Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, the expansion/overhaul for the MMO, is now available for free on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The new version will coexist with the base version, and while characters can be shared across both versions, each game will have its own individual progress.
New Genesis gives Phantasy Star Online 2 a graphical overhaul, in addition to introducing new environments and story content. Because New Genesis exists side-by-side with the base game, it exists as an update to the original game and not a standalone title. The Xbox version of the game now sits at about 80 GB, containing both versions of the MMO.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Now Playing: Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis Gunner Closed Beta Gameplay
Phantasy Star Online 2 originally released in Japan in 2012, only making its way to the West in 2020 with an Xbox One and PC release. While the MMO is very popular, its age was visible, so the graphical overhaul came as welcome news. However, Sega didn’t didn’t want to undo everything players had done in the original version, which is why the two versions coexist.
The two versions are accessible from a single launcher, which means that anyone who wants to boot up the original version of PSO2 will need to progress through the first portion of the New Genesis story. It was said on the PSO2 forums that players will need to do the opening of the game and make it to the hub world before being able to access the original game.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
If you played one of the older Battlefield games, chances are that you came across one of the handful of videos of a player jumping out of a fighter jet, blowing up an enemy plane with a rocket launcher, and then getting back into his original jet. This act, that’s been dubbed a RendeZook (for “rendezvous” and “bazooka”) has become one of the most well-known in Battlefield. In the announcement trailer for Battlefield 2042, developer DICE paid homage to it–and the creator of one of the original videos was extremely excited.
You can see the reference clip from the Battlefield 2042 trailer at around the 3:00 minute mark. User Schemov, who is still heavily involved in the Battlefield community, streamed out his response to the announcement trailer, not knowing ahead of time that it would incorporate a reference to the RendeZook. His reaction when seeing the clip is priceless, and you can watch it in the embed below.
This feat of quick-thinking and dexterity in Battlefield 3 became so well-known among players that it became a meme of sorts. As enshrined in Urban Dictionary, “rendezook” has become slang for pulling off a similar accomplishment in any game.
In addition to the trailer, DICE also revealed that Battlefield 2042 is coming on October 22 to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Although the game won’t have a single-player campaign, it’ll still incorporate significant story elements: it features a world stricken from climate disaster where independent soldiers have to align with either the United States or Russia in a global war. For more, check out our full coverage of DICE’s rundown on Battlefield 2042, and our breakdown video that goes over all of the details hidden in the announcement trailer. In addition, you can learn more about the Battlefield 2042 beta that’ll arrive in the near future.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
The next evolution of GameSpot sister site Giant Bomb is coming soon, and it features some returning faces. A new lineup of shows is coming with content from GameSpot’s own Tamoor Hussain and Lucy James, as well as former GameSpot video producer Danny O’Dwyer and a few other viewer favorites.
Announced contributors to the new Giant Bomb content slate include:
Tamoor Hussain
Lucy James
Danny O’Dwyer
Jeff Grubb
Dan Ryckert
Yes, Dan Ryckert is back on Giant Bomb! The former editor and Taco Bell nuptials-haver will be contributing to the site on new content, and there be even more announcements regarding more shows and contributors in the weeks and months ahead. Alongside Jeff, other Jeff, Jan, Jason, and Rorie, Giant Bomb is also looking for more full-time employees following the departure of longtime staffers Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, and Brad Shoemaker.
The contributor system is intended to give personalities an opportunity to make Giant Bomb content to fit their schedule, as Jeff Gerstmann explained in a new video. Those who are able to contribute regularly will have a chance to do so, while others may shoot several episodes of a show and then return months later for more.
And if you are a fan of classic Giant Bomb content, that is staying, as well. The Giant Bombcast will still air every Tuesday, and there will still be a live show on Fridays. If we’re lucky, maybe Dan Ryckert will play a Nintendo Switch while riding a roller coaster or something.
More news will be shared after E3, but Tamoor and Lucy will be joining Jeff Bakalar for a brand-new Giant Bomb show. Our powers only grow when we combine forces, and Tam had some thoughts on the exciting news:
“Giant Bomb has always been a place that attracts incredibly talented people to work on creative projects. In a rare exception, they’ve now asked Lucy and I to join them to work on a project that we hope is able to capture the hearts, minds, and wallets (please buy a premium subscription) of Giant Bomb fans old and new,” Tam said.
