The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X have demonstrated the benefits of a 4K resolution for some time, but it hasn’t always been true 4K. The upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X, however, are expected to push the Ultra HD resolution as the new standard. If you haven’t invested in a 4K TV yet, then now’s a great time. With the Super Bowl kicking off this Sunday, electronics company Vizio is discounting several of its best 4K TVs.
Best Buy, Costco, and Sam’s Club all feature deals on 4K televisions from Vizio’s P-Series and M-Series lines. Vizio’s TVs have great image and HDR quality, in addition to low latency, which makes them great for gaming. They also tend to be pretty good at upscaling lower-resolution content, including but not limited to 720p and 1080p. All of the discounted Vizio TVs boast either a 65- or 75-inch display.
If you’re looking to pair your new 4K TV with a good sound system, then you can save a little money with Best Buy. The retailer is offering a promotion that gets you an extra $50 off Vizio’s 5.1.2 soundbar system if purchased with one of the Vizio 4K TVs.
Costco offers the 65-inch M-Series at its cheapest price, though you do need a Costco membership to take advantage of that deal. You can see the full list of Vizio 4K TV discounts in the list below.
Best Buy:
Costco:
Sam’s Club:
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Microsoft discounts a large selection of Xbox One games every week, and while this week’s deals consist mostly of THQ Nordic titles, there are also quite a few for games like Mortal Kombat 11, Injustice 2, and the Batman: Return to Arkham collection. On top of that, those with an Xbox Live Gold subscription–Xbox Game Pass Ultimate includes Gold–can pick up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at a fantastic price as well.
Titles under the THQ Nordic umbrella account for the majority of the deals. Darksiders 3 is discounted to $19.79, while its remastered predecessors are even cheaper. Darksiders Warmastered Edition is just $4, and Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition is down to $6. If you haven’t played Darksiders, now’s your chance to grab the first three games in the franchise for under $30 total.
While Darksiders is the most well-known THQ Nordic property in the sale, there are more gems to be found. Itching to play a clever platformer? You can grab de Blob for $4 and de Blob 2 for $7.49. Monster Jam Steel Titans ($20) and MX vs ATV All Out ($9) are available for those looking for a new racing game.
Meanwhile, fighting game fans can snag Mortal Kombat 11 for $23 (was $60) and Injustice 2 for $12 (was $40). Batman: Arkham Collection, which compiles all three stellar Rocksteady Batman games, is discounted to $24. EA Sports’ NHL 20 and FIFA 20 are each 50% off at $30.
As always, select deals are only available to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. The biggie this week is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for $39.
You can browse the full slate of deals at the Xbox Store and check out our picks below. All deals listed below are available through February 3.
Best Xbox One weekly deals
*Xbox Live Gold subscribers only
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Horror often doubles as a metaphor for very real, unsettling topics. From George A. Romero’s zombie films that explore race, to Rosemary’s Baby commenting on rape culture, the genre is ripe for stories that make us confront the darkness in society and our worst fears. Natalie Erika James’s debut feature, Relic, uses horror as a metaphor for dementia, and reimagines the illness as a haunted house horror film. The result is a bone-chilling movie that will earn a few screams and plenty of tears from audiences.
When octogenarian Edna (Robyn Nevin) inexplicably vanishes from her home, single mother Kay (Emily Mortimer) and her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) put aside their differences over Sam’s aimless career and Kay’s workaholic life in order to rush to the family’s country home. They find a decaying house filled with notes posted everywhere with minor reminders, furniture scattered around in the wrong places, food left for a pet that’s been dead for years, and rot spreading around the walls and doors. Of course, Edna appears as mysteriously as she disappeared, bringing with her more volatile behavior, as well as a seemingly insidious presence that scrapes and thumps inside the walls.
