GTA Online Update Brings Business Battles To Los Santos This Week

GTA Online‘s latest update sees the return of savvy businessman Lamar Davis, who’ll be handing out double cash rewards and Reputation Points all week long. Davis won’t be the only game in town though as Martin Madrazo will also approach players with the same offer, so it’ll be worth keeping your eye on your phone to see who calls you first.

No Caption Provided

Double cash rewards and Reputation Points will also be available in a number of other activities, as Transform Races and Business Battles will be vying for your attention with added financial bonuses.

No Caption Provided

Hunting Pack: Remix will also offer increased rewards within its high-risk and high-reward arena. If you play as a Runner in this mode, you’ll need to keep the speed up to stop the bomb strapped to your vehicle from exploding while Attackers are tasked with bringing you down by any means necessary, avoiding any Defenders in the process.

No Caption Provided

If you’re looking to expand your wardrobe, you can pick up a Dinka Aged Tee for free this week provided that you picked up the original Dinka T-shirt previously. Completing any prep work for the Doomsday Heist before March 17 will also reward you with the Neon Skull Emissive Mask, which can be claimed up any time after March 22.

No Caption Provided

There’s also still time to earn the Panic ProLaps Basketball top if you complete the Cayo Perico Heist finale before March 17. To get the matching shorts you’ll need to successfully stuff a secondary target into your loot bag during that heist.

No Caption Provided

If you stop by the lobby of The Diamond Casino & Resort, you can give the Lucky Wheel a spin to walk away with cash, reputation points, clothing, and other mystery prizes. If you’re really lucky, you may even win the HVY Nightshark, an armored SUV that can absorb a brutal amount of damage.

Discounts this week include deals on real estate and vehicles for budding supervillains. The Unholy Hellbringer shotgun, Rhino Tanks, and facility real estate have all had their prices slashed by 40%.

GTA Online Weekly Deals

No Caption Provided
  • Facilities plus customizations and add-ons — 40% off
  • Terrorbyte truck plus customizations and add-ons — 40% off
  • Widowmaker plasma machine gun — 40% off
  • Buckingham Miljet — 40% off
  • HVY Chernobog — 40% off
  • Rhino Tank — 40% off
  • Progen Emerus sports car — 40% off
  • Mammoth Squadie LUV — 40% off
  • Unholy Hellbringer — 40% off

Xbox-Bethesda Broadcast to Air Today

An Xbox broadcast to celebrate Bethesda joining the company will be aired today, but it won’t focus on providing news or revealing projects. It will likely feature announcements of new Bethesda games joining Xbox Game Pass.

The broadcast is titled ‘Bethesda Joins Xbox – Roundtable’, and is scheduled for 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK on YouTube today. The video description reads: “A conversation with key leaders celebrating Bethesda joining Team Xbox.”

Xbox head of marketing, Aaron Greenberg has made clear that “this is NOT FOCUSED ON NEWS/REVEALS, but a great chance to learn more about the teams & people at Bethesda.” [Greenberg’s Emphasis]

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/09/microsoft-bethesda-heres-to-the-journey-official-announcement-trailer”]

The broadcast follows Microsoft’s official acquisition of ZeniMax, which turned eight Bethesda developers into first-party Microsoft studios. In that initial announcement, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer promised further Bethesda games would be added to Xbox Game Pass later this week to celebrate – it’s likely those will be announced during the broadcast.

We may not learn quite as much about Microsoft’s plans for Bethesda studios, however. Spencer previously explained that more news about how Xbox’s new teams will work is coming “later this year”. Spencer has previously explained that Microsoft legally could not address plans with Bethesda until the acquisition was complete, so discussions may still be in the early stages.

One thing we do know is that “some” future Bethesda games will be Xbox & PC exclusive after the acquisition. “With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams,” Spencer wrote earlier this week, “gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.”

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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].

American Horror Story: True Crimes That Inspired Asylum

After nine seasons, American Horror Story is still going strong with captivating storylines, unforgettable characters, and a bunch of nightmares in between. As many of you already know, some of those nightmares are based on reality. Many of the major plot points and characters are inspired by true stories. While we’re gearing up for season ten, we’ll examine each season’s true crime inspirations.

American Horror Story: Asylum drew a great deal of inspiration from history, and many of Asylum’s most unforgettable characters are based on real figures. In the video above, Greg breaks down AHS Season 2’s true crime inspirations: infamous serial killer Ed Gein, the real life Hans Gruper – Josef Mengele, the abductions of Barney and Betty Hill, and Staten Island’s Willowbrook State School.

Bethesda-Xbox Roundtable Livestream: Start Time, How To Watch Today

Confirming rumors, Microsoft has officially announced it will hold a “roundtable” event today at 10 AM PT where it will share more details on Microsoft’s $7.5 billion buyout of ZeniMax. The deal was officially completed this week, paving the way for Bethesda to become part of Microsoft.

