Category: Games

Super Mario Odyssey‘s presentation is undeniably charming. The upcoming adventure is brimming with vibrant visuals that’ll likely cement a smile on your face.

Aside from its colorful environments, one of the game’s most delightful aspects are the optional outfits Mario can wear. From outfits that are themed around the worlds you visit to ones that are direct homages to Mario’s history, there’s an abundance of fun costumes to throw on.

In time for Super Mario Odyssey‘s new content update, we’ve gathered all the new outfits that are included in it. To give you a look at all the new outfits as well as all of the outfits in the base game, we’ve gathered them all here.

Click ahead to take a look, and be sure to check back often as we update this feature with even more DLC outfits. If you’re curious how to find some of the best of what you see in this feature, check out our guide on how to get the best costumes.

Super Mario Odyssey is out now for Nintendo Switch. It’s the latest installment of Nintendo’s tenured franchise starring the lovable Italian plumber. You once again control Mario as he works to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. But this time around, he has the help of a new hat sidekick named Cappy, who he can throw at certain objects or enemies to temporarily possess them and use their unique abilities.

Check out our full review of Super Mario Odyssey, and for more about the game, check out our roundup article containing features, gameplay videos, and everything you need to know about Super Mario Odyssey. You can also check out our roundup containing tips, guides, and things we wish we knew.

This weekend marks the end of Call of Duty: WWII‘s Resistance event, and as such it’s the last weekend to get double character, Division, and weapon XP. This weekend also marks the launch of the game’s next update, which rebalances several weapons and changes the speed of aiming down sights for many guns.

Sledgehammer detailed the patch on Reddit today, and it is highlighted by significant changes to ADS speeds. Most interestingly, the Kar98K and M1903 sniper rifles will have their ADS speeds decreased in order to slightly reduce the effectiveness of quickscoping. LMGs, SMGs, and Rifles, meanwhile, will all have their base ADS speeds increased. SMGs gets an additional boost to the speed of aiming down sights immediately after sprinting, a tweak that’s meant to better delineate between the weapon classes.

As for other weapon balance changes, the MP-40 will get some attention, having its recoil improved so that it’s more competitive with the PPSh-41. The SVT-40 also gets better recoil but an increased hip-fire spread, both meant to bring it in line with the M1 Garand. You can read all of the weapon changes below.

The update is scheduled for launch tomorrow on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. In other news, you can currently play Call of Duty: WWII’s multiplayer for free on PC. In addition, its first expansion, The Resistance, will be released on PS4 next week.

Patch Notes

ADS TRANSITION TIMES/ADS FROM SPRINT TIMES/ADS SPRINT OUT TIMES:

SMGs

• Buffed base ADS times and buffed ADS in from sprint times (ADS sprint out times match ADS from sprint times).

Rifles

• Buffed base ADS transition times, but not ADS from sprint times/ADS sprint out times, in an effort to maintain a difference between the SMG and AR class playstyles.

Snipers: Kar98k and M1903

• Nerfed ADS transition times (a slight quickscoping nerf).

LMGs

• Buffed base ADS times

Note: Base ADS times for SMGs are faster than Rifles, and Rifles are faster than LMGs. In other words, there is now more of a distinction between class playstyles.

WEAPONS:

MP-40

• Buffed recoil in an effort to have a more competitive SMG on par with the PPSh-41.

FG-42

• Nerfed fire rate so that the damage output is more in line with other weapons in its class.

SVT-40

• Buffed recoil in an effort to make it more manageable to shoot down range and give a better contrast to the M1 Garand.
• Nerfed hip spread to match the M1 Garand’s in an effort to decrease the ability to quickly kill opponents at closer ranges.

M1A1

• Buffed fire rate in an effort to make it a more competitive choice amongst the other rifles (still slightly slower than the Gewehr 43).

Gewehr 43

• Buffed fire rate in an effort to make it a more competitive choice amongst the other rifles (still slightly faster than M1A1).
• Buffed recoil (closer to that of M1A1).
• Buffed clip size to be 12 rounds per clip instead of 10.

M30 Luftwaffe Drilling

• Buffed damage per pellet to be on par with the recent Sawed-Off Shotgun changes so that this shotgun now has a more automatic 2-shot kill and a slightly more forgiving one-shot kill.
• Buffed shotgun damage range, so that it’s now more feasible to finish off an opponent who didn’t die from a rifle bullet.
• Buffed ADS spread to allow for greater accuracy when shooting enemies that are outside of the obvious shotgun range (while ADS).

