Category: Games

It is finally time. Netflix’s hit sci-fi show, Stranger Things, premiered its third season just now. All eight episodes of the third season are now available to stream around the world.

What are you waiting for? If you’re in America and have the 4th of July off, what better way to kick off your holiday weekend than spending some time with Eleven as she and her crew save the world all over again.

Millie Bobby Brown is back as Eleven, with Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Finn Wolfhard, and Noah Schnapp all reprising their roles as Lucas Sinclair, Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, and Will Byers, respectively. Max Mayfield returns to her Season 2 role as Sadie Sink, while David Harbour (Jim Hopper) and Winona Ryder (Joyce Byers) are both returning as well.

Stranger Things 3 picks up after the events of Season 2. Eleven and the gang are enjoying their summer break, but obviously everything goes to hell and demons must be defeated.

“It’s safe to say that Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have pulled it off: After a lackluster sophomore slump, Stranger Things is back at the top of its game,” reviewer Michael Rougeau said in GameSpot’s Stranger Things 3 review.

In other news, Stranger Things has invaded Fortnite.

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Midsommar spoilers ahead!

15. The Bugle

Jameson’s news outlet, The Daily Bugle, is just as notorious as he is in the comics and Spider-Man movies on days gone by. JJJ is seen here for the first time in the MCU, publicly outing Peter Parker to the world with help from a doctored video taken by Mysterio. We can’t tell if The Bugle is a paper, a talk show, or some other form of news outlet here in this universe, but whatever it is, it’s going to spell trouble for Peter.

The second Pokemon Go Fest event of the summer kicks off soon in Dortmund, Germany, but even if you can’t attend in-person, you’ll have a chance to catch a special Pokemon. To celebrate the event, Niantic is increasing spawns of male Nidoran around the world beginning tomorrow, July 4, at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM BST, and if you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to find its Shiny version for the first time.

That isn’t all that’s happening during the event. As was the case during last month’s Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago, Niantic will offer a variety of Global Challenges throughout Germany’s Go Fest. Players around the world can chip in toward their completion, and if enough challenges are completed, Niantic will make a variety of bonuses available in the game, including another chance to capture the Legendary Pokemon Entei.

This week marks the third anniversary of Pokemon Go’s release, and Niantic is celebrating the occasion with a variety of events and bonuses. Shiny Alolan forms of Rattata, Sandshrew, Vulpix, Diglett, Meowth, Geodude, Grimer, and Exeggutor can be found in the wild, and Pikachu wearing a party hat is available once again. There are also new Special Research quests and new avatar items inspired by the game’s three team leaders in the Style Shop.

Beyond the third anniversary festivities, the Gen 3 Legendary Groudon has returned to Raid Battles for a limited time. The Pokemon will appear at Gyms until July 10, and you’ll have a chance of encountering its Shiny version. Groudon and Kyogre are also two of the possible Legendaries you can encounter through July’s new Field Research tasks. Another Gen 3 Legendary, Speed Forme Deoxys, has also begun appearing in EX Raids.

Pokemon Go’s next Community Day is scheduled for July 21. The featured Pokemon this time will be Mudkip, the Gen 3 Water-type starter. Throughout the event, Mudkip will appear in the wild more frequently than normal, and if you can evolve it into its final form, Swampert, by the end of the event, it’ll learn a special move. You’ll also earn triple the usual amount of XP for capturing Pokemon during this month’s Community Day.

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One of publisher Electronic Arts’ bosses has spoken up to talk about how, after 25 years with the company, he continues to struggle with how EA is often perceived as “a bunch of bad guys.”

A publicly traded company with thousands of employees around the world, EA is among the world’s largest, oldest, and most established gaming publishers. EA’s EVP of strategic growth, Matt Bilbey, explained to GI.biz that when EA makes mistakes, these issues are blown out due in part to the company’s size and scale.

“25 years at EA and I still struggle with the external perception that we’re just a bunch of bad guys,” Bilbey said. “We love making and playing games. Unfortunately, when we make mistakes on games, the world knows about it because it’s of a size and scale.”

Indeed. When EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II ignited a controversy in 2017 over its implementation loot boxes and microtransactions–which were removed before the game’s public release–the discussion kicked off a global examination of loot boxes in video games that continues today. The title might have been embroiled in controversy, but it shipped a gargantuan 9 million-plus copies in its first months alone, making it one of the most successful Star Wars games in history.

It’s a similar story to EA’s Battlefield 4, which had a rough launch but was also hugely successful from a commercial perspective.

Also in the interview, Bilbey spoke about how EA, as the company grows larger and larger, faces the perception that it becomes “disconnected” from new, original ideas. That’s where the EA Originals program comes in. The label is behind titles like A Way Out, Fe, and Sea of Solitude, along with more games coming up in the future.

“EA Originals is our opportunity to connect with that talent and those smaller ideas. When you are part of a big company, it’s too easy to fall into the trap where when you see a game concept… it has to be big,” he said. “The notion of actually coming up with small, unique game ideas… We know from the work that we’ve been doing on our subscription business that gamers will play a FIFA or a Fortnite–they have one main franchise–but then they want breaks from those games to play something that’s maybe five or ten hours long.”

At E3 this y ear, EA announced the latest partners for the EA Original label, including Hazelight, Glowmade, and Zoink.