Like Ari Aster’s Hereditary, this is a movie that starts out as the type of drama that’s commonplace at Sundance, before unleashing unexpected terrors once the sun goes down. The moment Kay steps foot into the house she starts having nightmares about the property and a mysterious and horrific figure haunting its walls. Though there are some very effective jump scares, the film’s strength lies in the way it builds dread, with every creaking noise and music cue slowly making the audience and the characters realize there’s something horribly wrong going on, and that there is simply no escaping it.
What makes Relic really special is the way it plays on our fear of getting old. Though there is a long history of creepy old ladies in horror, aging itself isn’t as commonly tackled. Sure, there’s M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit or Adam Robitel’s The Taking of Deborah Logan, but James’s take is more subtle and emotional. The two leads do a great job portraying the fear of aging alone and the moment kids have to start taking care of their parents, with Emily Mortimer giving a particularly heartbreaking performance. However, the film really belongs to Robyn Nevin. As the film goes on, Nevin makes Edna’s confusion and isolation overwhelmingly apparent, and her behavior turns more and more unsettling and angry as she fights with an invisible figure before having a short lapse back into lucidity.
Where many filmmakers say they want to turn the setting into a character but fail to do so in any meaningful way, James actually succeeds in bringing this house to life. Only here it isn’t a character in and of itself, but an extension of Edna’s dementia. The house’s dark shadows and decay rot the once warm and lively pastel colors; the floors creak, the mold eats away at the walls, and there’s a never-ending clutter of furniture and random things spread around. James and her co-writer Christian White take the haunted house story to a new level once the house’s structure itself becomes unpredictable, with endless halls changing place and doors appearing where they shouldn’t, trapping the characters in a place that was once familiar.
Comparisons between Relic and The Babadook are to be expected, and they’re not that far off. Both Australian productions helmed by women deal with distinctive female perspectives, as well as horror in the home and mental illness as the ultimate monster. But where The Babadook keeps its monster at arm’s length, the last 30 minutes of Relic are a tour-de-force of intensity and emotion. The haunted house story becomes a descent into hell, full of twists and grotesque imagery, all before James pulls back and reveals the emotionally devastating truth behind her feature debut: Age and decay is coming for us all, and the only thing we can do is take care of each other while we’re still here.
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.
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Loki is one of several Marvel shows being made for the streaming service Disney+, with Tom Hiddleston set to reprise his MCU role as Thor’s villainous half-brother. It has now been reported that Owen Wilson has joined the cast.
As reported first by Comicbook.com, and confirmed by Variety, Wilson will play a “major role” in the show. While no further details are available, Wilson is best known for his comedic roles in movies such as The Wedding Crashers, Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, and the Night at the Museum movies. This will be his first appearance in a superhero movie or show.
Wilson is only the third cast member to be reported since Loki was first announced in 2018. In November last year, Yesterday star Sophia Di Martino was cast in the series in an unknown role. Loki’s showrunner is Kate Herron (Sex Education), and Rick and Morty’s Michael Waldron is one of the writers. The series is scheduled to hit Disney+ in Spring 2021, and Hiddelston previously revealed that it would span “six hours.”
Other Disney+ Marvel shows on the way include WandaVision, She-Hulk, and Falcon and Winter Soldier. WandaVision will focus on Vision and Wanda Maximoff, and in a recent interview, star Paul Bettany described the series as “f***ing bonkers.” Both WandaVision and Falcon and Winter Soldier are expected to hit Disney+ this year.
The highly anticipated Half-Life: Alyx is only a couple months away, and if you haven’t picked up a VR headset yet, there are a lot of great ones to consider. One of the best VR headsets is the Samsung HMD Odyssey+. It regularly goes on sale, and right now, you can snag the VR headset for over $200 off.
Amazon currently has the HMD Odyssey+ for $294.19–and if you have Amazon Prime, it comes with free one/two-day shipping. It’s a fantastic price, one of the best we’ve seen since Black Friday. The Odyssey+ features sensor-free, inside-out tracking, so all you have to do is plug the headset into your PC and you’re good to go. On top of that, it boasts a beautiful AMOLED display, which produces more vibrant colours than its LCD counterpart.
