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2019’s Bad Movies

With only days before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters, there are so many questions about how the Skywalker Saga will end. There are so many mysteries when it comes to how director JJ Abrams will wrap up the nine-movie franchise.

One of those mysteries, thanks to Disney+’s The Mandalorian, is no doubt whether or not lovable scamp Baby Yoda will appear in the film. As the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) finds himself in the middle of a surprising number of fights, battles, and near-death scenarios, the real breakout star of the series is the toy green puppet that looks an awful lot like the late Jedi Master we all know and love.

Given that The Mandalorian is set after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, it’s entirely possible that Baby Yoda could appear, even in a cameo role. What’s more, given that he was born the same year as Anakin Skywalker, it seems perfectly logical that he would have a tie to the bigger story of Star Wars.

Does he pop up in the new movie, though? Unfortunately for fans of adorable puppets that also have magical powers, the answer is no. Baby Yoda is nowhere to be seen in the new film, which isn’t exactly a surprise. After all, the show was filmed at the same time as the movie in different locations.

That said, it’s entirely possible Baby Yoda–or other characters from The Mandalorian–could show up in future Star Wars films. At this point, we don’t know what the next movies in the franchise will be about. All that’s clear is that a second season of The Mandalorian is shooting now, while the animated series Clone Wars is returning, and an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone series is being developed.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters Friday. In his review of Episode IX, GameSpot’s Michael Rougeau said the movie feels “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,” he wrote.

As Christmas nears, retailers continue to roll out last-minute deals to entice shoppers who may not have checked everyone off their lists just yet. Barnes and Noble is one of those retailers, and you’ll want to take notice if you’re shopping for comic book reader. Graphic novels published by DC, Marvel, and Image Comics are buy two, get one free through December 30.

Considering the sale includes books from three of the largest graphic novel publishers, there’s obviously a lot to choose from. For those just getting into graphic novels, Alan Moore’s groundbreaking Watchmen is a great place to start, especially with the excellent HBO series just reaching its conclusion.

Marvel fans can enjoy a wide-ranging selection of books starring some of the most popular superheroes. For instance, you can grab Saladin Ahmed’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man Vol. 1, which would make a great gift for fans of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Phase three of the MCU wrapped earlier this year, but you can relive the Infinity Saga in The Infinity Gauntlet, which tells a different story of the struggle with Thanos.

There’s also a number of Barnes and Noble-exclusive editions, including Batman: Damned, Superman: Year One, and DCeased, which chronicles the apocalypse in the DC universe.

You can browse all of the Marvel, DC, and Image graphic novels in the buy two, get one free sale at Barnes and Noble. We’ve also handpicked some of our favorites below. For series, we’ve linked to volume one unless otherwise noted.

Manga fans will also want to check out the buy two, get one free sale at Barnes and Noble, which is running until January 20. Amazon also has its own manga B2G1 free sale, which is live for a limited time.

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Best graphic novel deals at Barnes and Noble

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With Xbox Series X–the official name of Project Scarlett–Microsoft is aiming to eliminate load times. To that end, the Xbox Series X is getting a significant hardware upgrade in comparison to the Xbox One.

“It’s really about giving the developers the tools and the capabilities to use the hardware in the most efficient way possible,” Xbox partner director of program management Jason Ronald told GameSpot in an exclusive interview. “A good example of that is on the [solid-state drive] side–we’ve basically reached the limit of [what’s] possible with the traditional rotational drive. We’re basically at the upper bounds of the raw performance we can get there. So we’ve invested in MVME SSDs and we’re also giving developers a lot of new capabilities on top of that to try to virtually eliminate load times.”

Ronald continued: “You know, whether that’s a level-based game and I’m going from level one to level two, or if you think about a massive open-world game and actually want to fast-travel or teleport from one end of the world to the other, I shouldn’t have to [have] this loading experience [that takes] me out of the immersion, and that’s all possible with some of the investments we’ve made on the I/O side.”

Xbox Series X cuts down on latency too, which should benefit those who play competitive games–especially shooters and fighting games, where every frame can matter. “We partnered with HDMI Forum to bring gaming-centric features into the living room,” Ronald said. “Things like 120Hz support, things like variable refresh rate, which has been available in the PC space for a while but it’s never really been available in the living room–things like 8k capability.”

Faster load times and less latency will affect more than fast-traveling around large open worlds and playing competitive fighting games. Similar to the PS4’s Dualshock 4, the Xbox Series X controller will have a share button that allows you to capture screenshots and record gameplay, which, according to Ronald, you’ll be able to “instantly” publish. You’ll apparently be able to run multiple games simultaneously too–allowing you to quickly hop back and forth between what you’re playing without needing to wait for each one to load from scratch, not unlike what you’re able to do with a single game on Xbox One or PS4 today.

