Over the past 50 years, arguably no filmmaker has made a bigger impact on the industry than Steven Spielberg. He has directed many monster box office hits like Jaws, Jurassic Park, and the Indiana Jones franchise. Spielberg has also won a pair of Academy Awards as a director for Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List. If you’re a Spielberg fan, Amazon has a stellar deal on a great Spielberg Blu-ray collection that includes blockbusters like Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, and lesser-known works like The Sugarland Express and Duel.
Normally $100, the Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection is currently discounted all the way down to $22.97. It’s fulfilled by Amazon and Prime-eligible, but orders placed now won’t ship for a few days. The Blu-ray collection includes the following eight movies:
Duel (1971)
The Sugarland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
1941 (1979)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Always (1989)
Jurassic Park (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
The collection comes with eight films and an informative booklet
Steven Spielberg Director’s Collection | $22.97 ($100)
The major selling points are obviously the popular films: Jaws, E.T., and the pair of Jurassic Park movies. The discounted price would be great even for just those four films. But for those interested in seeing where Spielberg’s genius started to form, this collection offers a glimpse into that, too.
Based on a short story by Richard Matheson, Duel was Spielberg’s first feature-length film and originally released on television before getting a theatrical release. Crime drama The Sugarland Express was Spielberg’s debut theatrical release and kicked off his longtime collaboration with legendary composer John Williams.
Along with the standard assortment of special features–behind-the-scenes looks, deleted scenes, original trailers, etc.–this collection comes with a booklet with information on each film.
Xbox One is getting another dashboard refresh, and an Xbox Insiders update gives a preview of what’s likely to be coming to all users. For the time being these features are only for Alpha users of the Insider program, so it’s unclear exactly when most of the changes will roll out to the wider audience.
The most noticeable interface change comes to the main Home screen, which replaces the Twists with dedicated rows for Game Pass, Mixer, Xbox Community, and the Microsoft Store. Microsoft says you’ll be able to customize the layout by adding or removing rows. This part of the update will be entering full public release in February. The My Games & Apps UI will also be getting more content grouping settings for easier navigating, along with labels for trials and demos, and a cleaner settings menu.
Other new additions include image support in your messaging conversations. You’ve been able to send that hilarious animated gif in the mobile or desktop app, but now it will display properly on console. Notifications will let you set a portion of your screen to appear, and Xbox Game Pass will let you select an individual game to download from within a bundle. If you have external storage, a new “move” option will appear in your storage management for an easier time freeing up space.
Microsoft also announced that Mixer is getting a few big changes in upcoming updates. You’ll be able to switch your chat mode to “classic chat,” which displays the chat messages in their own window alongside the stream. You can also manually select video resolution, and viewing info and VODs from your favorite streamers will be a smoother experience.
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Blizzard has detailed Overwatch patch 1.45 and explained a shift in its approach to updating the game going forward. As part of the developer update, game director Jeff Kaplan revealed that the team will be adopting a new balance philosophy that involves implementing more frequent and impactful updates to deliberately change the meta.
This, according to the studio, is an effort to respond to feedback from players who have been asking to keep the game fresh. As part of this new strategy, Blizzard has said it will be making and reverting changes more rapidly than before.
The mechanism used to implement these changes is a new mode that is represented through the “Experimental” card on the mode select screen. Here, Blizzard will test major changes to the game that may or may not make it to the main game. Although it sounds similar to the Public Test Realm–which is a PC-only build of the game used to iron out balance and bugs–Blizzard notes that the Experimental Card is not for bug testing, it’s specifically for testing balance changes, modes, and rules. Additionally, those that take part will still be able to earn experience and progress, as well as unlock loot boxes.
Leading up to the reveal of patch 1.45, rumors swirled that Blizzard was preparing to introduce a pick and ban feature. This, it seems, is not entirely the case. Instead, Blizzard is opting for Hero Pools where certain characters will be disabled from Competitive Play for a given week, and availability will be rotated weekly. The cadence for the rotation is also being examined, so it may be that it is quicker or slower in the future.
Importantly, Blizzard has said Hero Pools as a feature is being tested during Season 21 and, depending on how it performs, it may not return for Season 22. The goal of the Hero Pools approach, Blizzard says, is to allow the meta to change weekly and to encourage hero diversity in matches. Finally, the update will bolster anti-cheating efforts and have workshop quality of life updates.
