCU movies–Disney+ is brimming with popular content that is fun for the whole family. Disney+ also has a collection of Fox content, including the first 30 seasons of The Simpsons and movies like Home Alone and The Sandlot.
Disney+ costs $6 per month or $70 per year ($5.83/month). You can also purchase a $13/month bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu (with ads), and ESPN+. Verizon customers with unlimited plans can get a free year of Disney+.
Amazon Prime Video
Best streaming service you probably forgot you had
The Expanse
Price: $9/month (video streaming only) or $119/year for full Prime membership
Notable content: The Expanse, The Man In The High Castle, Bosch, Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Good Omens, The Boys, Homecoming, The Tick, Fleabag, Psycho-Pass 3
Supported devices: Live channel features only available on Amazon Fire TV; channel content can be accessed through your web browser and compatible smart TVs, Blu-ray players, PS4, Xbox One, set-top-boxes, Fire tablets, and by any device that supports Prime Video Now
Bottom line: Amazon Prime Video has a great library, but it’s best for those who also use other Prime benefits.
Amazon Prime Video is an interesting streaming service because it comes bundled with all Amazon Prime subscriptions. We’d imagine that a sizable contingent of Amazon Prime members subscribed for the free one- or two-day shipping, not the huge library of movies and TV shows. But Prime Video is actually pretty darn good.
Prime Video features a growing collection of original content, including standout TV shows like The Expanse, The Boys, Fleabag, and The Man In The High Castle. It also receives movies distributed by Amazon Studios such as The Big Sick, Manchester by the Sea, and Beautiful Boy.
While Amazon Prime doesn’t have quite as robust of a library of network content, it does have some of the best shows released over the last two decades. HBO hits like Six Feet Under, The Wire, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and Curb Your Enthusiasm (through Season 8) are all available to stream. Prime Video also houses some excellent network TV, including The X-Files, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Americans, and Justified. A kids’ section features a fairly large selection of both live-action and animated shows and movies. Prime Video also has a nice selection of anime, including Vinland Saga, Psycho-Pass 3, and Made in Abyss.
Amazon Prime costs $119 per year (roughly $10/month). You can skip Prime shipping perks and subscribe to Prime Video for only $9/month, but what you lose out on is far more valuable than the minuscule savings. Prime Video is great, but if you already subscribe to Netflix, you’ll find a lot of overlap with the exception of the HBO backlist. With that said, we recommend Prime Video for those who will make use of their Amazon Prime membership.
HBO Max
Best original series and movie selection
Watchmen
Price: $15/month
Notable original content: Succession, Barry, Insecure, Watchmen, His Dark Materials, Big Little Lies, Westworld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Game of Thrones, True Detective
Supported Devices: Apple TV, Android TV, iOS, Android, PS4, Xbox One, Chromecast, web
Bottom line: HBO was already home to some of the best TV, and HBO Max adds an impressive back catalog of movies you can’t watch anywhere else.
It’s no secret that HBO produces some of the very best TV series ever made. In the 2000s, The Wire and The Sopranos defined TV. In the 2010s, Game of Thrones captivated millions of viewers each week. Just last year, HBO released arguably the best show of the year in Watchmen and pushed one of the best ongoing dramas, Succession, to new heights. HBO also excels at comedies, with the wholly engrossing Barry leading the pack and the pivotal Curb Your Enthusiasm wrapping its 10th season earlier this year.
Now with the new HBO Max service–which is included with HBO Now and cable HBO subscriptions–HBO is even better than before thanks to the addition of roughly 1,300 movies at launch. The massive new collection of content solves HBO’s longstanding the problem: It wasn’t always worth it to keep your subscription when your favorite show wasn’t currently airing a new season.