“Seriously though, we’re huge fans of Giant Bomb and we could not be more excited to now be involved in making content for the site. We’ve got a whole load of ideas and the first of them is going to be a lot of fun. The future of Giant Bomb is looking really exciting and dynamic, and we’re so proud to be a part of it.”
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen has commented on the possibility of the MCU show getting a second season, and she is not hopeful. As part of Variety’s latest Actors on Actors episode, The Flight Attendant’s Kaley Cuoco and Olsen chatted about all manner of things, and WandaVision naturally came up in the discussion.
Cuoco asked Olsen if there will be a second season of WandaVision, to which Olsen replied, “No. No. It’s definitely a limited series.”
Cuoco pointed out that The Flight Attendant was originally billed as a limited series before it was picked up for a second season. Olsen responded that the door is always open with Marvel, but it remains to be seen if WandaVision will in fact return.
“I mean, I’m saying that. I don’t know. I mean, with Marvel, you can never say no,” she said.
Variety’s own transcript ends there, but Entertainment Weekly reports that Olsen went on to say she would be “shocked” if WandaVision came back for a second season. She also commented that she enjoys making TV, so it sounds like she’d be open to the idea, at least.
Amazon Prime Day is one of the biggest deals events of the year for Prime subscribers, and though the annual sale always brings hefty discounts on practically anything you’d want to buy, the company is also throwing free Amazon credit at shoppers to help sweeten the deals even further. There are two main ways to claim free Amazon credit ahead of Prime Day, each of which will get you $10 to spend during the sale (so $20 total)–and neither involves signing up for Amazon’s credit card. Let’s get into it: Here’s how you can claim free Amazon credit ahead of Prime Day 2021.
Shop small businesses on Amazon
Just like last year, Amazon is highlighting small businesses ahead of Prime Day and urging users to “shop local” (despite the fact that you’re still buying on Amazon and benefiting a massive corporation, of course). Between June 7 and June 20, when you spend at least $10 on products from small businesses on Amazon, you will receive $10 back. You’ll know you’ve qualified when you receive a confirmation email notifying you that credit has been added to your account. You can then spend that $10 credit on Prime Day from June 21 to 22. This deal is exclusive to Prime members.
The qualifying small business offers span several major categories, including electronics, pet supplies, home & kitchen, and even handmade items. You can also shop by region–so if you live in the Northeast United States and want to support “local” sellers, you can browse products specifically made in that region.
Install Amazon Assistant Chrome extension
The second main way to earn free Amazon credit for Prime Day is to install the Amazon Assistant Chrome extension and simply click on it five times before Prime Day. The catch is that you can only do this once a day for it to count, so you will need to click on the extension once a day for five days between now and June 21–that means you will have to start this process no later than June 17 to get the $10 credit in time for Prime Day. Once you’ve clicked the extension once a day on five separate days, you’ll receive the free $10 credit in your account. The extension displays your progress very clearly, showing how many days are left and how many check-ins you’ve done out of five.
The Amazon Assistant Chrome extension lets you compare prices with a 30-day price tracker tool, offers personal product recommendations, gives order updates, lets you easily compare items, and more. Of course, you can always just delete the extension after getting your free credit if you don’t find it useful. If the price tracker tool interests you the most, we recommend using CamelCamelCamel as it has longer-term tracking.
Monark, a school-based RPG from former Shin Megami Tensei developers has been officially announced and is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
As reported by Gematsu, the game, Monark, was formally revealed in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, and is in development at Lancarse, with character design from so-bin and scenario design from SMT veteran Ryutaro Ito. It will launch on October 14 in Japan, but there has been no word just yet about a worldwide release or localization.
According to Ryokutya2098‘s writeup, the game’s protagonist is the deputy head of “the True Student Council,” an organization set up to “solve the abnormal situations in the school”. The game has multiple endings, with different routes depending on which “buddy character” the protagonist picks.
There’s also a “madness” meter in the command-based battle system that you can increase “to use more powerful skills” and an “EGO system” that is related to the seven deadly sins, and will be based on the player’s choices, and their abilities to employ demon underlings.
According to an interview from the magazine, the developers were inspired by 1994’s Shin Megami Tensei If… and the fact that “nowadays there are no games like it”. The interviews also revealed there will be over 100 student stories in the games and “about 40 songs”.
Warner Bros. and DC Films are reportedly planning to send Blue Beetle straight to streaming rather than giving the DCEU movie a theatrical release.
