If there’s one thing that movie and TV fans were not doing in 2019, it’s complaining that there wasn’t enough to watch. The multiplexes might be largely dominated by big budget franchise movies, but the competition between the studios, networks, streaming services, and media companies ensured that there was a constant stream of film and TV content to check out. The problem wasn’t having enough, it was knowing what to focus on.
We all know what the most financially successful films were–most of them were made by Disney, and many of them featured superheroes, spaceships, and animated toys or animals. But while the likes Marvel and Pixar have millions of fans, the most commercial films aren’t always the ones favored most by film critics. It’s always fascinating to look at annual Best Of lists from critics, as that’s where the smaller gems can be found, the great movies that might not have had all the attention they deserve.
Taking a look at GameSpot’s sister site, Metacritic–which collects and averages out critic movie ratings–we found the best reviewed movies of the year and are presenting the top 20 for you. And if you’re looking ahead to 2020, check out our looks at the Biggest Movies, TV shows, and Anime to watch next year…
Virtual Reality games have come a long way from being simply a collection of activities and tech demos. Nowadays VR titles include full-on games like Vader Immortal and Trover Saves the Universe. Of course, VR headsets have also improved over the years and we’re fully into the second generation of virtual reality at this point.
The latest and greatest VR headsets make immersive, room-scale gaming is better (and more affordable) than ever. Better yet, there are plenty of fantastic options to go completely wireless. At this point you don’t necessarily need a powerful gaming PC or PS4 to enjoy high-res, motion tracking VR anymore either. If you’re ready to dip your toe into the digital world, here are the best VR headsets you should buy.
Puma, purveyor of all sorts of sporting goods and clothing, is finally cracking into the most physically taxing activity of all: Video gaming.
Puma has announced a new line of gaming socks, or “Active Gaming Footwear,” designed to maximize your comfort and style on those 10-hour raids or your 40th battle royale loss of the day, as first reported by PC Gamer. One pair will you run you £80 in the UK and $160 in Australia, and it doesn’t look like Puma has made any official announcement about the product his U.S. shores. The UK and AU price suggests something in the ballpark of $100 USD or a little higher.
Harry Potter series stars Emma Watson and Tom Felton have posted a picture of a small cast reunion.
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter himself) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasely) are absent, but at least Neville Longbottom showed up. From left to right, there’s Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Bonnie Wright (Ginnie Weasley) and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom).
Emma Watson’s black and white picture on Instagram has over 1.9 million likes as of this writing. Felton’s Instagram pic has over 906,000 likes but it’s in color.
With the rise of digital downloads and monthly subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass, physical game rentals may soon be going the way of Blockbuster. One of the biggest companies still doing physical rentals, Redbox, announced earlier this month that it will no longer offer game rentals at its kiosks, and physical game sales will only be available through the end of the year, according to CNET. Redbox will still offer movie rentals.
In a recent tweet, Redbox customer service explained the decision was made after evaluating “changes in the industry,” which led it to shift its full focus to physical movies, which is the bulk of its business anyway.
Enter your zip code, and you’ll be shown the deal price if it’s in stock.
Here are some of the best game deals we were able to verify. While Redbox shows Nintendo Switch games on its site, only PS4 and Xbox One games appear to be available. Keep in mind stock will vary based on your location, and you’ll have to pick up the game at your local Redbox.
When you can play so many great games with a deck of playing cards, or even a pen and paper, it’s tempting to seek out good value in your gaming purchases. Thankfully, games that offer lots of playtime for very little money are enjoying a renaissance right now, so there’s plenty to pick from.
Most of these budget titles are card games. But if you can stretch a bit higher, it’s amazing how much sculpted plastic and great art you can buy in a board game for relatively little price. More and more big publishers are getting on the hobby game train, and that means better and better value for board gamers.
The Game Awards 2019 was a big success. The show scored 45.2 million livestreams around the world, which is up 73 percent from the 26.2 million people who tuned in for 2018’s show, organizers have announced.
The numbers were announced in a tweet from The Game Awards, and it was also confirmed that the show will return in 2020. No dates were announced, but presumably it will be back in December 2020.
The Game Awards, which are run by former GameSpot writer Geoff Keighley, began back in 2014 and have grown in viewership every year. Before that, Keighley organized the Spike Video Game Awards on traditional linear TV and then the VGX event in 2013 before the transition to The Game Awards.