With the arrival of HBO Max, it’s easy to recommend HBO’s platform as a year-round subscription service that has the potential to rival the biggest streaming players like Netflix and Hulu. HBO Max is currently streaming recent movies like Us and Detective Pikachu as well as a staggering number of older movies. You can watch plenty of Godzilla films, every Harry Potter movie, and every Studio Ghibli movie for the first time on a streaming service. A big library of DC comic book movies and a long list of films from the Criterion Collection are available to stream. TV shows like Doctor Who and Friends (both exclusive to HBO Max) help bolster the back catalog even more.
The only big downside to HBO Max right now is that it’s not available on Roku or Fire TV, which has made for some confusing messaging on how to watch the service. Hopefully the biggest two streaming platforms will be supported in the future. Still, it’s hard to find too much to complain about with HBO Max when you consider the simply excellent library of content available already. It’s pricier than other services at $15, but you’re getting the best selection of movies in addition to all of HBO’s popular programming.
AppleTV Plus
Best at bringing Steve Carell back to TV
The Morning Show
Price: $5/month, $50/year
Notable original content: The Morning Show, For All Mankind, Dickinson, Servant, Snoopy in Space
Supported Devices: Amazon Fire TV Cube, Amazon TV Fire Stick, Apple TV, Iphone, Ipad, LG smart TVs, web browsers, Roku, Roku Express, and Samsung smart TVs
Bottom line: AppleTV Plus has a lot of star power, but it’s limited on content.
AppleTV Plus launched the same month as Disney+. Unlike Disney+, however, AppleTV Plus is entirely focused on new original content. Though that fact makes AppleTV Plus interesting, it also means that it’s low on content at the moment. However, Apple has secured big names to both star in its productions and work on them behind the scenes.
For instance, The Morning Show, which follows a group of newscasters, stars Steve Carell, Jennifer Aniston, and Reece Witherspoon. Servant, an unsettling show about hiring a babysitter to take care of a doll, comes from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan. In addition to series aimed at adult viewers, Apple TV Plus has a new Peanuts show called Snoopy in Space and multiple Sesame Workshop in the works. AppleTV Plus’ Silicon Valley-esque show Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet will be of interest to video game fans. Set in a video game development studio and starring Rob McElhenney of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame, Mythic Quest is binge-worthy comedy.
AppleTV Plus is worth checking out, especially at the reasonable price of $5 per month or $50 per year. Since the service is so new, it’s too early to say if it will be something you’ll want to hold onto for the long haul, though.
CBS All Access
Best for Star Trek fans
Star Trek: Picard
Price: Starting at $6/month
Notable original content: Star Trek: Picard, The Good Fight, Star Trek: Discovery, Why Women Kill, No Activity, Stephen King’s The Stand (upcoming)
Supported Devices: Roku, Roku Streaming Stick, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Cube, Amazon Fire Stick, Amazon Fire Tablet, Apple TV, Ipad, Iphone, Android TV, Android phones, Android tablets, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Google Chromecast, and web browsers
Bottom line: CBS All Access features new original programming, but it’s really geared toward those who want access to CBS’s historical library.
CBS All Access has been around since 2014 and is the first streaming TV service from a major television network. It started out mainly as a place to stream both ongoing and old CBS shows. While its library is still primarily comprised of shows you’d watch on CBS, the service now has a growing assortment of original shows, including the new Star Trek: Picard, Why Women Kill, and the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s beloved novel, The Stand.
CBS All Access’ slate of original programming probably isn’t worth subscribing to if you have cable, though. It’s best to look at CBS All Access as another subscription that can be dropped and re-added as new exclusive shows arrive on the service.
That said, if you do not have cable and want to watch current CBS shows, CBS All Access is your best bet. Unsurprisingly, CBS doesn’t license many of its shows to services like Netflix and Hulu. You’ll also be able to watch CBS sports content with CBS All Access, including NFL games and March Madness.
CBS All Access with ads is $6 per month, while the ad-free subscription costs $10 per month.
Disclosure: CBS is GameSpot’s parent company.
