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Fortnite Cosmic Summer kicks off today and brings with it Cosmic Summer challenges, a host of beachy items for players to unlock, and new summer-themed LTMs to play, all between now and July 5. Here’s everything players need to know about Fortnite Cosmic Summer.

Cosmic Summer LTMs

Fan-favorite limited-time modes are back for another round. including Bios Zone Wars Trio 1.0 – Custom Teams, Pro 100, Freaky Flights – Air Royale, and The Pit – FFA. Across each of these modes, players can complete new Fortnite Cosmic Summer challenges to unlock new cosmetics like the Brain Freeze Back Bling, made to look like a popsicle, and the Cloud Llama Board Glider. Both the Back Bling and Glider include additional styles to unlock, so equipping their default versions is just the beginning.

Players who complete any two Cosmic Summer challenges will unlock the Believer Beach Loading Screen, featuring Fortnite’s resident pro-alien activist, Sunny from the Season 7 Battle Pass. Go on to complete six total Cosmic Summer challenges and players will also unlock the Icy Pop Wrap, which is reminiscent of the classic red, white, and blue Firecracker popsicles we probably all enjoyed growing up.

Epic says the LTMs and related Cosmic Summer Quests will be made available sequentially between now and July 5, and players can complete them anytime before that deadline to earn all the event’s items.

Cosmic Summer Challenges

Here are all the Cosmic Summer challenges, or Quests, available in the game. Note that this list will be updated as more are added to Fortnite over the next nine days.

• Deal damage to players in Bio Zone Wars Trio (1000)
• Get headshot eliminations in Bios Zone Wars Trio (10)
• Gain health or apply shields in Bios Zone Wars Trio (500)
• Assist teammates with eliminations in Zone Wars Trio (50)
• Spend coins to buy items at the vending machine in Pro 100 (10)
• Deal damage to players with a rocket launcher in Pro 100 (1000)
• Revive teammates in Pro 100 (20)
• Travel 5000 meters in X-4 Stormwings in Freaky Flights (5000)
• Spend coins to buy items at the vending machine in Freaky Flights (50)
• Eliminate players while in a X-4 Stormwing in Freaky Flights (25)
• Build structures in the put (500)
• Eliminate players with 5 different types of weapons in a single the pit match (5)
• Get headshots in the pit (50)

Cosmic Summer Skins

Also making their debut during this scorching seasonal event are brand-new skins for some of Fortnite’s fan-favorite characters. Midsummer Midas puts the normally gilded anti-hero in his beach bottoms, while his daughter Jules will be getting new tan lines to go with her tattoos as Beach Jules.

Other new makeovers include Beach Brutus, Scuba Crystal, and the return of previously seen summery-themed skins like Summer Drift and Unpeely, Fortnite’s anthropomorphic banana, now ready for beach volleyball. These new skins will appear in the Item Shop throughout the Cosmic Summer event and will include optional bundles to complete their cosmetic sets.

Once you’re ready to feel the sand at your feet, make sure you also acquaint yourself with the Fortnite 17.10 patch notes.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

With Amazon Prime Day in its second day, you might think you already know the best deals the event has to offer. However, there are still a few hidden gems where you can save big, particularly on gaming monitors, and these LG 27-inch gaming monitors are among some of the best.

$280 (was $400)

This 27-inch monitor is tailor-made for performance, with a 1080p display and 240Hz refresh rate for the smoothest gameplay experience possible. The 1 ms response time, FreeSync support, and compatibility with Nvidia’s G-Sync tech only sweeten the deal, making this a fantastic monitor option. If top performance is more important than pristine visuals, this monitor is for you.

$285 (was $380)

The LG Ultragear 27-inch gaming monitor is currently down to $285, a $95 drop from its usual $390 price tag. That’s a great price for a 27-inch curved monitor capable of 1440p, 144Hz gameplay with a 1 ms response time. Factor in its support for FreeSync and G-Sync compatibility and HDR 10 support, and this deal becomes too good to pass up. This should be the monitor of choice for players who are less worried about the fastest frame rate and more concerned with their games looking as good as possible.

If LG isn’t what you’re looking for, there are still some great monitor deals to be had. If you have a little more room in your budget, check out the Samsung Odyssey G7 32-inch monitor for $560 (down from $800). If your budget’s not quite that high this Acer Predator 27-inch monitor is a great buy at $420 (down from $600).

