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Sony has released the latest firmware update for the PlayStation 5, titled version 20.02-02.30. The update introduces a number of improvements to system performance and comes in at the usual size of 868MB.

Aside from improving connection stability for certain Wi-Fi routers and fixing some issues that were causing errors during text input in some PS4 games, the latest firmware also contains updates for the DualSense controller. Sony hasn't specified what changes have been made to the controller, but the firmware's installation screen will prompt you to plug your DualSense into the console to get it updated.

Here are the full patch notes for firmware version 20.02-02.30:

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting a new map named Haven when Season 10 launches later this month. It'll be available for PC players on December 16 and console players on December 17.

Haven is a much smaller map when compared to PUBG's other offerings. It's designed for 32 players and is only one tile wide--a normal map is eight by eight tiles. The map is much denser than other maps, though. Its urban setting includes factories, coal yards, apartments, and other locations that give players a lot of places to find cover.

In addition to the new map, Season 10 is bringing other features to the battle royale, including new enemy AI combatants. Soldiers that are part of the "The Pillar" faction now roam the map, complete with their own trucks and helicopters, looking for players to kill. Players can kill these bots to earn special gear, although they won't be easy to take down.

Everything in Night City runs on money in Cyberpunk 2077, and your journey to becoming a living legend is going to be a costly one. In order to make as many Eurodollars (also known as "eddies) as possible, you're going to want to take on all the mercenary work you can. But a lot of the time, work isn't enough, and if you want to buy the best cyberware, weapons, and clothes--as well as advance Cyberpunk's story--you're going to need even more money.

We've been spending a lot of time in Night City and found a bunch of ways to make a quick buck. Check out these tips on earning money, especially early in the game--they'll help you advance the story at some key moments (the mission Ghost Town in Act 2 will require a cash infusion of 15,000 eddies, so get ready), and allow you to buy the equipment you need to avoid flatlining as you fight to survive in 2077. While you're at it, check out our 13 Essential Cyberpunk 2077 Tips and read our Cyberpunk 2077 review.

Loot Everything

Cyberpunk 2077 is an enormous game with a lot of systems to understand. The game gives you a lot of freedom in how you'll deal with its many missions, and that means there are a lot of elements of the game that are easy to overlook. Especially in the first few hours, it's easy to get overwhelmed and miss some things that can make you a more-effective merc and your life in Night City a little easier.

Check out the tips below to help you get the most out of your cyberware, your weapons, and your V, whether you favor stealth or gunplay. Otherwise, be sure to read our Cyberpunk 2077 review for our full thoughts about the game.

Check Your Messages

Note: This guide contains side mission story spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077. If you'd rather discover everything on your own, including which characters you can eventually get romantically involved with, you might want to stop reading now.

You can do a lot of things in Night City: hunt cyberpsychos, shoot it out with gangs, race through the streets, hack just about anything, and turn your body into a living weapon. You can also spend a lot of time with Night City's denizens, and several characters throughout the game become more than just acquaintances and clients as you get to know them. While a few will only ever be friends and colleagues, some characters can become more, if you're willing to invest the time with them.

Here's a full rundown of how romances work in Cyberpunk 2077, who you can share them with, and what you need to know so V can get busy. We're still uncovering all the secrets of Night City, so we'll update this guide as we discover even more information. In the meantime, check out our Cyberpunk 2077 review, read our 13 essential tips for playing Cyberpunk 2077, and learn how to make money fast with our Cyberpunk 2077 moneymaking guide.

Announced earlier this year, Dustborn is an upcoming game by Dreamfall Chapters developer Red Thread Games that's said to be "about hope, love, friendship, robots--and the power of words." Now, Red Thread has announced that Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream will be publishing the dystopian road trip game.

As reported by Gematsu, the studio said it was important to find a publisher that would share its vision for narrative-driven games. "Quantic Dream shares our passion and love for great narratives and interactive storytelling," Red Thread Games creative director Ragnar Tornquist said. "It was vitally important for us to only work with someone who truly understood and appreciated our vision for this game, and we couldn’t have asked for a better partner to help us bring Dustborn to players around the world."

