Category: Games

The new CBS All-Access series Star Trek: Picard re-introduces us to the legendary captain of the title years after he left Starfleet behind. Which begs the question: Why would Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard ever retire from his beloved Starfleet in the first place?

We recently spoke to Stewart and Star Trek: Picard executive producer Alex Kurtzman, and they explained that it all started with the Romulan supernova — that cosmic catastrophe from J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek film.

Watch our explainer on Star Trek: Picard’s timeline and how it connects to J.J. Abrams’ 2009 film:

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“In our 2009 movie, a sun went supernova and destroyed the planet Romulus,” says Kurtzman, who co-wrote that film. “And the Romulans had to scatter to the different parts of the universe. That event had a huge ripple effect in many ways that nobody expected. Not just on the Romulans but on Starfleet and on Picard.”

Stewart, who played Picard on seven seasons of television as well as in four feature films, explained that it was his character’s attempt at a rescue effort to save the victims of the supernova that led to his break with the organization that he had devoted his life to.

“He worked passionately to save as many lives as possible,” says the actor. “But he met with difficulty and obstructions and that made him very angry and then something happened… which I can’t talk about!”

We’ll have to watch the show to get the full story, but Kurtzman elaborates that Star Trek: Picard definitely takes place in the Prime Timeline of the Trek world, despite speculation to the contrary among some fans.

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“Obviously, a lot’s happened in the 19-20 years since Nemesis and we exist in the Prime Timeline,” he says. “The supernova that destroyed Romulus would have coincided with where Picard was at that particular moment. There would have been a massive relocation effort, and he would have been leading that relocation as an admiral. He would have been right in there. And obviously things happen that we’ll find out about in the pilot that ended up really, really radically altering the relocation effort itself.”

None of which is to say that Starfleet or its parent organization, the United Federation of Planets, has gone dark or bad.

“We’re not talking about an evil Federation,” says Kurtzman. “They were doing the best they could. Starfleet was put in a really tough moral quandary. [It’s] the Vulcan adage the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Sometimes you have to make very difficult choices, but what happens to the few? That’s a big part of what the show is about.”

What do you think? Are you excited for Picard? What do you make of Jean-Luc leaving Starfleet? Let’s discuss in the comments.

And for more on the show, check out why Seven of Nine blames Picard. Have a look at our essential Picard viewing guide. Or dig in on who the real villains of Star Trek: Picard might be…

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Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Arrow: Season 8, Episode 9, which serves as a backdoor pilot for the proposed “Green Arrow and the Canaries” spinoff. We’re checking in with all the Arrowverse shows this week to see how they build on the fallout of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. You can check out our reviews for Batwoman Season 1, Episode 10, Supergirl Season 5, Episode 10 and Black Lightning Season 3, Episode 10, with our Legends of Tomorrow: Season 5 Premiere review coming soon.

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It’s difficult not to feel ambivalence toward The CW’s upcoming Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff series. On one hand, that spinoff promises to dull the sting of losing a show that’s been a part of fans’ lives for eight years. On the other, it does so by doubling down on the weakest elements of the past three seasons of Arrow. With its penultimate episode, Arrow attempts to build a stronger case for that spinoff in the form of a backdoor pilot. But after watching “Green Arrow and the Canaries,” the jury is still out.

It’s not as if this detour doesn’t come at the right time. Oliver Queen is dead, having sacrificed his life twice in Crisis to save the multiverse. There’s little for Arrow to do now but reflect on that sacrifice and the legacy of the Arrowverse’s first hero. There’s something fitting about the series opting to look ahead before it looks back and explores how Oliver’s daughter chooses to carry on his mission two decades down the line.

Still, there’s little getting around the fact that the recurring flash-forward storyline has never been one of Arrow’s more compelling plot points. Once the initial novelty wore off, the flash-forwards devolved into a dull, rote look at the future of Star City – more a way of continuing one of Arrow’s most recognizable storytelling tropes than a truly necessary addition to the series. It’s only when the flash-forwards have managed to forge a direct link between past and present (such as when Mia and her friends were dragged back into 2019) that this storyline has achieved any real resonance. So what reason is there to be optimistic for a spinoff that completely detaches itself from the past?

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That’s the fundamental question this episode tries and never quite manages to answer. In its favor, “Green Arrow and the Canaries” attempts to give viewers a clean break from the previous flash-forward material. The fallout of Crisis has resulted in Mia and her friends returning to 2040 and having their memories realign to fit a world where Ollie’s sacrifice has made Star City into the safest place in the country. That alone helps this episode feel like a proper Arrow coda. After seven seasons of Ollie fighting and losing so much and never making true, lasting headway in saving his city, it’s good to have tangible proof it was all worth it in the end.

