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A rumored Harry Potter game is said to be planned for a formal reveal sometime after August this year, even as the developers look to distance themselves from the property's controversial creator.

Bloomberg reports that the project is in development at Avalanche Software, known for its work on Disney Infinity before becoming acquired by WB. The game is planned for release in 2021 on multiple platforms, including PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. You can play as a wizard and roam around the grounds of an open-world Hogwarts and other iconic locales from the popular series.

Sources within the studio also said that some developers were made uncomfortable by the game's association to JK Rowling, given recent comments criticized as transphobic. Those caught enough attention to prompt a response from actor Daniel Radcliffe and Universal Parks, but the studio management reportedly hasn't addressed them widely with team members. Rowling herself is said to have very little direct involvement with the game.

It's become commonplace for GameStop to have great flash sales on pre-owned games. Pretty much every week, we see a new limited-time promotion that lets you bargain hunt for PS4 and Xbox One games. Through tomorrow, June 30, pre-owned PS4 and Xbox One games priced $15 or less are buy two, get two free, which means you can snag four games for under $30.

This month marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of PlayStation Plus on PS3, ushering in paid multiplayer services and monthly downloadable games for subscribers. To celebrate, July 2020's offerings are as strong as last month, with NBA 2K20 and Rise of the Tomb Raider headlining.

Rise of the Tomb Raider initially launched as a timed-exclusive on Xbox One, but came to PS4 a year afterward as the 20th Anniversary Celebration with additional content. It's the second in Crystal Dynamic's reboot trilogy, picking up with Lara Croft as she becomes more comfortable with her tomb-raiding adventures. Taking place in a snowy Siberia, the game manages to still look striking today, and is fondly remembered as the strongest of the three in the series.

In our 8/10 Rise of the Tomb Raider review, critic Mike Mahardy wrote, "Even now, playing through it one year after I originally beat it, it's hard to put down. The Siberian wilderness is just as detailed and gorgeous as it is on Xbox One, and I didn't notice many differences in the character nuances, either."

Week 5 of GameSpot Play For All is upon us! The summer gaming celebration has spent the last month bringing you exclusive interviews and charity livestreams to benefit Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 relief efforts. We're heading into July this week, but we're not slowing down.

This week GameSpot is going to get by with a little help from our friends, so the schedule is packed with charity streams featuring guests from around the games industry. We'll be teaming up with Kinda Funny, What's Good Games, Mary Kish, Super Eyepatch Wolf, and People Make Games.

As always those streams will be complemented with developer interviews and exclusive gameplay footage. And of course, we'll be on-deck to chat about any big industry news that comes along as studios announce summer surprises.

Iron Man VR is due to release on July 3, following a brief delay, and as that date approaches we've learned more about what to expect. Director Ryan Payton, who led work on the game at Camouflaj, has delved into the game on the PlayStation Blog, revealing some new details.

Payton shows off some of the game's locations, which are a mix of real-world locales and Marvel hotspots. The S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, for instance, can be explored at length, as well as a decommissioned Stark Facility. You can also fly around Shanghai, dodging between buildings. You can also visit Tony's armory in VR, investigating the Iron Man suit from outside of it.

Various combat and movement abilities are outlined, including the speed boost for faster movement, the rocket punch for melee damage, and the Unibeam, which charges up and can do huge damage. Iron Man can also do a ground pound, which is always a fun video game mechanic.

Payton says that Iron Man VR is a "deeply meaningful Tony Stark story," and that the game is longer than they initially planned for. "We initially thought the campaign would span 4-5 hours, but based on recent playtest data, we’re pleasantly surprised that average playtimes are now roughly double that," he says.

Several other Marvel characters will appear, including Nick Fury, Pepper Potts, Friday, and "a host of other characters we have yet to reveal," Payton writes.

Iron Man is not the only major Marvel hero with a PlayStation game to look forward to in 2020--Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is also coming to PS5.

The World Ends With You is getting an anime adaptation, which will bring the game's style to animation. Not much has been unveiled about the anime yet, but that's set to change very soon.

A website for The World Ends With You anime is currently counting down to a reveal, which will take place as part of Anime Expo Lite. The event will run as a free livestream across July 3 and 4. The reveal will happen on July 3 at 6 PM PT.

The game's official Twitter account is currently counting down, too. Further details have not been revealed, though, so we're going to have to wait to find out anything about this anime, including whether it will be a series or a movie.

