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After five blockbuster movies that have grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide, the Bourne universe is making the jump to the small screen with Treadstone, a globe-trotting, time period-hopping action series that will explore the titular black ops organization that created Jason Bourne and numerous other CIA assassins.Premiering this fall on USA network, Treadstone “explores the origin story and present-day actions of the infamous covert program that uses behavior modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins. The first season of Treadstone follows sleeper agents across the globe as they’re mysteriously ‘awakened’ to resume their deadly missions.” The plot of the series will span decades as it delves into Treadstone’s history and present activities – and while Jason Bourne is in the wind after the events of the last movie, his “presence will be felt” in the new show.

Ben Smith, producer of the Bourne film franchise, is showrunner and executive producer on the series. The cast includes Jeremy Irvine, Brian J. Smith, Omar Metwally, Tracy Ifeachor, and newcomers Han Hyo-joo and Emilia Schüle.

IGN has an exclusive first look at the new spy series in the photo gallery below, introducing us to three key characters who will be our eyes and ears inside this covert operation. Check out the images below and read on for our interview with Smith, which gives some insight into the world of Treadstone and what’s driving the show’s latest recruits.

Treadstone Season 1 Photos

IGN: How do you think Treadstone will set itself apart in the crowded spy genre without a familiar character like Jason Bourne character as an anchor?

Smith: The people activated in Treadstone are everyday people with jobs and families who awaken to find themselves as human weapons with extraordinary skills and abilities. Treadstone’s multiple storylines set across the globe also set it apart. Our characters include a taxi driver in London, a housewife and piano teacher living in North Korea, and an American Oil rig worker in the Arctic.

Are Bourne’s whereabouts established or hinted at in the series?

Bourne’s presence is definitely felt. The blowback from the events which surrounded him in the past have a direct effect on the CIA and our story. His whereabouts? He hasn’t been seen for a few years…

Obviously Treadstone is presented as a nefarious program in the films – will the series see these new sleepers awakening to the realities of the organization they’re a part of, or are we seeing a more benevolent version of Operation Treadstone here?

Depends on who we’re talking about – and where we find them in their present cover lives. Our sleepers, “Cicadas” as they are referred to in Treadstone, each react differently to being awakened years after volunteering for a black-ops program of which they have no memory. To find yourself thrust into the violent center of a terrifying world you weren’t aware of yesterday has different responses for all. There are no good guys or bad guys in our world – everyone is making choices based on their individual moral compass and narrative. The consequences of those decisions is where our series lives. Treadstone as an organization has evolved but its roots remain the same.

What do we need to know about these new agents – can you give us some background on the characters featured in our first-look photos?

Soyun (Han Hyo-joo) is an affectionate wife and mother working as a piano teacher in North Korea whose life begins to spiral out of control when she is mysteriously activated. This occurs just as her husband is getting promoted to be a key member in the North Korean nuclear program. The fallout puts Soyun and her family in extreme danger.

John Randolph Bentley (Jeremy Irvine) is a former Vietnam Vet and CIA agent who had been stationed in West Berlin in 1973 before a sacrifice for a fellow agent left him in Soviet custody. The horrors of the programming he endured under enemy control alter him forever.

Petra (Emilia Schüle) works in a covert KGB facility in East Berlin in 1973 and one of the requirements of her position include developing a very close personal relationship with prisoner John Randolph Bentley. We are left wondering how much of the relationship is manipulation as part of her job and how much is genuine feeling.

This looks to be a globetrotting series much like the novels and films; what are some of the locations we’ll be visiting in Season 1?

Treadstone definitely is a global adventure and our first season takes place throughout Europe (Paris, London, Budapest, Berlin, Greece, and Amsterdam) as well as the Arctic, Africa, India, Korea, China, Brazil, and of course Washington DC.

Are you drawing from Robert Ludlum’s novels in any way to flesh out the series?

