HBO has released the first teaser for Game of Thrones Season 8 online following an appearance at Brazil’s CCXP convention from star Maisie Williams and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
The new teaser doesn’t feature any new footage from the final season (curses!), but it certainly presents a symbolic illustration of just how dire things will be for the Seven Kingdoms in the final six episodes, as the entirety of Westeros is engulfed in fire and ice. Winter is officially here.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches very soon, and it boasts the biggest character roster to date. It not only includes every playable character from past entries, but also a number of newcomers like King K. Rool, Animal Crossing’s Isabelle, and Castlevania’s Simon and Richter Belmont. However, when you first boot up the game, you’ll find only a very limited number of characters are available–specifically, the original cast from the first game. Here’s how to unlock everyone else.
For better or worse, there’s not a specific path to unlocking a particular character; it really comes down to just playing the game enough. That said, you do have a few paths to getting access to additional fighters.
Play World Of Light
World of Light is the intriguing new RPG-style mode in Ultimate, where the new Spirits system comes into play. You’ll start out with Kirby and work your way through a huge number of fights, earning Spirits and various upgrades along the way. In the course of completing the story, you’ll rescue other playable characters. Doing this unlocks them for use in all modes.
Just Complete Matches
Whether you don’t care to play solo or are simply uninterested in World of Light, you can also unlock characters by simply playing regular multiplayer matches. In doing so, you’ll be presented with the series’ standard “New Challenger” opportunities, where you square off against a locked character.
Successfully defeating the character in question will unlock them for use. Fortunately, you can retry these fights easily, so there isn’t necessarily a ton of pressure to pull out the win on your first try.
In our experience, a new one of these fights would present itself every 3-4 matches, or about every 10 minutes. You’ll encounter them in between multiplayer matches, so if you’re in a rush to unlock characters, you may want to periodically back out of World of Light mode to take advantage of your next opportunity.
Complete Classic Mode Runs
In addition to World of Light, solo players also have the returning Classic mode to play. Completing a run is another way to trigger a New Challenger fight. This may be your fastest route, as going through Classic mode only takes around six minutes.
Future Releases: Piranha Plant And DLC Fighters
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Super Smash Bros Ultimate – Piranha Plant Official Reveal Trailer
Fortnite – Dance On Top Of A Crown of RVs/Metal Turtle/Submraine (Season 7, Week1)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | GameSpot Live
Fortnite – Season 7 Trailer
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Fighting A Rathalos From Monster Hunter Gameplay
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Alongside everyone in the base game, even more fighters are on the way. The first of these will be Piranha Plant, whom you can get by purchasing and registering the game by January 31, 2019. Beyond that, five more DLC characters will be released by February 2020. You can purchase a pack with each of these and some other content individually, or you can pick up the Fighters Pass that bundles it all together at a discount. The identities of the DLC characters have not yet been announced.
In our experience, it took around 10 hours to unlock the full roster of characters in the game at launch. That figure may vary greatly depending on how your experience plays out. There’s no way to skip the unlocking process.
While that might prove to be frustrating to those who want to immediately get some time with a returning favorite or one of the new additions, it seems as if this is a game you’ll want to spend some time with. In our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate review in progress, Edmond Tran writes, “Situational downers don’t stop Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from shining as a flexible multiplayer game that can be as freewheeling or as firm as you want it to be. Its entertaining single-player content helps keep the game rich with interesting things to do, as well as bolstering its spirit of loving homage to the games that have graced Nintendo consoles. Ultimate’s diverse content is compelling, its strong mechanics are refined, and the encompassing collection is simply superb.”
Ultimate releases for Nintendo Switch on December 7.
The Game Awards is airing tonight, December 6, which means a number of the year’s best games will get recognized for excelling in various categories. But as they say, it’s an honor just to be nominated. Speaking of the nominees, Steam is running a sale on Game Awards nominees, which means many of the year’s best titles are available at sizable discounts. Let’s take a look.
Fighting game fans have a couple of appealing options with Dragon Ball FighterZ, an over-the-top anime brawler for $24, and the weapon-based combat of SoulCalibur VI for $42. Anyone into action games with retro-style graphics can pick up Dead Cells for $20 or The Messenger for $14. And if you’d like to get mad at your family members, significant other, or roommate, Overcooked 2 will provide that service for $19.
You’ll find more games on sale below, but you can also check out Steam’s deals page for more discounts.
Season 7 of Fortnite: Battle Royale is now underway on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. Developer Epic has introduced a load of new content to the game for this season with a big update, including new areas of the map to explore, as well as a plane vehicle, more pets, and of course, new challenges to complete and cosmetics to unlock.
As usual, Epic will release a new set of challenges for Fortnite every week throughout Season 7. These are once again divided up into two categories: those available to everyone, and those only for Battle Pass owners. Completing the challenges will reward you with XP and level your Battle Pass up, thereby allowing you to unlock the new Season 7 Battle Pass rewards.
On top of the standard weekly tasks, Epic has also added new Snowfall challenges this season. These are Season 7’s equivalent of the Hunting Party challenges from Season 6, meaning you can only complete them by finishing all of the challenges from a given week. Doing so will unlock a special loading screen that contains a clue pointing to a free item hidden somewhere around the island.