What To Expect

This won’t be a news event where we find out more on The Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield, or the next Fallout game. Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said, “Note, this is NOT FOCUSED ON NEWS/REVEALS, but a great chance to learn more about the teams & people at Bethesda.”

Microsoft confirmed that Bethesda will develop games that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC, but neither company has said more. Given Greenberg’s statement that this roundtable is not expected to be a news event, we may not hear more, though it’s possible we’ll get some kind of commentary.

For his part, Bethesda’s Pete Hines said the roundtable will introduce people to the “faces behind the Bethesda games and studios you know and love.” The exact list of panelists for the roundtable has not been announced, nor do we know the length of the event.

This isn’t the first time that such a roundtable has happened, either, as Phil Spencer from Xbox and Pete Hines and Todd Howard from Bethesda sat down for a wide-ranging chat about the deal back in 2020. You can watch and listen to that podcast here on YouTube. The big difference is that Microsoft now officially owns Bethesda and may be able to speak more freely about the future.

What Time And How To Watch

You can watch the Microsoft-Bethesda briefing right here through the YouTube embed. It’s scheduled to begin at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM GMT.

More Game Pass Games

A big part of the deal is focused on Game Pass, and we’ll begin to see more of that this week. Microsoft and Bethesda have confirmed that additional Bethesda games will join Game Pass this week. We still don’t know what they are, but all should be revealed very soon, if not on this stream, then sometime later.

We will report back with any and all big news from the roundtable event as it happens, so keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

Pokemon Fan Reimagines Diamond And Pearl Remakes With Improved Graphics

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced earlier this year, and while the remakes do look like a visual step up over the original pair of games released in 2007, the 3D chibi-style hasn’t won everyone over. YouTuber Millenniumloops remade the trailer using assets from previous games, creating a more modern interpretation of the Sinnoh region journey. It’s not a game that is being made, but a concept trailer that imagines what the remakes could look like with more recent Pokemon aesthetics applied.

“I decided to make a re-imagined trailer of the Brilliant Diamond and Shinning Pearl games the way I wanted them to be,” Millenniumloops tweeted. “This is just my take on it. I have used models from previous Pokémon games as well as some things that I created myself.”

The YouTuber’s trailer shows off a version of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl that aesthetically more in line with recent games such as Pokemon Sword and Shield.

The Diamond and Pearl remakes are being helmed by developer ILCA, the studio responsible for the cloud-based storage app Pokemon Home and has provided support on other games such as Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Yakuza 0, and NieR: Automata. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl producer Junichi Masuda is still involved with these remakes and is co-directing the project alongside Yuichi Ueda.

Longtime Pokemon developer Game Freak is currently busy developing Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which features a similar visual style to Pokemon Sword and Shield. Set in a bygone era of the Sinnoh region’s history, players will create the first Pokedex of that region and encounter the mythical Arceus along their journey when the game arrives next year on Nintendo Switch.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Matthew McConaughey Says He Might Run For Governor Of Texas

Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey has yet again spoken about a potential career in politics, and this time he sounds a little more serious about getting involved.

Speaking on The Balanced Voice podcast (via EW), the 51-year-old said he is thinking seriously about running for Governor of Texas in 2022. He said a potential bid is a “true consideration” of his.

This is a slight change in direction from 2020 when McConaughey said he had “no plans” at the time to run for a political office.

“Politics seems to be a broken business. Politics needs to redefine its purpose,” he told Stephen Colbert on his late-night TV show.

McConaughey wouldn’t be the first actor to get into politics, as Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California from 2003 – 2011. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, more recently, has said he might run for President of the United States if people want him to.

Even if McConaughey doesn’t find a future in politics, he has already branched out into leadership activities beyond his acting career. He is now teaching at the University of Texas, while he said on the podcast that he’s been spending time working with children who come from difficult backgrounds.

Gothic Remake For PS5, Xbox Series X|S, And PC Is Coming From THQ Nordic’s Newest Studio

THQ Nordic has opened a new studio in Spain that will develop a remake of Gothic as its first title. The studio is called Alkimia Interactive, and it’s based in Barcelona, Spain.

The studio will focus on “high-quality RPGs,” THQ Nordic said in its announcement. Work is already “well underway” on the Gothic remake, and THQ said fans can expect more news soon.

The Gothic remake is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. THQ released a playable teaser of the game back in 2019, and the publisher later announced it planned to develop it as a full game. According to THQ, it won’t be a simple remake but instead a “re-imagining [of] the whole thing.”

More than 180,000 people tried the Gothic playable teaser, and THQ had said part of its plan was to establish a studio in Barcelona to see it through, which is now happening.

“We are up for the challenge to develop a full Gothic Remake which will stay as faithfully as possible to the original experience and transport the atmospheric world of Gothic into a high quality look and carefully modernizing certain gameplay mechanics,” THQ Nordic’s Reinhard Pollice said.