Definitely. Treadstone expands on the mythology which started in The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. The DNA of Ludlum’s work and his ability to viscerally relay the geopolitical realities of our time through the lens of very personal stories is present throughout. The themes he wrote about are more relevant today than ever.

Laura Prudom is the Deputy Entertainment Manager at IGN. You can talk to her on Twitter at @LauinLA.

Subspecies aren’t totally new to Monster Hunter World, but they’re making a comeback to the series in a big way in the upcoming Iceborne expansion. We recently got to play the beginning of Iceborne, and some of the first few monsters we faced were three brand-new monsters: Nightshade Paolumu, Coral Pukei-Pukei, and Viper Tobi-Kadachi! They may look familiar, but these subspecies are more than just a reskin.We also noticed at least nine exciting quality-of-life improvements in Iceborne, but continue on to see gameplay of each new monster with hands-on impressions and comparisons to each of their parent species.

Iceborne: Nightshade Paolumu Gameplay Impressions

I absolutely adore Nightshade Paolumu, the emo-cousin of the Coral Highland’s most coveted pom-pom baby. This subspecies is donned in dark purple, near-black fur and scales, and the tips of its wings are tinged green. Neon-blue stripes travel up Nightshade Paolumu’s long neck, and when it inhales enough air, it inflates to reveal colorful “eyes,” reminiscent of markings you’d see on a brilliant moth. Really, I can’t wait to see its armor set and weapons!

Whereas Paolumu has nothing up its sleeve except wind pressure and air-projectiles, Nightshade Paolumu puts its enemies to sleep, too. On top of expelling huge mountains of sleep gas, it can also pepper clouds of it on the ground. Energy Drinks were a must for this fight.

New Monsters in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

As we fought, I broke a rule I should have internalized by now from all the Kushala Daora I’ve hunted: I flashpodded the monster without first checking where it would land, sending Nightshade Paolumu into a cloud of its own sleep gas. This resulted in some overly eager, and then very sleepy hunters, and one unscathed *puffersims.

Unlike Coral Highlands Paolumu, Nightshade Paolumu made its debut in the Wildspire Wastes. Also unlike it’s pastel counterpart, it curls its tail into a sizable mass, which it then wields as a frantic hammer that strikes multiple times. It doesn’t get stuck in the ground after this, either.

My favorite of Nightshade Paolumu’s attacks is when it ricochets around in the air like a violently deflated balloon. I used a Light Bowgun during this fight, so while I was never in immediate danger, this attack did cart a teammate. I still love you, emo puffball.

*Puffersims = Paolumu.

Iceborne: Coral Pukei-Pukei Gameplay Impressions

With Coral Pukei-Pukei’s bright orange coloring (red when enraged) and firehose-like jets of water it sprays from both ends, it’s hard not to make a firetruck comparison! Instead of putting out fires though, Coral Pukei-Pukei inflicts waterblight, which decreases stamina recovery. It’s preferable to the Ancient Forest’s Pukei-Pukei’s poison, but Coral Highland’s Coral Pukei-Pukei’s water jets deal significantly more raw damage than the poison blobs and smoke clouds we’re accustomed to.

To store mass quantities of water in its tail, Coral Pukei-Pukei must eat, like its cousin must do to build up poison. It its intro cinematic, it guzzled water from the squishy blue platforms that work like traps, and in battle in chowed down on Brightmoss and other plants.

Like its forest-dwelling counterpart, the subspecies Coral Pukei-Pukei was pretty easy for me to read, which allowed me to follow my usual pattern of attack with success. When it starts spraying water though, that’s a different story. These long-ranged line attacks look totally erratic, especially so when its airborne, but there must be a surefire way to dodge the circular-traveling beam with precision when practiced. Luckily, I was able to dodge, and then block with the Sword and Sword, to avoid the worst of it.

Iceborne: Viper Tobi-Kadachi Gameplay Impressions

The only subspecies with fought in the new locale, Hoarfrost Reach, was Viper Tobi-Kadachi. This subspecies’ scales resemble fallen, decayed leaves, and it inflicts two status effects, and can do so pretty much simultaneously.