With Cyberpunk 2077's advance review codes being sent exclusively for PC, fans have thus far had no insight into how the game plays on consoles. Now, Video Games Chronicle has booted up the PS4 version of the game on a PS5 with backwards compatibility, in order to compare its performance to the PC version we currently know much more about.

In comparison to a PC version of the game running max visual settings and medium ray-tracing, Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS5 seems to stack up surprisingly well, despite running a version of the game designed for the PS4. Street scenes on the console version aren't as populated with either people or vehicles when compared to the same scenes on PC. VGC has also reported that the PS5 version of the game doesn't appear to have a "Performance Mode" at launch, unlike the Xbox Series X.

Despite loading in the day one patch that CD Projekt Red has pointed to as the solution to many of the game's most criticized bug and performance issues, VGC still ran into visual bugs in the opening sections of the game, as well as a full crash.

Beyond Light, Destiny 2's latest big update, introduced sweeping changes to the three-year-old game, sunsetting large amounts of old content to make room for the new. After backlash from the game's fanbase, the Destiny 2 team has addressed the complaints specifically in regards to weapons and rewards, and is promising changes going forward.

In a post on the Destiny website, assistant game director Joe Blackburn addressed how rewards had been changed for Destiny 2, and how they could be improved in the future. Infusion caps placed on old weapons were one of the more controversial updates added this year, though Blackburn explains the reasoning for adding them.

"Introducing Infusion Caps is … a way to make sure that the overall number of rewards Guardians need to care about in order to be competitive in Destiny isn’t prohibitive," Blackburn wrote. "It is also a way to continue evolving each season’s meta, while at the same time making sure players still have a ton of options when choosing what they want to bring into the next challenge. Our goal from the beginning with Infusion Caps is to improve and keep Destiny 2 fresh over time"

Gears 5 is receiving a new mini-campaign as DLC on December 16, and it'll be available as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The campaign, Hivebusters, follows the heroes of the game's Escape mode as they go on a "suicide mission" to take down a Swarm hive.

The campaign will be playable in three player co-op, with Lahni, Keegan, and Mac featuring. You'll be able to use and upgrade their Ultimate Abilities, which was not the case in the regular campaign. The game will come with 16 achievements, totaling 210 Gamerscore, too.

This DLC is written by Kurtis Wiebe, who also wrote the Hivebusters comic series, published across 2019. This DLC is based on those comics.

Sony has now launched the PlayStation 5, and if you've managed to find one you have plenty to look forward to next year. Both Sony's first-party developers and third-party studios are starting to ramp up their efforts to make 2021 a strong year for PS5 owners. From first-person shooters to platformers, the coming year has something for every kind of fan. In the following article, we've listed the biggest games coming to PlayStation platforms over the next year.

Deathloop

Deathloop is the next game from Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Wolfenstein: Young Blood). In this stylish shooter, you're an assassin trapped on an island that's in a perpetual time loop. Lavish spenders are throwing a never-ending party with no consequences, while you attempt to take out key targets and break out of the loop. But there's also another assassin in this cat-and-mouse game, and she's hunting you. It's coming May 21, and is remaining a PS5 console exclusive even though Microsoft acquired publisher Bethesda.

Destruction All-Stars

Destruction All-Stars is a derby-style car combat game recalls the glory days of games like Twisted Metal, bashing your rig against your opponents to wreck them. Once your car gets too damaged and just can't carry on any more, you can jump out and keep trying to cause some havoc on foot. Sony announced this game will be included with PlayStation Plus when it launches in February.

Apex Legends fans who want to dig deeper into the game's lore are in luck, thanks to a new artbook releasing next year that will delve into a character's past. Apex Legends: Pathfinder's Quest is a 208-page hardcover book from Dark Horse Books, but it's not yet clear whether it's a traditional artbook or a comic.

The book is due to release on February 2, 2021, both physically and on Kindle. The book's Amazon page currently lists the book as sold out, but it's possible that more stock will be secured ahead of release.

Manny Hagopian, the lead writer of Apex Legends, is credited as the book's author. There's no preview of the pages inside the book yet.

Pokemon Go developer Niantic's Harry Potter mobile game, Wizards Unite, is introducing a series of villains and evil creatures in the new Adversaries update.

This update, which is the "biggest feature release of the year," adds new evil characters to fight against. These include the bad boy Draco Malfoy and the nefarious Bellatrix Lestrange. The werewolf Fenrir Greyback is also included with the update, along with the Basilisk.

