Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is known for its cosmetic items, usually in the form of militaristic or cool-looking skins for your operators and their gear. Infinity Ward has now introduced a more playful item, which imitates the Tamagotchi fad of the late ’90s.
The “Tomogunchi” is available from the in-game item shop for 1,000 CoD Points. The bundle includes a charm, emblem, calling card, sticker, and spray. The real star of the bundle is the Tomogunchi toy itself, which is represented as a wristwatch-like item. The tweet suggests that you can check on your little virtual pet, feed it, monitor its mood, and help it evolve.
Modern Warfare has been careful not to sell game-changing items through its shop, so it’s doubtful the Tomogunchi will do anything to help up your game. In fact, if you get too distracted with checking on your pet it might actually be a detriment to the firefights around you. A guide on the Activision blog looks as if the Tomogunchi responds to your in-game play, making it something of a real-time performance tracker.
The new addition joins the rest of the recent patch notes, which makes some balance changes and other adjustments. We’re also expecting the much-rumored and partially leaked Warzone battle royale mode to drop sometime soon. If you haven’t picked up Modern Warfare yet and the Tomogunchi was the thing you needed to push you over the edge into purchasing it, you can get a pretty good discount through GameStop’s tax refund sale.
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If you’re an Apex Legends fan, you might want to clear some space on your hard drive, because the game’s new 6.2 patch is a hefty one. Coming in at 32.5 GB on PC, 33 GB on Xbox One, and 18.5 GB on PS4, it’s one of the bigger game updates in recent memory. According to the patch announcement, this large size is intended to allow developer Respawn to ensure that future patches are smaller.
“As an FYI, players will notice this patch size is larger than most,” Respawn explained in a tweet. “This was done so that future patch sizes will be significantly smaller than what they’ve traditionally been.”
This event introduces a new limited-time mode called Déjà Loot, where all the loot spawns in the same location for the duration of the event, with the plane path and circle locations will shift on a daily basis. According to developer Respawn, this is intended to reward players for learning the map in the short-term. Tweaks have also been made to how Bloodhound plays and to make Wattson less of a must-have.
The event also includes a new item, the Evo Shield, a body shield that increases in strength as its wearer does damage to non-downed players throughout the match. Furthermore, it introduces 24 themed, limited-time cosmetic items that are available through Apex Packs (i.e. loot boxes) or through direct purchase. There are more changes in the patch notes.
Games come and go, that’s the nature of Xbox Game Pass. The popular games-on-demand service will witness three high-profile departures in the next two weeks, as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Shenmue I & II will be leaving Game Pass on Xbox One according to a recent update on the Microsoft Store.
Deux Ex: Mankind Divided is the sequel to 2011’s excellent Deux Ex: Human Revolution. The cyberpunk RPG follow-up puts you back in the augmented boots of Adam Jensen, as you explore dense sandbox environments with the freedom to approach objectives in myriad ways. Edmond Tran gave it a score of 8/10 in GameSpot’s review, saying, “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided refines and reinforces the defining foundations of the series. It creates challenging situations and gives players the tools and flexibility to deal with them in a multitude of ways, all within an absorbing cyberpunk world. Although not a significant departure from Human Revolution, Mankind Divided is still a uniquely fulfilling experience, one which feels rare in games today.”
Shenmue I & II, meanwhile, is a 2018 remastered collection of the classic games. Shenmue was originally released back in 1999 and is widely regarded as one of the best games of all time. It might be showing its age now, even with all of the remastered trimmings, but its open-world map was incredible for the time. You play as teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki as he seeks revenge for his father’s death by talking to lots of people and occasionally punching them. The narrative and exploratory elements set it apart from your regular action title, and its sequel is equally well regarded. Released in 2001, Shenmue II continues Ryo’s revenge mission in a story that leads into 2019’s belated release of Shenmue III. Both games will be leaving Game Pass on Xbox One but there’s no word on whether they’ll also be leaving the service on PC.
Thimbleweed Park and Lichtspeer: Double Speer Edition are departing Game Pass on both Xbox One and PC in the next couple of weeks, too. You can, of course, still purchase any of these games before they go, and your Game Pass membership will give you a 20% discount. You’ll need to be quick if you want to play them before they depart the service, though, but it’s not all bad news. As with any departures come new arrivals, and Game Pass recently added the likes of Yakuza 0, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy XV, and World of Horror.
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Astron-6 is a Canadian horror production company which specialises in over-the-top gore effects and affectionate homages to low-budget ’70s and ’80s horror. Its previous movies include the sci-fi horror Man-Borg and the Italian slasher parody The Editor, while Astron-6 member Steven Kostanski directed the acclaimed 2017 film The Void, which toned down the laughs but still delivered plenty of goo and gore. Kostanski’s new movie is titled PG: Psycho Goreman, and the first trailer has been released.