Shudder
Best for horror fans
Creepshow
Price: $6/month, $57/year
Notable original content: Creepshow, The Last Drive-in with Jo Bob Briggs, The Core, Primal Screen
Supported Devices: Shudder website via PC or laptop, Iphone, Ipad, Android phones, Android tablets, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, PS4, and Xbox One
Bottom line: Shudder is the best streaming service for horror fans.
AMC’s Shudder has been around since 2016. Catering specifically to fans of horror, Shudder’s library has grown substantially over the years. In 2019, Shudder released Creepshow, a horror anthology series and stellar follow-up to the classic film directed by George Romero and written by Stephen King. Season 2 is currently in the works. Though Shudder is still finding its footing with original programming, there’s no denying it offers the widest collection of classic and contemporary horror.
Shudder features the expected classics like Psycho, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Birds, Phantasm, and Night of the Living Dead while also housing a substantial library of horror films and shows you may have never heard of before. Yes, giants like Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video have some horror, but their selections are nothing compared to Shudder.
Shudder costs $6 per month or $57 for an annual membership ($4.75 per month). To help you find the type of horror movies and shows you’re looking for, Shudder has a huge list of curated collections to browse.
DC Universe
Best for comic book fans
Titans
Price: $8/month, $75/year
Notable original content: Krypton, Titans, Doom Patrol, DC Daily, Swamp Thing, Young Justice, Harley Quinn
Supported Devices: Web browsers, Iphone, Ipad, Apple TV, Android phones, Android tablets, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox One, and Amazon Kindle
Bottom line: DC Universe offers a treasure trove of content for DC fans.
Released in 2018, DC Universe is home to a growing slate of original DC programming and a vast back catalogue containing DC shows and movies, both live-action and animated. Most notably, DC Universe has Titans, a mature, live-action follow-up to Teen Titans, and Doom Patrol, which moves into its second season later this year.
Though DC Universe doesn’t have very many original shows at this time, it does have an impressive back catalogue. You’ll find a ton of animated Batman movies, including Batman: Hush, Batman Ninja, and Batman: Year One. Superman is also prominently represented with The Death of Superman, Reign of Supermen, and the 1978 movie starring Christopher Reeve. Animated shows like Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Justice League, The New Adventures of Superman can also be streamed in their entirety. DC Universe subscribers get daily update videos courtesy of DC Daily, which chronicles all of the DC news you need to know.
DC Universe is fairly pricey at $8 per month, but a $75 annual subscription can save you some cash. Naturally, DC Universe is geared toward dedicated fans of DC Comics. Subscribers also get the added bonus of having access to select digital issues of comic books. Since HBO Max will also have DC shows (such as the previously exclusive Doom Patrol), you could get your DC fix elsewhere. However, we’d definitely recommend DC Universe for those who are fans of DC’s animated shows and movies.
ESPN Plus
Best for sports enthusiasts
30 For 30
Price: $5/month, $50/year
Notable content: 30 For 30, Peyton’s Places, NBA Rooks, Detail, ESPN FC, UFC Embedded
Supported Devices: web browsers, Iphone, Ipad, Apple TV, Android Phone, Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, PS4, Xbox One, Oculus Go, and Samsung smart TVs
Bottom line: ESPN Plus doesn’t replace cable, but it still has its positives.
Before diving into what ESPN Plus is, it’s important to relay what it is not. ESPN Plus doesn’t give subscribers access to live sports and events airing on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNews. That means you won’t get to watch NBA, NFL, or MLB games. However, ESPN Plus does have out-of-market MLS games, tennis tournaments, UFC events, and more niche sports (at least in the US) like cricket and rugby.
ESPN Plus also has a number of exclusive shows such as Peyton’s Places and Detail, which is hosted by former NBA star Kobe Bryant. It also has the entire library of ESPN’s riveting 30 For 30 documentaries.
ESPN Plus is more of a supplemental service for the average sports fan. At $5 per month or $50 per year, the service has a friendly price, especially for tennis and soccer fans.
WWE Network
Best for WWE fans
WWE Network
Price: $10/month
Notable content: All pay-per-view events, 205 Live, NXT
Supported Devices: Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, PS4, and Xbox One.
