Gamespot

Before Your Eyes is a game about blinking as life flashes, well, before your eyes. You witness a collection of moments from the life of a talented artist, with a few twists along the way, but one of its most effective mechanics comes from outside that core blinking mechanic.

Spoilers follow.

This is a spoiler for a specific mechanic in Before Your Eyes, so tread lightly, but one of the most effective late-game moments during the extended conclusion of the game are a handful of sequences where you must hold your eyes closed and just listen. The change in gameplay is incredibly effective and forces you to focus wholly on the narrative in a new way. We recently spoke with game director Oliver Lewin and creative director Graham Parkes about brining Before Your Eyes to mobile devices, care of Netflix, and during that conversation we dove deeper into that specific mechanic, how it came about, and why it's a high compliment to be told something you made is sad.

The mechanic where you close your eyes for extended periods of time and just listen--how did that come about?

Lewin: We developed the game over quite a long span of time and I remember very early on Graham [Parkes] had the idea of just holding your eyes closed to have this glimpse into another reality or hearing someone's voice or something. But it was one of those features that we really struggled to find the right place for in the game.

President Joe Biden is signing the CHIPS and Science Act today. This piece of legislation is meant to invest in the manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States, which in turn could alleviate the supply issues with video game consoles.

According to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee's website, the CHIPS and Science Act will increase the production of American-made semiconductors in order to tackle the country's supply chain vulnerabilities.

"This legislation represents months of bipartisan and bicameral negotiations. The majority of this bill is made up of bipartisan provisions that started in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology—which I am privileged to lead," says Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.

She continues, "We’re building a diverse STEM workforce ready to tackle the challenges we face, we’re strengthening our manufacturing capabilities, we’re revitalizing American science and innovation, we’re fighting the climate crisis, and so much more. And we’re doing it all with the needs of each and every American in mind."

Spider-Man Remastered's PC version will be released on August 12 for most regions (August 13 for others), on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The PC port includes the base game, as well as Marvel's Spider-Man DLC called The City Never Sleeps.

Check out the below regional times for when you can launch the game.

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered PC Unlock Times

• LA: August 12, 8 AM PT
• New York: August 12, 11 AM ET
• London: August 12, 4 PM BST
• Berin: August 12, 5 PM CEST
• Dubai: August 12, 7 PM GST
• Tokyo: August 13, 12 AM JST
• Sydney: August 13, 1 AM AEST
• Auckland: August 13, 3AM NZST

Ahead of the launch, Nvidia's latest GeForce Game Ready Drivers can take Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered to the next level on your PC with things like ray-traced reflections, image quality boosts, and higher resolution for shadows and details.

You can now watch the Rocket League World Championship through Fortnite from August 9 to August 14.

To watch the Rocket League World Championship in Fortnite, you'll need to visit the discovery page and enter the code: 8205-6994-2065. Then you'll join the island built by Fortnite Creators 404FNC and FiveWalnut. Once the code is entered, you'll be put into a Team Rumble match, and your gameplay will be directly affected by whichever team wins in the RLCS.

Before entering each match, you'll select which Rocket League team you want to support. You'll receive a power-up on the island every time your team scores a goal. The more your team scores, the more power-ups you'll receive. In addition, once a Rocket League match ends, the Team Rumble match will begin, and whoever selected the winning team will start the game with upgraded weapons.

Epic has also introduced a new Fortnite special quest to celebrate the Rocket League World Championship. The following items will be rewarded upon completion:

Overwatch is on the way out, to be replaced October 4 by Overwatch 2. But Blizzard has given its first shooter a proper sendoff with its various Anniversary Remix events over the course of 2022, the third and final of which is live now until August 30. Anniversary Remix Vol. 3 once again brings back all of the game's past seasonal event brawls and cosmetics alongside another chance to earn a few previously one-time-only challenge skins.

Like previous Anniversary events, you will simply need to play a set number of matches each week to earn event challenge player icons, sprays, and skins. There are even a few event-exclusive recolors of existing legendary skins up for grabs, though you'll have to either purchase them with in-game currency or get lucky and earn them in a loot box. Speaking of loot boxes, August 30 will be your last opportunity to buy them. Though they can still be earned through gameplay prior to the arrival of Overwatch 2, once Blizzard's sequel arrives, it will be ditching loot boxes in favor of a battle pass and the ability to buy cosmetics directly. All skins and cosmetics earned in the original Overwatch will carry over into Overwatch 2.

Gamescom Opening Night Live will kick off the annual European gaming convention once again on August 23. The event will be hosted by Geoff Keighley, who has teased over 30 world-premiere announcements throughout the event.