The obvious criticism with this soft reboot of the 2040 setting is that it prevents viewers from getting full closure with the pre-Crisis conflict. A lot of that material goes unresolved here. But A) who really cares at this point? And B) with both Mia and JJ having their memories restored, we’re still going to see ramifications from their pre-Crisis rivalry. If anything, this shake-up creates a more real and effective link between the two. In one life, they were bitter enemies. In the other, they were lovers. Now they have to reconcile the two.

The revamped timeline also adds a new layer to Connor, who’s become a much much darker and more troubled character. Presumably, we’re seeing the unintended ramifications of Sara Diggle being restored to existence in Crisis. Because Dig and Lyla now have two children to raise, they probably never adopt Connor and never have that powerful influence over him as a child.

In general, Arrow is doing a lot more than its sister shows to explore the psychological effects of heroes having their post-Crisis memories overwritten by pre-Crisis memories. Elsewhere, it’s been like flipping a switch, whereas here the warring sets of memories create major emotional trauma. Maybe that’s a discrepancy between shows, but it’s easy enough to explain by assuming the process is much more painful and destructive because these characters have been living their new lives for 20 years.

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This episode also finds sufficient narrative reason to pair Mia with the two Black Canaries of old. Laurel is now a woman without a world thanks to Crisis, so it’s not difficult to see why she’d just as soon make her home in the future than stay in 2020. As for Dinah, the reveal that Crisis seems to have erased all record of her existence is an interesting development, one that may hint at similar problems across the Arrowverse. You don’t make an Earth-Prime without breaking a few people. For whatever Dinah has brought to Arrow over the past few years, she’s also managed to make an already convoluted take on Black Canary that much more complicated. Wiping the slate clean and reinventing her as a bored jazz singer getting back in touch with her inner vigilante isn’t the worst way to reinvigorate Dinah.

The team-building in this episode does little to contradict the idea that Green Arrow and the Canaries is channeling Birds of Prey under a different name. Sure, this team has double the Black Canary and no Batgirl, but otherwise it hits many of the same notes. They’re even based out of a watchtower and rubbing elbows with a member of the Bertinelli family. Given that WB’s movie division probably has all things BoP on lockdown for now, this is probably the closest we’ll get on the TV side. And whatever the spinoff chooses to call itself, looking to BoP and the work of creators like Gail Simone can only help the series grow.

All told, the flash-forward setting definitely carries a bit more weight and oomph than it did before. Whether that’s enough to justify an ongoing series is another matter. Arrow has struggled enough just to keep the momentum going in brief, weekly vignettes. What happens when those vignettes become the main attraction? That’s mostly where “Green Arrow and the Canaries” falls short as a backdoor pilot. We get some idea of the conflict fueling the spinoff series in its first season. There’s a new threat to Star City, one seemingly fated to end in the city’s destruction and Mia becoming a pariah. Unfortunately, that new enemy isn’t developed well enough here. This episode is far too open-ended and anticlimactic on that front, which also leaves Arrow in a weird spot leading into its series finale.

The overarching conflict established here suggests Green Arrow and the Canaries will fall into the exact same storytelling pattern as its predecessor – an endless series of mastermind villains plotting to destroy the city while the Green Arrow risks everything to stop them. Star City circa-2040 barely looks any different than it does in the present, so at some point the spinoff is in danger of becoming Arrow with a different lead character. (And maybe that’s the whole point.)

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Also frustrating is the way the 2040 storyline continues treating Deathstroke like a disposable villain, letting any random goon who wants to destroy the city don the mask. Deathstroke is probably the Arrowverse’s best villain, but only because of that deep connection to Oliver Queen that was forged over the course of two years. You can’t replicate that appeal simply by slapping the mask on another character and pretending they’re the next Slade Wilson. Yet like Arrow, Green Arrow and the Canaries seems determined to try.

This episode needed to show its cards more than it actually does. It improves on a less than thrilling formula, but not to the point that it makes a convincing case for that formula as a weekly series. If the Star City of the future is in danger, why not simply pawn off the problem on the Legends of Tomorrow and call it a day? The success of Green Arrow and the Canaries may come down less to how well it springboards off of Arrow and more in how much it channels the fun and camaraderie of Birds of Prey. Like Oliver Queen, the spawn of Arrow needs to evolve into something else.

It’s a good time to be a Half-Life fan. All of the Half-Life games are currently free on Steam, and a brand-new entry in the series, Half-Life: Alyx, is releasing in March. There are still many unanswered questions about the VR-only PC game, and Valve plans to answer (at least some) of those questions very soon.

