Category: Games

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Iterating on the Xbox One allowed Microsoft to solidify its vision for the Xbox Series X, the next-generation console revealed by Phil Spencer at The Game Awards. Speaking to GameSpot, Spencer recalled a showcase in 2016, when he indicated that the console could become upgradable and how that was originally one piece of a larger Xbox Series X picture.

“What was that the showcase event we did here like four years ago down in San Francisco where I went on my confusing rant about hardware upgrades?” he said in our interview. “We were working on both Xbox One S and Xbox One X, I don’t think we had announced either one at the time. One of the stepping stones for us getting here [to Xbox Series X] was Xbox One X, a box that was 100% compatible with Xbox One S but faster.

“We created Xbox One S, created Xbox One X, took a lot of feedback from fans, tried to make that feedback loop from both customers and developers pretty critical to who we are, and that’s been a pretty important part of our journey and we said we want to make that a core foundation of Project Scarlett.”

For Spencer and the Xbox team, the seamless compatibility between Xbox One S and the considerably more powerful Xbox One X speaks to the ethos Microsoft has for its gaming ecosystem, particularly for Xbox Series X.

“This idea that … there’s no boost mode, there’s nothing you need to like query, you can play your Xbox One games on an Xbox One X and they play better … That was a stepping stone in our learning to say, ‘Hey, well, how do we then take games to a new architecture but ensure that we get the benefits of that architecture with the game,'” Spencer said. “Because we didn’t want to slow everything down so that you don’t see all the benefits of what the new hardware gives you.

“I think on Xbox One X today, I can honestly say for almost all of the 360 games that run there, the best place to play them is no longer the Xbox 360. They actually play better on the Xbox One X and I want the same to be true here [with Xbox Series X]. And that kind of [goes] full-circle back to why the name is what it is, because this is the Xbox. This is where your Xbox games play.”

Microsoft has not yet announced when Xbox Series X will launch other than Holiday 2020, but it did say that it expects to have an exciting E3 2020. You may be wondering why it chose to reveal the new console at The Game Awards, and Spencer discussed this, along with other things, in our interview. Make sure to read our full exclusive Xbox Series X feature for more on the console and what Xbox has in store for us in the future.

It’s a good time to be a PC gamer, as every digital store seems to be launching its winter sale right now. Steam’s winter sale will reportedly launch this Thursday, December 19, and you can already find excellent deals at other stores like Fanatical and Green Man Gaming. But digital storefront GOG has some interesting game deals of its own as part of its winter sale, which is live now through January 2.

Notably, GOG is offering an excellent bundle with Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming game by CD Projekt Red (which also owns GOG). For $87.77, you’ll secure a pre-order of Cyberpunk 2077, which releases April 16, and all of the Witcher games:

If you already own one of the above games, you’ll receive a redeem code via email that you can share with a friend. Be sure to check out our Cyberpunk 2077 pre-order guide for more info on the game’s special editions, if you know it’s a definite purchase for you. It’s worth noting that you’ll get additional pre-order bonuses if you pre-order Cyberpunk 2077 from GOG, including print-quality posters, an exclusive digital booklet, and more.

GOG’s winter sale includes some other great game bundles. One such collection is the Paradox Strategy Bundle, which gets you five great games for $70.56, down from a total value of $199.95. That bundle includes Stellaris, Battletech, and Surviving Mars as well as two 2019 releases: Age of Wonders: Planetfall and Imperator: Rome.

There are plenty of discounted games to grab as well, including critically acclaimed titles like What Remains of Edith Finch, Dead Cells, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and more. Check out our picks from the GOG winter sale below, and browse all the games currently discounted at GOG.

Best game deals at GOG

*includes VR edition

The PS4‘s DualShock 4 controller is getting an optional upgrade, with the announcement of a new Back Button Attachment. The dongle slides onto the existing charging port of your DualShock, and adds two programmable buttons to the back. It’s coming in on January 23 for $30.

The teaser video shows the device clipping on, in which the two buttons are divided by a larger circular button. That central button is clickable to switch between three profiles, and also serves as an OLED screen to display button assignments and player profiles. The bottom of the device has a stereo headset jack.