Viper Tobi Kadachi’s tail is covered in needle-like spines which can inflict poison with numerous close-ranged attacks, but it can also fling those spines from a distance to accomplish the same.

Its saliva must be nasty, or its fangs filled with venom, because getting hit with a bite can cause paralysis. Luckily, I was never poisoned and paralyzed at the same time since I slammed Herbal Medicine as soon as I became inflicted, but it’s certainly possible. And dying from poison while paralyzed or stunned is definitely one of the worst ways to go in Monster Hunter.

Viper Tobi-Kadachi was our team’s toughest challenge during our hands-on session, rivaling even the ferocious Barioth. I also apparently had a lapse in judgment and chose a weapon I’m not an expert with, which probably didn’t help. What got two of us carted at the same time, though, was our expectations of Viper Tobi-Kadachi’s attack range steering us wrong.While the Ancient Forest’s Tobi-Kadachi’s tail-slam attacks demolish targets directly in front of it, Viper Tobi-Kadachi’s tail comes down at a wide angle—which proved fatal when we thought we were safe! Like most subspecies, Viper Tobi-Kadachi’s attack cadence is a bit different, and that caught us off guard.

One thing to note: all of this gameplay was captured from a work-in-progress build. We also fought a Beotodus, Banbaro, and Barioth during our time with Monster Hunter World: Iceborne; and Fulgur Anjanath made a few appearances, too! You can see Fulgur Anjanath Turf War with Viper Tobi-Kadachi in that video. Lastly, make sure to check out the 9 Exciting Quality-of-Life Improvements in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne we noticed. We’ll have more from Iceborne to come, but to catch up on everything else so far, read 34 New Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Details.

Casey DeFreitas is an Editor at IGN who loves monster hunting, slaying, and catching. And no, Tobi-Kadachi no longer gives her trouble whether low rank, high rank, or tempered. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.

First revealed at Paris Games Week 2017, Concrete Genie is all about letting your artistic creations flourish amid a space that seems intent on extinguishing them. Developed by PixelOpus, your fictional hometown serves as the canvas to restoring the once lively streets that have been corrupted by a strange force. Helping you are your new friends in the form of the energetic Genies, who will bring color back and a newfound sense of identity back to your home. Nearing its October 8, 2019 release, we had the chance to both play the game and speak with director Dominic Robilliard about the creation of this colorful adventure.

The story focuses on an introverted and lonely teenager named Ash, who spends his days drawing in his journal while hanging out in the seaside town of Denska. Though it was once a thriving place, it’s now a depressing locale plagued by a large number of young delinquents. Ash finds himself at odds with a group of bullies who tear apart his journal, scattering the pages across town. He eventually discovers a new outlet to explore his artistic talents after finding a magical brush, allowing him to conjure up enchanted graffiti and beings known as Genies. With his brush and Genies in tow, he’ll take to the streets and rooftops to restore Denska, pushing back the darkness that has crept into town.

Throughout its opening acts, Concrete Genie wears its influences to classic kids adventure films on its sleeve. With little to no adult supervision, young teens explore and cause mischief with reckless abandon–giving way to a conflict that only they can resolve. Ash can use his artistic talents to create vibrant and detailed landscapes across the walls of the city, which help him communicate with the Genies and open access to new areas. The contrast between the vivid graffiti and the depressing seaside town creates unique visuals that lead to some stunning moments where your work slowly brings the decaying Denska back to life.

It’s an endearing concept, driven by a spirit that many films and TV shows in a similar vein, like The Neverending Story or the more recent Stranger Things, run with. Speaking with Robilliard, the director went into Concrete Genie’s origins and how the setup focuses pretty heavily on the game’s anti-bullying message.