We’re tracking all of Amazon Prime Day’s best deals as they release, including more of the best monitor deals if this LG isn’t quite what you’re looking for. If you need a larger screen for your game room, check out the best Prime Day TV deals still available. And if you’re looking for the best deals outside of Prime Day, Walmart’s Deals for Days promotion and Best Buy’s “The Bigger Deal” flash sale both are offering some great savings as well.

The dramatic ending of The Handmaid’s Tale’s fourth season was one of its biggest finales yet, though it raises plenty of questions about where the show will go next. For those curious what protagonist June Osborne will get up to in season five, showrunner Bruce Miller gave some hints in an interview with Deadline, joined by series star Joe Fiennes.

While season four essentially wrapped up some of the show’s biggest plotlines, the story was always intended to continue, with a fifth season ordered before the fourth even premiered. The quoted interview contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season four finale, so only read on if you are up to date.

“What we want the show to do is move forward,” Miller said on the topic of season five. “It should be aggregate. I mean, the characters should be the characters they were at the end of the season added to the characters they are in this season, not just restarted.”

“The finale definitely is a pivot,” Miller continues when pressed for more specific details. “I think what you get at the end of the episode after June spends this whole episode really getting a sense of who Fred is, and we’re reminded of who Fred is in the worst way. So, she makes this decision in the episode.”

“I think we end the episode five minutes before she reckons with what she just did,” he continues. “He is dead, but it isn’t the end of her relationship with Fred Waterford, it isn’t the end of relationship with her anger towards Fred Waterford. It’s all about what happens when you get what you always wanted. She’s in Canada with her husband holding her child. She’s got revenge on Fred, and it doesn’t particularly feel lovely or settled.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Miller hints that Fred may in fact reappear in future episodes, in the form of June’s flashbacks.

Miller also spoke about season five in terms of how it’s being produced, sounding relieved that it would be free of many of the Covid-related restrictions that governed season four’s production.

“It’s nice to be able to think about a season where we can actually maybe be on set and do it normally.” Miller explained. “We’re just starting to kind of gather our wool and gather our writers and gather up people to pull them back together.”

Microsoft’s recent Xbox & Bethesda showcase at E3 gave a glimpse into the company’s publishing strategy, with its broad mix of big titles, new games, ports, and varied indie games. A new interview with Xbox Game Studios head of publishing Peter Wyse by Polygon has given further insight into those plans–with the exec pointing to diversity as one of the company’s biggest goals.

Xbox Game Studios has spent years getting to where it’s at now, building a strategy that transcends the Xbox console itself. As well as its many studio acquisitions, including the mammoth Bethesda purchase, Xbox has also been investing a lot into the Xbox Game Pass and Cloud Gaming, increasing the number of ways its games can be played.

Wyse says Xbox is also prioritising diversity in the traditional sense, drawing attention to some of the company’s initiatives around inclusivity. “You can see this come to focus in a game like Tell Me Why,” Wyse told Polygon. “We’re super proud of that game. It speaks to our values around LGBTQIA+ representation, mental health awareness, and more.”

These practices extend to both Xbox’s third-party partnerships and internal recruiting processes, Wyse says, citing Microsoft’s relationship with non-profit Gameheads, a mentorship program for people of color and low-income people aged 15 to 25 who are looking to get into the games industry.

Wyse also spent some time talking about Xbox’s investments in cloud gaming, a part of the company’s step away from the traditional console-centric business model and towards gaming on whatever device a player has available. Wyse said that the company is aiming to develop “cloud-native games,” though he added that “we don’t know exactly what that looks like today, or what that even plays like.”

For Wyse, cloud gaming is an important part of the company’s “mission of bringing our Xbox games to connect 3 billion gamers to play our games,” adding that that number will include players on all different platforms. “I do get super excited about the idea of high-fidelity gaming on a phone… that’s the carrot I keep chasing, for sure.”

Xbox Series X is finally seeing some consistent stock online, and it is currently available to purchase from Amazon for £449.99. This has come just in time for Prime Day 2021 and marks an important time for Xbox gamers. There’s no telling how long this stock will last, but it’s a very good sign for anyone looking to make the upgrade to true 4K gaming.

Prime Day 2021: Xbox Series X In Stock at Amazon

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It’s been quite a struggle for some time to get hold of an Xbox Series X, especially from the likes of Amazon where it felt like the console would sell out in seconds. This is also the case for PS5 consoles at online retailers, where some consoles were even snapped up a day before going on sale by scalpers.