For $294.19, you get the headset, two controllers, and two free months of Viveport Infinity, the latter of which grants you access to a huge library of VR games–think Netflix but for VR. Some of the games available on the service right now include Pistol Whip, Superhot VR, and Gorn.
Samsung HMD Odyssey+ | $294.19 ($500)
The HMD Odyssey+ is also compatible with Half-Life: Alyx, as are most PC VR headsets. In addition to Valve’s upcoming game, there is a huge library of titles that can be enjoyed with Samsung’s VR headset. Any game on Steam with a “Windows Mixed Reality” tag works with the Odyssey+–thankfully, that accounts for the vast majority of Steam VR titles. WMR headsets also have access to their own specific apps on the Microsoft Store, though many of those experiences can also be found on Steam.
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The next big thing in Destiny 2‘s Season of Dawn is coming with its weekly reset on Tuesday, February 4: The Empyrean Foundation. It’s another step in the ongoing story surrounding Osiris’s Sundial, the rescue of Saint-14, and stopping the Cabal from using time travel to mess with the solar system–and you can get ready for it right now.
As Bungie detailed in its This Week At Bungie blog post, the Empyrean Foundation will be a community-wide event to which all Guardians can contribute. Unlike other parts of the Season of Dawn, this will be an event everyone can participate in, whether you’ve purchased the season pass for this season or are using the free-to-play version of the game.
The Empyrean Foundation will find Saint-14 asking players to donate Polarized Fractaline to the cause of building a beacon that can help draw new people to the Last Safe City, the center of life for Destiny 2’s good guys. You earn Polarized Fractaline by completing the Sundial activity, running various activities throughout the solar system, and completing bounties from Saint-14 and the four Sundial Obelisks scattered on different planets. To prepare for the event, you’re going to want to spend Fractaline to upgrade your Obelisks as much as you can (all their benefits unlock fully at Level 11, so that’s probably a good bar to shoot for), and then bank up Polarized Fractaline to donate to Saint’s cause.
According to Bungie, you earn a new emblem and a Triumph for donating more than 5,000 Polarized Fractaline, which you can earn right now. You’ll likely need to donate the 5,000 Fractaline to unlock this season’s Triumph Seal, so it’s a good idea to stockpile it early if you can. You’ll also get free Fractaline from the Tower Obelisk depending on its Resonance Power (read: how much you’ve upgraded the other Obelisks), which should make earning it a little easier.
As the community donates more Fractaline, everyone will earn shaders. There are seven levels to hit in total, with a new shader for each one, but Bungie hasn’t fully detailed them. Here’s the list as it appears right now:
Stage 1: 400,000,000
Stage 2: 700,000,000
Stage 3: 1,200,000,000
Stage 4: ???
Stage 5: ???
Stage 6: ???
Stage 7: ???
If you need other stuff to do in Destiny 2 while you wait for the Empyrean Foundation, you can use our Bastion guide to unlock the game’s latest Exotic weapon, a Kinetic fusion rifle that once belonged to Saint-14. And if you missed the community’s last big effort, the Corridors of Time, you can check out our Corridors guide to see what it was all about, and read how its changes to Destiny 2’s storytelling made it especially cool.
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Sony’s live TV service, PlayStation Vue, is dead. As announced last year, Sony shuttered the service as of January 30, 2020. If you’re a subscriber, that means you’ll need to find another streaming service if you’re committed to cutting the cord. If you’re me, you’re stuck wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do with this useless button on my Roku remote.
The remote in question
Look at it. It’s just sitting there, staring at me, threatening to interrupt what I’m watching should I or my cat accidentally press it. With Vue now dead, there is literally no reason to ever make use of this button, because should I do so, I will only be faced with a reminder of its death and the nagging worry that one day, maybe Steam will no longer exist, or those movies I own through some service will no longer be accessible if my account isn’t properly linked.