The game, which was beloved on DS and fairly well-received on Switch, is an RPG with fantasy elements set in Shibuya with touch screen combat elements. It's unclear as of yet what the anime will entail, or whether it will adapt the same story as the game.

Check back with GameSpot next week for more details on The World Ends With You anime.

Tales of Monkey Island, the episodic Monkey Island series from Telltale Games, has been unavailable since the developer and publisher closed, along with many other Telltale series. But now, the game has returned to digital storefronts, and it's currently discounted by 50% until July 10.

The game is available again on both Steam and GOG, and is currently discounted from $20 to $10. This is the complete collection, so it contains all five episodes, originally released in 2009. The game was released on the Wii and PS3 as well, along with mobile. For now, it only seems to be available on PC.

The developer is listed as LCG Entertainment, and the publisher as Athlon Games. LCG Entertainment handles the parts of Telltale's back catalog that have been re-released.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps released early this year on Xbox One and PC via Xbox Game Pass, and has since been played by 2 million people. The game is a sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, which was released for Switch in 2019 despite being published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Switch port of the first game was well-received, and a member of developer Moon Studios has now opened up about whether the sequel is likely to receive similar treatment.

In a Reddit AMA, developer Moon Studios lead engineer Gennadiy Korol answered a question about the sequel coming to Switch. He says that while the team "loves" Nintendo's console, they are not currently working on a port. "Right now we don't have anything to share when it comes to Ori and the Will of the Wisps port," he says. "If it were to ever happen though I can tell you that it would be (an) extremely difficult port to make run at 60fps."

Ori and the Will of the Wisps faced frame rate difficulties on Xbox One, and a Switch port would likely prove difficult.

The Xbox Series X is Microsoft's most powerful console ever. Developers large and small are supporting the system with new games that take advantage of the increased horsepower, and this includes developer Out of the Blue which is releasing Call of the Sea on Series X later this year.

Programmer Manuel Fernandez recently spoke about how Call of the Sea is optimized for the Xbox Series X. Starting off, Fernandez told Xbox Wire that a non-hardware element of the Series X is worth speaking about--Smart Delivery. People who buy Call of the Sea on Xbox One can get the Series X edition at no extra charge, and their save game and progress will move between the systems.

"We love being part of this new norm as the generation shifts," Fernandez said. "Sharing settings and games between different systems. That makes you design the game thinking as a whole and not as something that is tied to a single platform."

Of all the games shown off during the PlayStation 5 reveal event, the one that has stuck in a lot of people's heads is Bugsnax--not just because of its cute aesthetic or interesting-looking gameplay, but because of its theme song. Aside from all the critters shown off, the trailer's most prominent bug was an earworm.

The game, which is also coming to PS4 and PC and is developed by Young Horses (Octodad: Dadliest Catch), enlisted indie band Kero Kero Bonito to compose the song. In a new post on the PlayStation Blog, song-writer Gus Lobban has talked about how the catchy tune was written.

The song, which is called It's Bugsnax!, was recorded from home, and Lobban says that the starting point was "the D-Am chords the song rests on". There's a lot of technical discussion in this post, by Lobban also digs into the themes and mood he was going for. "The I-Vm chord change and the Mixolydian mode it implies conjure a 'lost world' atmosphere to me," he says. "Positive, but with a definite note (pun intended) of mystical intrigue, much like Bugsnax itself."

NBA Jam remains one of the most beloved basketball game of all time, 27 years after its initial arcade release. If you were on one side of the Chicago Bulls/Detroit Pistons rivalry of the 90s, though, the game perhaps has endured slightly less well in your memory, because you know in your heart that you were robbed.

As it turns out, you actually might have been. In a new video from Ars Technica about the success of NBA Jam, lead designer Mark Turmell has reflected on the rivalry between the Chicago and Detroit teams during Michael Jordan's iconic 90s run with the Bulls--and admitted that his internal bias worked its way into the game.

In the video below, around the 19:40 mark, Turmell admits that he was a big Pistons fan, having grown up in Michigan, and that he snuck some code into the game to "get back" at the Chicago Bulls and their fans.

It's been widely reported that Microsoft is planning to release a second next-generation Xbox that is less powerful and lacks a physical media drive. Now, another report says that's not entirely true.

The Verge's Tom Warren, who is known for accurately reporting on unannounced Microsoft products, has stated that the CPU for the less-expensive next-gen Xbox is "the same speed as the Series X." The console will have a different GPU frequency and CU count, however, Warren reported.