“Those are things that we can do with the platform level to make the gaming experience just better,” Ronald said. “It’s really about ensuring there’s less waiting and more time playing because that’s ultimately what we all want to do.”

It’s the season of sales as retailers compete to offer the best deals for last-minute Christmas shoppers, and Amazon is offering some of the best holiday deals across not only gaming and tech but books, movies, and more. For fans of manga (or someone shopping for a manga fan this month), there’s a particularly good sale at Amazon worth checking out. For a limited time, you can take advantage of a buy two, get one free promotion on manga, many of which are already discounted.

First, let’s clear up the confusing messaging on Amazon’s store page for this sale. The limited-time offer is advertised as “buy three items, get one item free,” but what they mean is that you need to add three items to your cart, and the cheapest item will be free.

There are over 180 volumes of different manga series included in the sale, including some of the biggest series of recent years: My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super, One Punch Man, and more. Dr. Stone and The Promised Neverland, popular titles that represent how the shonen demographic is changing, are included as well. While you may not be able to pick up all the volumes of a given series, this is a nice chance to snag that volume you’re missing or grab Volume 1 for a new manga you’ve been meaning to check out.

It’s worth noting Barnes & Noble is having a similar buy two, get one free sale on manga with many of the same deals, so check that out as well if you’re missing any particular volume.

See some of our picks below, and check out the full buy two, get one free sale on manga and books at Amazon. We’ve included the link for Volume 1 in our picks below (except where otherwise noted), but keep in mind you can also find additional volumes on sale for most of these. And if you’re Christmas shopping, check out our best gift ideas for anime fans for more inspiration.

Best manga deals at Amazon

2020 is almost here, so we’ve asked GameSpot’s staff to share which games they’re looking forward to most in the new year. New consoles are going to dominate the headlines, but at the end of the day it’s all about the games, and there are a ton of exciting ones to look forward to. When you’re done reading this entry, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best of 2019 hub and our Most Anticipated of 2020 hub.

The end of the decade has been very, very good for the Ryu Ga Gotoku series. Yakuza 0 set Western audiences on fire and brought a whole new generation of fans into this insane series. Yakuza Kiwami gave us a good remake of the first game, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 gave us a great remake of the best game in the series (I will be taking no comments on this matter). Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 have remastered releases on the PS4. Judgment, a spin-off game in the same universe, gave us some great new characters.

But most importantly, we got Yakuza 6, which marked the final chapter in the story of Kazuma Kiryu, the series’ mainstay protagonist for some 15 years. It was an emotional farewell, and if you asked me at the time, I could’ve given you a bunch of ideas about where I thought the series would go next.

I could never have predicted this. No one could have ever predicted this.

The next game in the Yakuza series will feature new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga–that much we knew for a long while. What completely blindsided us, however, was the fact that Yakuza 7, officially titled Yakuza: Like A Dragon in the West, would completely do away with the series’ real-time action combat mechanics in favour of a team-based, menu-based, and turn-based RPG battle system.

Discreetly revealed as part of a 2019 April Fool’s Joke, the combat system of Yakuza: Like A Dragon partly ties into Ichiban’s love for Japanese role-playing games like Dragon Quest–so much so that the team at RGG Studio got permission from Square Enix to explicitly name-check the series in its own game. Fights will still be initiated by encountering hostile people on the street, but will transition into a screen that will be familiar to any JRPG fan–you’ll find a turn order meter, a command menu, and vital stats like HP and MP for each person in your team. You’ll be able to take advantage of things like elemental and area-of-effect damage, partner attacks, some absolutely wild summons, positioning and environmental factors, and an elaborate job system that gives you access to different fighting styles.

It’s absolutely wild, but it… kinda works? The Yakuza series has always had its absurdist side, and Like A Dragon seems to be using its new, more carefree protagonist as a license to lean a little more into that. Ichiban’s story is steeped in a melodramatic tale of crime and betrayal of course–we’ve seen glimpses of Chinese Triads, the Korean Mafia, and right-wing nationalist groups–but Ichi seems to have an energetic, boisterous and childlike naivety to him which really puts a different spin on the perspective we’re used to seeing.

It also means that the transition to the wackier side quests and activities of Like A Dragon probably won’t be as jarring as it was with our beautiful serious boy, Kiryu–we’ve already seen things like kart racing, karaoke, hostess clubs, pachinko machines, trash collecting, and a minigame where you try not to fall asleep while watching a movie.

2019’s Judgment showed us that RGG Studio could drop Kiryu completely and still create a compelling story with lovable characters. Now, I’m very keen to see whether it can drop the core mechanics it’s also been leaning on for 15 years and still fly high. With the Japanese release looming, we’re getting a ton of new information that we’re trying our best not to spoil ourselves with, but the hype is too real. Let’s go, Ichiban!