In the summer of 2020, THQ Nordic started its new Barcelona studio and began assembling a team. The office is still ramping up, as it has more than 15 open positions on its website.

“We strive to build Alkimia Interactive as a top-notch RPG studio,” Pollice said. “Our ambition is to become one of the best addresses for PC/Console core game development in Southern Europe.”

The original Gothic was released in 2001. Multiple sequels were released, including Gothic 3 in 2006. A spin-off called Arcania: Gothic 4 launched in 2010.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Halo Pringles Get A Shout Out On Stephen Colbert’s TV Show

Microsoft’s new Halo Pringles that taste like the extinct Moa bird are now on store shelves, and they’ve attracted the attention of one late-night TV host in particular.

Stephen Colbert’s late-night show dedicated some time to the Moa Pringles this week, with Colbert asking his audience, “If you’ve ever been blasting away at creatures in Halo and thought, ‘I wish I could eat them.’ Great news. Pringles and Microsoft–yes, you heard that right–have announced a new Halo potato chip that tastes like a space ostrich.”

Colbert goes on to joke that he hopes the Halo/Pringles collaboration goes over better than the Yoshi-flavored burgers at White Castle, which are not a real thing. You can check out the segment for yourself at around 3 minutes into the video below.

Limited-edition cans of Halo-branded cans with the “Moa Burger” flavor are now available to buy only at Walmart. “Our latest shipments from Reach have arrived, so be sure to grab them while you can,” Microsoft said in a tweet. Bear in mind that these are the “wavy” Pringles, not the standard chips.

The “Moa Burger” is a reference to an in-game ad from Halo: Reach. Restaurants in the game’s universe made burgers out of the flightless birds that call Reach home. The Moa was also a real bird that lived in New Zealand until it went extinct.

From the looks of it, these special Pringles cans don’t contain any bonuses or extras like double XP or anything like that, so they are purely a collector’s item.

Because Halo Infinite was supposed to release in Fall 2020, a number of marketing campaigns for the game have already rolled out. Microsoft’s partnership with Butterfinger included free DLC for people who bought the sugary snack, though the campaign is now over. Additionally, Microsoft teamed up with Monster Energy to offer double XP in Halo Infinite when it releases.

Halo Infinite will release in Fall 2021 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The game’s multiplayer element will be free-to-play with microtransactions.

Recently, developer 343 Industries released a series of images from the game’s campaign mode that show off a massive graphical improvement.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Wipeout-Style Anti-Gravity Racer Pacer Is Now Available On Xbox

Pacer is a futuristic, high-speed racing game that’ll be immediately familiar to fans of the classic 90’s Wipeout series. After launching on PS4 and PC late last year, the game is now available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

“The year is 2075. You’re a fresh pilot on the starting grid, ready to take on any and all challengers to make a name for yourself and become the Pacer world champion,” the official Xbox description reads. Normally priced at $40, Pacer is on sale at launch for $32 on the Xbox Store.

Pacer has been around in one form or another for a while now, first appearing as Formula Fusion in a 2015 Kickstarter campaign. The game released in early access that same year, before rebranding to Pacer in 2019 and finally seeing its full release in October 2020.

Always intended as a spiritual successor to the Wipeout series, Pacer studio R8 games includes some Wipeout veterans among its ranks, including R8’s founder Andrew Walker. The gameplay has players customizing their anti-gravity racers, collecting mods, weapons, and defenses, and of course racing to earn credits to pay for it all. Pacer features 8 different game modes, 4 speed classes, and 14 race maps with a broad array of map variants available.

Pacer is now available on PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Roblox Passes $2.5 Billion Mobile Revenue Ahead Of Successful Public Listing

Just before it went public via a direct listing on Wednesday, Roblox announced that it had reached a milestone of $2.5 billion mobile revenue between the App Store and Google Play–with $1.2 billion of that earned solely in 2020.

It was only October last year when Roblox passed its previous milestone of $2 billion in mobile revenue, meaning Roblox players have spent $500 million on mobile in the last five months. The game is free to download, with all Roblox’s revenue coming from the sale of its in-game currency, Robux. While players can also spend on other platforms, more than half of Roblox’s sales go through either the App Store or Google Play, with players from the United States accounting for 65% of that mobile revenue.

After multiple delays to its public listing, Roblox finally went public via direct listing on March 10. The New York Stock Exchange set a reference price of $45 a share, but the stock was up almost 55% to $69.50 by market close, as reported by CNN. The listing means the company is now valued at over $45 billion, higher than other industry giants such as EA and Take-Two.

After initially exploring an IPO, Roblox eventually went public via a direct listing. “For us, a direct listing seemed natural,” Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki told CNN. “It brings the whole community together and everyone is using the same price at the opening of trading.”

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.