The Los Angeles Times published a report about Warner Bros.’ movie plans, specifically the company’s release strategy in light of the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery. Interestingly, it included a snapshot of the films being made exclusively for HBO Max, and listed Blue Beetle as one of the “mid-budget DC movies on the way for streaming,” along with the studio’s Batgirl project.
Films like Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat helped to drive more customers to HBO Max and ultimately keep people from canceling their subscriptions, so it’s perhaps no surprise that Warner Bros. plans to accelerate its DC movie release schedule, with as many as four new movies hitting theaters each year (starting in 2022) and an additional two “riskier” movies debuting on HBO Max.
Blue Beetle has appeared in several animated series, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Young Justice. The DC hero is also set to appear in a new DC animated film sometime in 2022, along with three other DC animated shorts that have been announced. All of these films are being produced by Rick Morales, who previously worked on Mortal Kombat: Scorpion’s Revenge.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
The policies put in place by President Trump to ban TikTok and WeChat from the United States have been revoked by President Biden. As a part of a new executive order, Biden has rescinded the blanket bans and has initiated a more measured approach to reviewing foreign-connected software applications.
Back in the middle of 2020, President Trump issued a series of executive orders that required the parent companies of WeChat and TikTok to spin off their United States operations and sell them to an American company or be prohibited. After jockeying from several American corporations, Oracle was eventually settled on to take over certain aspects of TikTok’s infrastructure. However, this deal never went through, and Trump’s executive orders have been dealt blows from court decisions.
After assuming the presidency, President Biden took further steps to prevent the TikTok and WeChat bans from going into effect. Today, his administration officially revoked Trump’s executive orders, meaning that TikTok and WeChat aren’t under imminent threat of prohibition in the United States. However, Biden has also empowered Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to review apps that are directly controlled by or fall under the jurisdiction of “foreign adversaries” (both TikTok and WeChat are owned by Chinese companies).
Under this initiative, the Department of Commerce has the authority to issue bans against apps that are deemed national security risks. Commerce will most likely be closely reviewing TikTok and WeChat, both of which have faced controversies stemming from links to Chinese government censorship and security efforts. In addition, as Bloomberg reports, this review process is designed to be flexible, taking into account the specific context of each company that is investigated.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Battlefield 2042 has been officially announced, and it’s a multiplayer-only game. Developer DICE also revealed its plans for a beta test, and here’s what we know so far.
A FAQ posted on the Battlefield website reveals that there will be an open beta for Battlefield 2042 that will be released “in the months leading up to launch.” The beta will be available on all platforms, which includes PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
The FAQ also states that people who preorder a copy of Battlefield 2042 will get “early access” to the beta. DICE will announce more details on the open beta in the future, at which point we should learn more about its release timing and content.
In regards to Battlefield 2042’s live service elements, DICE says the studio is taking a “new approach” with the new game with the aim of keeping the community together “for years to come.” While the game has no campaign, DICE says it will deliver new storytelling elements throughout the game’s seasons. Each of these will last “about three months.”
Gallery
Each new season will add new free and paid content through its Battle Pass. In the first 12 months, DICE will launch four battle passes, four new Specialist characters, and “more fresh content.”
Battlefield 2042 launches on October 22. A cinematic announcement trailer can be seen above, while the first gameplay footage will be released during the Xbox E3 2013 briefing on Sunday, June 13. For lots more, check out GameSpot’s preview content linked below.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
The world is at war in the next installment of DICE’s Battlefield franchise, but the series isn’t going back to the early 20th Century with its next installment. Instead, it’s projecting into the near future with Battlefield 2042, a multiplayer-focused entry that’s imagining a future for us that’s not particularly bright.
Electronic Arts and DICE gave GameSpot an early look at Battlefield 2042 with a big rundown of some of what we can expect from the game and a chance to check out the game’s reveal trailer. First and foremost, DICE is foregoing a single-player campaign for Battlefield 2042–instead, the developer says, it’s focusing on “what it does best” with multiplayer. But that doesn’t mean there’s no narrative driving the conflict at the heart of the game. Instead, it’s maybe a little too close to home, imagining a world 20 years from now that’s been thrown into turmoil by real-world issues like climate change. And it looks like DICE will still find ways to deliver story through its multiplayer gameplay, albeit in a new, as-yet-unclear way.
Battlefield 2042 puts you in the role of a “No-Pat,” a person from one of the many countries that has collapsed as climate change worsens, resources dwindle, and governments fail. No-Pats, or non-patriated people, have no country of their own, with Battlefield 2042 imagining a worldwide refugee crisis creating a whole lot of conflict itself. The No-Pat people come from all walks of life, but just as farmers, doctors, engineers, and factory workers are displaced by the global problems, so are soldiers–and without a country to fight for, they’re also searching for a way to make a future in the world.