These villains will come to Wizards Unite as part of the game's new monthly patches. Players can earn rewards like Wizarding and Challenge XP, among other bonuses, for defeating the villains.

The first gameplay demo of Halo Infinite spawned one of 2020's top memes: Craig, the deadpan Brute. The meme, which took on a life of its own and earned the approval of Xbox's Phil Spencer, was tied in with the criticism that this gameplay demo attracted--Craig's cold, uncaring eyes were emblematic of the less-than-stellar visuals on display in the video.

Now, 343 Industries has delved into the game in a new Halo Waypoint update, and there's news on Craig. Neill Harrison, the director of art management at 343 Industries, has revealed that the Brute will look very different in the final game, and that the version we saw was far from a finished model.

"Firstly, I can confirm that the facial animation on NPCs was not fully implemented in that build, which resulted in Craig’s incredibly deadpan/lifeless look," Harrison says. "All characters are modelled in a neutral pose, prior to blendshapes & animation being applied. So, poor old Craig was never intended to be seen in that condition which is not something that was evident during the gameplay."

Yes, Your Grace, a small game about making decisions on how to run a kingdom, recently released on Xbox Game Pass after hitting PCs and consoles earlier this year. In its first five days on the service, the game--which features Xbox Series X/S enhancements--has done extremely well, the publisher has now revealed.

Mike Rose, head of indie publisher No More Robots, has shared news of the game's success. In its first day, the game added 10,000 new players, and over the four days that followed it continued to add that many new players every day.

"Around 250,000 people have now played Yes, Your Grace," Rose revealed--a high number for a game like this.

343 Industries has revealed that Halo Infinite will be delayed to Fall 2021. The news comes from a blog post, which also goes into how Halo Infinite and its free-to-play multiplayer will handle microtransactions.

"Yes, being free-to-play does mean that there will be some premium cosmetics, but players will still obtain tons of customization content through things like playing campaign, challenges, skill, special events, legacy rewards--such as the Halo 5 SR 152 reward--the progress system, and more," Halo Infinite lead progression designer Christopher Blohm said.

Blohm added that the team wants players to feel like they're being properly rewarded for time spent in the game. So players who don't spend any additional cash won't be penalized, they'll still be able to unlock "items across multitude of different customization types." Microtransactions will only be tied to premium cosmetics, and it's a one-and-done purchase. "No loot boxes," Blohm clarifies. "No randomness or items that influence the sandbox and gameplay."

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has provided an update on the project, revealing a new release window, talking about microtransactions, and showcasing the first multiplayer map in a post on the Halo Waypoint. Alongside all of this, the company supplied a number of new images, which fans of Microsoft's iconic first-person shooter franchise are sure to poreover in the coming days.

The images include environments from the game, weapon models, and a close look at some of the Spartan armors that will be available when the game launches. Much of the discussion around Halo Infinite when the first gameplay was shown was about its somewhat questionable visual fidelity and this is something acknowledged by 343 Industries.

"The primary goal for the Campaign demo in July was showing Halo Infinite gameplay for the first time. While that aspect generally landed as we wanted, the reality is that the art and visuals weren’t at the bar we hold for Halo – even in a work-in-progress state.

Temtem, a Pokemon-like RPG that released in early access on Steam earlier this year, has made its way to PS5. The game, which will eventually come to other consoles too, has not hit version 1.0 yet, but it arrives on Sony's new console in fairly robust form.

This version of Temtem comes with a story campaign, complete with MMO elements. You'll be able to travel between six islands, training and taming Temtem creatures and fighting against enemies in turn-based battles. You'll encounter other players as you go, which should make the world feel alive.

A new launch trailer for the game has been released, too, which you can view below.

Halo Infinite's first multiplayer map has been revealed. In a new Halo Waypoint update, two interior images of a multiplayer map have been shown off for the first time.

The map, which is not officially named in the update, is the very first thing we have seen from the game's multiplayer. The first screenshot, below, shows a very familiar Halo scene: two Spartans squaring off on a map with an emphasis on verticality.

The final game will contain a mix of interior and exterior levels, by the sound of it. As you can see in these shots, the level contains plenty of detail--and looks to be using the power of the Xbox Series X for some nice lighting effects.