“When we started this second game [following 2014’s Entwined], we had a decent amount of time to explore different concepts,” said Robilliard. “Originally the idea of Concrete Genie came from our VFX artist Ashwin Kumar, which is why our main protagonist is called Ash. The very first image was of a bullied small boy who was drawing these large characters in the wall and imagining that they were sticking up for him. The theme of bullying and the idea that art can help cope was always there from the very beginning. Those two things just inspired everybody, and it really took off. That was the beginning for us to explore art as a gameplay mechanic, and to let people express themselves.”

At the heart of Concrete Genie are the constructs crafted from the enchanted brush. When facing the side of a building or a different structure, Ash can pull out his brush to paint grass, flowers, trees, and a starry sky across the surface. The more art you place on the town’s key areas, the more the darkness will dissipate. There’s a lot of room to experiment with these drawings, and I found it to be quite entertaining to stack on layers upon layers of art. Ash’s sprawling landscapes add an impressive ambiance to the environment, turning the depressing and drab alleyways into vibrant nighttime galleries teeming with detail. These drawings are also the catalyst for your Genies to spring into action.

Ash’s greatest allies are the Genies. They not only help him overcome various obstacles, but they also liven up the town with their inquisitive personalities. They’re also entirely of your own making. Along with creating landscapes to free up the city form the corruption, the brush can conjure genies, allowing you to select from a variety of different body types and attachments. You can get creative with your Genie–and of course, there are no mistakes, only happy accidents. While drawing the body of my Genie during the early sections, I accidentally placed the horns and tail on the opposite end. Instead of the game telling me I was doing it wrong, it rolled with it. The resulting Genie, a smiling bright red creature with a tail on its head and antennae around its rear, felt like a creation that came from the minds of Jim Henson or Tim Burton.

As you explore more of Denska, tagging new walls and finding lost pages from your journal, more of the town’s history will be revealed. The bullies that taunt Ash also have distinct backstories, and Ash discovers what set them on such a destructive path. Concrete Genie presents different areas to explore that progressively becomes more intricate as you head further into town. Though it’s not quite a Metroidvania-style game, there is an incentive to backtrack to earlier areas once you have acquired some new Genies and abilities. While there are a lot of puzzles to overcome in Denska, most of them seemed a bit one-note–centering mostly around creating an object in a spot to get the Genie to open a door elsewhere. I did enjoy seeing everything come together after finishing a complex tag. I was always surprised by what I could create with the painting mechanics, and it’s easily the game’s most exciting feature.

“We worked really hard never to judge your painting,” said the director. “One of the reasons that we have the lights as a mechanic for gauging your coverage is that it’s encouraging you to paint in specific places. We never tell you what to paint or how to paint them, and we never say whether your artwork is good or not. That’s completely up to you. So using paint to push back the darkness that could actually be on the walls, creating more of an environmental aspect, was a theme that we wanted to explore. It suddenly became this very natural fit that this beloved hometown idea that Ash is trying to save and rejuvenate from this environmental disaster that has befallen it. It all just fit together really well, and it gives you this nice baseline for the progression of the story, and it mirrors what’s happening to Ash as well.”

However, it’s not just drawing that you can do with your brush. Eventually, Ash will confront monsters that spawned from the darkness. You’ll have to use the brush’s elemental attacks and light to subdue them. As we transitioned from the game’s more relaxed and free-from drawing structure, the combat felt a bit jarring to jump into, but it’s certainly an interesting twist for the game. It works well given where the plot leads, but it still felt a bit lacking if somewhat unrefined compared to the flexibility of the drawing mechanic. Still, given that it’s pulling heavily on tropes from ’80s adventure films, I’m interested in seeing how it will develop alongside the painting gameplay.

I was struck by Concrete Genie’s attention to detail when it came to its location, and how in-depth the drawing mechanics were. It left me curious to see how far you can stretch Ash’s artistic skills, and just where the story will go next. It’s got a modest feel throughout, but I was impressed with how more grand it became after the closing of the first act, which gave me the sense that this adventure could go places that you’d least expect.