In terms of balance, Blizzard is currently testing a version of the game that makes a number of significant changes to Reaper, McCree, Orisa, Sigma, Hanzo, and Baptiste. You can read the latest PTR patch notes to learn about the upcoming Overwatch buffs and nerfs.
Blizzard is currently working on Overwatch 2, which will have a significant story mode. Character progression will be distinct for Overwatch 2’s campaign and multiplayer. As of yet, Overwatch 2’s release date and platforms have not been confirmed.
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In 2020, there is no shortage of ways to play retro video games. Whether it’s with micro-consoles from Nintendo and Sega, remastered re-releases, or RGB-modded consoles, there’s never been a better time to enjoy the games of our past. However, when it comes to recreating our days in the local arcade, bringing old cabinets into your home can be an expensive, time-consuming hobby–not to mention the space you need to house them. Sure, you can play old arcade games on most modern platforms, but the feeling of competing for a high score just isn’t the same on a DualShock 4. This is where Arcade1Up comes in, and for the past couple of years, the company has released 3/4-scale cabinets of some of video game’s biggest classics, including Mortal Kombat, Rampage, and now, BurgerTime.
Arcade1Up’s latest is a limited-edition BurgerTime cabinet, which also includes a number of other Data East classics: Karate Champ, Caveman Ninja, and Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja. After building the cabinet–which is about as relaxing as building IKEA furniture–the unique shape of the BurgerTime machine is particularly striking. Arcade1Up did a good job in making BurgerTime feel like you’re bringing the actual cabinet home. For the first time, the company has created panels that more closely resemble the original machine–nearly all of Arcade1Up’s cabinets before this have shared the exact same physical design. BurgerTime’s rounded panels give the cabinet more character, excellently paired with the panel art featuring Peter Pepper.
It’s not an exact copy of the original cabinet’s design, however. In fact, the Arcade1Up machine features more stylized curves than the original. This feels important in evoking the original, as the rest of the machine is like any other Arcade1Up cabinet. The original 1982 cabinet features a screen that’s flush with the control board, asking the player to look downward at the screen. Arcade1Up’s rendition will have you looking straight ahead, much like the rest of the company’s line-up. And of course, Arcade1Up cabinets don’t utilize CRT monitors, instead opting for modern flat screens. The Arcade1Up display looks great, but if you are looking for that exact original experience, it will be different than you remember.
Otherwise, Arcade1Up’s BurgerTime cabinet is gorgeous. The colours are bright and emulate the original design, with a light-up marquee that makes the machine pop in a dimly-lit room. It’s a beautiful cabinet, and thankfully, games are well-emulated to help make it a great experience.
Ported by Other Ocean Interactive–with assistance from Digital Eclipse, which is known for its excellent work on classic game compilations like Mega Man Legacy Collection and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Edition–the games play, look, and sound great. The joysticks are responsive and feel sturdy, while the buttons are satisfying to click when you need to pepper a living sausage or kick a ninja. The control board includes two joysticks and two buttons per player, giving you everything you need to play each game the way they were made to be played–the dual joysticks are for use with Karate Champ, the game that kickstarted the fighting game genre as we know it today. It’s a good selection of games, especially if you have a friend to enjoy them with.
Everything about Arcade1Up’s BurgerTime cabinet works great. It’s as simple as putting it together, plugging it in, and playing. The simplicity is also its downside, however. Arcade1Up’s machines don’t offer anything beyond the means of actually playing the games. There aren’t any video options, sound settings, art galleries, or anything in between–something as simple as scanlines or a sound test would be appreciated. It’s also important to note that there’s no official way of obtaining new games for Arcade1Up’s cabinets.
Arcade1Up makes excellent machines. The BurgerTime cabinet is exemplary of the company’s dedication to create experiences that–while not exactly as they were back in the day–are roughly as good as you remember. But at the end of the day, the $399 price tag is a lot to ask for from most people. Arcade1Up’s 3/4-scale cabinets are awesome machines, but they’re only for those who are most passionate about the featured games. Thankfully, Arcade1Up treats those games with the respect they deserve, and anyone who cares about Data East’s classic games will find a lot to love in the BurgerTime cabinet.