Design director Ryan Paradis explains in the update that while there will be "limited-time events" in the game's multiplayer, they don't want players to feel like they need to jump in at specific times or miss out. "Think of all the games we’ve all played that have random rewards, ask people to play a way they hate just for a new shiny, or weaponize FOMO against the player," he says. "There will be limited-time events, but we don’t want to turn free time into a chore. We’re not all about that."

Halo Infinite is now expected to release in Fall 2021, developer 343 Industries confirmed in a blog post. As part of the developer's year-end update, 343 confirmed the new release date and also provided some new insight on the game's graphics, art, and customization features.

Halo Infinite was originally expected to release as a launch title for the Xbox Series X|S in November, but due to complications related to COVID-19, and other factors, Microsoft delayed the game to an unspecified point in 2021. The new Fall 2021 date might be later than some expected, as it's a full year beyond what was originally announced.

343 also published images of the first Halo Infinite multiplayer map. As announced previously, the multiplayer element of Halo Infinite will be free-to-play, which is a big change for the series.

The rather chaotic 2020 is coming to a close, which means the GameSpot staff is sporadically taking breaks from the regular day-to-day coverage to look back on the year that was and discuss the games we liked the most. In the following article, we detail our five favorite Xbox games for 2020--so any game that released for Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S this year.

All said and done, 2020 was a pretty good year for Xbox. No standout first-party exclusives like PlayStation, but plenty of third-party games look great on Xbox One X, and they look even better (and load a lot faster) on Xbox Series X|S. So yeah, you can find all of the games on this list on other platforms, but that doesn't detract that they all look and play very well on Xbox platforms. Three of the five are on Xbox Game Pass, too. So if you're curious about trying Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Spiritfarer, or Doom Eternal, you should consider investing in the best deal in gaming. Doing so will also net you the somewhat niche but impressive line-up of Xbox console exclusives that were released this year, like Call of the Sea and Tetris Effect: Connected.

This year saw two new console launches in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, but the Nintendo Switch is still going strong in its own separate lane. The hybrid console-handheld had another great year, rocketing to massive sales on the strength of its games lineup and quarantine conditions fueling consumers to look for new ways to occupy themselves and their families.

Nintendo obliged, of course, with particularly strong first-party offerings like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which became a bona fide cultural touchstone. (Just ask US Representative AOC.) But the wide slate also included an anniversary celebration for Mario with Paper Mario: The Origami King, the battle royale Super Mario Bros. 35, and the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. The fall brought a remaster for Pikmin 3 and the musou game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. And some of last year's games continued to get more love, including the two large expansions for Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Glen Schofield, the co-creator of the Dead Space series who later worked on the Call of Duty franchise, is preparing to announce his first post-Activision game very soon.

Schofield's new team, Striking Distance Studios, will announce their first game during The Game Awards this Thursday, December 10. According to organizer Geoff Keighley, this is a game for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

It was previously announced that Striking Distance was developing an "original narrative experience" within the PUBG universe. However, it's not immediately clear if the reveal on Thursday will be this game or something else.

In the wake of the big success and acclaim of the Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian, which is about a bounty hunter in space, God of War director Cory Barlog tweeted that he hopes there is a developer out there trying to make a new Star Wars bounty hunter video game.

Celia Hodent, a former Lucasfilm developer, responded to Barlog by pointing out that she and her team tried to do just that with Star Wars 1313. Announced in 2012, the game was a third-person action adventure title set beneath Coruscant where you play as a bounty hunter. However, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the mega corporation closed developer LucasArts and cancelled all their games, including Star Wars 1313.

Developer Patrick Wren worked on this game, and he responded to Hodent's tweet, "If only people could have seen what was coming."

The release of CD Projekt Red's highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 isn't the only attention-grabber happening on December 10. The Game Awards goes live on the same day and is all-virtual this time around as the world continues to grapple with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. There are 30 categories to get through, including the coveted Game of the Year award that games like Hades and The Last of Us Part II are competing for. Here's everything you need to know about this year's The Game Awards, including start time, where to watch, and what to expect.

The Game Awards Start Time

This year's The Game Awards goes live earlier than usual. Instead of typically occurring in the evening, the livestream kicks off on Thursday, December 10 with a pre-show that starts at 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET. The main event takes place just 30 minutes later.