Thrown on top of this is a war that explodes between the US and Russia. With an influx of No-Pats, there suddenly is a huge number of soldiers that each country can recruit and use on the battlefield. So while you might fight for one side or the other, you aren’t really a citizen of either nation; instead, you’re fighting in campaigns all over the globe in hopes that you’ll be on the winning side, and that you’ll earn “a seat at the table” when hostilities finally end.
So there’s what sounds like a fairly deep story setup for Battlefield 2042, despite it being a multiplayer-only game.
“We’re really leaning into the thing that we really do best, we really do massive battlefields, massive multiplayer experiences,” Design director Daniel Berlin said in an interview with GameSpot. “…But there’s still a really important aspect of this, and that is the narrative of 2042, and we still aim to really deliver a compelling story as we develop this world.”
Gallery
“As we go through the live service and each season, the first four seasons in year one, we will deliver a new specialist,” Berlin said. “And you will see the world evolve, the locations, and the world which is pushed forward with narrative, and you’ll see it through the eyes of the new specialists that we’re introducing.”
The specialists Berlin referred to are the No-Pat characters you can play as during multiplayer matches, which somewhat replace Battlefield’s traditional class system. Those classes, like Recon, Assault, Support, and Engineer, still exist, but they’re more like categories into which different specialists fall. DICE showed off four different specialists that you can play as in the game, with each carrying a specific trait and gadget that’s unique to their particular character.
The four specialists DICE showed were Webster, a nimble Assault character, who sports a zipline gun for quick repositioning and who can move faster than other characters while aiming; Maria, a Support, whose teammates get more health when she revives them than if others handle that job, and who carries a pistol that can heal and revive allies from a distance; Boris, an engineer who can deploy independent turrets, but whose trait amps up their capabilities when he stays near them; and Casper, a Recon character with a drone he can pilot manually to spot enemies or leave hovering for passive enemy identification, and a trait that allows him to sense when enemies are sneaking up on him, to make sniping a little less dangerous.
DICE said there will be 10 specialists in the game when Battlefield 2042 launches, with four more releasing over the course of its first four seasons. And according to Berlin, those fully voiced characters are the way through which you’ll experience the game’s story. Each one brings a different perspective on what’s happening as the game evolves through its live-service offerings.
Gallery
But while you’ll have specific characters with specific items and abilities who fall into general class categories, there’s still a lot of customization in terms of how you play. In Battlefield 2042, any character can use any weapon or secondary gadget, such as grenades–so you’re not locked to a certain loadout based on who you pick or what role you decide to fulfill on your team.
Multiplayer is the main thrust of Battlefield 2042, as Berlin explained, and DICE is looking to expand the scope of what it has delivered in the past. First and foremost, it’s doubling the number of players in its largest matches–up to 128 players, up from 64 in the past. (It’s worth noting, though, that previous-gen versions of the game will stick with 64-player matches, with maps adjusted to accommodate.)
Those big battles will take place in the All-Out Warfare category of modes, which is the 2042 evolution of classic big-team modes like Conquest and Breakthrough. The goal in both modes is to capture sectors on a map; in Conquest, teams can attack any of the sectors at a time, while in Breakthrough, one team attacks and tries to capture sectors in sequence, while the other team defends.
With more players in All-Out Warfare matches, maps are also increasing in size to accommodate. DICE showed several maps that’ll be available in the game, which vary in size to make for different-sized battles. The largest was Breakaway, a map set in Antarctica that includes ice fields, bases, and locations in between.
During the presentation, Berlin said that while maps are huge, DICE is thinking about ways to keep the action flowing. Maps are designed around the idea of “clustering,” pushing you toward locations where you’re likely to run into other players and get into different kinds of battles. The maps might be big, but Berlin described them as being like several smaller maps stitched together. The clustering idea allows you to zero in on sections of the map that’ll offer different kinds of engagements–whether they’re tight infantry fights or larger, vehicle-based skirmishes.
“We’re building these massive, massive maps this time around,” Berlin explained. “So if you just took a classic Battlefield map and a classic size, and you just said like, yeah, we’re just going to scale this up, almost just take it and you just expand it, that doesn’t necessarily turn out to be a good gameplay experience. Talking from experience, we tested it, it didn’t really play well. So we lean into this concept of the clustering, right? And this is a way for us to control the pacing and really let players choose their own pacing in a sense.”