If you’ve completed all of the challenges from one week, you’ll unlock the loading screen above. It depicts Zenith–one of the two new progress skins you’ll receive automatically for purchasing a Season 7 Battle Pass–ziplining down the side of the snow mountain that was introduced to the island this season. If you look just left of the character, you’ll spot a a crashed submarine on one of the peaks in the background, above which is the faint silhouette of a Battle Star.
The submarine pictured above is the same one you need to dance atop as part of one of Week 1’s multi-stage challenges. It’s located on the mountain to the east of Frosty Flights. Head to the area at the beginning of a match, locate the submarine, and the Battle Star will appear above it. Collect it as you would any other item and you’ll level your Battle Pass up by one tier.
As was the case with Season 6’s Hunting Party challenges, this Battle Star won’t appear on the island if you don’t first complete the related Snowfall challenge and unlock the aforementioned loading screen. That means you won’t simply be able to go to the right location and collect it until you’ve finished enough challenges. If you need any help doing so, you can find tips and guides in our Season 7 challenges roundup.
Fortnite Season 7, Week 1 Challenges
Free
Pick up an item of each rarity (5) — 5 Battle Stars
Dance in different forbidden location (7) — 5 Battle Stars
Play matches with at least one elimination (5) — 10 Battle Stars
Battle Pass
Stage 1: Dance on top of a crown of RVs (1) — 5 Battle Stars
Deal headshot damage to opponents (500) — 5 Battle Star
Stage 1: Search ammo boxes in a single match (5)– 10 Battle Stars
Eliminate opponents in different named locations (5) — 10 Battle Stars
Reward: 5K XP (after completing four challenges, only for Battle Pass owners)
2018 may be winding down, but there’s still one big release in store for Nintendo Switch before the new year comes along. This week sees the arrival of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the latest installment in Nintendo’s crossover fighting series. True to its name, it’s also the biggest, boasting the largest selection of characters, stages, and music in the franchise’s long history.
On top of bringing back every character to have ever appeared in a Smash game (along 11 new additions to the roster), Ultimate introduces a number of changes and new features to the series’ formula, not least of which are Spirits–collectible characters you can equip to imbue your fighter with stat boosts and abilities. One of the ways you can collect these is in World of Light, an expansive new RPG-style campaign that’s one of the deepest single-player experiences the series has offered.
With its release quickly approaching, reviews for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have begun appearing online, and the critical consensus is that it’s another fun fighting game packed to the brim with content. We’ve rounded up a sample of Smash Ultimate reviews below. You can also visit GameSpot sister site Metacritic for a much broader look at what critics think of the new brawler.
Game: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: December 7
Price: $60 US / £60 / $89.95 AU
GameSpot — 9/10
“Situational downers don’t stop Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from shining as a flexible multiplayer game that can be as freewheeling or as firm as you want it to be. Its entertaining single-player content helps keep the game rich with interesting things to do, as well as bolstering its spirit of loving homage to the games that have graced Nintendo consoles. Ultimate’s diverse content is compelling, its strong mechanics are refined, and the encompassing collection is simply superb.” — Edmond Tran [Full review-in-progress]
CNET
“For now, SSBU plays like a well-balanced game with new elements to keep it fresh and interesting for a long time. The meta game could develop to a point where one character is broken and overpowered, but until then, SSBU has a great shot at bringing Smash players from across the fandom together.” — Alfred Ng [Full review]
IGN — 9.4/10
“Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lives up to its name, offering the most comprehensive game in the series to date. It has an absurd amount to play, fight, and unlock–though that can be to its detriment at times. While the World of Light adventure mode isn’t reason alone to get Smash Bros., it’s still a consistently amusing and shockingly large campaign, and a worthy compliment to Ultimate’s incredible multiplayer core. The Smash Bros. series has always maintained a wonderful balance of chaotic beat-em-up fun and tense fighting game action, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate refines and improves on both sides of itself without abandoning either one.” — Tom Marks [Full review]
GamesRadar+ — 4.5/5
“The amount of content in Ultimate blows most other fighters out of the water. The fact that every match feels like a fair, if chaotic, fight is incredible, especially with a roster of more than 70 superstar characters. While some of the polish doesn’t hit the mark completely and the absence of a variety of single-player modes is disappointing, Ultimate is a fighter I’ll be playing for years to come.” — Aron Garst [Full review]
EGM Now — 9.5/10
“Considering you can make a custom Smash fight with Spirits available, players will have even more ways to customize fights with friends, and that’s what Super Smash Bros. should always offer. The series has stuck around as long as it has because it has given players depth, freedom, and fun when playing with friends. It’s the fact that Ultimate has amplified these traits–not just throwing in new stages and fighters–that makes it a true culmination of the series.” — Evan Slead [Full review]
Game Informer
“I’ll have my final impressions when the game is ready, but I’m confident in saying that it’s outstanding. Unless the patch bungles things in an unexpected way, the core game is as silly and fun as it’s ever been. I’m completely in love with the wealth of new options that the game offers, including the ability to easily set up custom rulesets and have them surfaced on the main Smash menu–no more menu fiddling to get things set up for stock matches! I also like the new option for having final smashes come from filling a meter instead of having to break the smash ball. It’s a nice twist on the mechanic that makes things feel a little more fair.” — Jeff Cork [Full impressions]
Just like Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is currently running a sale in honor of The Game Awards, which airs tonight, December 6. And like the sales on the other platforms, this one is filled with great deals on some of the best recent games to hit the Eshop. Let’s roll up our sleeves and dig into the discounts.