The second next-generation Xbox, rumored to be called the Xbox Series S, will have 7.5 GB of usable RAM, according Warren, and this is less than the Series X. Warren went on to say that this second console will target a resolution of up to 1440p, compared to 4K for the Xbox Series X.

In The Last of Us Part II, guitars are used as a symbolic tool to show the bond between Joel and Ellie, with several songs popping up in cutscenes. Guitars even appear as playable objects, and it's possible for experienced musicians to recreate songs on Ellie's in-game guitar. But one thing has remained unclear--how is Joel able to perform a song in-game that would have never been released in his world because of the outbreak?

In an early cutscene, Joel performs a cover of Pearl Jam's Future Days, which appeared on the album Lightning Bolt. This album released on October 15, 2013--several weeks after September 26, 2013, which is Outbreak Day in the world of The Last of Us Part II. So how did Joel know a song that never got released?

According to director Neil Druckmann, it's simple--the song was performed live at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois on July 19, and Joel saw a video of it on YouTube.

The final instalment in Microsoft's Halo Infinite behind-the-scenes series of videos about the game's audio and sound has been released, and it's a delight.

The video shows off a cute little pug named Buddy whose owner is a program manager at developer 343 Industries. The very good boy came into the studio where he chomped down on snacks and scruffed around, all of which was captured for sounds to be used in the next-gen Halo game.

Xbox marketing director Aaron Greenberg has responded to a recent internet discussion around the possibility of Fable 4 and a new Perfect Dark game. Greenberg said on Twitter that he understands people are "hungry for news" in the lead-up to the Xbox Series X first-party games showcase in July, but he acknowledged that you shouldn't get too excited for those unannounced games.

Newly discovered placeholder Twitter accounts for "Fable" and "Perfect Dark Game" are not what they seem to be, Greenberg said. He pointed out that these accounts have been inactive "for years." The executive also mentioned that it's standard operating procedure for Microsoft to register social accounts for its franchises, even if the company has no plans for announcements around them.

The Perfect Dark account was created by a fan. Xbox veteran Ken Lobb, whose name is the inspiration for the Klobb weapon in GoldenEye, followed the account, which led people to believe it might be the genuine article. However, it's only a fan account. The owner said they would give it up to Microsoft if they asked, but that doesn't appear to have happened yet.

The Last of Us Part II is a huge sales success, but developer Naughty Dog won't follow it up with any DLC. Writer-director Neil Druckmann told Kinda Funny that The Last of Us Part II won't have any story DLC. The 2013 original game had story DLC in the very well received Left Behind, which was part of the game's Season Pass, but there are "no plans" for anything similar for the sequel.

"No, with Last of Us I think we had some Season Pass or something that said ahead of time we have some story DLC--no there's no plans for that [with The Last of Us Part II]," Druckmann said.

While The Last of Us Part II seemingly won't have any story DLC, Naughty Dog will expand the game with a multiplayer mode of some kind in the future. Naughty Dog has said the game will get a separate online experience down the road through some kind of standalone title.

Oh yeah, Mario time? Not quite yet, as according to a new report, Universal Studios Japan has delayed the opening of its Super Nintendo World area because of COVID-19 concerns. This is despite the section of the park being almost completely finished, but fans will have to wait to collect coins and race around the Mushroom Kingdom.

According to the Business Times, an official announcement will come this week and the plan is still for the area to open before the end of 2020. The park is based in Osaka, and Nintendo is hoping to have it open before the Tokyo Olympics begin. These were also delayed from Summer 2020 to 2021 well before Nintendo's reported delay.

Universal Studios Japan's Nintendo park is not the only one being built. There will also be areas built at Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood, though they may not have the exact same attractions. Mario Kart and Yoshi rides appear to be part of the attractions, and there are also spinning coins that you can "collect" with a magnetic bracelet. There will likely be some sort of interaction with your Nintendo Switch console after collecting these coins, as well, but it hasn't been detailed yet.

It was the biggest match of Leaf's Super Smash Bros. career, and her Lucas was one of the best in the game. All that stood in her way on the path to the tournament crown was a nasty Ridley player in a two-stock match. Leaf quickly dispatched Ridley's first life by luring them to the map's edge. But, immediately after respawning, Ridley knocked Lucas off the stage in a bold attempt to even the odds. Ridley then rushed forward to try and spike Lucas into oblivion, but whiffed the killing blow. Leaf quickly readjusted Lucas and gave Ridley a spike of their own, sealing the first-place finish.