Toggle Action

• Buffed clip size to be 8 shots per clip instead of 6 in an effort to allow players to have more success with this weapon.
• Nerfed ADS spread to be on par with other shotguns (besides the M30).

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds got a couple of new cosmetic crates today, and both of them add some pretty distinctive clothing for you to dress up your character in. You can buy the Militia and Fever crates starting now, although the Fever crate requires you to also buy an Early Bird key. In addition, both crates contain items that drop at particularly low frequencies, but the Militia crate takes the prize for holding the rarest item.

The name of the Fever crate refers to dance fever, because it includes a whole bunch of ’70s- and ’80s-inspired clothing options. If you snag one of these boxes, you’ll receive anything from a mesh polo shirt to a cropped corset to loafers with socks. According to the drop rates published in the patch notes, the cropped corset and zest checkered shirt are the rarest items.

The Militia crate, meanwhile, can award a handful of different combat-themed items along with some other clothes. It has the possibility of granting a cowboy hat, a long-sleeved turtleneck, a utility belt, and others. The rarest item by far is the military skirt, which has a microscopic .00064% chance of dropping.

You can snag the Fever crate with in-game Battle Points and open it with an Early Bird key, which costs real money. The Militia crate, meanwhile, will drop 40% of the time when purchasing one of the random boxes with in-game currency.

In other news, developer PUBG Corp. confirmed recently that a new map is scheduled for release by July. There’s not much known yet about the map, but you can read more about what the studio’s got planned for PUBG here.

A biopic about the wonderful man who invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is in the works at Fox Searchlight, the studio behind movies like Juno and Slumdog Millionaire. The movie, which is titled Flamin’ Hot, will follow the life of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos inventor Richard Montanez, who was a janitor at Frito-Lay before creating the snack and amassing untold wealth.

According to Variety, which was the first to report the news today, multiple studios were vying to pick up the movie before Fox Searchlight ultimately sealed the deal. Montanez is the son of an immigrant and worked on farms picking grapes in southern California. He later got a job as a janitor at Cheetos manufacturer Frito-Lay, and during his time cleaning toilets there in the ’70s, he came up with the idea for a new variety of Cheetos.

The script for Flamin’ Hot is being written by Lewis Colick (October Sky, Ladder 49), with Montanez helping out. Devon Franklin, a Hollywood producer and spiritual coach, is producing.

According to Fox News, Montanez got the idea for a hot variety of Cheetos while he was eating a cup of corn. “I see the corn man adding butter, cheese, and chile to the corn and thought, ‘What if I add chile to a Cheeto?'” he recalled.

According to the report, Montanez bolted into his mother’s kitchen and whipped up some spices for a test version of the snack. He apparently called the president of Frito-Lay to propose his new flavour and was given two weeks to prepare a presentation. The president apparently loved the idea, and the Flamin’ Hot variety is now among Frito-Lay’s best-selling products worldwide. Montanez is currently an executive at PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay.

There is no word as of yet about who will play Montanez in the film or who may direct. A release date is also not available at this time, but we’ll be sure to report back with more on all the delectable details as they are announced.

February has been a busy month for Nintendo Switch, and that only continues this week with the arrival of another new batch of games. This week sees 18 more titles make their way to the Eshop, in addition to a free update for Super Mario Odyssey.

Among this week’s releases is Old Man’s Journey, a poignant puzzle game first released for PC and mobile devices in 2017. Switch owners can also pick up Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus; the word-based puzzle-platformer Typoman; two more classic Arcade Archives games, Magical Drop III and Heroic Episode; the shoot-’em-up Spacecats with Lasers; the dog-stretching puzzle game Puzzle Puppers; and the horror game Layers of Fear: Legacy.

Old Man’s Journey

On top of those titles, three games arrive on the Switch Eshop tomorrow, February 23. Those include the puzzle-platformer Toki Tori 2+; the side-scrolling adventure game/shooter The Final Station; and Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition. Switch owners can also now download a free demo of the Portal-like puzzle game ChromaGun. You can find the full list of this week’s new Switch games below.

In addition to the new releases, a big update for Super Mario Odyssey is also now available to download. Along with a handful of new costumes for Mario and filters for Snapshot mode, the update adds the new Luigi’s Balloon World minigame that Nintendo revealed during its January Direct presentation. This mode is accessible after players have cleared the main game and lets them hide balloons within levels that other players race to find.