Bottom line: For the pay-per-view events alone, WWE Network is worth the cost.
Pay-per-view WWE events like Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and WrestleMania typically cost around $50 through your cable provider. The WWE Network costs $10 per month and lets you watch every pay-per-view event. It’s not hard to see the value in the WWE’s streaming service, even if you only care about a select few pay-per-view events per year. But the WWE Network has so much more than the latest pay-per-view events. It has almost the entire back catalogue of WWE, WCW, and ECW pay-per-views as well as many behind-the-scenes shows, documentaries about your favorite wrestlers, and even some reality shows. Even if it didn’t include access to current PPV events, WWE Network still has enough content to satisfy hardcore wrestling fans.
Whether you’re an enthusiast or simply someone who watches WrestleMania each year, the WWE Network is a worthwhile investment. Since you can cancel your subscription at any time, you can technically get each PPV (and sometimes two or three) for just $10. While you may be satisfied with your current cable slate of WWE shows–SmackDown, Raw, NXT–you cannot beat the value with WWE Network when it comes to pay-per-view events and historical content.
Crunchyroll
Best variety of new and old anime
A Place Further than the Universe
Price: $8/month, $23/three months, $80/year
Notable anime: A Place Further than the Universe, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, In/Spectre, Laid-Back Camp, Konosuba
Supported Devices: Google Chromecast, Iphone, Ipad, Android phones, Android tablets, PS4, Xbox One, and web browsers
Bottom line: Crunchyroll has the largest selection of anime.
Pre-dating the streaming wars, Crunchyroll debuted in 2006 and has since become a one-stop shop for anime lovers. While Crunchyroll does have the option to stream shows for free, you’ll have to endure ads, watch in lower resolution, and wait a week for new episodes to be added to the service. Crunchyroll Premium grants you access to HD simulcasts from Japan an hour after they air and eliminates ads.
Crunchyroll’s library is massive, featuring more than 900 shows and movies to choose from. Simply put, if you want the largest variety, Crunchyroll is the way to go. Since Crunchyroll’s split from Funimation, more dubs have appeared on the service. There are still a lot of shows that only have subs, but Crunchyroll is making a concerted effort to add more English dubs, especially when it comes to the most popular shows like Konosuba.
Crunchyroll Premium costs $8 per month. If you’re on a budget, it’s great to have the option to watch for free, but if you watch even semi-regularly, premium provides a far better experience.
Funimation
Best for dubbed anime
Plunderer
Price: Premium – $6/month, Premium Plus – $8/month, Premium Plus Extra – $100/year
Notable anime: Plunderer, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Infinite Dendrogram, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, Smile Down The Runway, 22/7, Toilet-bound Hanako-kun
Supported Devices: Apple TV, Iphone, Ipad, Android phones, Android tablets, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Kindle, Roku, Xbox One, Playstation 4, Google Chromecast, Samsung smart TVs, and LG smart TVs
Bottom line: Funimation is the best service for dubbed anime.
Funimation lets you stream a small selection of its library for free, but you’ll need a premium membership to unlock the entire 500-plus anime catalogue. Funimation has its own selection of exclusive anime such as Plunderer and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen. It has heaps of classic anime, including the widest selection of Dragon Ball content to stream.
It’s also worth noting that Funimation has Simuldubs, so you can watch some anime at the same time it airs in Japan with dubs. You cannot always watch with dubs immediately, but all Simuldubs anime is available to watch within two weeks of its air date in Japan. If you favor dubbed anime, Funimation still beats Crunchyroll despite the latter’s recent effort to offer more dubs.
Funimation has three different premium plans. For $6 per month, you get access to the entire Funimation library and can stream on two devices simultaneously. Premium Plus costs $8 per month and offers five simultaneous streams and the ability to download episodes to watch offline. The $100 Premium Plus Extra membership comes with a slew of perks including five simultaneous streams, offline viewing, annual anniversary gift, two pay-per-view rentals, and more.