Opening Night Live 2022 will be the first live in-person ONL presentation since 2019, following two years of online-only livestreams. Tickets are available for those attending Gamescom in Cologne, Germany at the event's official website.

Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022 start time

The Opening Night Live stream begins August 23 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET. The live stream, according to the above Tweet from Geoff Keighley, will showcase "30+ games" in a two-hour show. Previous ONLs have featured announcements during a half-hour pre-show as well, but a pre-show has yet to be confirmed for 2022. Opening Night Live will broadcast live in multiple countries in English, but subtitles will be available.

Over the past year, HexGaming has released a variety of customized PS5 controllers aimed at competitive gamers. I tested a couple of early models, and while they were good, it was hard to recommend spending close to $300 on a controller. The latest edition, the Rival Pro, somewhat remedies this issue, as the controllers start at $200. Granted, only the matte black color scheme is available for this price--others are quite a bit pricier. For instance, the "White Wave Red" model I tested is $290. In terms of feel and performance, the Rival Pro is just about as good as the Scuf Reflex Pro, our pick for the best PS5 Pro-style controller. The Rival Pro is a great PS5 controller for multiplayer games thanks to its mappable rear triggers and its improved grip. However, if you're up for the task, you're better off modding your own DualSense controller. In fact, you can make your own Rival Pro.

While it's not made apparent on the controller's Amazon page, HexGaming is owned by ExtremeRate, a controller components company that sells parts so players can mod their own controllers. As such, HexGaming PS5 controllers are modded DualSense gamepads that use parts that are available separately on Amazon, too.

Loot boxes in Overwatch will no longer be available for purchase following the conclusion of the game's Anniversary Remix Vol. 3 event on August 30, Blizzard has confirmed.

While players won't be able to purchase loot boxes directly after the aforementioned date, loot boxes can still be earned through leveling up and other in-game activities for the next few months, a Blizzard blog post states. All loot boxes in a player's inventory will automatically open prior to the launch of Overwatch 2 on October 4.

The news comes as part of the shooter's final Anniversary Remix event, which is now live. Like the two previous Anniversary Remix events, Vol. 3 brings a rotation of all the game's seasonal event brawls, exclusive recolors of various skins, and a return of formerly one-time event skins that can be earned by playing matches.

FFXIV's entire 6.X storyline will center around the thirteenth shard, as confirmed by Naoki Yoshida. Players have guessed as much since 6.1, Newfound Adventure, teased the appearance of a mysterious voidsent, but Yoshida's interview confirms that the 6.X arc will focus on what happened to the thirteenth shard, as well as the memories of feelings of those who were once human, but are now monsters.

The thirteenth shard is the first word the Ascians tried to rejoin, but unfortunately, through their efforts, everybody in that world became voidsents. Yoshida says in an Famitsu interview, with translation by Twitter user Audrey (@ aitaikimochi), "Patch 6.1 asks…'since we have already traversed to the world of the First, what would the other shards look like?" That's the starting point of the 6.X storyline.

Yoshida also adds that patch 7.0 is also in development simultaneously with patch 6.X, and depending on how 6.X shapes up to be, patch 7.0 could look very different. Players should expect to see some hints as to what 7.0 will contain in patch 6.5.

The Xbox Game Pass library is a massive catalog of content to dive into, but if you're feeling up to the challenge of only focusing on a single game and you're looking to devote dozens of hours to that soulmate of a title, then you can't go wrong with a good ol' open-world sandbox. You can find plenty of them in the Game Pass collection, but which ones are the best? That's tricky, as some people like to explore ancient cities, others prefer a more peaceful approach, and some people would rather break traffic laws with reckless (and wrecked) abandon. We've gathered up a list below of the best open-world games on Game Pass from across a wide variety of genres, studios, and publishers, which should help you pinpoint which game is best for your specific tastes. As a reminder, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $15 a month and offers access to Xbox-exclusive titles on day one in addition to many third-party games.

Iron Galaxy has relieved more information about its upcoming free-to-play game Rumbleverse. New modes such as duos and playgrounds will be available for players at launch.

Duos mode will play as it traditionally would in most battle royales, where teamwork and communication are crucial to winning. When players load into a duos match, they'll start with only eight slots for their stats and have reduced health. They also won't have access to the Superstar Comeback system. If their teammate gets eliminated, they'll receive additional health and another stat slot, and if you run out of health in duos, you won't get knocked out immediately.

When your teammate does run out of health, they'll be downed and in need of help. The first time your teammate falls, you'll have 30 seconds to pick them up, but the more they go down, the less time you'll have to get them.

