Category: Games

Nintendo is offering Switch Online subscribers another exclusive freebie for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The second Spirit Board Challenge Pack is live on the Switch Eshop, and it comes with an assortment of helpful items for the game’s Spirit Board mode.

Much like the previous Spirit Board Challenge Pack, you can only download this freebie if you have a paid NSO subscription; those trying the service via a free trial are ineligible to claim it. This pack contains a variety of items that should make it a bit easier to challenge some of the game’s tougher Spirits. You’ll get the following:

• 1,500 Spirit Points
• 5 Rematch
• 5 Damage 50%
• 5 Weaken Minions
• 5 Health Drain

To download the pack, select the Eshop icon from Smash Bros. Ultimate’s main menu and you’ll see it listed beneath the game’s other downloadable content. Alternatively, you can go straight into the Eshop and click on the Nintendo Switch Online option on the left sidebar; you’ll see the Spirit Board Challenge Pack listed under exclusive offers.

Switch Online subscriptions are available for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year. Nintendo also offers an annual Family Membership that costs US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55 and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple systems. The service gives you access to online play, cloud saves, and other exclusive perks, such as Tetris 99 and a library of classic NES games.

The first Spirit Board Challenge pack launched alongside Smash Ultimate’s 4.0 update, which added the Hero from Dragon Quest to the roster. The game’s next playable character is the bear and bird duo Banjo-Kazooie, who are slated to arrive sometime this fall. We may hear more about the new DLC character’s during this week’s Nintendo Direct, which airs Wednesday, September 4 at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET.

Before I sat down to play several hours of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, community developer Grace Orlady set the stage: “We want to make the player live the life of an elite special forces hunter,” she said. Well, I’m pretty sure real special forces don’t stare down former allies turned maniacal supervillains on private islands overrun by weaponized drones, but…well, if they did I suppose we’d never know about it. So sure, let’s go with it!

Let’s get this out of the way so we can move on to more important stuff: Breakpoint’s story, based on what I’ve seen so far, is going to be laughably bad. Ex-Punisher Jon Bernthal is an ex-Ghost-turned-Wolf, and it seems chock full of all the usual cliches: good guys turning bad, friends turning against each other, etc. But forget about that because it’s not why you’re going to play Breakpoint: the super chill, open-ended structure of the game is.

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There’s a recurring joke in It Chapter Two that lead protagonist Bill Denborough — played as an adult by James McAvoy and once again as a kid by Jaeden Martel — can’t write a satisfactory ending to any of his horror-thriller novels. That gag is almost a metaphor for the film itself, which can’t quite stick the landing after the high expectations set by its blockbuster 2017 predecessor. Although marred by pacing issues and some shoddy CGI, It Chapter Two still has enough creepy set-pieces and solid performances to bring the saga to an effective, albeit formulaic, conclusion.

By employing flashbacks at various points throughout, It Chapter Two has a more fragmented structure and jerkier rhythm than the preceding film. The first half rushes along as it introduces and unites all the adult incarnations of the Losers’ Club — Bill, Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Richie (Bill Hader), Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), Ben (Jay Ryan), Eddie (James Ransone), and Stanley (Andy Bean) — in order to get on with their mission to kill Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) once and for all.

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All September long, IGN is highlighting the best TV coming your way in the 2019-2020 season. Today, we’re delving into the gritty world of Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga, co-created by RZA and Alex Tse. The historical crime drama is inspired by The Wu-Tang Manual and Tao of Wu, and based on the true story of the Wu-Tang Clan. Set in early ’90s New York at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, the show tracks the Clan’s formation, a vision of Bobby Diggs aka The RZA, who strives to unite a dozen young, black men that are torn between music and crime but eventually rise to become the unlikeliest of American success stories. The series premieres on Hulu on Wednesday, September 4, 2019.

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Madden NFL 20 was released a little over a month ago, introducing X-Factor abilities and the new Face of the Franchise: QB1 mode to the series’ gridiron action. Now, the popular football game is receiving an injection of fast and furious fun in the shape of another new mode: Superstar KO.

This new co-op elimination mode lets you team up with friends, choose between eight premade teams (including ones with celebrity coaches and unique playbooks), and play truncated 3v3 Madden games in the singular Superstar KO Stadium. The basic idea behind Superstar KO is to get you in and out of games in around five minutes by raising the pace of Madden with a looser and more streamlined style of football. You can hop into matchmaking on your own, but there’s no option to play against the CPU.

