Black Friday is always the best time of year for finding gaming deals–if you’re looking to save some money before the holidays, it’s a cornucopia of discounts you don’t want to miss out on. If you own an Xbox Series X/S or Xbox One, one of last year’s best Black Friday deals is returning. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will see huge discounts during Black Friday at several different retailers, bringing three-month memberships down from $45 to the low $20 range. The service gets users access to the entire Xbox Game Pass library across console and PC in addition to EA Access, Xbox Live Gold, and more.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the best purchase you can make if you’re an Xbox gamer, thanks to the large number of games you have access to every month. It’s especially great for those with the new Xbox Series X or S consoles, as there are a lot of next-gen games included. If you’re a new subscriber, you’ll want to snag your first month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1 first, then stack on extra months with the discounted memberships during Black Friday.
If you’re looking for more great Xbox deals, check out Black Friday’s best Xbox Series X and Xbox One game deals. You can expect some incredible discounts on brand-new games, including Watch Dogs: Legion and Gears Tactics for half-off. And if you’re still looking to buy the Xbox Series X and S, we’re tracking availability. The next-gen consoles will be restocked at some retailers during Black Friday.
GameStop has the best deal for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate this year, offering the service for only $20. However, this deal isonly available on Black Friday, November 27, so you’ll want to mark your calendar and act fast once the deal goes live.
Best Buy’s Game Pass deal runs from November 22 to November 29, and it’s only a few dollars more than the deal from GameStop–though if you buy multiple three-month memberships, it does add up.
This week on Wrestle Buddies, GameSpot’s professional wrestling podcast, Chris E. Hayner and Mat Elfring are celebrating the glorious TV return of our favorite vampire warrior professional wrestler and talking with the first-ever two-time NXT North American Champion about all kinds of topics.
First up, Gangrel appeared at AEW Full Gear as part of the Elite Deletion match. It should come as no surprise that his surprise cameo is Chris and Mat’s favorite thing to happen in all of pro wrestling this week. In a super-sized edition of Gangrel Watch, we break down his return to TV, try to convince both AEW and WWE to sign him to a full-time contract, and talk about what did and did not work in the Elite Deletion match.
Next, two-time NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano joins the show to talk about winning the title a second time and NXT’s growth as a brand. We also dig into Gargano’s reported love of all kinds of wheels, and debate whether Disneyland or Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is the better theme park. Please note: This episode was recorded prior to Gargano’s championship loss on NXT’s weekly show.
All that, plus we answer your questions. New episodes of Wrestle Buddies are released every Thursday on the podcast platform or app of your choice, including Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts. You can also keep up to date with the podcast by following it on Twitter.
While folks are starting to get their hands on Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S, we’ve had the chance to take a closer look at these consoles for quite some time. After analyzing both models–which both yield a ton of promise–we began to consider the numerous ways that Microsoft could further improve its next-generation consoles, whether it be through firmware updates or future hardware iterations.
Below we detail our biggest wishes for Xbox Series X/S as it stands after having had these consoles for a few weeks and what we think would help both consoles shine even brighter than they already do. As a note, we avoided going into predictable requests like “Release Halo: Infinite now” or “Give us more first-party games to play.” This article is focused more on the console from a feature-set or quality-of-life standpoint.
After you’re done reading, be sure to jump into the comments to share your biggest wishes for the consoles moving forward. If you’re still on the fence about which Xbox is right for you, read our Xbox Series X review and our Xbox Series S review.
Add A Notification Feature To Quick Resume
When you cycle through enough games and applications on Xbox Series X, ones that were open earlier in your cycle will shut down, and you’ll have to do a cold boot to bring them back into your Quick Resume lineup. It’s a bit of bummer to have a game state suspended in the background to unexpectedly close (although you should be conscious of keeping up-to-date game saves anyway). We wish the console would tell you when an application is about to get pushed out from Quick Resume suspension or let you manage what remains in the roster at any time. Similarly, it would be nice to know which games don’t support Quick Resume and will need to be rebooted.
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Xbox Series X Video Review
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The current setup for viewing your screenshots and video captures in the gallery needs some work to get to a more sensible and seamless place. You have a few filters to sort through them (either by game, or by screenshot/video), but there are some minor inconveniences when trying to flip through or view your content. Opening the “recent captures” option in the Capture & Share on the Guide tab lets you see the last few captures, but if you open one, you can’t flip through them like you can in the gallery. And then backing out from here reverts to the app you had open rather than going back to your recent captures. Another thing is that your options to manage captures (such as uploading, selecting multiple captures, and renaming files) are only available if you switch to the list view since you can’t do much in grid view. Yes, it’s a small thing, but pretty annoying. It’s a bit cumbersome, more so than we expected from a next-gen console..