In Playground Mode, you can play it solo or with a friend and thoroughly explore the city. There'll be training modules and robots, making it a potentially great way to improve your skills. If you do happen to get eliminated while playing to respawn, all you need to do is press the option button.

The option button will also give you access to the map, and the locations of all the Equip Up zones. You'll also be able to turn Combat Mode on and off by using the map screen in-game. Season One will begin on August 18. The Season One battle pass will feature 100 different rewards for players that can be unlocked by earning fame. The battle pass will feature accessories/accessory sets, title cards, emotes, and more. You'll need to buy 1,000 Brawl Bills to purchase the battle pass.

Rumbleverse is scheduled to come out on August 11 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

Indie games have reportedly been popping up without the proper permissions on GameStop's new NFT marketplace, and developers are not happy about it.

In a new Ars Technica report, it was alleged that Nathan Ello, who created the NiFTy Arcade collection with indie games like Worm Nom Nom, Galactic Wars, and Rogue Fleet, didn't seek out the original creators' nod for at least two of the games (Worm Nom Nom and Galactic Wars).

Ello said he attempted to only include open-source games approved for commercial use in his NFT collection, but he clearly did not do enough research. Worm Nom Nom's creative commons license is listed on its itch.io page, and its engine, PICO-8, also requires users to get the creator's agreement before any use occurs.

After facing pushback, Ello offered all of the NFT sales--a total of $55K as of July 15--to the original developers, and took down the NiFTy collection from GameStop's NFT marketplace. But developers said these actions come too little too late. "My work was sold for profit without my consent," Breakout Hero developer Kyrstian Majewski said. "Even if somebody wanted to return the money they made off my work, it would be in the form of some shitty Crypto anyway."

Ello can't mint on the GameStop NFT marketplace anymore until he addresses the permission issues, but there remains a glaring issue: NiFTy games can't be removed from the blockchain and can be sold in other marketplaces.

First-person shooter fans have plenty to pick from on Xbox Series X and Xbox One, especially if you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. A Game Pass Ultimate subscription unlocks some of the best modern first-person shooters in recent years, including multiple games from the Doom, Wolfenstein, and Battlefield franchises. Since the sheer number of options can be overwhelming on Game Pass, we decided to round up the best FPS games on Game Pass.

There are multiple subscription plans for Game Pass, but if you like first-person shooters, you should definitely get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, the $15 per month tier that gives you online multiplayer access as well as the PC, Xbox, and Cloud Gaming libraries.

The next "drop pod" update for Halo Infinite arrives August 9, and it will include a number of features fans have long asked for.

As detailed in a new 343 Industries blog post, the upcoming drop pod (which is 343's term for smaller, quality-of-life focused updates) will allow for unlocked visors to be used interchangeably between all of the game's armor cores. That will apply to all visors to be added to the game in the future as well.

In addition, some helmet attachments exclusive to specific Mark VII helmets will be able to be worn on multiple Mark VII helmets. 343 states that not all Mark VII helmet attachments are interchangeable because many were made specifically for certain helmets, but ones that happen to fit well on other helmets will now be usable. A full list of all the helmet and attachment combinations will come with the update's official patch notes closer to release.

The armor updates will come alongside the much-requested ability to view the game's multiplayer challenges mid-match from the pause screen. However, challenge progress when viewed from the pause screen will not update in real time, as Halo Infinite currently calculates challenges at the end of a match. 343 says it is working to make it so challenge progress will be displayed as it happens during a match, but that will come at a later date.

Back in 2018, the Belgium Gambling Commission found that loot boxes were a form of gambling and recommended criminal prosecution against developers and publishers who implement them in their games. However, a new study found that Belgium's ban is functionally not enforced.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, a study from loot box scholar Leon Y. Xiao found that the law has been unevenly and ineffectively implemented. The study claims that 82% of the highest-grossing iPhone titles in Belgium have loot box implementation. It goes on to claim that the ban gives parents and policymakers a "false sense of security." In addition, the study emphasizes that the technical measures undertaken to prevent loot box purchasing in Belgium are easily circumvented by savvy players. Xiao concludes with recommending a less strict, but more thoughtfully enforced, policy.

Belgian's policy did cause some broad changes in the country. After discussions with Belgian authorities, EA removed virtual currency from FIFA titles in the country. Nintendo ceased support for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes to prevent prosecution or regulation. However, Xiao's study argues that the ban allowed "non-compliant games to replace games that have been removed from the national market by more socially responsible companies."

NBA 2K23 is nearly here, and that means a fresh badge system is upon us. While we can't yet provide our complete NBA 2K23 badge tier list--we need to play the game for that--we do already know the complete list of new badges, as well as which ones have been removed or combined into preexisting badges in this year's game. NBA 2K23 introduces a drastically overhauled badge system, which splits the badges into tiers and allows for some additional badge slots for all players. The team at Visual Concepts has also consolidated or outright removed some badges based on telemetry data that helped pinpoint which badges were being used a lot and which ones weren't really being used much at all.