PG: Psycho Goreman takes Kostanski back to his comedic roots and mixes family comedy, superhero hijinks, and splattery horror. The trailer is edited and voiced like something you might have found on a VHS tape back in 1986, and the film tells the story of two kids who befriend a huge, terrifying creature named PG. They get to play baseball with him, but unfortunately, he’s also partial to tearing people’s heads off. There’s a load of other weird monsters and robots in there too, plus some heart-warming family drama. It looks like exactly the sort of movie that will be enjoyed with other like-minded horror fans and a few liquid refreshments. Check it out below:
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Kostanski spoke about the influences on the movie. “The core concept of PG is something I’ve carried with me for as long as I can remember,” he said. “What would it be like to have your own monster? As a kid, I was mesmerized by the relationship between John Connor and the T-800 in Terminator 2 and the way this relatable kid could suddenly have a badass villain as his pal. I would fantasize about hanging out with the likes of Skeletor, Megatron, Cobra Commander, and every other Saturday morning cartoon villain. These characters always interested me more than the traditional heroes.”
“I love contrasting operatic space fantasy with suburban banality,” Kostanski continued. “This developed out of my love for low budget genre films from the ’80s and ’90s like Masters of the Universe and Beastmaster 2 where budget constraints forced the filmmakers to set their epic stories in accessible real-world locations. I enjoy subverting the safe space of the ‘kids movie’ genre with shocking violence and real world consequences.”
PG: Psycho Goreman doesn’t have a confirmed US release date yet, but it will premiere at the SXSW festival on Friday, March 13. For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming horror movies of 2020.
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is a retro-styled Metroidvania with a stylish Steampunk world and equally fashionable protagonist in the trenchcoat-clad Aletheia. The pixel art and responsive platforming is reminiscent of the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, though the linear stage progression capped off with a massive boss battle gave the sense of a different kind of classic: Mega Man.
That could be in part because the enemies are largely mechanized enemies, but this being Steampunk, they’re rickety brass contraptions instead of high-tech with a steel sheen. And it leans into the “punk” part of Steampunk, with human enemies who look like they could have stepped out of Mad Max. The combat can be skill-testing, but the combination of influences help it feel unique.
While many high-profile developers opted to sit PAX East 2020 out this year, there were still numerous games that made their mark at North America’s largest gaming convention. PAX East 2020 showcased some of the latest games, both indie and AAA, that aim leave an impression on fans in the months and years ahead, and we got a chance to try out many of them for the first time.
In this video, the team at GameSpot came together during PAX East 2020 to talk about their favorite games of the show. In addition to anticipated picks like Streets of Rage 4, we also spent some time giving a shout out to up and coming indie games like She Dreams Elsewhere and Recompile. Along with that, we also got first hands-on with the recently announced Alien Hominid: Invasion and Magic: Legends, which offer a noticeably different flavor on established franchises.
If you want to see more of GameSpot’s coverage of PAX East 2020, check out our gallery highlighting the games that made the show so exciting this year. In addition to the games mentioned in this video, we also got some time with Harmonix’s new DJ game Fuser, along with some hands-on time with Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The time has come. Jumanji: The Next Level is now available on digital release, allowing you to relive the antics of Dr. Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), and the rest of the Jumanji gang in the sequel to the 2017 film. The physical release of the film on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K comes March 17.
Whether you plan on picking up the digital copy now or a physical version when it’s released, there is a plethora of special features you’ll be able to get your hands on, including the featurette below that looks at one of the most over-the-top and utterly ridiculous scenes in the film.
Early on in Jumanji 2, Bravestone and his cohorts end up on the run from, of all things, an army of wild ostriches. The scene includes some wild dune buggy action throughout a desert that oftentimes looks unreal. However, as writer/director Jake Kasdan explained, that’s simply not the case.
“That scene has a tremendous amount of real stuff in it,” he said. “They’re real people, they’re really in the desert, they’re really racing those cars around. And I think that it has that visceral reality to it that you can only get by going out there and racing cars around.”
Of course, it’s not Johnson and the rest of his cast driving over the dunes. These scenes were filmed in California, while the cast was shooting the rest of the movie in Hawaii. The only solution was to ship dune buggies and a massive rig to flip them around over to where production was being held. The end result is some very fun footage in the clip above, showing the cast tumbling around and flipping upside down in front of a blue screen, which was then inserted into the desert footage.
This is just a small example of the extra footage you can see on the home release of Jumanji: The Next Level. Take a look at the breakdown of what featurettes are included in the various versions below.
Blu-ray/Digital release:
Gag Reel
Rhys Darby Wants To Jingle
Body Swapping: Snapping Into Character
Back Together: Reuniting the Cast
Level Up: Making Jumanji: The Next Level
Scene Breakdown: Ostrich Chase
Scene Breakdown: Mandrill Bridges
Awkwafina: Cat Burglar
NPC Confessions: Jurgen The Brutal
Grow Up
Telenovela
VFX Pre-Vis: Zeppelin Battle
VFX Pre-Vis: Ostrich Chase
AR Game
DVD release:
Body Swapping: Snapping Into Character
Back Together: Reuniting the Cast
Level Up: Making Jumanji: The Next Level
Jumanji: The Next Level is available digitally now. It hits Blu-ray, 4K HDR and DVD on March 17.