Microsoft announced quite a lot for Xbox users during E3 2021, but it would be hard to bring even more users into the Game Pass camp if they couldn’t even get one of the latest consoles.

This story is developing…

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Robert Anderson is a Commerce Editor and deals expert for IGN. Send him awesome gaming screenshots @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Ahead of the release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds‘ upcoming Taego map, developer PUBG Corp has released a new trailer for the battle royale, detailing the in-game universe’s origins of the game. And who better to reveal the twisted conspiracy behind PUBG than Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction).

In the video, Frakes reveals his investigation into the man known as “The Russian,” the mysterious overseer of the deadly competition known as “the Battlegrounds.” In a series of in-depth interviews with criminals, ex-employees of tech conglomerates, and INTERPOL agents, Frakes puts together the true origins behind the 100-man competition, in which the winner is the last man still alive.

For a while now, PUBG Corp has been building the lore of its battle royale with these documentary style videos and in-game teasers. It all points to a greater, singular mystery at the heart of PUBG–it appears that there is an actual motive behind the battle royale beyond winning a chicken dinner.

Perhaps that motive will come to light in PUBG’s upcoming 12.2 update, scheduled to release on PC on July 7 and on consoles on July 15. The update adds a brand-new map to the game called Taego, the first 8×8 map added to PUBG since Miramar.

It’s also possible that this is very early set-up for establishing how PUBG ultimately connects to The Callisto Protocol, an upcoming survival horror game from developer Striking Distance which was co-founded by Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield. The Callisto Protocol takes place in the PUBG universe, just several centuries into the future.

French animation house Cyber Group Studios has signed an agreement with Square Enix to bring Final Fantasy IX, released for the original PlayStation in 2000, to the small screen as an animated series, Kidscreen reports.

The project is in the early stages, with the studio having the basic framework of the project down in a project bible, and the studio is ready to begin pitching it to broadcasters as well. The series doesn’t yet have an episode count or release date, but Cyber Group is reportedly looking to begin production by the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Final Fantasy IX was a departure from the Final Fantasy games that both preceded and followed it, which had continually increased the realism of their characters, as well as putting them in somewhat more mature situations. Final Fantasy IX shifted to more cartoonish character designs, especially the game’s iconic Black Mage.

The story for Final Fantasy IX centers on Zidane Tribal, a thief hired to kidnap Princess Garnet as part of a plot by another kingdom. Garnet persuades Zidane and their friends to join her to stop her mother, the queen, who sparked the war they’re part of.

The Final Fantasy IX series is a ways off. In the meantime, you can see what we know about the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI or read our review of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade Intermission. If you’re hungry for video game adaptations, check out our coverage of the recently-concluded Castlevania series, its Richter Belmont-focused sequel, or the upcoming Splinter Cell and Cuphead TV shows.

EA is reportedly reviving Dead Space, with Motive Studio developing the game. As reported by Gematsu, Motive is supposedly developing a “reimagining” of the original Dead Space games and EA plans to reveal the game during EA Play Live on July 22.

The rumor originated from GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb, who said on the GamesBeat Decides podcast that Motive Studios is working on a dormant EA IP to be revealed at that presentation in July. After that, the story was picked up by VGC, and Eurogamer reported hearing similar rumors. According to Gematsu, the Dead Space revival is being developed by Motive Studios, which previously made Star Wars: Squadrons. EA Motive had previously been working on a project codenamed “Gaia” but it was canceled after six years in development. The new Dead Space is set to be a reimagining of the story and not a direct sequel to the original trilogy.

Dead Space 3 released in 2013 and the series has been dormant since. At the time, EA denied reports that the company canceled the series after Dead Space 3, however, EA would eventually go on to shut down Visceral Studios, the developer of the Dead Space trilogy, in 2017, while the studio was working on a single-player Star Wars game. Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield has since gone on to announce The Callisto Protocol, a new third-person survival-horror game, being developed by his new studio, Striking Distance.

It is important to note that this is still just a rumor that Motive Studios is working on a Dead Space revival. Nothing has been officially announced and we won’t know if it’s true or not until EA Play Live happens. EA Play Live is set to take place on July 22 and the only game confirmed to be at the show is the recently announced Battlefield 2042.