In this NBA 2K23 badge guide, we'll share the complete list of new badges, and note how some have changed as well as which will be absent when the game launches on September 8. In time, we'll update this guide to reflect the complete list of badges and sort them into tiers to help you build your own virtual athlete.

NBA 2K23 badge list

More than perhaps any other sports sim, the customizable MyPlayer system in NBA 2K is really the annual draw, more than MyTeam or season-long modes. With custom players come badges, which grant skills in different areas of a player's game, such as shooting and defense. This year's game--on new-gen versions only--reimagines the badge system you may be used to into a three-tier system, with Tier 1 badges costing the least but also providing the smallest boosts. From there, each tier gets more powerful and costly. Visual Concepts says the idea behind this new system "is that you’ll need to equip a certain number of badges in the lower tiers before you can equip badges in the highest."

Krafton Inc announced that it's working on an untitled project based on The Bird That Drinks Tears, a popular Korean fantasy novel. An official website for the untitled project has been launched to recruit talent to work on the upcoming game.

The website launched with concept art and details on the in-game lore to help illustrate the project's overall visual identity and tone. The Bird That Drinks Tears is a novel series by Yeong-do Lee and is one of the best-selling fantasy authors in Korea. Fans of the novel will recognize Krafton's interpretations of the four critical races in the book, which include Human, Rekkon, Tokebi, and Nhaga.

Krafton has also announced that artist Iain McCaig has been brought on to help bring the project to life. McCaig has worked on various films and franchises, such as Star Wars, The Avengers, Harry Potter, and Terminator. McCaig's work will be a visual direction for the upcoming untitled game.

For more Krafton news, be sure to check out these stories:

A bunch of Arcade1Up products are discounted today, including four countercades that are up to $100 off--which puts them at only $130 each. These smaller tabletop machines typically clock in well under 20lbs and are small enough to sit on your kitchen counter or living room table.

Arcade1Up has revealed a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 home arcade cabinet, and fans won't have to wait long to get their hands on it. Arcade1Up's Marvel vs. Capcom 2 cabinet releases this fall, and you can sign up now for notifications on preorders, which will be available starting September 8. An exact release date hasn't bee unveiled, but the cabinet will be available "a few weeks" after the preorder date.

While Arcade1Up has released cabinets themed around beloved classic fighting games in the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat series, as well as the first Marvel vs. Capcom, the upcoming cabinet is arguably the most exciting yet. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is widely praised as one of the best fighting games of all time, especially in the competitive fighting game scene.

Even though more than two decades have passed since its initial launch, people still play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 competitively. Though it won't be at this weekend's Evo 2022 tournament, it was a longtime fixture at the event, appearing in the lineup for nine straight years starting with Evo's inaugural tournament in 2002.

Capcom has released Guile's theme for Street Fighter 6, a brand-new track called Sharpened Sonic. Though it won't replace his world-famous theme from Street Fighter II, Guile's new music is no slouch in the audio department and is a proper banger that draws in elements from his previous themes. You can listen to it below.

This weekend is a big one for Street Fighter 6, as it'll be featured in a panel today at the Evo 2022 tournament. While Street Fighter V is one of the main titles of the annual fighting game event, Street Fighter 6 will also be on the tournament floor in a playable form for attendees. Fans are also expecting a new character to be revealed, who'll join the likes of Ryu, Luke, Chun-Li, and Guile.

If you're interested in viewing all the action from home, you can check out GameSpot's guide on how to watch Evo 2022. Even Mortal Kombat ko-kreator Ed Boon seems excited to see what Street Fighter 6 has to show off at Evo, as he confirmed that NetherRealm Studios won't be making any announcements regarding its gory fighting game.

Best Buy’s Anniversary Sales Event is now live, giving you a chance to cross items off your shopping list without breaking the bank. Video games, laptops, monitors, and tons of accessories are all included in the promotion. The event runs until August 14--so make sure you find time to check out the full selection of price cuts. If you need help wading through its hundreds of deals, we’ve highlighted some of our favorite deals below.

Valve is continuously making improvements and expanding ways in which players can play games on Steam, and with the latest update, it's now possible to use Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers on the beta client

Sharing the news on August 4 in a new community post, Valve announced that the Steam beta client will now allow players to input Nintendo Joy-Con controllers, both individually as a mini gamepad, as well as combined into pairs. This means players who are currently opted into the Steam beta client can use the latest features before they're released to the main Steam client.