A number of well-received games launched for Switch this past month, including Dragon Quest Builders, Bayonetta, and Bayonetta 2. Next week, meanwhile, sees the arrival of the co-op heist game Payday 2 and the Portal/Bridge Constructor crossover title, Bridge Constructor Portal.

This Week’s New Nintendo Switch Releases

February 20

• Old Man’s Journey
• Pool
• Puzzle Puppers

February 21

• Layers of Fear: Legacy

February 22

• ACA Neo Geo: Magical Drop III
• Ace of Seafood
• Arcade Archives: Heroic Episode
• Dragon Sinker
• Hollow
• Membrane
• Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus
• Radiation Island
• Spacecats with Lasers
• Superola and the Lost Burgers
• Typoman

February 23

• The Final Station
• Toki Tori 2+
• Twin Robots: Ultimate Edition

In the wake of the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida, President Trump hosted a meeting at the White House to discuss the subject of school safety. Among the subjects to come up was that of video games and movies, and the level of violence they contain–something he claimed is influencing the minds of minors. Trump even went so far as to suggest a ratings system could be necessary, despite the fact that such a thing already exists for both games and movies.

During the chat, Trump raised the issue of monitoring the sorts of things that young people look at online. From there, he moved on to the entertainment they consume, saying, “We have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it. And also video games–I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence in video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”

This isn’t the first time he’s pointed a finger at violent video games. Following the shooting at Sandy Hook in 2012, he tweeted, “Video game violence & glorification must be stopped–it is creating monsters!” Matt Bevin, the Republican governor of Kentucky, also pointed to video games in the wake of Parkland just recently.

Jump back to today, and Trump extended the blame to movies: “And then you go the further step and that’s the movies. You see these movies, they’re so violent, and yet a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn’t involved. But killing is involved and maybe they have to put a ratings system for that. You get into a whole very complicated, very big deal, but the fact is that you are having movies come out that are so violent with the killing and everything else that maybe that’s another thing we’re gonna have to discuss. And a lot of people are saying you have these movies today where you can go and have a child see a movie and yet it’s so violent and so disgusting, so we may have to talk.”

It’s unclear if Trump believes this ratings system is necessary for both movies and video games, or whether his suggestion is meant to replace or bolster those existing systems operated by the MPAA and ESRB. He also didn’t explain whether such a system would be operated by the government. Both the MPAA and ESRB are self-regulatory groups operated by their respective industries and were founded to avoid having the government control the ratings process.

There have been calls from legislators over the years to impose various restrictions on, for instance, the sale of violent video games to minors. In a landmark case back in 2011, the Supreme Court sided with the gaming industry in the case of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, striking down a bill that would have fined retailers for each violent game sold to minors.

We’ve contacted the ESRB’s parent organization, the ESA, for comment about Trump’s statements and will report back with anything it has to say.

Curious about Call of Duty: WWII? Activision is hosting a free trial weekend for the game’s multiplayer on PC this weekend. The free play weekend started today and runs through February 25, ending at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET.

Activision explained in a Steam post that all of your progression from the free weekend, including inventory items and unlockables, will carry forward if you purchase the full game. Activision made no mention of any limitations of the free trial like a level cap or restrictions on maps or modes.

Now is a good time to pick up Call of Duty: WWII on PC, as it’s marked down to $39 for the standard edition and $75 for the digital deluxe version. The free weekend and sale are only available on PC, not PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

Call of Duty: WWII was the highest-grossing game in North America in 2017. Its first DLC pack, Resistance, launched on PS4 at the end of January and comes to Xbox One and PC on March 1.

Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield, the founders of developer Sledgehammer Games, recently left the company to take executive-level positions at Activision HQ. Activision has also confirmed that this year’s Call of Duty title is being developed by Treyarch, adding further fuel to the rumors that the game will be Black Ops 4.

Season 3 of Fortnite‘s Battle Royale mode is underway on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, which means players can now pick up a new Battle Pass. As before, the Season 3 Battle Pass can only be purchased for 950 V-Bucks and lets players unlock items the more they play the game, including a slew of new outfits, gliders, emotes, and more.

