Category: Games

Following its release in New Zealand, Pokemon Go developer Niantic’s newest game, Harry Potter Wizards Unite, is available now in Australia and New Zealand for everyone. It’s just a beta at this stage, so you should expect some bugs and missing features, but it provides a really good look at what to expect from what could become the next big mobile game.

GameSpot explored downtown Sydney, Australia today with Wizards Unite. We joined a House (Gryffindor, of course), built a wand, and fought monsters in the augmented reality game. You can check out around 15 minutes of new gameplay footage in the video embedded above.

There is no word as of yet regarding when Wizards Unite will release in the United States or other parts of the world. It’s typical for big mobile games to have their “soft” launch in Australia and New Zealand as a test of sorts before a wider release around the world.

Wizards Unite is a free-to-play game supported by microtransactions. You can spend money to buy Gold, which can be spent on numerous different time-savers and more. For more on the game’s microtransactions, check out GameSpot’s breakdown here.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was originally scheduled to launch in 2018 before being delayed into this year. You can read more about the title in our hands-on impressions, and Android users can pre-register for it on Google Play. There is no word as of yet regarding when the final game will be available around the world.

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One of the most exciting and ambitious Xbox projects in the works is xCloud, which is Microsoft’s game-streaming service. It’s now reached a major development milestone.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said on Twitter that the team working on xCloud recently completed the “takehome release” for xCloud. That’s a big deal because it means people at Microsoft are now able to test the service at home in a real environment as opposed to a studio lab.

Spencer added that xCloud remains on track to become available for more people through public trials later in 2019; that’s always been the plan.

According to Microsoft insider Brad Sams, Microsoft may plan to show off xCloud in a home environment during E3 2019 in June. The takehome release suggests that could happen.

xCloud is the working title of the streaming service. Microsoft is promising “console-quality gaming on any device” with xCloud, and we’ve already seen Forza Horizon 4 running on the service.

xCloud will go up against other similar streaming services like Google Stadia. Microsoft’s Mike Nichols recently said that Google lacks compelling content to make the service attractive.

Cloud-based gaming is a fairly new and complex technology; be sure to check out our detailed explainer on everything you need to know about cloud gaming.

Spoilers for Borderlands 2 follow.

Handsome Jack is one of the most acclaimed and beloved villains around, and his debut in Borderlands 2 cemented his place in fans’ minds even before he came back for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

However, Jack dies in Borderlands 2, and while he is seen in Tales from the Borderlands, it’s in hologram form. Now, Borderlands 3 developer Gearbox says Handsome Jack will return in the upcoming threequel, in some capacity.

“Handsome Jack is dead,” confirmed the studio’s narrative managing producer, Randy Varnell, in an interview with GameSpot. “He’s such a big character in our universe though. There’s always going to be some stuff–there may be a side mission or something and then we mention him a few times. It’s so hard to get away from that impact. But you’re not ever going to see Handsome Jack come back as a character.

“But it was a hard decision. Because he’s such a great villain. But when we were looking at coming up with new villains for Borderlands 3… we’ve got a lot of Jack–if you like Handsome Jack, you’re in luck because there’s a lot of existing content where you can play and enjoy him. He’s too important to the universe to never mention him again. But we wanted to be sure that the Calypso twins, the new villains, can stand on their own.”

The upcoming shooter includes plenty of new characters, so take a look at everything we know about Borderlands 3’s four new vault hunters. The game is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 13.

If you’d like to see Borderlands 3 in action, you can watch the gameplay reveal stream here. We’ve also put together a preview on what it’s like to play the game solo (spoilers: it’s surprisingly good.)