Monster Hunter World’s upcoming Iceborne expansion brings some big changes and bigger monsters. But while cool new tools like the Clutch Claw have likely already caught your eye, there are tons of less flashy tweaks that will probably make seasoned hunters yell “YES FINALLY” with the same level of enthusiasm.

We got to play through the first few hours of Iceborne last week, and while you can watch us take on three of its new subspecies monsters here, these little quality-of-life improvements really stuck out. There are surely plenty more, but here of nine of the most exciting tweaks we’ve seen saw so far – be sure to watch the video at the top of the page to see them in action!

There’s an In-Game Event Schedule

Right out of the gate, when you go to get your Login Bonus you’ll notice two new buttons, one of which sends you to an in-game event schedule. It was empty in the work-in-progress build we were playing on, but this probably means you won’t have to check an external website to see what event quests are coming up anymore. Hooray!

Seliana’s Gathering Hub Has Everything

Bringing things closer to your fingertips seems to be a trend of Iceborne, one the Gathering Hub in the new town of Seliana leans into hard. Everything you would normally have to leave Astera’s Gathering Hub to access is all contained within this one. The Armory, the Resource Center, the Argosy, your Harvest Boxes. You name it, it’s here, all without a loading screen to get to any of it. What’s more, you’ll be able to return here as usual after missions if you like. And honestly, why ever leave at this point?

New Headquarters-Specific Radial Menus

Another nice tweak you can use in either hub is the addition of new Radial Menus specifically for when you are back at base. Separate from your mid-quest Radial Menus, you can now create ones made specially for things like gestures and stickers without having to worry about making space for items.

What’s more, in a related addition, swapping Item Loadouts will no longer automatically change your Radial Menu settings. You can still have custom Radials for each Loadout, but you can now choose not to swap to it when changing!

Setting “Craft All” From the Radial Menu

And those aren’t the only Radial Menu improvements: While you could always assign item crafting to a slot, it would previously only craft one of the item you chose at a time. There’s now an option to “Craft All” of an item with a single press of a Radial Menu shortcut, which is sure to come in handy during long fights.

New Monsters in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Customize Bowguns From the Item Box

The Item Box has gotten a long-overdue buff, as you can now customize your Bowguns from them. That saves you a trek all the way to the armory just to make a single change if you need to.

Similarly, Seliana has a place for your Palico to sit next to each Item Box so you can adjust their equipment without going into your room. Seliana is basically a convenience dream.

YOU CAN FINALLY PET YOUR PALICO

This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.

In what is likely the most important change on this list, you can finally pet. Your. Palico. A great wrong has been set right, as the Foot Bath in the Seliana Gathering hub allows you to pet them, play with them, and give them lots of love and scritches. You can even pick them up and let them splash their feet in the water!

I am dead.

Fire Your Slinger With Any Weapon Drawn

Out of the sauna and into the slightly less relaxing fire of battle, an absolutely wonderful change is the ability to fire your Slinger with any weapon drawn. You can simply fire away as usual without sheathing, similar to how the Sword and Shield already could. Doing so with ranged weapons and the Insect Glaive is a little bit clunkier since they share controls with the Slinger, but it’s still simple enough. It’s a tiny change that makes a huge difference.

A Small Slinger Ammo Visual Tweak

Slingers got another quality-of-life improvement that’s maybe not quite as monumental. When you equip ammo from your pouch, you’ll now see the icon of any picked-up ammo you already had loaded behind it. Nothing has functionally changed here, but it’s a nice tweak for the forgetful among us – especially with the Clutch Claw’s new emphasis on using Slinger shots to knock around monsters.

Improved Dynamic Difficulty Scaling

And finally, as previously announced, Iceborne’s difficulty will now scale more smoothly with your party size. Where the health of a monster used to simply double in multiplayer regardless of if you had two, three, or four players in your party, Iceborne will scale better for parties of two. Parties of three still get the short end of the stick, but it’s a welcome change regardless.