For this season, Epic has added 30 more tiers to the Battle Pass, bringing the total number of tiers to 100. Despite this sizable increase, the studio says that players will still be able to unlock everything in the same amount of time it took to complete the Season 2 Battle Pass–roughly 75-150 hours of playtime by Epic’s estimates. Players can also purchase tiers using V-Bucks to unlock items faster, and those who own the Season 2 Battle Pass will unlock five free tiers as a bonus in Season 3.

The Season 3 Battle Pass includes 76 items to unlock in all. Among the new one that players can earn this season are Back Blings–customization items for your character’s back. Epic has also introduced new loading screens, skydiving effects trails, pickaxes, and more. You can see all the Season 3 Battle Pass rewards in our gallery.

Those who purchase the Season 3 Battle Pass will automatically gain access to a batch of free items, including the Mission Specialist Outfit. Epic is also offering a Battle Bundle, which includes the Season 3 Battle Pass and 25 tiers’ worth of items, for 2,800 V-Bucks. Individual tiers, meanwhile, can be purchased for 150 V-Bucks each. You can read more about the Season 3 Battle Pass on the official Fortnite website.

Coinciding with the start of Season 3, Epic has rolled out a new update for both Battle Royale and Save the World modes. Along with the aforementioned Battle Pass, the update introduces a new weapon to Battle Royale–the Hand Cannon–as well as some gameplay tweaks, such as a 60 FPS option for consoles and a variety of building improvements.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is free to download and play on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, while the Save the World mode is currently still in paid early access. If you’ve yet to give the game a try, Xbox Live Gold members can purchase Fornite’s various Founders Packs at a discount on the Xbox Store as part of this week’s Deals with Gold.

Fortnite‘s big new update has arrived, introducing a variety of content to both Battle Royale and Save the World. On the Battle Royale side, Season 3 is now officially underway, and with it, a new Battle Pass is now available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, which means there are a ton of new items to acquire.

As with previous Battle Passes, this one includes a limited selection of content that anyone can unlock, including some emotes and a new pickaxe. The vast majority of the rewards are restricted to those who actually purchase the full Battle Pass, which costs 950 V-Bucks (or just around $10). If you owned the Season 2 Battle Pass, you’ll automatically get five tiers’ worth of progress for free, helping you to get a jump start on unlocking the new items. Additional tiers can be earned by collecting stars by playing and fulfilling specific objectives, or by purchasing them with additional V-Bucks.

Among the items you’ll find in the premium tier of the Battle Pass are new pickaxes, skins, gliders, emotes, and much more. There’s also Back Bling, which is a new category of item added as part of the 3.0.0 update alongside skydiving trails and loading screens. In the images above, you can see all of the major new items included in the Season 3 Battle Pass. Bear in mind, these are all cosmetic; nothing will actually impact gameplay directly. If you’re a fan of references, though, you’re in luck, as you’ll find skins clearly meant to resemble the likes of John Wick and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star-Lord.

There have been some changes to the Battle Pass for Season 3. Most notably, there are now 30 additional rewards tiers and 76 items in all to unlock. Despite the additions, it should take roughly the same amount of time to obtain everything as it did with the previous Battle Pass–Epic’s estimate is a range of 75-150 hours.

In terms of playable content, Fortnite has received some new additions. Battle Royale now has a new weapon, the Hand Cannon, that uses Heavy ammo. Some notable improvements have also been made to building (which also extends to Save the World), and a 60 FPS framerate is now the default option for all console players. You can see everything the update does in the Fortnite 3.0.0 patch notes.

If you were watching TV in 2004, chances are you or someone else you knew was completely and utterly obsessed with Lost. ABC’s drama series took the world by storm, creating a passionate fanbase that took to the internet to discuss each episode and theorize about what it all means.

In 2018 that might not sound like anything special, but it’s important to note that this was the very first show to capture the hearts and minds of TV audiences living in the internet age. It wasn’t easy to congregate on places like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube because, well, they didn’t exist in any meaningful way.

But part of being a Lost fan was engaging with others, and it was undoubtedly a show that gave its audience plenty of material to work with. Lost was filled with characters to love–and hate–mysteries to consider, and wild twists that shocked us. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it, the fact that it was a cultural phenomenon is undeniable.

And now, it’s available to stream in its entirety on Hulu. To celebrate its arrival on the streaming service we decided to put together a video looking back at what made Lost so unique. If you’d like to read instead of watch, you can check out our gallery on the 8 Ways Lost Changed TV.