Following the addition of Nintendo Online classic controllers on June 17, including Nintendo 64, NES, SNES, Sega Mega Drive, and Genesis controllers, Valve has added improved support for them as well. Although the update is small, it's great that Steam is expanding its controller support and introducing new ways to play.

In other news, Valve recently announced that everyone who currently has a reservation is now guaranteed to get their hands on a Steam Deck by the end of the year. The company confirmed that it had cleared up supply chain issues and some of those waiting for their handheld device has been moved to Q3, while all other reservations are now in Q4.

Before the weekend hits, we have one more Wordle guide to help you continue your streak into Saturday and Sunday. There's nothing better than starting the end of the week with a Wordle win, and we're here to make sure that happens. The answer on Aug. 5 shares a similar letter usage to the answer from yesterday, but the structures are completely different.

For this word, you'll want to use a solid starting word in addition to perhaps following our hints, which are listed below. I barely managed to skate by with this answer, simply because I had so few letters left by my fifth guess. This Wordle doesn't use a ton of letters, so players need to be prepared for a slog through their guessing. To make things easier, we laid out two hints further down in addition to providing the full answer as well.

Today's Wordle Answer - August 5, 2022

First things first, we'll provide a couple of hints to get players' minds on the right track in regards to their guesses. These hints won't give the answer away completely, but will help some players get the Wordle. If they don't, then players can read past the hints for the full answer.

Deathverse: Let It Die, the tongue-in-cheek survival multiplayer game, was previously a PlayStation exclusive. Now it's also coming to PC.

Deathverse: Let It Die takes place years after the events of its 2016 predecessor Let It Die. As described in its 2021 State of Play trailer, players in Deathverse: Let It Die are set up in survival matches against other players in a reality TV setting.

Players get a Wilson device, a weapon that comes in a variety of forms from katanas to what looks like a scissor-saw combination. The Wilson can also become a protective drone, serve as a skill activator, and shoot electric bullets. Upgrading the Wilson will lead to unlocking a variety of other weapon forms, but as of now, the process is a secret.

Your battles will be narrated by Bryan Zemeckis, a charismatic presenter with a mouthful of gold teeth and lots of gold elsewhere, and Brenda Miller--a former champion who now has switched to commentating.

There's also a third party in survival rounds--a mysterious gunman called Hunters who assassinates contestants. For fun? For money? For the ratings? Who knows?

Deathverse: Let it Die had its first two days of open beta in May and June. On August 3 at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET, Supertrick and Uncle Death (Let it Die's mascot-esque character) will hold a gameplay livestream and share more info about details learned from the beta period.

Deathverse: Let it Die will release on PC and PlayStation sometime in 2022. The full game originally had a Spring 2022 release window, but now that we're entering Summer, it's unknown what the game's new release period will be.

Thanks to a new software development kit, Xbox Series S developers will now be able to create games that use more memory than ever before. The recent upgrade was implemented with the intention of giving developers more control over performance on the next-gen console.

As The Verge reported, this update is specifically for optimizing the Series S, which has lower memory and graphical power than the more expensive Series X. While the Series X has access to 16 GB of RAM, its smaller cousin has around 10 GB. Developers are further constrained to 8 GB, because around 2 GB of that total is used for the operating system. The recently released June Game Development Kit frees up hundreds of additional megabytes of memory. In a video explaining the update, this additional memory "can improve graphics performance in memory constrained conditions."

As pointed out by the Verge, developers told YouTube hardware experts Digital Foundry that memory constraints were a particular problem in developing and optimizing for the Series S. The previously-mentioned video also states that many of the changes in the June Game Development Kit were the direct result of developer feedback.

This update comes alongside several changes to Xbox development tools and resources. The other significant change is improved performance for graphics allocation, allowing developers to use memory more efficiency without taking a graphics performance hit.

In NBA 2K23, the court is bigger than just the three-point arc. That should be obvious, but with last year's game, Visual Concepts admitted shooters had too much of an advantage. Talented shooters made shots consistently and with less-than-lifelike effort, while even lesser-skilled players could drain long jumpers and three-pointers if they only got an open look. Among a host of other gameplay changes in NBA 2K23, the focus in this fall's game is about bringing balance back to the offensive game, and empowering players to work in the paint and attack the rim.

"We looked at how virtual games were playing out compared to the real-life NBA," said NBA 2K gameplay director Mike Wang. "And it was clear that we needed to give more love to slashers who love to finish at the rim. This meant expanding the tools for attacking the basket." With that in mind, NBA 2K23 starts with an improved Pro Stick, meant to give players more maneuverability in the paint.