• US West Coast: 4 PM PT
• US East Coast: 7 PM ET
• UK: 12 AM GMT (December 11)
• Sydney, Australia: 11 AM AET (December 11)

Where To Watch The Game Awards

The Game Awards will be livestreamed on all the usual places, including the company's official Twitch and YouTube channels. The award ceremony can also be viewed on Facebook Live, Oculus Venues, and Twitter. We here at GameSpot will stream The Game Awards through the livestream above and on YouTube.

With a new generation of consoles just launched at the tail end of 2020, the future looks bright for the PlayStation and Xbox platforms. But, as always, PC remains its own unique gaming platform that can provide experiences you might not be able to find on consoles while also offering a place to play multiplatform games at their best. PC's seemingly infinite backlog of games makes it a beast of a platform, but there's just as much to look forward to in 2021 and beyond.

It is exciting that PC gamers have options for even more powerful video cards with Nvidia's RTX 30-series and AMD's RX 6000-series (if you can find them), providing more graphical horsepower than ever before and new features like ray tracing and AI-driven supersampling. But while PC pushes innovation in graphics and performance, what matters most is the games. And if you need a cheat sheet for what's in your PC gaming future, and details on why you should be excited for each of these upcoming titles, we have you covered.

Developer Moon Studios has announced a partnership with iam8bit and Skybound Games to send money directly to a nonprofit organization aimed at preserving the tropical rainforests.

From now until December 13, five percent of Ori and the Will of the Wisps sales on Nintendo Switch will go to the charity Rainforest Trust, a US-based environmental organization focused on purchasing and protecting tropical rainforests and the endangered wildlife inhabiting them. In addition to the small-scale contribution, iam8bit is also donating $25,000 to the nonprofit.

"iam8bit's very first game as a publisher is Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Nintendo Switch. As a publisher, we considered how best to spend the game's marketing budget, and decided to shake things up to try and make a positive difference with that money,” iam8bit co-owners Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White said in a press release. "As we've worked with Moon Studios to publish the Ori series on Nintendo Switch, we've been struck by their dedication to expressing nature as a living, breathing entity worthy of protection. Following their lead, we wanted to do our part to preserve nature, and are excited to work with the wonderful and dedicated people at Rainforest Trust to do just that."

As if Black Friday wasn't enough, Best Buy has just kicked off a new buy two, get one free promotion that can net you some huge savings on next-gen games for PS5 and Xbox Series X. Games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War feature upgraded next-gen versions, though there are also a number of titles that will work great via backwards compatibility. This includes the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel's Avengers, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. There's currently no end date for this promotion, though supplies are limited. If you're interested in snagging some new games on the cheap, then you'll want to act sooner rather than later.

December is officially underway, and it's shaping up to be another busy month for Pokemon Go. Developer Niantic has a variety of December events and activities lined up for the game, including a big Community Day weekend celebration. Of course, a new month also means new Field Research tasks, and another batch of those is now live along with a new Research Breakthrough encounter.

This time around, you'll be able to encounter one of two Pokemon each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in December 2020: Lapras or Unovan Darumaka. Both Pokemon will be available all month long. You'll also earn bonus XP for catching either monster.

As a refresher, you'll achieve a Research Breakthrough when you collect seven stamps. You'll receive one stamp for the first Field Research task you complete each day. If you don't manage to achieve a Research Breakthrough before the month ends, any stamps you've earned will carry over, so your progress will go toward next month's Research Breakthrough.

On November 12, Hearthstone released a new seasonal rewards track and a paid battle pass called the Tavern Pass. It was met with anger from the community after Blizzard promised this pass wouldn't reduce gold rewards, and it proceeded to do exactly that. Blizzard altered the pass to fix this, but that altered other in-game rewards. Blizzard is now taking another swing at revising this pass, posting an update on its site going through all the changes the pass will have implemented soon in response to fan feedback.

One of the primary issues being addressed quests that players have expressed are too difficult to complete. Some of these are just being tweaked or removed in general as they're harder than expected or not worthwhile. Others are getting very specific changes. Quests that require Legendary cards and Arena runs are all being removed from the battle pass. Additionally, one of the weekly quests is being altered so instead of having to win 7 ranked matches, they will only have to win 5. All daily quests that had been rewarding 800XP will now be rewarding 900XP, and Tavern Brawls and Battlegrounds will contribute to quest progress.