It’s practically an old adage in the world of gaming deals that first-party Nintendo games rarely go on sale. Here’s an exception that proves the rule: Super Mario Odyssey is currently discounted to $42. If you’re a Switch owner who doesn’t have this epic platformer, now’s a good time to grab it.
It’s also a good time to pick up Diablo 3: Eternal Collection, which comes with everything Blizzard has released for the game to date, because it’s on sale for $40. If you’re into anime and fighting games, Dragon Ball FighterZ is a solid bet at $42. And for anyone who enjoys open-galaxy shooters but isn’t keen on the toys that come with the physical edition, you can grab Starlink: Battle for Atlas for $45.
The Game Awards airs tonight, December 6, so if you tune in you’ll see some of the year’s best games get the acclaim they’re due. But it’s not just the makers of the games who get to benefit. To celebrate the year in games, Sony is running a Game Awards Sale on PSN, dropping prices up to 40% on a host of PS4 games. The deals are live between now and December 11, so let’s take a look at some of highlights.
Some of the heavy hitters in the group include the recently released Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on sale for $40 and the even newer game Battlefield V on sale for even cheaper at $36. We’re expecting a big Far Cry announcement, which will almost certainly make now a good time to catch up on Far Cry 5 for $24.
While the standard edition of Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t on sale, Sony is shaving a few bucks off the Special Edition ($70) and the Ultimate Edition ($90), both of which come with additional digital goodies. And if you missed Monster Hunter World when it launched earlier this year, you can pick it up now for $25.
A smattering of acclaimed indie games is on sale as well, including A Way Out ($21), a title whose maker had a notably spirited speech at last year’s awards ceremony. The action roguelike Dead Cells is on sale for $20, and the ultra-challenging platformer Celeste is down to $14.
You’ll find more of our picks below, or you can check out the full list on the PlayStation Store.
Not a day goes by that I’m not thinking to myself, “If I were a character from the Transformers Universe, who would I be?” Obviously, I’d be Hot Rod. But when it comes to the Transformers movie universe, I’m left puzzled, wondering about the nature of my own existence. However, no longer will I have to spend countless hours asking myself this, and neither will you.
GameSpot’s sister site, iDaily, have put together the “Which Transformer are you” quiz, basing all of its results on the big screen adaptation of the cartoons/toy lines. Are you like me, Megatron, someone who is trying to destroy mankind? I guess that’s been my motive all along. Or are you the gentle, yet heroic Bumblebee, and yes, I’m calling you “yellow.”
Obviously, this is all leading up to the first spin-off of the main Transformers franchise, Bumblebee. The new movie is a prequel to the Transformers series, taking place in the ’80s. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg, Jason Drucker, Ricardo Hoyos, and Gracie Dzienny. Bumblebee is directed by Travis Knight, who you may know from the critically acclaimed animated movie Kubo and the Two Strings.
Back over the summer, we talked to the designers behind the new Transformers toy line at Hasbro, and they told us that making the new toy look like it did in the film as well as making it functional was pretty tough. “You have to make sure the [Volkswagen Beetle] is spot-on, but all those pieces find their way into the parts of his body,” explained John Warden, Senior Design Manager for the company’s Transformers line. “I think it brought a lot of challenges, when we think about the smooth rounded legs of Bee. He’s got a lot of bulk and mass, even though he’s sort of a small bot.”
What does it say about 2018 that the most popular superhero fiction of the year involves a villain decimating Earth’s mightiest warriors and wiping out half of existence with a snap of his fingers? For many, superhero stories are a source of personal strength. When the trials and tribulations of real life start to feel insurmountable, tall tales of good triumphing over evil offer a soothing catharsis. But uplifting entertainment has been hard to come by lately.
My Hero Academia, however, continues to stand out as a shining beacon of positivity. It isn’t just a compelling story about a boy trying to become a hero, it’s reminder of why it’s important to hold onto the hope that the world seems hell bent on crushing. In Season 3, Midoriya Izuku faces greater challenges than ever before, and yet his idealism is unwavering. In the face of overwhelming odds he uses whatever power he has, at whatever cost to himself, to fight for what’s right.
Midoriya’s greatest strength is also what makes My Hero Academia one of the best superhero stories of today: the ability to inspire. In the same way Midoriya’s classmates are emboldened by seeing him emerge from battle beaten, bloody, and bruised–but with his head held high and a smile on his face, My Hero Academia leaves viewers charged with optimism. And in this day and age, that makes it incredibly special. — Tamoor Hussain