Excitingly, that change will actually be coming to Monster Hunter World whether you buy Iceborne or not. While the joys of Seliana’s Gathering Hub will obviously be limited to the expansion, here’s hoping some of these other changes will make it to the base game as well.

We’ve asked Capcom if that’s the case for everything on this list, and there are certainly more quality of life improvements we didn’t mention here. Be sure to watch our new gameplay videos fighting three of Iceborne’s subspecies as well, and we’ll have lots more to come from Iceborne!

Tom Marks is IGN’s Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter.

Although the massive success of Deadpool might suggest that Fox was completely behind the movie from the start, this wasn’t the case. The studio only greenlit the movie after test footage leaked online and was met by an incredibly positive reaction from fans. This week was the fifth anniversary of the footage leak. To mark the occasion, star Ryan Reynolds made a hilarious new Instagram post that also hinted at Deadpool’s potential entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following Disney’s purchase of Fox’s entertainment assets earlier in the year.

The post shows a crime board, which attempts to trace the source of the leak. Was it Deadpool director Tim Miller or writer Rhett Reese? Perhaps it was Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman, who only got Logan made after Deadpool proved an R-rated superhero could be a hit. Or maybe Reynold’s wife Blake Lively was the culprit. The most intriguing name on the board is Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, while Reynold’s reference to “Phase 5” in the caption hints at Deadpool finally entering the MCU. Check it out below.

The Fox deal means that all the X-Men characters are now owned by Disney, with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige in charge of these properties. But while the main X-Men characters will almost certainly be rebooted at some point, it is likely Reynolds will continue to play the Merc with the Mouth.

The R-rated Deadpool might seem an unlikely fit with the more family-friendly tone of the rest of the MCU, but both Deadpool and Deadpool 2 were huge box office hits. In February, Disney boss Bob Iger confirmed that the studio will “continue in that business,” after the deal.

“We do believe there is room for the Fox properties to exist without significant Disney influence over the nature of the content, meaning that we see that there is certainly popularity amongst Marvel fans for the R-rated Deadpool films, as a for instance,” he said. “We’re going to continue in that business, and there might be room for more of that.”

There’s one final X-Men movie still to be released–the long delayed New Mutants, which was shot back in 2017, long before the Disney deal. It currently has a release date of April 2020, two years after it was first scheduled to hit theaters. For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to all the upcoming Marvel Phase 4 movies and TV shows.

Another installment of 2K’s WWE series has been announced, and with it, two images have been revealed. Little is known about the latest version of the game, aptly named WWE 2K20, but more information will be revealed on August 5.

2K Games has revealed two images from its long-running WWE series: one of Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and one of Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley. Both images feature the WWE superstar’s entrances and can be seen below. While this isn’t a huge reveal for WWE 2K20, more information will be shared on Monday, August 5.

Teased by 2K, Monday’s reveal will include the cover art for the game, along with gameplay footage and more information. This is the first announcement for the game and no further details have been given.

Last year’s installment–WWE 2K19–made huge changes to the overall game, completely reimagining the MyCareer Mode to be more story driven, adding fun arcade elements, a roster of over 200 superstars, and reintroducing Showcase Mode–which took inspiration from WWE’s documentary series on the WWE Network. The overall changes vastly improved the game and added a bit of fun to the series.

As for what could be coming down the like for WWE 2K20, no one knows at this point. Many fans of the series are hoping for the reintroduction of GM Mode, where players take on the role of Raw or Smackdown GM and try to get better ratings for their weekly programming than the other show. GM Mode has been one of the most talked about features that’s gone missing since UpUpDownDown started its weekly Battle of the Brands video series. In it, WWE superstars Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze play GM Mode on WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2006.

Additionally, many are wondering not only who the cover star of this year’s game will be–hopefully Becky Lynch–but also which superstar Showcase Mode will focus on. There are plenty of working superstars in the company whose stories would work exceptionally well for that mode.