Recently we’ve seen possible designs for the next-generation PlayStation controller, which have looked very similar to the existing DualShock 4. That controller patent had no back button functionality, but this add-on may indicate Sony is planning for future functionality if the next controller will follow suit. This adds functionality similar to the back buttons on the Xbox One Elite controller, and third-party controllers have added similar functions.

Meanwhile, both Microsoft and Sony have been slowly detailing their next-gen plans. For more detail on what Sony has in store, check out our wrap-up of everything we know about the PlayStation 5.

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Spend any amount of time on the Watchmen subreddit or reading what people are saying about the show on Twitter, and you’ll see a common criticism coming from disgruntled fans: that Watchmen is too political, or that it espouses the “wrong” politics. But in the final episode of HBO’s official Watchmen podcast, which went up after the show’s final episode aired, Lindelof says he believes the show’s politics are true to the original comics. More importantly, he says those politics are crucial to what Watchmen is.

“For Watchmen to be culturally relevant in 2019, it has to be some sort of funhouse mirror reflection of the time that we’re living in,” Lindelof says. “This really fascinating sort of conversation erupted around the show as we were airing kind of the first three or four episodes, which was this idea of like, ‘This show is too political,’ and also, parallel to that, ‘How can this show call itself Watchmen?'”

But the showrunner says Watchmen has always been political; in fact, the word “political” was on a list of adjectives that he and the other writers used to describe what Watchmen is while they were still figuring out what the show would be. “But my own personal politics–and I make no bones about the fact that I’m a liberal, I’m very progressively minded,” he says. “But at the same time, I think that the original Watchmen is kind of anarchist in its blood, and it has to troll the extremes. So you have to troll extreme liberalism, and extreme progressiveism.”

As a viewer, it’s easy to see where those things manifested, when you look at elements that are on polar opposite ends of the spectrum, like the white supremacist terrorist group the 7th Kavalry, and the overly dramatic trigger warnings that air before the in-universe show American Hero Story.

Lindelof says the idea of reparations plays a big part in this duality. “I happen to think that reparations are a really good idea–whether they’re reparations for slavery, or reparations for something like the Tulsa massacre–are a really good idea,” he says. “I also have to accept that, were reparations actually enacted, that there would be a virulent pushback from a large sector of our society. And do I take sides? Well, again, my side is I think that we have a big white supremacy problem in the United States of America. I’m not here saying, ‘There’s good people on both sides.’ That being said, I’m just presenting what I think would actually happen were reparations to be passed.”

Specifically, that idea takes the shape of the 7th Kavalry, a terrorist group being supported by a clandestine cell that shares space with the highest levels of government, whose goal is “creating some kind of culture war” that will enable Senator Joe Keene to seize more power. Keene uses the overlap between police and white supremacists to play both sides, ultimately controlling everyone involved. You can argue with the logic of that plan if you want, but there’s no denying its thematic relevance in 2019.

To Lindelof, the idea of police wearing masks–making them less distinguishable from the bad guys–ties in with the question of why people wear masks in the first place, dovetailing nicely into the themes he wanted this show to explore.

“What we were trying to get at–the big fundamental idea that is literally stated by Blake explicitly in the fourth episode–is that there’s causation between trauma, particularly childhood trauma, and the wearing of a mask,” the showrunner says, bringing up comparisons in other superhero origin stories, like Batman and Iron Man.

“Now let’s take that idea and make that trauma about the trauma that was visited upon people of color in America, because that is the American story that’s just not really being told enough,” he continues, adding that he was terrified that he wasn’t the right person to tell this story–something he still feels now. But “[despite] still feeling very much that way, I couldn’t resist. I had to do it. I was compelled to do it, and thank god so many other people around me were there [in the writer’s room] to prevent me from making catastrophic mistakes, and inform me with their wisdom.”

Over its nine episodes, HBO’s Watchmen presented a complex and multi-layered view of modern day politics, the idea of masked heroes, and the concept of legacy. And in doing so, it really did live up to the name Watchmen.

If like us, you can’t get enough, check out our explanation of the show’s ending, the major questions we still have after the finale, all the Easter eggs and references we spotted in Episode 9, and everything else we learned from the podcast.