It’s easy to recognize Crucible‘s many design influences. The Amazon-published third-person multiplayer game features hero-style characters with abilities similar to those found in Overwatch. Its one MOBA-centric game mode should feel familiar to you if you’ve played Smite or the now-defunct Paragon. And even its light progression system echoes the one found in Gearbox’s Battleborn. Crucible attempts to remix a lot of existing ideas and cohesively tie them together into something more successful, but as a result, it fails to create an identity for itself.
Crucible takes place on an alien planet primed for off-world mining, which plays host to three game modes on its single map. Heart of the Hive is as close to a MOBA as Crucible gets, with a focus on PvP and PvE play as two teams fight to secure the hearts of dangerous hives. Alpha Hunters is a spin on battle royale, with teams of two skirmishing in short matches. Lastly, Harvester Command combines traits of team deathmatch and classic point control, rewarding players for kills and the number of objectives controlled on the map. In each mode, you have a choice to play as one of 10 characters, each with a handful of unique abilities and unlockable traits.
Heart of the Hive is the main event, pitting two teams of four against one another on a large map filled with AI enemies as you hunt down periodically spawning hives and attempt to capture three of their underlying hearts. Like in most MOBAs, you kill these enemies for XP, levelling up your character to improve your health, damage, and ability effectiveness. But in Crucible, there’s no challenge involved in killing these enemies; it’s easy enough to tackle a large group of them alone without any risk, dancing around their slow and predictable attack patterns. It reduces the necessary farming of experience to a mindless annoyance, made even more irritating by the fact that it’s predominantly how you’ll spend most of your time in this mode.
Fighting other players is generally reserved for showdowns around each objective hive, as no other objectives on the map are advantageous enough to risk the near-30-second respawn timer that follows each death. This also makes each of these big team fights an all-or-nothing affair. The time it takes for you to both respawn and attempt to move back to a hive if you die is far more than it takes for the opposing team to kill it and retrieve its heart, giving you no reason to attempt a comeback. And Crucible’s only map feels far too large for the team size Heart of the Hive restricts you to, which in turn highlights how sluggish most characters’ movement feels in the process.
Some characters boast abilities that directly alleviate this problem. Tosca, a humanoid space squirrel, has three dashes with short cooldowns that you can use to zip around a skirmish with ease, while Earl, an alien space trucker, carries around a minigun with a rocket at the back that allows him to jet around the map at immense speed. Other characters, like the dual flamethrower-wielding Summer and melee-focused Drakhal, feature shorter forward dashes that can only be used sparingly, while others, like Shakirri, feature none at all. Given how much time you spend travelling, waiting for something to happen in a map that feels remarkably empty, you’re likely going to be drawn to characters based on their ability to speed things up over their overall effectiveness in a fight.
It’s a shame because most characters’ abilities are fun to learn. Sazan, for example, requires you to juggle through three weapon types as you fight, each of which has limited energy and needs to recharge. Knowing which weapons will need to cool down next and understanding the limitations of the one you’re about to swap to makes focusing on positioning crucial, which can feel exhilarating when you start finding a rhythm to it. Similarly, Bugg is immensely fun to use against players too greedy for their own good. Being able to frequently throw down plants that do large amounts of damage to foes can help you lead enemies along fatal chases, while also giving you ways to control a fight without needing to fire off accurate shots.
These types of abilities stand out in contrast to the mostly limp third-person action, though, which permeates every character’s gameplay in some way. Shots from Mendoza’s rifle or Ajonah’s extremely long-range harpoon gun lack any impact when connecting with a target, sapping the satisfaction from a well-executed ranged attack. Melee attacks feel equally powerless, with an opponent’s depleting life acting as the only affirmative indicator that you’re actually hitting anything. Crucible also lacks an informative visual language that lets you know when enemies are affected by abilities, making it difficult to make crucial decisions in chaotic skirmishes.