New gesture combos, such as double throws and switchbacks, are meant to provide shooting windows in tight quarters, when the defense is bearing down on you. Double-throw gestures are used for hop-step layups, while switchback gestures are used for Euro-step and cradle layups.

The 2K team is also very excited about a new physics-driven rim-hanging mechanic, allowing you to get ultra-flashy at the end of a dunk. You might think this is more like celebrating than actually playing, and you'd be right, but it further suggests the game's guiding light is to inspire paint beasts to reclaim their territory.

When you're hanging on the rim, the left and right controller sticks correspond to a hand, giving you a way of freestyling after a score. The 2K team said it's been working on this tech for a few years now, and everyone is elated to get it out there with 2K23.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a massive JRPG, filled with different systems, resources, and classes. While the game does offer tutorials for most of its systems, sometimes it can be overwhelming or certain bits of information are left out. In order to get the most out of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, it's important to know which systems to engage with which ones you can gloss over. Here are some tips to help you through Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

Classes and equipment

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 asks you to manage six main party members, along with a seventh hero character. There are six interlinked skill trees to manage, along with accessories and gems for each character. Here are some tips to help make these menus a bit more manageable.

First, make sure you are constantly switching classes once they are maxed out. A major system in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is that you can change each party member's classes and that each character has a number of Art slots reserved for moves outside of their current class. In order to equip these arts, you need to "Master" the arts by using the other class. On this same note, you should pay attention to the letter grades for each class. This tells you how each class fairs in the four slots, Attacker, Defender, Healer, and Tactics. This information will allow you to balance out your party a bit more than just selecting two of each class.

As for all of the options in each character's menu, you will need to manually set each character's Arts and Master Skills, although when each slot is unlocked it will be autofilled. As for accessories and Gems, pressing the Y button will auto-build each character. This will apply gems and accessories that make sense for the character's class. It won't be the perfectly optimized build you can make yourself, but it will certainly get the job done.

Destiny 2's Iron Banner PvP event swapped the Control mode for Rift during Season of the Haunted, but for Season 18, it'll be getting more chaotic with the new Eruption mode. Eruption tasks players with earning kill streaks, with each new elimination providing significant power-ups as a match goes on.

Bungie describes Eruption as "Clash with energy boosts based on kill streaks" that starts out with regular team deathmatch rules. One kill earns you one point, but two kills in a row will apply the "Surging" buff to your Guardian. With this effect active, players will begin to glow and each new kill in their streak will generate 10% Super energy and 20% grenade, melee, and class energy. They'll also earn three points per elimination, and on the fifth kill, will become "Primed."

Once Primed, everyone on your team will gain 5% Super and 10% grenade, melee, and class energy, while you'll gain 12% Super and 5% grenade, melee, and class energy per kill, and three points per kill. The catch here is that you'll have a 15-second timer applied which will cause you to "erupt" once it reaches zero, resetting your streak and ending the perks for your teammates. And also killing you. For the opposing team, you'll be visible to them on the map and they'll gain three points each time they eliminate you.

The original Jetpack Joyride released in 2011 and was a huge mobile hit for developer Halfbrick, who was already enjoying a great deal of success with 2010's Fruit Ninja. The game was ported to many platforms, including PlayStation consoles, and was still receiving updates as recently as a month ago. Even for hits, sequels are not inevitable in the world of mobile games, as most of them are treated as ongoing platforms, but more than a year ago, Halfbrick surprise announced Jetpack Joyride 2… and then it disappeared.

Despite having an announcement trailer and official channels sharing details about the game, Jetpack Joyride 2 went dark shortly after announcement. It turns out the reason was Halfbrick was working out details with Apple to make it an Apple Arcade game. “We started creating this game a long time ago. I think it was in 2020. And we soft-launched the game in three or four countries just for initial testing purposes, but when we started the conversations with Apple Arcade we felt the better platform to develop this game was the Apple Arcade platform," product manager and lead game designer Francisco Gonzalez told us shortly after Apple announced the game was coming to its subscription platform. "That way we could really make the game that we wanted to create. We focused on making the game fun and forgot for a while about the business model and IAPs [in-app purchases].”

Overwatch 2 will not receive a third beta prior to the game's launch, Blizzard has confirmed.

The news comes via tweets from Overwatch commercial leader Jon Spector. Instead of running another beta, the team will be using feedback received from the game's alpha and two public beta tests to focus on "launching the best game possible on Oct. 4," Spector writes.

Players could sign up for a chance to play in Overwatch 2's two beta periods (or preorder the game's Watchpoint Pack for instant beta access), but it was only for the last few days of the game's most recent beta period when all players who signed up were granted access.