Leaf, who prefers to go by her in-game tag, claimed victory in the Smash tournament, but she didn't actually play in the match--her Amiibo did. Leaf is an Amiibo trainer: she "trains" an AI-controlled fighter, Lucas in this case, by playing against it in matches. But when Lucas competes in tournaments, it does so all on its own. Leaf can only watch and hope she's prepared her Amiibo enough ahead of time whenever it goes to battle in the small, weird world of competitive Amiibo fighting.

In our first hands-on preview of Cyberpunk 2077, Tamoor Hussain lamented the relative lack of humanity he witnessed in the game's main questline as he played through the opening hours as a street kid. After all, in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the most impactful stories were often the smaller, more intimate ones. He eventually found a glimpse of that in a sidequest involving two monk brothers and their vow of non-violence, which complicated a rescue mission with grey decisions.

With the benefit of this knowledge and my own Cyberpunk 2077 demo to play, I went in with the express purpose of trying to find more of those glimpses. Above and beyond CD Projekt Red's proven ability to create complex, humane storytelling, the cyberpunk genre itself is attractive because of its portrayal of its people and communities in an extreme future. As David Rayfield wrote back in 2018 (around the time when CD Projekt began to tease Cyberpunk's resurfacing after a long silence), cyberpunk media draws us in with its cool-as-hell aesthetic, but the best cyberpunk stories "reveal to us modern society's worst tendencies and offenders."

And so I went into the opening hours of Cyberpunk 2077 with these questions in my head: How does 2077 use and play with cyberpunk conventions? What stories does 2077 want to tell outside its grandiose main questline? Does 2077 actually feel like a cyberpunk world beyond its flashy tech and neon-soaked Asian-inspired aesthetic? The results were... a little mixed.

Several years ago, Dead Island and Dying Light developer Techland announced the first-person fantasy combat game Hellraid. It was set to be a violent and brutal action game and even received a puzzle spinoff title for mobile, but it was ultimately shelved as Techland moved forward with Dying Light 2. However, it will live on as DLC for Dying Light, and you'll be able to play the new content next month.

Out July 23 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, Dying Light: Hellraid is accessed through an eerie arcade machine within the Tower in Dying Light. You're sent directly to Hell after using the machine and can battle against demons using axes, hammers, and swords. The DLC has its own Hellraid rank as well as bounties that you can complete for additional rewards.

As with the main game, you can play Dying Light: Hellraid either cooperatively or solo. Up to four players can slaughter demons together.

The Metal Slug series has been missing in action for more than a decade, with ports and re-releases the only mainline games fans of SNK's run-and-gun franchise have had to get excited about. That's changing soon, however, as SNK and developer Timi Studios are currently working on a new entry for mobile devices. Somewhat surprisingly, the game actually looks like it could stick to what make the classic Metal Slug games so popular.

Metal Slug Code: J, which is only a working title for the game, is a sidescrolling shooter like the rest of the series, and it has virtual buttons on the screen as well as an analog stick to handle shooting, aiming, and movement, along with other actions. In a game as frantic as Metal Slug, it remains to be seen if this will be effective, but the art style and music both appear to be spot-on for the series.

Vehicles are also available, giving extra firepower and armor when you come across one in a level, and this will be necessary for dealing with some of the game's more powerful bosses.

Following an internal corporate investigation, Ubisoft has suspended vice presidents Tommy François and Maxime Béland--the two were responsible for overseeing worldwide development of the studio's games. According to Bloomberg, both men face at least three claims of misconduct.

In a statement to GameSpot, a Ubisoft spokesperson wrote, "These [men] are under investigation so we are not commenting further at this time."

Ubisoft has come under scrutiny in the past week, following a string of victims coming forward to report misconduct at the hands of the studio's employees. Ubisoft product and brand marketing manager Andrien Gbinigie was accused of sexual assault earlier this week on June 22, which Gbinigie denied in a now-removed Medium post. This was followed by Assassin's Creed Valhalla creative director Ashraf Ismail leaving Ubisoft on June 24 in the wake of accusations of infidelity.

The Isle of Armor--the setting of Pokemon Sword and Shield's first expansion--is home to more than 100 returning Pokemon not found in mainland Galar. When you first arrive, you'll be given a separate, island-specific Pokedex with which to catalog all of the newly added monsters, and some nice rewards await if you can catch 'em all. Here's what you get for completing the Pokedex. Isle of Armor spoilers follow.