It’s not as if I was using the Vue button prior to this. I’ve never been a Vue subscriber, instead choosing to use Hulu TV and YouTube TV to get my fix of live basketball and ad-laced, modified-for-your-television reruns of Avengers: Age of Ultron on TNT. But that button at least had potential: Perhaps one day I would click it by mistake and be wooed by the offer of a free trial and find that it offered a superior experience to Hulu or YouTube.
Now, that potential is gone like the carefree days of my childhood, and I’m left with a relic for which I have literally no use–at least the countless old power cords sitting in a bucket might one day gloriously find the devices with which they’re meant to be partnered.
I could pry the button off and give it to my cats, one of which would be delighted with it, but he could just as easily be entertained by a twist tie, so it doesn’t seem worth the effort. (The button obviously isn’t intended to be removed, and I learned my lesson with this sort of thing when I took the safety label off my car’s driver-side sun visor.) I could find some way to reprogram the button, but a cursory search suggests that’s no easy task; Roku has presumably struck deals to include these branded buttons that don’t allow for that. But as the streaming wars heat up and some services don’t make the cut long-term, Roku might want to be a little more selective with who ends up on its remotes.
February 27 marks the anniversary of Pokemon Red and Green‘s release in Japan, and The Pokemon Company is once again commemorating the occasion with a big reveal. Last year, the series’ latest installments, Sword and Shield, were officially unveiled on Pokemon Day, and this year, we’ll get our first look at a brand-new Pokemon for the games.
Serebii reports that The Pokemon Company will unveil a brand-new Mythical Pokemon on February 27. This special monster will appear in Sword and Shield as well as the upcoming Pokemon film, titled Pokemon the Movie: Coco. Additionally, the company will kick off a new Max Raid event in Sword and Shield that day, as well as a special event in Pokemon Go.
Serebii Update: On Pokémon Day (February 27th), a brand new Mythical Pokémon is to be revealed. This Pokémon will feature in Sword & Shield and the movie Pokémon the Movie: Coco. Special Max Raid Battles, GO events & Masters info will also run. Details @ https://t.co/gDbXkIa6crpic.twitter.com/wq3Od4XuC3
No further information about the new Pokemon has been revealed so far, but Serebii notes that the monster is separate from Urshifu and Calyrex, the two new Legendaries being introduced in Sword and Shield’s Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra expansions. Those are slated to launch this June and fall, respectively.
In the meantime, a new Max Raid event is now underway in Sword and Shield. While Gigantamax Alcremie spawn rates have returned to normal, you are now more likely to encounter its pre-evolved form, Milcery, in Max Raids until February 16. Many of these Milcery will be able to Gigantamax when they evolve. Additionally, you can receive Ribbon and Star Sweets as rewards for completing Milcery Raids, allowing you to evolve the Pokemon into new variants.
A new freebie for the games is also available now. You can claim 10 free Heal Balls via Mystery Gift until March 31. To receive the balls, select Mystery Gift from your game’s menu and enter the code G1GAGRANF1NALE. You can see all the other Pokemon Sword and Shield freebies up for grabs right now in our roundup.
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Update version 1.10 is now live for Death Stranding on PlayStation 4. The latest patch adds some vague performance improvements and finally lets you disable one of the game’s most irritating features.
If you hop into the game settings on Death Stranding’s title screen, you’ll now find a new toggle for the BT Encounter Warning. This warning would previously happen every time you encountered a BT-infested area, forcing you to watch an unskippable cutscene of Sam Bridges’ Odradek springing into action. The new toggle lets you choose whether this extended warning continues to appear each time you encounter BTs, or if it only occurs the first time you come face-to-face with the game’s spectral enemies.
It’s a welcome quality-of-life addition, particularly for those travelling via roads where BTs aren’t usually a threat. Watching your vehicle come to a screeching halt just to watch a cutscene playout for the umpteenth time was beyond frustrating.