The BurgerTime cabinet is sold exclusively on Arcade1Up’s website for $399, and it’s only available for a limited time. If you order before January 31, you’ll get guaranteed shipping by March 1.
Arcade1Up recently announced a series of smaller, more affordable products at CES 2020. These include classic micro-consoles and new plug-and-play systems for classic series like Mega Man, DuckTales, and Pac-Man. You can see all of the retro gaming hardware we loved at CES 2020 right here on GameSpot.
But in the wake of Sony withholding the PS5 from the show, the ESA is determined to convince press and attendees that this year will be different. In a new statement, the ESA details how it’s listening to criticism from last year’s show and teaming up with new partners to “shake things up” in 2020.
“You’ll be happy to know that we’re not producing E3 2020 in a vacuum,” the statement reads. “For E3 2020, we’re collaborating with industry insiders and new creative partners, including the tastemakers at iam8bit.com, to reinvigorate the show and, frankly, to shake things up.”
The ESA also addresses the issue of data integrity, following last year’s embarrassing leak of attendee information via its website. In order to protect registration information in 2020, the ESA states that it has overhauled its registration process to only require the minimum amount of information required from attendees while also securing captured data far more securely.
“Earning back your trust and support is our top priority,” the statement reads.
The rest of the statement, which you can read in full on the ESA’s website, again mentions new attendee attractions and shows in vague terms, reiterating ideas around high-profile guests, stage experiences, experiential zones, and more that will “delight the senses.” The statement notes that more concrete details will be revealed in the near future.
Microsoft will be attending E3 2020 despite Sony’s absence, with Phil Spencer confirming that the Xbox Series X will be the highlight of their show.
Nintendo can’t stop selling Switch consoles, and its latest financial earnings results are another strong sign of that. Nintendo has announced that the Nintendo Switch has now sold over 52 million units, taking it past the overall sales figures of the SNES.
The Nintendo Switch has now sold a total of 52.48 million units as of December 31, 2019, with the large majority of those being made up of the original Switch model. The original Switch (which includes the latest model with improved battery life) accounts for 47.3 million of overall sales, while the Switch Lite, which launched in September last year, has already reached 5.19 million units sold.
Nintendo noted that sales during its last financial quarter were particularly strong, with 10.8 million consoles sold in this period alone. This has led the company to increase its sales projections for the rest of its financial year, from 18 million to 19.5 million by the end of March.
The total confirms that the Switch has now surpassed lifetime sales of one of Nintendo’s most popular home consoles. The SNES, which originally launched in 1991, went on to sell 49.1 million units, and has now been surpassed just 34 months into the Switch’s lifecycle.
Borderlands 3 is getting a new hotfix with a load of changes and additions to the loot shooter. Gearbox says the hotfix will be live on PC, PS4, and Xbox One by 3 PM PT on January 30. It will activate a Rare Chest Riches event, give you a better shot at opening Legendary loot, and address some bugs, among other adjustments.
The hotfix patch notes list a few key areas. The biggest new addition with the 1/30 hotfix is the Rare Chest Riches event, which will run through February 13 at 8:59 AM PT. During that time period, rare chests will drop rare loot more often, increasing your chances of Legendary items. You’ll also get better odds to score better loot when watching a Twitch streamer if you’ve linked your account with the EchoCast Twitch Extension.
Other changes include an increased chance to receive legendary loot from red car trunk chests, and fixing an issue with the “One Man’s Treasure” mission in the recent Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot expansion. The studio also says it is permanently increasing the spawn rate for rare spawns, and buffing the drop rates and Anointed chance to be similar to bosses.
Finally, Gearbox announced that the scaled event that it began with Takedown at the Maliwan Blacksite will be permanent. Another update to come in February will allow players to switch to “True Takedown” mode, which will be similar to the launch version of Takedown. It says that this change, along with the rare spawn rate change, is based on reviewing player data.
Increased the chance to receive Legendary loot from red car trunk chests
Addressed a reported issue that the player could sometimes rise into the sky with the cannon during the “One Man’s Treasure” mission in Moxxi’s Heist of The Handsome Jackpot
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It might have had a delayed release and complete redesign of its main character, but the Sonic the Hedgehog movie finally arrives next month. A new trailer is set to screen during the Super Bowl this weekend, and it has now been released online.