Isle Of Armor Pokedex Rewards

After you catalog all 210 Pokemon in the Isle of Armor Pokedex, you'll need to return to the Armor Station in the Fields of Honor and speak with the scientist who first gave it to you. Show her the completed Pokedex and you'll receive a certificate commemorating your achievement, along with a couple of neat rewards.

First is the Mark Charm, a brand-new item that increases the likelihood that you'll encounter marked Pokemon. These marks are displayed alongside Ribbons on the Pokemon's summary screen and give that monster a special title when you send it out into battle. On top of that, you'll receive the Replica Gold Crown, which your trainer will be able to wear in place of a hat. You can take a look at the rewards below.

Square Enix will announce multiple games individually throughout July and August in lieu of having a press conference, Gematsu reports. During a shareholder meeting it was asked how the company would announce new video games since it did not have an E3 press conference due to the entire event being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Square Enix responded that it would be announcing games (plural) "individually as the timing permits."

The company followed up saying that several will debut around July to August, but nothing more specific was said. Square Enix recently announced Project Athia at the PS5 reveal event, a new action-adventure game designed exclusively for PS5.

Its most recent release was Final Fantasy VII Remake. GameSpot awarded it a 10/10 in our Final Fantasy VII Remake review, with critic Tamoor Hussain writing, "Final Fantasy VII Remake's narrative and characterization achievements are facilitated by gameplay that feels modern but is crystallized around the classic's role-playing fundamentals. In many ways, its gameplay model feels like the culmination of the franchise's evolutions, with ideas from throughout the series brought together in a composite that is fresh but familiar. This is the first time that the action-focused style of modern-era Final Fantasy games doesn't feel like it comes at the expense of the methodical nature of the series' roots."

French indie studio Focus Home Interactive has announced the acquisition of Deck13 Interactive, the studio behind Soulslikes such as Lords of the Fallen and The Surge franchise.

Deck13 is the first studio Focus Home has bought, according to a recent financial report. "Focus Home Interactive has acquired 100% of Deck13 Interactive's share capital shares for a total price of €7.1 million [$8 million] (of which €6.5 million [$7.2 million] in cash from the new bank financing and €0.6 million [or $673,000] in shares held in treasury) and a long-term incentive plan for the managers," the report said. "Deck13 Interactive is a leading German game development studio and long-time partner of Focus Home Interactive."

The Last of Us Part II is now out and it contains plenty of callbacks to the first game and references to other pieces of pop culture. In the following article, we're going to focus on that latter group--so here's every single Easter egg we've found in The Last of Us Part II. We're going to be talking about several moments throughout the game, so turn back now if you want to avoid spoilers.

If you want to know about all the callbacks to the first game, we've got you covered there as well. In the video embedded below, Evan Langer and Jake Dekker detail all of the Easter eggs, callbacks, and references in Part II--which includes all of the items, scenes, and dialogue that are in reference to The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Left Behind.

So right at the beginning of the game, Joel plays the guitar and sings for Ellie. The song is real--it's Pearl Jam's "Future Days," which was officially released on October 11, 2013. Of course, with Outbreak Day occurring on September 26, 2013, the song was never actually released in the world of The Last of Us. Joel likely heard Pearl Jam perform "Future Days" live (it was first performed in July of that year) and managed to memorize the song or happened upon a CD that was locked away in some warehouse somewhere just waiting to be distributed.

High-profile Twitch streamer Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV (better known as Dr Disrespect) has been banned from the livestreaming platform yet again. And this time, it may be permanent, rather than a temporary matter involving a DMCA. Beahm himself said he is unsure of why he was banned. However, others on Twitter claim the reason could be very serious and is not because of a copyright claim.

It's unclear exactly why or how long Dr Disrespect will be banned. Following news of the ban Dr Disrespect did not say anything publicly about the situation, and searching for his Twitch account yielded no results. However, on June 27, a day after news of the ban broke, Beahm broke his silence and posted an update on Twitter, addressing his fans. According to the streamer, Twitch has not provided him with any specific reason for the ban.

Twitch itself has offered no specific explanation for the move publicly. Of course, this has left room for speculation. Some have suggested that it could be the result of a DMCA takedown (of which there has been a flurry recent). However, this would ordinarily result in a temporary ban.