Each of your character’s abilities are unlocked at the start of the match, and with each new level, you can unlock passives that alter them (such as reducing cooldowns, improving attack range, and more). This only applies to the first five levels, three of which give you some limited options to choose from. You can choose which of your abilities to enhance at each of these levels, but Crucible doesn’t let you do that during a match. Instead, you have to make these choices beforehand, giving you no chance to adapt your build in any way as you start identifying the types of players you’re up against. It makes the already shallow flexibility all but meaningless, forcing you to get comfortable with a type of playstyle rather than trying to actively react to your opponents.
This is exacerbated by the fact that Crucible also doesn’t let you pick your characters after you’ve been matched with other players, or change your decision during a match. Instead you have to make a character selection before searching for a game, and then hope that you’re matched with other players that complement your choice. Given that a character can be picked multiple times within the same team, you can often get matched in comically unbalanced and unviable teams, making the match an unnecessary uphill battle before it begins. Combined with the inability to quit a match until it’s over, even in cases where other players have left, and it makes searching for games alone an infuriating lottery.
If you do manage to find yourself on a well-balanced team, communicating with teammates is challenging. Crucible features no native in-game voice or text chat, and its included ping system isn’t as accurate or contextually useful as it needs to be. The decision to omit these features was a conscious one in an attempt to curb toxic behavior, but it’s difficult to reconcile that when Crucible encourages players to team up with strangers via its Discord channel from the main menu. This just adds an additional step to the process to achieve the same thing, not avoiding the core issue, while subsequently making it more arduous for players to effectively communicate in a game that requires it.
These omissions are more forgiving in Harvester Control, another one of Crucible’s game modes, which shifts the focus to a control point and team kills instead of coordinated team fights. Five harvesters littered across the same map are up for capture, each of which adds additional points to every kill your team gets. It’s a tug-of-war between rotating around objectives while also hunting enemies, and with the increased player count of eight per team, it makes the map feel a lot more active. The change of focus encourages you to pick characters that deal more damage and leaves more utility-focused ones out of view, but the faster pace and increased PvP fights do make these matches more engaging overall.
The last of Crucible’s game types is its own spin on battle royale called Alpha Hunters, pitting pairs of players against each other in short matches. Out of all three game types, Alpha Hunters functions the worst with all the different character types, and suffers even more if you’re planning to play it with another random player. The one silver lining is its approach to forming dynamic alliances with players as the match progresses. If you lose your teammate and find another player in the same position, you two can form a new alliance instead of taking each other out. It’s an easy process to enact while playing too, with just a button press required by each player to suggest and accept the alliance respectively. Considering the mode becomes a free-for-all once you’re down to the last three players, the unease of wondering whether to offer an olive branch knowing that you’ll need to retract it later is a thought-provoking idea that I wish existed in a much better mode overall.
In many ways, this epitomizes the central theme of Crucible. Its enticing characters and their occasionally exhilarating abilities are undermined by the unsatisfying third-person shooting underpinning them. The game’s three modes all attempt to stretch the already inflexible mechanics of each character in ways that make each one feel underwhelming, in spite of their more interesting ideas. Most of all, Crucible just doesn’t play host to the coordinated teamwork it demands for balanced matches, forcing you to look elsewhere or gamble with the chance of being matched with players that complement your character choices. It’s a game that fights itself at every turn, and ultimately is little more than a curious distraction from other players in this space rather than a true competitor for your attention.
Mafia II: Definitive Edition, the new version of the 2010 game available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, opens with a message that primed me for a game that might not have held up well. It reads:
“Mafia II: Definitive Edition presents the game’s narrative content in its original form from 2010. The game includes culturally sensitive content and themes, and is intended only for mature audiences.”
In some ways, this feels like an abdication of responsibility for some elements of the game that have aged poorly. And indeed, as I replay the game on my PS4, there are many such parts. Mafia II was never the most sensitive game, and in 2020 the “culturally sensitive content” made me squirm more than it might have 10 years ago. The game’s plot contains few women with any real agency, and the script is full of slurs against them, as well as various racist slurs. When your character goes to prison, there are the prerequisite homophobic jokes about the showers.