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When a new Pixar movie arrives in theaters, chances are you’re going to see it expecting to be devastated. Whether it’s the life-long journey of a group of toys in the Toy Story franchise, the decimation of Earth at the hands of humans in Wall-E, or an old man finding new life in Up, Pixar tends to find a way to entertain mass audiences with colorful and exciting adventures, while also addressing emotionally complex issues that many will face throughout their lifetime.
That’s a trend that continues in the studio’s newest release, Onward. The film stars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt as a pair of brothers on a magical quest through their fantasy-inspired world. In this particular corner of the Pixar universe, magic once existed but has been largely forgotten by most. Now, the world is populated by elves, minotaurs, unicorns, and a long list of other fantasy characters just trying to get by in a largely modern world. That’s just the place-setting for the film, though. At its core, Onward is about life after losing a parent.
In the film, Holland’s Ian–a teen elf–has no memories of his father, who died when he was a baby. Meanwhile, Pratt’s character–Ian’s older brother Barley–has a few fond memories of his dad he hangs onto for dear life. Then, one day, they realize there’s a magical way to bring him back for a 24-hour period. It’s this possibility that drives their adventure, the opportunity to see their dad once more–or for Ian, for the first time.
It’s a story that hits incredibly close to home for director Dan Scanlon, who admitted the tale is inspired by his own life. “Much like the characters in the movie, my father passed away when I was about a year old and my brother was three,” he explained during a press conference for the film. “So as you can imagine, we don’t remember him at all. But we always wondered who he was and how we were like him. And I think that question became the seed of Onward.”
Speaking briefly at a press screening of the movie, Scanlon revealed that he and his brother didn’t even have memories of what their dad’s voice sounded like. “We’d seen home movies but, for those of you my age, everything wasn’t constantly videotaped back in those days. So what we had didn’t have sound. So my brother and I didn’t hear our father speak and didn’t think we ever would.”
That all changed when Scanlon’s aunt and uncle sent them a cassette tape, recorded shortly before his parents were married in 1970. “For my brother and I, who were teenagers at the time, this was like magic. This was amazing for us,” the director said.
On the tape, their dad only utters the words “hi” and “goodbye.” However, as Scanlon noted, “It was a really wonderful thing for us.” What’s more, it sparked the idea that led to Onward. In the film, Ian and Barley also have a recording of their father’s voice. It’s one Ian has memorized to the point of being able to pretend he’s having a conversation with it. Going one step further, though, the brothers also accidentally conjure up their dad’s legs, which sets them on the adventure to figure out how to conjure the rest.
“We needed a way in which this father could come back to life, you know? That was really the reason behind the magic,” Scanlon said during the press conference. “We could have done a version where–and even considered one where–the boys were scientists who build a machine that brought dad back. Magic just felt more romanticized.”
Ultimately, it’s a very human story set against a fantastic backdrop. When you lose a parent, you’d do almost anything for one more day with them. For his part, Scanlon would want nothing more than “spending a day just talking and just walking around and also letting them know what a phenomenal job my mother did raising us and how she gave us everything we could have ever wanted.”
While that’s not a possibility, there is a bigger message the director hopes viewers take away from Onward, and it’s told in the story between the two brothers. While they both long for their dad, ultimately they have each other and their mother.
“I think it’s a film about support and the people that go above and beyond in our lives to help us become the people we are today,” he said. “And so it’s absolutely about walking out of that theater and thinking, ‘Who are those people in my life?’ And they don’t necessarily have to be family members, a lot of times their friends or teachers. And I would go one step further: How can you be that for someone else?”
Onward hits theaters on March 6.
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will no longer be getting a new rougelike mode, despite being a reward for a stretch goal that was met during the project’s initial Kickstarter funding run.
In an update on the Kickstarter page Jason Ryan, senior community manager at publisher 505 Games, explained explained that the mode was simply not possible anymore due to due to incompatibility with some of Bloodstained’s coding. “Unfortunately, the code that was created early in the game’s development is not currently compatible with this type of gameplay (especially a procedurally generated castle),” writes Ryan. “Due to this, we regret to announce that we will not be developing Roguelike as part of the project’s planned stretch goals.”
Instead of a roguelike mode, Bloodstained will be getting a Randomizer that attempts to bridge the gap by introducing some elements that would’ve been included. This mode will change up the locations of items, randomize where save points and warp rooms are, and change which boss ultimately ends the game. Up to eight parameters can be edited before starting a new campaign to create a unique run, which can then be shared with other players via a generated seed that can be used to spin up custom games.
This new mode will be included in the upcoming Zangetsu patch, which will also introduce a new main character to play as. Although it was previously thought to also include another mode called Boss Revenge, 505 Games has stated that this was previously communicated in error and that this content will ship at a later date.
Although it is disappointing that backers are missing out on a promised feature, this spiritual sequel to Symphony of the Night still has a lot to offer. In our 8/10 review for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, critic Steve Watts praised its smart design, saying, “With more flexible combat and level design that always beckons to check just one more room, Bloodstained shows that a modern Metroidvania can stand alongside its predecessors as an equal.”
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