Following the wave of recent accusations of sexual abuse against popular Twitch streamers last weekend, the livestreaming platform has begun banning some of these accounts.

According to a Kotaku report and corroborated by Twitter account StreamerBans, several prominent streamers--including IamSp00n, Wolv21, BlessRNG, DreadedCone, and WarwitchTV--have been banned this week. Each one of these streamers has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment, ranging from sending sexually explicit messages to known minors to physically taking advantage of women at gaming conventions. [Update: In what appears to be an unrelated action, Twitch has seemingly banned DrDisrepect.]

The bans come not long after Twitch issued a statement about plans to thoroughly investigate each allegation. "We are reviewing each case that has come to light as quickly as possible while ensuring appropriate due diligence as we assess these serious allegations," the statement read. "We've prioritized the most severe cases and will begin issuing permanent suspensions in line with our findings immediately."

One of the biggest sales events of the year for PC gamers is in full swing right now: Steam Summer Sale 2020 kicked off Thursday, June 25, and will run until July 9, offering literally thousands of discounts on some of the platform's best games. It's hard to beat many of those deals right now, and you should definitely check out all of the best Steam games on sale right now, but it's worth keeping in mind that some of these games are cheaper elsewhere. And we're not talking about different launchers like Rockstar, Uplay, or Epic--no, we're talking about officially licensed Steam codes from legit stores like Fanatical and Green Man Gaming. For games like Borderlands 3 or Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, you may actually want to look elsewhere than Steam itself. You'll still even get to add the games to your Steam library but will save money in the process.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's next DLC character, Min Min from Arms, arrives alongside the title's 8.0 update on Monday, June 29, but before then, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can grab another freebie in the game.

Nintendo is giving away a new Spirit Board Challenge Pack for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Like previous freebies, this pack contains a handful of helpful items for the game's Spirit Board mode. You'll get the following:

• All Primaries x10
• All Supports x10
• Rematch x5
• Sluggish Shield x10
• Shield Spacer x10

To claim the Spirit Board Challenge Pack, go into the Switch Eshop and select the Nintendo Switch Online option on the left sidebar. From there, you'll see the pack listed near the top of the page under exclusive offers. Click on the pack and select Download to claim it.

Xur is back in the solar system in Destiny 2, offering you another chance to get new Exotic weapons and armor for your collection. Here's everything you can get from Xur and where you can find him.

Head to the EDZ to find Xur this week, hanging out in Winding Cove region. For his weapon, Xur is offering The Colony. Hunters can pick up the Young Ahamkara's Spine gauntlets; for Titans, there's the Synthoceps gauntlets; and for Warlocks, Xur has the Phoenix Protocol chest armor. Read on for a breakdown of each item's stats and what you need to know about them.

Xur Location

Spawn in at the Winding Cove transmat zone and look to the north. Hop on your sparrow and drive up the road on your left to reach the cliff face bordering the area. You'll see a crashed Fallen dropship above you. Make your way up, either by climbing or using the nearby cave path, to find Xur standing beside the ship near the cliff's edge.

Warning: Massive spoilers herein, for everything in The Last of Us Part 2. Turn back now.

One of the weirder things about The Last of Us Part 2 is the structure of its story. The game repeatedly breaks up Ellie's revenge-fueled rampage through Seattle with flashbacks revealing details about her relationship with Joel. As Ellie searches for Abby and the rest of her friends in the aftermath of Joel's murder, we learn more and more about Ellie's state of mind--and often have the whole story recontextualized in the middle of playing it.

The Last of Us Part 2 messes with your understanding quite a bit, and not just by shifting perspectives in the middle of the game to expand on the character of Abby, the focus of Ellie's revenge obsession. The developers also hold back critical information that informs Ellie's motivations. Those flashbacks repeatedly change our perception of Ellie by introducing new information, and the game treats them as plot twists that upend our beliefs about her and her quest.

Halo 5: Guardians' playlist updates for the rest of June through July have been detailed by 343 Industries.

The most recent playlist addition is the Solo Queue Team Arena Ranked mode, offering a place for competitive players to avoid remade teams if they are playing alone. Halo 5 will also get a couple weekends of Warzone Turbo and some other limited-time modes. The full list of playlist changes can be found below.