We’ll learn more on August 5.

FIFA is one of the biggest games of the year, and FIFA 20 will likely be no different. Between Kick Off, Career Mode, and Pro Clubs, the series is rarely lacking in content, but the most played mode every year is FIFA Ultimate Team, or FUT for short. EA has finally lifted the lid on all the new FUT features, so read on below for a look at FUT Friendlies, FUT Seasons, new customization options, and the new FUT Icons we know about.

FUT Seasons

Contrary to what you might expect, this has nothing to do with the existing Seasons mode; instead, Seasons in FUT will work similarly to the periods of real-world time that Fortnite, PUBG, and more have popularized in recent years. In FIFA, these time periods are between six and eight weeks long and will include rewards you can earn over the course of a Season. There will also be Season objectives: these are similar to the current daily and weekly objectives but longer-term and with bigger rewards–one example given to us was a loan Ones To Watch Eden Hazard. Completing matches and objectives will net you XP, which will count toward Season rewards.

Club Customization Options And Milestones

FUT 20 will feature a bigger suite of club customization options, with EA making a big change by allowing clubs to display fictional badges, balls, and tifos, among other cosmetic items. For example, you’ll no longer be forced to display a tifo of Neymar or Thomas Mueller–instead, you can erect one of a dabbing unicorn… because of course. You could also use a 16-bit styled ball in your home stadium, rather than just real-world Adidas and Nike ones.

The new customization options are not currently planned to be available in regular packs. Rather, they’ll be rewards for a new type of challenge called Milestones. These are not tied to XP or Seasons but will be attainable by achieving long-term objectives such as scoring 100 headers. More customization options will be added throughout the year, EA says, but they will be untradeable.

FUT Friendlies

FUT Friendlies are a new way of playing casually within FUT–a place to go, EA says, when you don’t fancy the pressure of the Weekend League or Squad Battles. There are no great rewards for playing FUT friendlies, but you do still earn coins, and, crucially, player injuries, contracts, fitness, and your playing record remain unaffected. That means you can use that loan OTW Hazard to your heart’s content.

A big part of the new FUT Friendlies mode is House Rules, which have been lifted wholesale from FIFA 19‘s Kick Off update into FIFA 20’s Ultimate Team portion. As well as those modes added last year–Headers and Volleys, Survival, and so on–new options are being introduced in FUT 20. Those are:

• Max Chem: Team chemistry doesn’t matter here–regardless of your squad selection, every player will be granted maximum chemistry.
• Swaps: A standard match of FIFA except a random trio of your first XI players get swapped for three of your opponent’s.
• King of the Hill: If you can keep the ball under control inside the virtual box painted somewhere on the pitch, you’ll build up a goal meter. Go on to score in the same attack and you’ll have that number added to the scoreline. For example, hold the ball in the box for long enough to build it up to 3 and you’ll add three goals to your score if you get the ball in the back of the net soon after.
• Mystery Ball: Every time the ball comes back into play, a new match condition will be set. These could range from 3x goals for the next successful strike to maximum speed boost or maximum dribbling boost for the ball holder.

The latter two House Rules options are also coming to Kick Off outside of FUT, while the former two will be available within Ultimate Team only. FUT Friendlies as a whole can be played against AI, a local opponent, or online against friends.

FUT Icons

Finally, EA revealed a selection of its new Icon cards that will come to Ultimate Team this year. The players revealed so far are English striker Ian Wright, Italian midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo, Brazilian forward Carlos Alberto, Ivorian frontman Didier Drogba, and Dutch star Ronald Koeman.

FIFA 20 launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC–with legacy editions coming to Switch and older platforms–on September 27.

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass lineup for the first few weeks of August, so you can play game gratis during the dog days of summer. As usual the service is offering a collection of games that will join the service on Xbox One consoles, PC, and one that will be on both.