Immortals Fenyx Rising might have only launched less than a week ago, but if you decided to wait a little on Ubisoft's latest IP you can now enjoy it at a steeply discounted price.

Amazon is selling Immortals Fenyx Rising on Xbox One and PS4 for $40, down from $60. To get the full discount, you have to click the coupon on the store page. This deal only applies to the physical versions of each, but both are still eligible for the free Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PlayStation 5 upgrades, as long as you have the disc inserted into the console.

Ubisoft has delayed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake from its originally scheduled January 21, 2021 release date. The upcoming remake of the platforming classic will now launch on March 18, 2021 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Ubisoft's Prince of Persia Twitter account announced the news, with the development team saying, "We are excited to put this game in your hands, as we retell the story of the Prince and Farah in a reimagined 11th century Persia. However, 2020 has been a year like no other. Today we wanted to let you know that we are taking additional time to work on the game. With that, the release date of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake has been moved to March 18, 2021. We believe this is the right call to ensure we will deliver a game you will enjoy.

"Thank you for your patience and continued support for Prince of Persia and we hope you stay safe and healthy this holiday season."

Early Access farming/collecting sim Ooblets has just dropped its latest update: V.05 Coldyrain. The Ooblets team have laid out their plans for content drops, and this is the latest. If you're familiar with the naming conventions in Ooblets, it's probably not a stretch to understand that this is a snow/winter update for both PC and Xbox.

According to the Latest News dialogue that appears after you've downloaded the update, this new content drop is a bit different than what the devs were originally planning. The first idea for this update was for it to be a big Wildlands update, with some fun winter stuff thrown in for good measure. But it soon became apparent that the new wintery features were both substantial and fun enough to warrant being a main focus for this update. According to the team, that big Wildlands update is still in the pipe, and will probably release as its own update later this month.

Marvel's Avengers now has the first of its post-launch characters, Kate Bishop. The sassy archer is another hero in the Marvel universe who uses the Hawkeye codename--Clint Barton, who's also Hawkeye, is her mentor and will be the second post-launch character for Marvel's Avengers. Yup, Marvel's Avengers is getting two playable Hawkeyes back-to-back.

"Yeah I mean, I'll be honest, from a gameplay standpoint, it would probably have been easier to not have to do two very similar characters," Marvel's Avengers lead combat designer Vince Napoli told me. "But, as with everything in the game, I think it's a decision driven by story and narrative. [The team] sort of fell in love with the idea of telling a story we only could by having Hawkeye as the first character. And then when they were looking at the storyline, they were like, 'Hey, it'd be awesome to also throw Kate in there.'"

As Napoli tells it, developer Crystal Dynamics wanted to use the two Hawkeyes to tell the next chapter of Marvel's Avengers story, but the team didn't want Kate to just be thrown in solely for story purposes. If she mattered to the overall narrative of the game then she deserved to be playable too, not just Clint. "At least it gives us a couple of playable characters right away, one after the other, which is really cool," Napoli said. "And I know you're excited to have a quick two-part introduction and kickoff to this whole post-release story stuff. So that's kind of nice, the fact that there's a nice, a quick turnaround."

2020 was a tough year in many respects due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and how it tore holes in every aspect of our lives, from the glaringly obvious to the minute. As a result of this, many people sought refuge in games and gaming content this year on sites like YouTube. Now, YouTube Gaming has announced that the service had its best year ever, with over 100 billion hours of content watched--that's a lot of Fortnite.

According to a blog post announcing the milestone, more than 80,000 channels hit 100k subscribers this year, over 1,000 hit 5 million, and over 350 hit 10 million. The top games watched for 2020 were Minecraft, Roblox, Garena Free Fire, Grand Theft Auto V, and Fortnite. Minecraft notched over 201 billion views by itself, doubling Roblox's count of 75 billion.

The blog post highlighted the charitable giving of top YouTubers like Jacksepticeye and The Game Theorists, with the former raising over $660,000 for COVID-19 relief in a 12-hour stream. It also listed the most successful streamable live events of the year, with Travis Scott's Astronomical Fortnite concert coming in at #1.