The new Sonic trailer starts with a series of high-profile sports stars–footballers Michael Thomas and Christian McCaffrey, sprinter Allyson Felix, and stock car racer Kyle Bush–talking about the incredible athletic ability of the legendary hedgehog. The rest of the trailer delivers lots of funny and action-packed clips from the film–check it out below:
Sonic the Hedgehog is directed by Jeff Fowler and hits theaters on February 14, 2020. Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation), with Jim Carrey as the evil Dr. Robotnik. Westworld’s James Marsden will feature as a state trooper who catches onto Sonic’s super speed. Early box predictions suggest that the film will have a strong opening weekend at the box office.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie has gone through a turbulent production, with a full character redesign being commissioned after the film’s disastrous first trailer. Thankfully, a team led by Sonic comic illustrator Tyson Hesse gave gaming’s premiere hedgehog a much more lovable look.
Adapted from the iconic Nintendo franchise, The Legend of Zelda manga series by Akira Himekawa debuted in 1998 in Japan, the same year Ocarina of Time released. Himekawa–a pen name for a pair of Japanese comic book authors–has since added more than a dozen books to the well-received series. The Legend of Zelda Box Set compiles the first 10 volumes and is currently on sale for a spectacular price at Amazon.
The Legend of Zelda box set contains 10 manga based on the popular video game franchise
The Legend of Zelda Box Set | $42 ($80)
Regularly $80, the box set is discounted to $42 right now (roughly $4 per book). Each book in the series is based on one of the video games and adds new details and context to the plots you might already know quite well. Here are the tales you’ll get to relive in the manga:
Ocarina of Time (two books)
Majora’s Mask
Four Swords (two books)
Oracle of Seasons
Oracle of Ages
The Minish Cap
A Link to the Past
Phantom Hourglass
Relive eight of the tales from the Zelda franchise
At the time of publication in 2011, the box set included every book in the series. More Himekawa Zelda mangas have been released since, including a multi-volume adaptation of Twilight Princess. The seventh volume in the Twilight Princess arc releases August 11. Himekawa also contributed an exclusive comic to Hyrule Historia, the wonderful art book that chronicles the history and timeline of The Legend of Zelda franchise.
Nintendo has released its latest financial statements for the quarter ending December 31, 2019, with continued booming success for its console-portable hybrid, the Nintendo Switch. Alongside the financial data is the company’s updated list of its best-selling first-party software, and two new additions–Pokemon Sword and Shield and Luigi’s Mansion 3–have each made big entrances that have pushed other, older games off the top ten.
The biggest new addition is Pokemon, which rocketed to the number five spot despite being on the market for just six weeks. That strong start of 16.06 million has already almost caught up with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which has been out since the Switch launch. It also rose above several games that have been out much longer, like Splatoon 2. The other new addition, Luigi’s Mansion 3, made a respectable debut in tenth place with 5.37 million since its Halloween launch.
Those two new additions displaced a few other games that had appeared in last quarter’s charts–namely, Super Mario Maker 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As of September 30 they had sold 3.93 million and 3.13 million, respectively. They’ve certainly added to those totals since, but with something less than Luigi’s 5.37 million. Nintendo noted in its earnings statement that Mario Maker 2 has sold more than 5 million.
Strong sales for Pokemon aren’t surprising, though, as the long-running franchise often dominates Nintendo’s best-seller charts. The 3DS charts, for example, show Pokemon composing three of the top five all-time best-sellers. Notably, the top-selling 3DS Pokemon game is Pokemon X/Y with 16.44 million, which means Sword and Shield almost caught up with its lifetime sales after just six weeks on the market.
All of the 3DS Pokemon games are topped by Mario Kart 7, similar to how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has remained steadily atop the Switch charts. But with such a strong debut, Sword and Shield may eventually topple it.
Best-Selling Switch Games (As of December 31)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — 22.96 million
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — 17.68 million
Super Mario Odyssey — 16.59 million
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — 16.34 million
Pokemon Sword/Shield — 16.06 million
Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee — 11.76 million
Splatoon 2 — 9.81 million
Super Mario Party — 9.12 million
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe — 5.85 million
Luigi’s Mansion 3 — 5.37 million
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