The numbers are in: #TheGameAwards delivered a record 45.2 Million livestreams this year, up 73% over last year’s results. Thank you for watching and supporting video game’s biggest night. We will see you in 2020! pic.twitter.com/gbVor2f92S
Being a show on the internet, people had a lot to say–good and bad–about The Game Awards 2019. People criticized the show for having too many ads, but Keighley says he thinks the number of ads in 2019 was similar to 2018. He also pointed out that his team does not have final say in the ads that get shown, though he hopes this may change in the future.
I’m pretty sure we had the same number of ads this year as in past years of TGA. But I guess it felt different to you? Appreciate the feedback, but we’re not lucky enough to get to personally select and curate every ad the runs. Maybe one day.
In addition to awards, the event featured a lot of big news. The biggest and most unexpected announcement was the Xbox Series X, which is Microsoft’s next-generation console coming in 2020.
The bands Green Day and Chvrches performed at The Game Awards, while Grimes also played.
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Game Of The Year 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
New The Outer Worlds DLC Is Coming In 2020 – GS News Update
The MMO Final Fantasy XIV has brought back its holiday Starlight Celebration event. It’s live now and runs through Tuesday, December 31, consisting of quests and festive items. You can also obtain some of the previousy Starlight Celebration items in the seasonal shop. As usual with seasonal events, certain areas within home zones, like Gridania and Limsa Lominsa, will be decked with holiday decoration and festive tunes.
According to the official site, you can find the NPC Amh Garanjy in Old Gridania to begin the level 15 seasonal quest “All I Want For Starlight.” There are a number of seasonal items available including a Gobbue Wreath ready to devour your soul, Starlight Roll Cake, Choir Concert Advertisement, and Starlight de Chocobo Orchestrion Roll. The cutest may be the Saintly Barding, a festive bit of Chocobo armor that dresses your mount up in traditional Christmas colors, complete with a fluffy hood.
Square Enix has steadily supported FFXIV over the years through expansions–most recently with the Shadowbringers expansion–since relaunching as A Realm Reborn in 2013. And a consistent stream of updates further support the game with the last major one being patch 5.1 that added a slew of content like the Nier Automata raid. It has been a success for Square Enix since then, and was even noted specifically as a top performer in the company’s recent financial disclosures.
Following the reveal of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, fans quickly noted that the design of the hardware itself lends itself to custom designs inspired by any number of games, brands, and products. Fans and brands alike created mock ups that showed what special editions might look like, and the results were promising.
Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has responded on Twitter, saying that while Microsoft did not purposefully design the console with this in mind, he’s happy about the opportunity for limited editions, wraps, and other custom creations.
“One thing we really like about the design is the ability to do do LE editions, wraps, custom etc. It wasn’t a design criteria (that was all about the function of the console) but the result leaves a nice forward face for some creative opportunities,” Spencer said.
No official limited edition Series X consoles have been announced. The Halo Infinite mock-up above looks really nice, but it’s too soon to say if Microsoft will go forward with anything like it. Microsoft also created a new Xbox controller featuring a Share button for the next-generation console.
In other news, it was recently confirmed that the Xbox Series X name is referring to this super-powerful model alone; the actual name of the next-gen console is only “Xbox.” Microsoft says this leaves open the possibility for the company to release other next-generation consoles with different names. One ongoing rumour is that Microsoft will also release a less-powerful, disc-free version of its next-generation console, though this has yet to be confirmed.
Rise of Skywalker currently holds a 54 on Metacritic, with 50 published reviews factoring into the score at the time of writing. Of the 50 presently available, only 16 give the film a positive score of 63 or better. The 34 other reviews score the film negatively, handing it a rating of 60 or lower. Bookending the total number of reviews are two extremely positive (100) and two extremely negative (one 38 and one 30) ratings.
Things don’t look too different on Rotten Tomatoes, with Rise of Skywalker earning a 58%. Rotten Tomatoes includes far more reviews, with Rise of Skywalker receiving a whopping 145 entries. Of that number, 84 are considered “Fresh” while 61 are labeled “Rotten.” The review aggregator’s general consensus says the film “suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.”
We scored the film a 4/10 in our Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker review, saying, “In the end, it all feels simply empty. It should never be so clear to audiences that something in the filmmaking process has gone so terribly wrong–that the people who made the first film in a trilogy apparently didn’t bother to sketch out a plan for the second and third, and that the movies’ directors had visions for the series’ future that were so fundamentally at odds. Star Wars deserved better.”
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Game Of The Year 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
New The Outer Worlds DLC Is Coming In 2020 – GS News Update