Valve has now announced it will hold an AMA on Reddit for Half-Life: Alyx this Wednesday, January 22, beginning at 9 AM PT. The developer is asking fans to submit “all your burning questions” about Half-Life: Alyx, and it may answer “some” of them. Check back with GameSpot around then, as we’ll collect some of the most interesting and noteworthy responses.

Half-Life: Alyx is exclusive to VR, but it will work with any major PC VR headset you may have. The game is compatible with the Valve Index, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest (with Link), HTC Vive headsets, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. You can pre-order it on Steam for $54 USD.

As for the freebie offer, you can currently grab all seven of the main Half-Life instalments right now on Steam for the low, low price of $0.00. Click through the links below to get going. The games are free to play until Half-Life: Alyx releases.

Killer Queen Black has received a major new update, and it’s brought some big changes with it. By far the biggest is the addition of local eight-player support on both PC and Switch, meaning that if you get eight people in a room they can all play the game together.

Patch 1.60, called the Hydra Update, also fixes bugs, shifts some UI elements, and adds a new Streamer mode, among other changes. Here’s the full list of changes.

• Eight-player local support for PC and console
• Region selection on Switch
• Custom (online) and local matches can be started by a single player
• Bots can fill out local and custom matches
• Teams in local and custom matches can now be automatically shuffled
• Streamer mode: Choose which names to display in-game and in menus
• Map pools now skew towards more variety and fewer repeats
• Various bug fixes and UI improvements

The press release for this update also contained a roadmap, showing their plans for the game’s immediate future.

The game is currently discounted down to $10 on the Switch eShop, Steam, and the Humble Store to celebrate the update. It will come to Xbox One at some point, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass.

TT The Walking Dead Fans! Two good pieces of news for this Twosday:
1) S2 and S3 of TT TWD are now in the Nintendo Switch eShop! Play through all 4 seasons on the go! https://t.co/aGKr0AoXBQ
2) All 4 seasons will be back on Steam….tomorrow! https://t.co/tRB6VCCVJY

— Skybound Games (@skyboundgames) January 21, 2020

Untitled Goose Game stole gamer hearts when it was released in 2019. But what if the horrible goose became a LEGO set? One user-created LEGO set submission on the Lego Ideas page could make that a reality.

The LEGO Ideas site is an official platform where LEGO creators can submit custom sets that users can then vote on. If enough people support a project, it has a chance to become a real LEGO retail set.

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One user named A Fellow Player created a custom LEGO set based on Untitled Goose Game and it seems to have struck a chord with fans. The Untitled LEGO set was chosen by the LEGO Ideas Team as a staff pick, which doesn’t fast track the project towards reality, but shows that it has editorial support from those who work at LEGO Ideas.

The project has already reached 1,000 supporters, but it will need 10,000 total to be officially approved for review by LEGO. The toy company reserves the right to reject Idea submissions for a variety of reasons such as if it’s based on existing IP, or if the project requires too many custom brick molds.

The Untitled Goose Game LEGO set still needs 9,000 more supporters on its LEGO Ideas page to even be considered for review. But considering how delightful the set and the game is, it should strike a chord with fans of the horrible goose.

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We reached out to the developer House House for its take on the LEGO set.

IGN reviewed Untitled Goose Game when it was released last year and was delighted by its whimsy. IGN also happened to discover what Untitled Goose Game could have been called, maybe.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

Between the original franchise, the more popular “Z” series, the divisive GT and the recent Super, we’ve seen Goku and friends shout, power up, and fight each other for almost thirty-five years. Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball has transcended its manga beginnings, becoming a pop-culture phenomenon (though the less said about the live-action movie the better), so it’s no surprise that there’s no shortage of video game adaptations – dating back all the way to 1986.

While it might seem obvious that the majority would be fighting titles, there’s a surprising amount of diversity to be found throughout Dragon Ball’s pixelated history, ranging from action RPGs all the way to card-battlers, and even a short-lived MMO. In honor of the first Dragon Ball game of the 2020s, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, let’s take a look at the games that came before. Whether you know your Goku from your Gohan, it’s time for a trip down Snake Way.

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Flip through the gallery above to see all the Dragon Ball games, or scroll down for a breakdown of some of the franchises best, worst, and most unique games since the 1980s.

1986: Humble, Muscley Beginnings

A top-down shooter for the Epoch Super Cassette Vision, Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō sent Goku into battle atop his cloud companion the Nimbus, tasked with collecting the Dragon Balls by firing Kamehamehas and swinging his Power Pole at enemies in a top-down shoot-em-up.