The lines are often blurred in how the game portrays race and gender relations. Sometimes it’s clear that the characters are being racist or sexist, and that we’re not meant to approve. But when (to give just one example out of many) an Asian prisoner assures another one that he would have won the fight had he just “used dragon style,” it’s harder to give the game the benefit of the doubt. Mafia II condemns the mafia lifestyle, and the actions of these men, but when women exist in the game largely to throw themselves at men (or as centerfolds in the game’s collectable Playboy magazines), it doesn’t provide much of a counterpoint to these retrograde perspectives.
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Mafia II: Definitive Edition – Official Launch Trailer
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Mafia II is showing its age. The game, which broke records for its prolific use of the word “fuck” back in 2010, can feel immature, and the Definitive Edition’s lacklustre remaster (more on that later) is doing it no favours. And yet I still like Mafia II quite a bit, and on what is now my third playthrough I find myself unable to pull away from it. It’s an interesting, propulsive game, one that still feels unique despite leaning extremely hard on the tropes and cliches of mob dramas. It feels grounded despite its more ridiculous elements, and there’s something oddly comforting about its familiar mechanics and plot beats.
Mafia II tells the tale of Vito Scaletta, a young World War II vet who becomes ensconced in the world of organized crime after witnessing the power of a mafia boss while fighting in Italy. For Vito, the appeal of being a mafioso is that you don’t have to go through the same hardships everyone else does–his mob ties help him earn an early discharge from the army, his best pal and fellow up-and-comer gets him out of his cramped old bedroom in his mother’s house, and his first bout of honest work is so dull that he walks out after working for less than an hour. Even when he goes to prison–over selling state-owned gas stamps, of all things–Vito finds that being friends with the right people makes everything a lot easier.
Vito’s journey up the ladder laid out before him, which is told exactly as it was in 2010, is still compelling. The basic plot will be familiar to you if you’ve ever so much as read the blurb on the back of a Scorsese movie DVD case, but playing through each of these familiar beats is enjoyable because–let’s face it–organized crime is exciting. Mafia II resists any temptation to become a power fantasy too, in terms of both its mechanics and plot. Over halfway through the game, even as you start to deepen your ties and learn more about how the mafia works, Vito is still selling cartons of cigarettes off the back of a van (the pay is good, much to his delight). Vito never wants to live in a mansion–all he wants a nice house in the suburbs. Mafia II is relatable in ways I’d forgotten.
There are surprisingly few gunfights for the first half of the game, and much of your time is spent driving around the fictional city of Empire Bay, doing odd jobs and occasionally getting into a fistfight. For all the game’s occasional bluster, this is why Mafia II endures–because so much of it is strangely low-key. It’s focused on the work you have to put in before you find success, and I couldn’t help but become invested in Vito’s desire to live a more exciting life again. Even the game’s largely empty open world, which was criticized at the time for offering little in the way of side activities and distractions, works in its favour–Empire Bay feels like a real city, but it’s transparently a backdrop for your story rather than an important character within it–it’s not a sandbox for you to mess around in. Now that I’m in my 30s and have less free time than ever, I particularly appreciate the game’s streamlined design.
I’ve always liked Mafia II’s rudimentary cover-based combat too, which feels weighty and exciting because of how vital it is. The pea-shooter pistol you’ll be using for many of these encounters feels absolutely appropriate for a low-level mobster. When you’re given the chance to unleash a Tommy Gun into a rival gang, the fedora on your head tipped in a way that was still cool back in the ’50s, it’s hard not to get caught up in the game’s dedication to recreating mafia iconography. There are little touches that I appreciate, like the way your allies will always leave cover if you decide that you want to use it, and the way environments are designed so that you can make smart use of your ability to turn a corner while staying in cover with a tap of the square button. I’m also a fan of the game’s shotgun, which is far more accurate at range than it perhaps should be.