If you’ve been holding out on purchasing Far Cry 6, your patience has paid off. From now until August 7 you can check out the open-world shooter for free on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. You’ll have access to the entire base game along with every bit of free DLC Ubisoft has released since launch. The game is also on sale for the next few days, letting you save 60% if you decide to pick it up after the free-play days.

Far Cry 6 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, giving you a tyrannical enemy to battle against in the form of dictator Anton Castillo (played by Giancarlo Esposito). In order to end his reign, you’ll need to trek across the unforgiving island of Yara, reclaiming hostile encampments along the way. The game looks impressive on new-gen platforms and high-end PCs, but the action is just as free-form and chaotic as usual. Whether you want to sneak up on foes or sprint into the line of fire with overpowered weapons, Far Cry 6 won't hold you back.

While the free-play days only run until August 7, most of the Far Cry 6 discounts stick around much longer. Here’s a closer look at the current sales for Far Cry 6:

Microsoft has begun testing an Xbox Game Pass family plan in two countries, which will allow users to share their subscription with other people. Available in Colombia and Ireland, subscribers can add up to four people in their country to their membership.

"Starting today in Colombia and Ireland, Xbox Insiders can begin to preview a plan that allows multiple people to share Game Pass Ultimate benefits," Microsoft's Tyler Mittleider wrote on Xbox Wire. "This makes it even easier to play the best Game Pass games with friends and family across console, PC, and cloud by enabling you to add up to four people to your subscription, all with their own unique access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate games, content, and benefits."

Rumors of an Xbox Game Pass family plan surfaced earlier this year, and this test will determine how the service can be applied to a wider range of users. Colombian and Irish testers will need to sign up for an Xbox Insider preview account to take part, and existing time on a subscription will be converted to a new plan based upon the monetary value of the old membership. "For example, a full month of Ultimate will be converted to 18 days of membership for this plan," Mittleider explained.

A $20,000 Halo 2 challenge issued by streamer and YouTuber MoistCr1tikal has finally been completed, with streamer Jervalin claiming the bounty.

Earlier this summer, MoistCr1tikal offered $5,000 to anyone who could conquer what he called "the hardest challenge in all of gaming." That challenge? Complete Halo 2 solo, on legendary difficulty, with all of the game's difficulty-adding skulls turned on, without dying a single time. Though the feat surely has been accomplished by someone, somewhere, since the game's 2004 launch, there is no video record of it having ever been done, which is why MoistCr1tikal's challenge also stipulated the entire ordeal needed to be streamed live on YouTube or Twitch to qualify. When nobody stepped up to the plate for three weeks, MoistCr1tikal raised the bounty up to $20,000 for the first person to accomplish the deed.

A trailer for a brand-new Crypt of the Necrodancer DLC also unveiled an upcoming standalone game in the series: Rift of the Necrodancer.

The trailer showed off a logo and promised more news soon. Other details of the game are still upcoming, though the trailer confirmed that Rift of the Necrodancer is a new standalone rhythm game.

The DLC, Crypt of the Necrodancer: Synchrony, adds three new characters, multiplayer, and mod support to the beloved musical roguelite. It's also out now on Steam on Early Access. The new characters are Klarinetta, a knight wielding a massive Zweihänder, Chaunter, a ghostly being who can possess enemies, and Suzu, an oni with a quick dash and a powerful lance.

Multiplayer adds both cooperative and competitive modes for up to eight players simultaneously, with up to four local players. The game uses rollback multiplayer architecture and lets you join and create lobbies. You can even spectate matches. Modes include a straightforward versus mode, last one dancing, and co-op play.

The update also adds new items, enemies, and weapons. You can now carry a shield, deal damage with Onyx weapons, throw any weapon with a throwing charm, and use dash and charm spells, among many other new additions. Synchrony introduces full mod support, including a mod portal which allow you to install and browse mods in game.

Among Us VR's beta test signups are now live, according to an announcement on the game's Twitter account.

The signup process is pretty straightforward. The short survey asks if you have a VR headset, which one, and where you typically buy VR games. Note that filling out the application doesn't automatically guarantee a spot in the beta test.

It's currently unknown when applicants will be notified and how long this beta period will last.