The customization of your loadout plays into that idea of clustering as well, since you’ll be moving around the map based on what objectives you want to take and which battles you want to fight. Battlefield 2042 introduces a new interface DICE calls the Plus system, which allows you to quickly change the attachments on your weapon on the fly. It gets its name from a holographic interface that spreads out from your gun in the shape of a plus, allowing you to quickly swap through all your attachments. So if you’re heading into a close battle, you can swap for a short-range scope, a suppressor, and an underbarrel shotgun; if you’re headed out into a bigger field, you can quickly pop on longer-range attachments so you’re ready for what’s ahead.
Maps are big, but you’ll have an easier time getting around them. Players pack a tablet that lets them request air-dropped vehicles to their locations, making it possible to get a vehicle much more often in Battlefield 2042–and for vehicles to be more plentiful in a match. Those vehicles have also been made more useful for squads, with passenger seats offering more opportunities for shooting, spotting enemies, and helping your group survive while they travel.
Gallery
There’s something else that DICE is bringing to its maps beyond additional scope, more players, and more vehicles, though. They’ll also see some extreme weather events and other elements that can change the battle. The “levolution” concept is back, with maps such as Orbital, which has players fighting over a rocket launchpad, potentially changing based on player actions–like causing that rocket launch to fail with catastrophic results. DICE’s presentation also included footage of a tornado ripping through an urban area, throwing players and vehicles around and creating chaos. Another map, set in Dubai called Hourglass, includes a massive sandstorm that sweeps through and blots out visibility. DICE showed off seven maps with a range of sizes and features, and all of them look as though they’ll offer a lot of variety in the fights and situations they create.
Berlin explained that while there’s a lot going on with any given map, given their sizes, vehicles, and even weather, the clustering approach allows DICE to combine those elements in smart ways. Because players zero in on specific locations on a given map, the sandbox elements are forced to work together in specific ways. As Berlin described it, DICE is looking to take players on a “journey through the map,” hitting hotspots where intense and exciting things can happen, without it all devolving into chaos.
Battlefield is a multiplayer-focused game, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be forced to play with other people. At least with Conquest and Breakthrough modes (we haven’t heard much about what else Battlefield 2042 offers), you’ll have the option to play in battles against AI-controlled bots. You’ll have both AI-controlled enemies and friendly AI on your side of the battle, and it sounds like you’ll even be able to bring friends in to join your squad and take on a bot army.
“We are really leaning into the AI for this game, I think it’s a really important aspect of it,” he explained. “When we’re building this game, we really want to lean into when we create a sandbox environment that has all the cutting-edge technology and the tools and everything, we want to really push that far. And to be able to give access to that space and give access to that experience to players that don’t feel necessarily comfortable in a multiplayer setting, I think that’s the outlook here. So we’ve been working with the AI since the start of the project to really make sure that they balance and they play well. But in that regard, when you play against the AI, we want you to also feel a little bit like you’re the hero, right?
Berlin also said the single-player mode is a great way for newer players to learn Battlefield’s ropes, like piloting vehicles and understanding maps.
“It’s a great space for new players to just come in and be like, hey, I’m just going to mess around in a helicopter at my own pace,” he said. “No one is going to get bothered by me. Or even for someone like myself, who plays a s—ton of Battlefield in my spare time, in the evenings and stuff I hop in and I just shoot some AI. Because it’s just a more relaxed, almost a very social environment you can be in with your friends. You’ll kick it back and play against some AI. And [a] very important thing here as well is if you play against the AI, you still progress in the game.”
There’s a lot more information about Battlefield 2042 we still don’t know, however. DICE is planning to announce more in July during Electronic Arts’ EA Play event, which includes another portion of its multiplayer experience, called Hazard Zone. DICE teased the mode a bit during our presentation, explaining that it’s squad-focused and completely new to Battlefield–while also emphasizing that it is not battle royale. In fact, DICE said, there won’t be a battle royale mode in the game at launch.
Apart from Hazard Zone, there’s another multiplayer experience that’ll be part of Battlefield 2042, which DICE described as a love-letter to the Battlefield franchise that fans will appreciate–but again, we don’t really know much about it.
But we do know when Battlefield 2042 will come out: October 22. So expect a lot more information about what the game will be like, how its live-game systems will work, and what its full multiplayer suite will entail. Battlefield 2042 is slated to release on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