Mafia II is still enjoyable today, despite its issues, but it’s a shame that this so-called Definitive Edition isn’t so strong an update. It’s much sharper visually compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, and that last-gen blur is a thing of the past, but it’s certainly nowhere near the overhaul that the upcoming Mafia: Definitive Edition remake is. This port is rife with pop-in and the frame rate tends to chug as you’re driving around Empire Bay. Other issues are more severe–the game crashed several times when I tried to suspend it, and several times the “saving” icon, or the start-menu reminder that I had not logged into my 2K account, stayed on the screen until I quit out. The sound mixing is awful, with voice acting sounding tinny, and when I played with headphones conversations played in one ear and music in the other during cutscenes. Glitches and hitches abound, too, making this a less than stellar upgrade–although PC players, who get this edition as a free update, are getting a better deal than anyone on a console.
For a bit of perspective, I briefly loaded up Mafia III (which also has a “definitive edition” now, although it’s largely the same as it was) to compare. It looks much better, and tells a far more original tale than Mafia II, although it’s also held back by some unfortunate gameplay problems (in GameSpot’s original review, reviewer Scott Butterworth identified that there was “something undeniably special” about the game, but stated that the “core gameplay, though occasionally satisfying, feels dated”). The biggest immediate difference is that it’s much clearer in its condemnation of racism and its criticism of white America, right from the very beginning. It’s a core narrative theme of Mafia III after all, and one that it strongly delivers. In this sense, it’s far more modern than the game Mafia II which came out six years before it–even if it’s not as enjoyable to play.
Mafia II remains a compelling, interesting, and enjoyable game in 2010, despite being compromised somewhat by the ways in which it has aged. It’s more Casino than Goodfellas, to make the film comparison the game is clearly desperate for its players to make, but this straightforward tale of mob life remains alluring despite all the moments that we can’t turn a blind eye to in 2020.
IGN Prime has partnered with TOGE Productions to bring you early access to Rising Hell, a vertical platformer rogue-like filled with adrenaline-pumping action and tons of heavy gothic metal shreds.
Rising Hell places you in the shackles of Arok, a sinner with a mysterious power to kill demons. Fight your way through the horde of Belial and escape Hell as you unlock new characters and talents to create chaos in the randomly-generated and ever-changing landscape.
Even though time seems to have no meaning anymore, I’m still astonished that 2020 is nearly halfway over. Here we are, already closing in on June–who knew? With a new month comes a good excuse to peek ahead at the PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC games on the horizon. This month brings the heaviest of heavy hitters in the form of The Last of Us Part 2, but there are plenty of other games for anyone who doesn’t want to spend time in a different sort of apocalypse.
The biggest release of June 2020 is also one of the most anticipated games of the entire console generation. This sequel catches up with Ellie and Joel five years after the events of the original game and promises another violent, emotional adventure.
It’s already out on PC, but soon console ESO players can pick up this expansion. In it, you travel to the beloved snowy region of Skyrim to stop a vampire lord from doing very bad things to the people of Tamriel.
Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob does, and you can visit the old chap with this remake of a platformer from 2003. It’s even available in a F.U.N. edition that comes with high-quality figurines, socks, and more.
Not every game has to involve shooting and explosions. This collection of 51 classic tabletop games lets you play locally and online with up to four players.
An open-world RPG from the makers of Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds scratches the same itch as that modern classic. And on June 5 it lands on Switch.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III – Extracurricular Edition
In June the Switch is also getting the third Trails of Cold Steel game, which has previously been available on other platforms. Only this is the Extracurricular edition, which means it comes with a 20-page mini art book, animated lenticular card, reverse cover insert, and 26 DLC items.
Whether you played this open-world racer when it first came out in 2008 or not, it’s worth checking out–possibly even if you’re not into racing games. There’s just something so satisfying about running your opponent off the road.
This first-person shooter from Riot Games pits two teams of five against each other. It features Overwatch-like character abilities and highly tactical shooting.