Dragon Daihikyō was unique at the time, thanks to it’s more tactical take on the action/shooter – the hungrier our hero gets, the shorter his Power Pole becomes; meaning he has to refuel with items occasionally thrown by Chi-Chi. This nod to the anime (Goku is constantly eating) – is something latest release Kakarot builds upon with stat boosts awarded when our hero eats.

1986 – 1996: The Famicom/Super Famicom

The early nineties saw a multitude of Dragon Ball titles on the Famicom and Super Famicom consoles, and while many mesh into a homogenous blur of 2D fighting titles, there are a few surprisingly unique additions.

Dragon Ball Z: Gekitō Tenkaichi Budokai was a 1992 fighting game that required a peripheral for the NES called the Datach Joint ROM System, which was in many ways a precursor to Amiibo. It would scan barcodes on trading cards that would unlock characters and items in the game.

In 1994, the Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku titles, Chikyū-Hen and the re-release, Uchū-Hen, (which translates to the catchily-titled DBZ Side Story: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans), were Japanese-exclusive card-battlers – similar in many ways to something like Slay The Spire, where moves and attacks are dictated by the cards drawn by the player.

With animated battle scenes and a wealth of characters (and an original story, something not found often in the franchise), Uchū-Hen was well-received by fans.

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Both Chikyū-Hen and Uchū-Hen even made their way to Playdia, Bandai’s proprietary console. The system only lasted on the market for two years, but boasted a wireless joypad (with infrared connectivity – a fairly novel idea at the time but one that Atari championed as far back as 1983 with the 2600’s CX-42 Joysticks) and was one of the earlier consoles to adopt running games from CD Roms.

The disc-based medium led to plenty of FMV-style titles, but short of licensed titles like Sailor Moon and the aforementioned Dragon Ball titles, the console faded into obscurity – despite a bizarre late push from Bandai to publish more… “adult-themed” titles.

1996 – 2000: The 3D Era

The arrival of Sony’s PlayStation in the mid-nineties offered a fresh opportunity for the Dragon Ball franchise – though its transition to 3D graphics wasn’t exactly an easy one.

The first PS1 Dragon Ball game, Ultimate Battle 22, had 3D backgrounds but 2D character models, and was panned critically for its imprecise controls and outdated graphics (yes, even back then). One review called it “one of the worst-looking titles ever released on the PS1,” which is impressive, considering the fact that Bubsy 3D had come out seven years earlier.

The following year’s Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout shifted to a fully 3D fighter along the lines of its contemporaries like Tekken. While the character models were well received, the gameplay was not – with many critics noting that flight animations were punctuated by characters just standing idle in mid-air.

Despite disappointing critics, the original Japanese version sold enough to earn a spot in PlayStation’s “Best for Family” branding campaign – there’s likely a lot of disappointed families.

2002 – 2010: The Budokai Years

The three Budokai games of the early 2000s restored Dragon Ball Z games’ public favour. These fighting games offered retellings of the anime storyline alongside an increasing number of playable characters, all modelled fully in 3D – with Budokai 3 reaching 42, including characters from outside of the anime’s story, such as Gogeta and Cooler from the movies.

The care given to the franchise clearly paid off, as reported sales of all three Budokai titles reached 3.9 million units in the US by July 2006 across PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube – a huge increase from the 10,000 shipped of GT: Final Bout back on the original PlayStation.

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This success led to the Budokai Tenkaichi trilogy, which allowed players to mix up flight, melee, and ranged combat in open 3D arenas, able to move in all directions, with a third-person perspective. In fact, much of what helped revitalize the Tenkaichi games is still present in the series today, including the camera position, the mix of using Ki-blasts to weaken opponents, and the cinematic elements afforded by flashy new special moves.

While the first Tenkaichi title featured an impressive 64 playable characters, the roster would only grow from there – leading to an incredible 161 playable characters from all eras of Dragon Ball anime.

Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is still considered by many to be the pinnacle of the franchise (to the point that it earned an HD remaster alongside the original game in 2012. Its use of a cel-shaded art style not only made it look more like the anime, but also helped the game age more gracefully than the polygonal models of the past.

Many still consider Budokai Tenkaichi 3 to be the pinnacle of the franchise (to the point that it earned an HD remaster in [year]), featuring 161 playable characters from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. It also fine-tuned the trilogy’s cel-shaded art style, which not only made it look more like the anime but also helped the game age more gracefully than the polygonal models of the past.