Back in March, Among Us had a collaboration with Owlchemy Lab's Cosmonious High--a VR game set in an alien high school. It was up to the player to find an Among Us crewmate in the world of Cosmonious High.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a radically updated version of the iconic tactical RPG. It’s slated to launch on November 11 for PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC and will bring some big changes with it--such as voiced cutscenes, new graphics, and a reworked soundtrack. A few different editions are now available for preorder, and longtime fans might want to consider picking up the Digital Premium edition available on PlayStation and PC.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn Preorder Bonuses

Preorder the standard digital edition and you’ll get three songs from the Tactics Ogre: Reborn Original Soundtrack, recorded live and composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto. Preorder the Digital Premium edition and you’ll get the original Tactics Ogre (1995) Digital Mini Soundtrack.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a sweeping remake of the 2011 PSP game Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Of course, Let Us Cling Together was a remake of the 1995 classic that released on SNES. Beyond new graphics and sound, you’ll be treated to “updated game design” that speeds up the pace of battle, auto-saves, overhauledl UI. In other words, it’s modernizing a classic while keeping the core experience intact.

Sea of Thieves Season 7 is here, and with it comes one of the game's biggest updates since launch. The Season 7 update is headlined by its captaincy features, which create more ways to role-play as a legendary pirate, including the naming of your ship, custom ship loadouts that persist across playthroughs, brand-new Captain's Voyages, and a lot more. Here we'll be breaking it all down piece by piece so you know what's in store next time you awaken at an outpost. Unsheath your cutlass and top off your tankard, here's everything you'll find in Sea of Thieves Season 7.

Sea of Thieves Season 7 features

The marquee new addition is the ability to purchase your very own Captain's ship. Whereas previously you'd load onto a ship the size of your choosing and customize it with your available cosmetics, now you have the option to exchange gold coins for your very own ship that you can then give a name and custom cosmetic loadout to. This then opens up a wealth of other new gameplay features.

A Captain's ship comes in the three usual sizes, and each has its own associated price tag:

• Captain's sloop - 250,000 gold coins
• Captain's brigantine - 375,000 gold coins
• Captain's galleon - 500,000 gold coins

You need only purchase the ship or ships you'd like to add to your character, and you need only purchase each ship once at most. Do note, however, that while your first time naming the ship is free, if you ever wish to change its name, you'll need to purchase a Ship Renaming Deed, much like a Pirate Appearance Potion, using the game's real-money currency, Ancient Coins. A Renaming Deed sells for about $5.

Fanatical is offering up a new bundle for August, letting you score seven games for just $20. You’ll choose from a roster of 16, which includes a combination of classic indies and AAA powerhouses. Two other tiers are available for the bundle--but opting for the seven-game pack means each game costs just $2.86.

If you don’t need seven games, you can pick up five for $15 or three for $10. The Platinum Collection is loaded with great titles (all offered as Steam keys), so unless you’ve already added most of them to your collection, it shouldn’t be hard to find seven good games. Also included with your purchase is a 5% off voucher for your next order through Fanatical.

Warner Bros. Games has released a good chunk of gameplay for its upcoming game Gotham Knights, with IGN debuting the first 16 minutes of the action RPG. While players will be able to choose between four of Batman's protégés including Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin, the video puts Batgirl in the spotlight.

The investigation scene featured in IGN's video functions as a kind of tutorial level, taking the player through the basic mechanics and scenarios that will crop up later in the game. While the video shows off the first 16 minutes of actual gameplay, it skips over a narrative-centric prologue that Warner Bros. is choosing to keep secret for now.

In an accompanying article on IGN, Gotham Knights creative director Patrick Redding explains that the game won't force players to start out as underpowered weaklings, as may be traditional in the RPG genre. Each of the playable characters are "effectively graduates of the Batman School of Crime Fighting," Redding explains, meaning they won't have any problem taking down your average thug.

On July 21, EA published an update to The Sims 4's policy regarding modding and content creation. While the post stated that EA understands mods are an "important part" of the player experience and outlined how players can re-enable mods following them being automatically disabled after The Sims 4's newest update, it also established a new set of rules for content creators and modders--and not everyone is happy about them.

Per EA's new guidelines, The Sims 4 custom content creators are no longer allowed to promote mods "in a way that suggests they are endorsed by or affiliated with The Sims, Maxis, or Electronic Arts." As such, creators are prohibited from using "any game logos or trademarks, including versions of the plumbob, or key art designs" to promote their creations.

While this might be an inconvenience for modders, the second set of terms is proving far more controversial. According to the post, all content created by modders must now be distributed to the public free-of-charge. Mods can no longer be "sold, licensed, or rented for a fee," nor can they contain features that support "monetary transactions of any type." EA added that creators are free to "recoup their development costs" by running ads on their websites to generate revenue and donations--just so long as whatever in-game content they create is not behind a paywall.

Shortly after the announcement was made, content creators began to speculate on whether this would impact the community's popular early access pay model, in which creators offer mods and custom content on sites such as Patreon to paying subscribers for a set period of time before opening them up for public access. Earlier today, Twitter user MarlynSims96 shared a conversation they had with a member of EA's support staff indicating this was the case.