The playbooks for all eight teams are condensed, with each one having a different play style depending on the coach and their strengths and weaknesses. Cleveland Brown’s wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. coaches Dot City, so his team can throw the ball and defend against the pass very well, but suffers when it comes to rushing offense and defense. There are also celebrity coaches, such as musicians DJ Khaled and Lil Yachty, who double up as playable quarterbacks called “Icons.”

The roster consists of 50 current NFL players, the two aforementioned musicians, and eight NFL Hall of Famers. At the beginning of each game, both teams draft their squad from a pool of available players. Each of the current NFL players has an X-Factor ability which is activated at all times, differing from regular Madden 20 games where you need to complete a certain condition in order to activate it.

All of this makes for a mode that’s faster and more explosive than anything else in Madden 20. The new Superstar KO Stadium brings a festival-like atmosphere to proceedings, with the usual commentary team replaced by a DJ hypeman complete with a soundboard and dynamic music. It’s an exciting spin on Madden’s traditional football simulation, offering abbreviated games, eccentric uniforms, and DJ Khaled as a gunslinging quarterback. It might be worth playing it just for that alone.

In celebration of Superstar KO, Madden NFL 20 is free to play this weekend, September 5-8 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

“Madden NFL 20 is an improved version of the annualized professional football series that excels in some areas and leaves something to be desired in others,” GameSpot’s Madden 20 review concludes. “The new QB1 career mode–which includes a barebones NCAA football experience–overall feels like a half-baked idea that doesn’t deliver anything meaningful or interesting. When it comes to the on-the-field action, however, the new X-Factor and Superstar abilities shake up the familiar gameplay formula to give seasoned players and newcomers alike a fresh way to scheme plays and orchestrate strategy on both sides of the ball.”

Spider-Man: Far From Home is set to land on digital platforms on September 17. The 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD versions will arrive several days later, on October 1. If you’re looking to preorder a copy of the film, you’ve come to the right place. We have all the information about the home release, including retailer-exclusive special editions and bonus materials below.

The film finds Peter Parker (along with the rest of the world) still reeling from the effects of the snap. All he wants to do is go on a class trip to Europe and be a regular teenager for a couple weeks. Naturally, fate has other ideas. You can read more in our Spider-Man: Far From Home review. As for the home release, let’s dive in.

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Spider-Man: Far From Home arrives on Digital on September 17 and on Blu-ray on October 1, but you can watch one of the scenes that didn’t make it into the final MCU Spidey movie right here and now.

In the deleted scene dubbed “Peter’s To-Do List”, which you watch in the player above, Tom Holland’s Peter Parker visits a passport agency to pick up his passport for his class trip to Europe. But there’s a long line and Peter’s impatient so he relies on some Stark tech to cheat the line.

Peter uses his cell phone to pilot the Spider-Drone from his suit out of his backpack to a nearby clerk’s window. We watch the Spider-Drone fly under the window, scatter across the desk, and turn the sign above the clerk’s window from closed to open.

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Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance executive producer Lisa Henson, daughter of Jim Henson, recently opened up about the continuation of her father’s legacy, as she confirmed that the creative team behind the Netflix series “definitely” have ideas for future episodes.

Henson told Yahoo that the original pitch for the puppet-driven prequel series extended beyond the first season, but said only time would tell whether they would be granted the opportunity to expand upon the story, which takes place years before the events of The Dark Crystal film.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare probably will not feature a battle royale mode. Developers Joe Cecot and Taylor Kurosaki spoke to Game Informer recently about the possibility of Modern Warfare featuring the gametype made popular by PUBG and Fortnite, among others, and it sounds like battle royale may not be part of the package for the new Modern Warfare.

“Our answer to this is we love battle royale,” Cecot said. However, Infinity Ward reportedly isn’t planning to introduce a battle royale mode of its own for Modern Warfare. That doesn’t mean Modern Warfare won’t have large-scale battles, as the new Ground War mode is Battlefield-sized with support for up to 64 players and featuring vehicles. Infinity Ward also has spoken about the possibility of Ground War to support more than 100 players at the same time.

As for Kurosaki, he said Modern Warfare is already a busy package with lots on offer. “Campaign, multiplayer, Spec Ops—[battle royale] won’t fit in the box! How much do you want?!”

These comments follow those made by art director Joel Emslie, who said in August that battle royale hasn’t been ruled out for Modern Warfare. After being asked if the game will feature the mode, Emslie said, “We’ll have to wait and see.” He also teased that there are “many” new multiplayer modes still to be announced for Modern Warfare.

2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 features a battle royale mode of its own called Blackout.

The new Modern Warfare launches on October 25 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. A multiplayer beta kicks off later this month, so people will have a chance to try it out before too long.