It wasn’t all fistfights and Galick Guns though, as three Game Boy Advance titles put Goku in top-down RPGs in Legacy of Goku. Despite simplistic controls and gameplay, the first two titles shipped over 600,000 units in the United States alone, and while the third entry dropped the “Legacy of Goku”, Buu’s Fury still sold over 400,000 copies – suggesting Bandai was right to continue releasing games in the franchise.

In 2005, Dragon Ball Z: Sagas became the first game in the franchise to be developed by a studio outside of Japan, with the honour falling to Avalanche Software (who had previously worked on Prince of Persia 3D, and would go on to helm the Disney Infinity series). Sagas again retells the anime’s story but was playable entirely in co-op with playable characters including Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo and Future Trunks.

After a disappointing critical reception (made all the worse in hindsight by launching in the same year as the much more competent Budokai Tenkaichi), the game still shipped around 750,000 units – although it’s still regarded as one of the franchise’s darkest moments, with critics pointing out a lack of moves in combat and a lack of visual polish.

The 2010s

After mixed fortunes in the years prior, Bandai Namco tried to spin the Dragon Ball franchise into an MMO – a genre that had gained in popularity thanks to  MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Age of Conan.

In 2010, Dragon Ball Online launched in Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Hong Kong after a three-year delay. However, the initial reception was poor and the servers were unplugged before fans outside of Asia got the chance to jump in.

With the arrival of Microsoft’s motion-gaming peripheral, Dragon Ball Z: For Kinect launched in 2012 and was built on the same engine as Ultimate Tenkaichi. Unfortunately, poor motion tracking and repetitive combat couldn’t make throwing your arms around like a Saiyan fun – despite the game shipping with a cardboard version of Goku’s hair.

In 2013, Bandai Namco brought the wildly popular Dragon Ball Heroes collectable card game to Nintendo’s 3DS as Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission. Equal parts CCG and quick-time event, Ultimate Mission tells an original story in the DBZ universe, even introducing new villains to the series that have subsequently been introduced to the Manga – while an entirely new anime based on the game, Super Dragon Ball Heroes, began in 2018.

2015 saw the release of Dragon Ball Xenoverse – a 3D brawler/RPG hybrid that allows players to create a character and interact with the heroes and villains of the Dragon Ball universe themselves. Playing as a Time Patroller, your task is to ensure the events of Dragon Ball’s past remain unchanged, which is a perfect excuse to head back into anime’s sagas again.

It would seem that Xenoverse (and its 2016 sequel, Xenoverse 2) provide the template that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot appears to follow – albeit that Kakarot focuses on Goku and friends instead of a bespoke player character while adding more open areas to explore – with multiple small zones connected together as opposed to Xenoverse’s smaller combat-only scenarios.

In 2018, Arc System Works released Dragon Ball FighterZ, arguably the best in the series so far. This 2D brawler uses much of the cel-shaded, accessible fighting template from the developer’s BlazBlue franchise, but adapts the visual style of the anime with stunning accuracy. With screen-filling super moves, a diverse roster, and three-on-three combat, it sold over 4 million copies by the end of March 2019 – and went on to win plenty of Fighting Game of the Year awards.

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Which brings us up today – Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot launches today, taking the third-person combat of the Tenkaichi games, the RPG systems of Xenoverse, and even the stat-boosting dishes from Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyō to bring Dragon Ball Z games into a new decade.

For our thoughts on Goku’s latest adventure, check out our full review of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

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Lloyd Coombes is a freelancer writer, and spends at least one hour a day chanting Sam Fisher’s name in the mirror. You can join him in this dark ritual on Twitter.

Microsoft’s game-streaming service, which is currently called Project xCloud, has introduced even more games. New to the library today are titles like Destiny 2 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, as well as the racing game Forza Motorsport 7 and the strategy title Civilization VI.

You can see the full list of new additions below:

Project xCloud New Additions For January 21

• Black Desert Online
• Civilization VI
• Destiny 2
• Forza Motorsport 7
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Sparklite
• Superhot
• The Surge
• Tracks: The Train Set Game

These nine games join the 90+ titles already available for the Project xCloud trial, which is currently only available in the US, UK, and Korea. Microsoft also confirmed today that the preview is expanding in Korea, with more players now receiving invites. However, there is no word yet as to when Project xCloud will roll out in other parts of the world.

The first public preview for Project xCloud launches in October 2019. The service allows players to stream Xbox games from the cloud to their mobile device over Wifi or a mobile network without the need to own an Xbox. The program currently only supports Android devices.

Project xCloud is separate from Microsoft’s Xbox console streaming program which allows players to stream games from their home console to their mobile device.