On August 1, the service will add the sports game Ashes Cricket and the strategy game Pandemic for Xbox One, along with the vertical action game Downwell for PC. Then on August 8, those will be joined by the Jackbox Party Pack 2 on Xbox and Space Hulk Tactics on PC. Finally, on August 14, both Xbox One and PC players will get the roguelike Slay the Spire.

The Gears 5 PvP tech tests included with Game Pass have concluded, but a separate Horde Mode tech test is coming sometime in August. Microsoft hasn’t detailed when that will come, but like the PvP test, it should be included in Game Pass. That’s because the game itself will be included with Game Pass, and the tech tests are open to pre-orders, so if you’re a subscriber you kind of pre-ordered it too.

The announcement also detailed a new set of quests for Game Pass, which grant rewards points for playing Game Pass games that can be traded for gift cards or extending your Game Pass time. This time those include rewards for earning achievements in Batman: Arkham Knight, the Metro series, Borderlands, and Ashes Cricket, among others.

Game Pass is an all-you-can-eat subscription service that rotates a library of games for a monthly rate. You can pay $10 per month for the service on Xbox One or PC, or $15 for the combined “Game Pass Ultimate” subscription that also includes Xbox Live Gold. Check out the full list of Xbox Game Pass games for early August below.

Xbox Game Pass Library – Early August

August 1

• Ashes Cricket (Xbox One)
• Pandemic (Xbox One)
• Downwell (PC)

August 8

• Jackbox Party Pack 2 (Xbox One)
• Space Hulk Tactics (PC)

August 14

• Slay the Spire (PC, Xbox One)

The first trailer for The Irishman is here. The highly-anticipated crime thriller is the latest movie from legendary director Martin Scorsese, and stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. It’s been produced by Netflix and is set to hit the service in the fall.

The Irishman tells the real-life story of Frank Sheeran, a union man who also allegedly worked as a contract killer. De Niro plays Sheeran, with Pacino as notorious union boss Jimmy Hoffa and Pesci as mobster Russell Bufalino. It looks like another epic, decade-spanning crime saga from Scorsese–and let’s face it, no one does it better the director of Goodfellas and Casino. Check the trailer out below.

The Irishman also stars Ray Romano, Anna Paquin, Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel, and Stephen Graham. It’s penned by by Steven Zaillian, who also wrote Schindler’s List, American Gangster, and David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

One of the most notable aspects of The Irishman is that it will make extensive use of CG to “de-age” De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci for scenes in which their characters are much younger. The trailer shows relatively little of this, but the amount of VFX work meant that the movie has involved nearly two years of post-production. According to Deadline, the final budget is around $200 million, making it the most expensive movie of Scorsese’s career.

Although The Irishman does not yet have a confirmed release date, it will hit Netflix in the fall. It is also set to have a limited theatrical run and will premiere at the New York Film Festival on September 27.

EA has confirmed it will release a new Need for Speed title soon. The publisher said in an investor call that it plans to launch the new game before the end of March 2020.

“We’ll be delivering many other new experiences to players throughout the remainder of this fiscal year,” said EA CEO Andrew Wilson. “We’ll take the wraps off our new Need for Speed game heading into Gamescom in a few weeks.

“We [also] have plans for a Plants Vs. Zombies shooter title, coming to console and PC later this year.”

The most recent Need for Speed game, Payback, launched in 2017 to a mixed reception, including a 5/10 in GameSpot’s review. The upcoming Plants Vs. Zombies shooter, expected to be Garden Warfare 3, was stealth announced just recently with the codename “Picnic.” Not long before that, EA announced another mainline PvZ title. Plants Vs. Zombies 3 is currently in the pre-alpha testing phase, but a final release date has not been confirmed.

Elsewhere in the investor call, EA revealed how much money it makes from its live services such as Apex Legends and FIFA 19, as well as EA Access, which recently launched on PS4. The company also confirmed NBA Live 20 has been delayed.