More Dynamic Backgrounds
At the moment, Xbox Series X’s backgrounds lack a certain pizazz. Don’t get us wrong, it’s elegant and noninvasive, but we wish there were a couple of other options to choose from. There’s only one pattern right now, and all you can do to customize it further is change its color. We’re hoping more dynamic backgrounds are added to make navigating the console a bit more aesthetically pleasing.
Claim Games With Gold Without Downloading Them
The revamped Xbox Store is a dramatic improvement over older versions, and the power of the new hardware makes it quite snappy to use. However, one area where it’s still lacking is in the process of claiming Games With Gold’s free titles. Grabbing a GWG game automatically begins downloading it, which you might not want to do, particularly if you have a Series S with very limited storage space. We could use a PSN-style “Add to Library” feature built for a scenario where you want to claim a game while it’s free but aren’t ready to download it just yet.
Resume Adding Older Xbox Games To Backward Compatibility
Microsoft made tremendous strides in its initiative for backward compatibility on Xbox One. It maintained a frequent cadence of releases, bringing forward some of its most quintessential games onto Xbox hardware. However, Microsoft halted its ongoing push during mid-2019, seemingly setting it aside until further notice. While Xbox Series X supports backward compatibility with all Xbox One games, as well as all Xbox 360 and original Xbox games made compatible in its last push, it’d be wonderful to see Microsoft continue adding classic games onto the platform.
In a recent interview with Game Informer, Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald mentioned that Microsoft is looking to add more titles but that there are still challenges involved. It’s no surprise given the difficulty of adapting old software onto new hardware. Nevertheless, we’d love for Microsoft to continue working its engineering magic on Xbox Series X, hopefully giving classic Xbox games additional graphical improvements in the process. That and we really want to see Jet Set Radio Future added, please. (This one was for you, Ben Janca.)
Give The Xbox Series X Controller A Built-In Mic
We’re hoping that Microsoft adds a built-in mic with subsequent models of Xbox Series X’s controllers. It’s surprising that the tech wasn’t integrated into the controller to boot, but we can likely chalk that up to balancing initial production costs. Regardless, a mic is necessary for most online multiplayer games, and we’re not just saying that because Sony’s DualSense controller has one. So, we’re crossing our fingers that Microsoft releases a new controller model with a built-in mic. Such a move would seem par for the course since the company pulled a similar move in the past when it updated the Xbox One controller model with a headphone jack to accommodate the growing use of headsets while playing games.
James Gunn has confirmed that the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has now been “written,” as the project continues to make steady progress in the wake of his rehiring last year.
The filmmaker, who guided the first two installments in the Guardians franchise to box office success, shared a fresh update about the third movie on Twitter, assuring fans that steady progress was being made on the project. Speaking about the sequel, Gunn confirmed that the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had been completed and that the production heads had also been chosen.
In a follow-up tweet, Gunn revealed that “very little” had changed with the script from the original version that he penned before being fired and later rehired by Disney to write and direct the franchise’s third installment. Before being reinstated, MCU architect Kevin Feige confirmed that Gunn’s draft script would be used for the movie, regardless of the director’s involvement.
Although Gunn is back on board for the third volume, he has previously indicated that this next movie will “probably” be the final one with him sitting in the director’s chair and “probably be the last with the current team” of Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord), Rocket, Groot, Drax, Gamora, Nebula and Mantis, though he cautiously added that “you never know.”
At one point, Guardians Vol. 3 was meant to be the first, if not one of the first, titles in Marvel’s Phase 4 line-up. However, with the deck being reshuffled, and Gunn directing The Suicide Squad for DC before Vol 3., the next Guardians flick didn’t end up in the final slate. Fortunately, it sounds like it’ll be worth the wait, as Karen Gillan said the third movie has the best script of the trilogy.
No matter your age, there is something just incredibly wonderful about retro video games. They tell a story of the rise of a beloved form of media that has just jumped into the next generation with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
It’s important not to forget your past, and luckily there are many out there who are making it their mission to ensure our memories never fade. From mini consoles of the SEGA Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 to art books that give a behind-the-scenes look at companies like Atari, to shirts and figures with some of the most iconic characters in history, there is something for everyone out there.
Whether you have a loved one who was Team SEGA or Team Nintendo or just loves taking a nostalgic trip down memory lane, there are gifts that can truly make their holiday season a special one.
We’ve gathered some of the best retro gaming gifts, and whether you are looking for a full-size arcade cabinet with classic games or an 8-bit Mario figure, this holiday guide has been made to help make your quest for finding the perfect gift just that much easier.
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Best Retro Nintendo Gifts
If your loved one was, or still is, Team Nintendo, here are some incredible gifts for this holiday season.