Once a headlining console exclusive on the original Xbox, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords is now coming to iOS devices.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most acclaimed role-playing games of all time. It quickly spawned a sequel, helmed by Obsidian instead of original developer BioWare, that didn't find the same universal praise but still managed to tell a compelling story with some gameplay enhancements. If you've somehow missed out on it and still don't have a better way to play it, you can pick it up on iPad and iPhone for $15 on December 18.

There is a secret facility hidden underneath the Fortnite Season 5 map. It's a big, corporate-looking base with concrete walls and steel doors. No one is quite sure what the facility is for, but it could play a big role this season.

The secret base can be accessed through multiple points in the map, including new locations like Stealthy Stronghold, Colossal Coliseum, and Hunters Haven. The entrance at each location is hidden underneath some sort of breakable cover. They each contain a handful of items and a couple of chests. Most of the walls, support structures, and doors cannot be destroyed with a harvesting tool.

These mysterious underground rooms could be related to the office that Agent Jonesy has been seen in the previous two live events: the Galactus event and the Device event. It's possible that the entire facility has always been located underground in the game's lore or the Zero Point, a singularity at the core of Fortnite's story, is pushing the two worlds together. It's not like Fortnite's lore wasn't complicated enough already.

The Pokemon series celebrates its 25th anniversary in February, and Pokemon Go developer Niantic is commemorating the occasion with a special in-game event. On February 20, the studio will host the Kanto Tour, a one-day event featuring exclusive Research tasks and all of the original Pokemon.

As was the case with Pokemon Go Fest this past July, Niantic will sell virtual tickets for the Kanto Tour event. These will cost $12 USD and will give players access to an array of exclusive content, including a Special Research story that will lead to an encounter with a "special Pokemon." Those who complete the aforementioned Research line will unlock a second event-exclusive Special Research story. This line will be a longer-term commitment that will ultimately culminate in an encounter with Shiny Mew.

On top of that, Pokemon from the Kanto region will appear in the wild, Raids, and as Research rewards more frequently than normal throughout the Kanto Tour event, and ticket holders will have a chance to encounter Shiny versions of all of the original 150 Pokemon.

Cyberpunk 2077 is almost here, and if you pre-purchased the game through CD Projekt Red's digital storefront GOG, a special Easter egg awaits you. Once Cyberpunk 2077 has been pre-loaded ahead of its December 10 launch, the urge to open the installed game and hope for a glitch that allows you to start playing early might be strong, but doing so will result in Johnny Silverhand appearing to remind you that you're going to have to be a little bit more patient.

Reddit user Jmendo02 shared a screenshot of what will happen if you're too eager, as Silverhand will tell you: "Go back to sleep, Samurai. It's not December 10th yet!"

World of Warcraft has been around for a long time, but its popularity shows no sign of abating. In fact, according to Activision Blizzard, the game's latest expansion comes as the game's number of long-term subscribers is cresting higher than ever before. In a statement, the publisher claimed that Shadowlands is the fastest-selling PC game ever, selling more copies in one day than any other game the company has records for.

According to Activision Blizzard, Diablo 3 was its last PC game to sell more than 3.5 million copies on its day of release, and Shadowlands has surpassed that milestone with 3.7 million sold. The statement also says that players have spent more time in WoW's fictional world of Azeroth this year than in any others, and that total player time in-game has doubled compared to 2019.

Shadowlands is World of Warcraft's eighth expansion pack, and it was released back on November 23. WoW recently celebrated its 16th anniversary, which probably makes some of you feel as ancient as an Old God. Activision Blizzard also announced plans to crack down on "multi-boxing," which is a popular way to grind faster via multiple game clients.

Minecraft with RTX is now available for all Windows 10 players. You can download it and still play games with players on other platforms while enjoying the visual improvements that RTX brings to the table.

The feature has been available via an official beta since April, but now it's available in the main Minecraft client. Microsoft and Nvidia are releasing two new worlds that are compatible with RTX to celebrate.

"Using the power of ray tracing and Physically Based Rendering, you can build incredible scenes with lighting, shadows and effects running at previously-unseen levels of detail and accuracy," reads a post on Nvidia's official site. "Helping you craft wondrous worlds that'll make jaws drop."