You don’t need to purchase a retro console for someone to ensure a great holiday season. If you are looking for cheaper but awesome options for the retro game lover in your life, we’ve got you covered.
For most of my life, every time I’ve started a new game, the first thing I’ve had to do is make sure the Y-axis is inverted. I don’t know why my brain likes to push down to look up, it just does, and it causes a consistent burst of faff before I can get to any shiny new game I’ve bought. PS5 may, finally, have gone some way towards fixing that issue.
The solution comes in the form of PlayStation 5’s Game Presets menu, a settings option that allows you to choose your preferred experience in PS5 games from a number of categories, which is then applied as best as possible to every game you play. That menu includes game difficulties, subtitles, performance vs. resolution modes, and preferred audio languages – all options regularly fiddled with before play can really begin.
But the option I truly love is being able to choose to invert the Y-axis in both first person and third person viewpoints automatically. So far I’ve used it to fix Astro’s Playroom, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Demon’s Souls, and I’ve been delighted every time I confirm it’s worked again.
To be fair, I actually only discovered the menu when I realised Astro’s Playroom doesn’t actually include a Y-axis preference option, which briefly made me absolutely furious until I was told about the beautiful Elysian Fields of Game Presets. In hindsight, it feels like another one of Astro’s attempts to teach me a little something about my new console (although I’m not convinced it’s an intentional one in this case).
As covered in our PS5 guide, the menu is found in Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Game Presets, and will attempt to apply all of your choices as accurately as possible, depending on the game in question. If you find your choices aren’t working out for you, Game Presets will only attempt to change the settings when you first start the game, so you can tinker with them and not have them switch back by accident.
It may sound like a small thing – mainly because it is a small thing – but after years of low-level annoyance at starting every game with a boring trudge to the options menu, it’s genuinely refreshing to see a little bit of thinking applied to how to stop that. I’m sure the same will go for many fellow inverters, not to mention subtitlers, language changers, hard moders, and other similarly inconvenienced players. Forget haptic feedback, this is my next-gen.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
In a tweet immediately following the above image, Murphy says the spin-off will comprise “16 one-hour standalone episodes delving into horror myths, legends, and lore.” He also teased that “many” of these episodes will feature familiar faces from the AHS series, and that more information is coming soon. Earlier this week, Season 10 of the main series stepped into the spotlight in a similar fashion, also releasing a new poster, but was likewise light on any expected release date.
According to The Wrap back in May, Season 10 is expected sometime in 2021. That month, there was an American Horror Story cast Zoom call where Murphy said in an Instagram post documenting it that cast members reminisced with one another–though he also mentioned the spin-off, which will consist of “one-hour contained episodes” and “other stuff [he] cannot print.” But there might be a clue in this post of who’s pictured–maybe some of these actors will be reprising their roles in the spin-off?
It would likely be wise to get used to this slow trickle of new information and more teases about AHS in the future, and at least for a few more years. Spin-off aside, earlier this year FX has renewed the show up until Season 13.
The new generation has arrived, with the Xbox Series X and Series S having launched earlier this week, and the PlayStation 5 launching today. Microsoft and Sony are professional rivals, but both companies have given each other a friendly message of solidarity upon the launch of their new consoles. Today was Xbox’s turn to give kudos to PlayStation.
In a series of two threaded messages on Twitter, the official Xbox social media account said congratulations to PlayStation. It went a little more heartfelt with a second message, saying “Generation after generation, it’s been a pleasure to game alongside you.”
For the Xbox launch on November 10, Sony similarly congratulated Microsoft, with a cheeky message using a Friendship finisher from Mortal Kombat 11.
Fallout 76 is getting ready to introduce one of the most iconic pieces of series lore next month. The Steel Dawn update adds a new questline that will introduce the Brotherhood of Steel, the techno-religious military that has appeared throughout the series. A new trailer promises the update is coming on December 1.
In Steel Dawn, you’ll meet Paladin Leila Rahmani, who has moved her troops from California to establish a foothold in Appalachia. You can choose to work with or against the new Brotherhood faction, and either way, you can unlock Brotherhood weapons and armor.
The game started laying the groundwork for this over the summer, with a Brotherhood of Steel themed community event that gave away some cosmetic items. Those included a beret, camp banner, Brotherhood Collectitron station, and more. The Brotherhood is a well-known part of Fallout fiction, especially notable for their hulking power armor.
Fallout 76 had a rocky start, and a recent Wastelanders update aimed to make it function more like a traditional Fallout game. GameSpot’s Fallout 76: Wastelanders review found it to be an improvement, but still held back by some of its enduring issues.
Steel Dawn will be free for all Fallout 76 players, which includes Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
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