JUNE

• June 25: Forerunner Slayer rotates in for Core Play
• June 25: Warzone Turbo goes live for the weekend

JULY

• July 2: Evaluate health of all Ranked playlists*
• July 2: Shotty Snipers rotates in for Forerunner Slayer
• July 2: Warzone Turbo through 4th of July Weekend
• July 9: ODST Slayer rotates in for Shotty Snipers
• July 16: Rock 'n' Rail rotates in for ODST Slayer
• July 16: Warzone Assault goes live for the weekend
• July 23: CE Anniversary Throwback rotates in for Rock 'n' Rail
• July 30: Roaming King rotates in for CE Anniversary
• July 30: Warzone Turbo goes live for the weekend

343 also announced that all proceeds from REQ pack purchases will be donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from June 19 to July 19, in response to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests.

We're still weeks away from the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King, so if you need a new Nintendo Switch game to fill the gap, there are a number of great deals this week on the Eshop. Capcom kicked off a new, albeit small, sale on some of its best games, and you can also save on a couple of great party games to play at home this weekend.

Capcom's underrated action-RPG Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is on sale for 50% off at $15. The port arrived on Switch last year, so this is a great price for a lengthy, engrossing adventure. Another action-RPG, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, is also on sale for a stellar price ($20). Generations Ultimate offers a greatest hits of locales and monsters from series history prior to Monster Hunter World. It's a wonderful game that offers dozens upon dozens of hours of engaging content.

Okami HD, the high definition edition of Capcom's beloved 2006 action-adventure, is on sale for $10. You can also snag Mega Man 11, the latest game in the Blue Bomber's mainline series, for $15. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is down to $15, too, if you're looking for a story-focused game. All of these Capcom games are on sale through July 2.

Pokemon Go's solstice celebration has ended, but a new event is underway in the game. The Bug Out is now live until 10 PM local time on July 1, giving you a chance to catch lots of Bug types and earn other rewards.

Throughout the event, Bug Pokemon like Scyther, Venipede, and Dwebble will be appearing in the wild and Raid Battles much more often than usual, and you'll have a greater chance of hatching Bug types from 5 km eggs. You'll also have your first opportunity to catch another new Shiny Pokemon: Shiny Dwebble.

Additionally, certain Bug Pokemon will be lured out by Incense at specific times during the event. You'll have a much better chance of attracting the following Pokemon during the specified time frames when you use an Incense:

Evidence pointing towards a second next-generation Xbox continues to mount, this time with wording in the latest Game Development Kit SDK notes mentioning profiling modes for Xbox Lockhart.

Lockhart is a name that has been attributed to the other next-gen Xbox for some time now, stemming from the Anaconda and Lockhart project titles given to hardware under the banner of Project Scarlett. Anaconda would go on to be named the Xbox Series X, which Microsoft formally revealed in December last year. But since then the company has made no mention of a second SKU--at least not officially.

The latest GDK released to Xbox developers, as reported by The Verge, does make specific mention of Lockhart. It lays out a new profiling mode that will allow existing dev kits to mimic the performance conditions of the reportedly lower-powered consoles, including a slightly reduced CPU clock speed, less available RAM (about 7.5GB only), and significantly less GPU power (around four teraflops, as opposed to the 12 teraflops in the Xbox Series X). What that equates to is a testing profile that features the same SSD speeds and similar CPU performance but far less headroom for high resolution gaming.

Given the year is now 2020, you likely don't expect to see a lot of new games coming for Wii or Wii U, save for perhaps the obligatory ports of the latest entry in Ubisoft's Just Dance series. However, in news that will have you checking to make sure it's not April 1, a new, non-Just Dance game is on the way for the two Nintendo consoles that preceded the Switch, and it's releasing quite soon.

The game is Shakedown: Hawaii, a retro-style open-world action game in the vein of the early Grand Theft Auto entries. It originally released on a number of platforms last year--notably including PlayStation Vita--but is now coming to Wii and Wii U seemingly due to a random impulse on the part of the developer.

"Like most of my ports, Shakedown: Hawaii on Wii began one Friday night on a whim of curiosity," wrote developer Vblank. "Perhaps a jolt of Wii nostalgia rushed through me that evening, but I suddenly wondered... how long would it actually take to port? How would it feel to play with a Wii Remote? How would it look in 4:3? Would it hit 60 FPS right off the bat, or need optimization? I had many questions, but as soon as I held that Wii Remote and started playing, I knew I wanted to take it to the finish line."

New Releases highlights the top video games launching each week, and this one is loaded with cartoon action thanks to SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and Ninjala. You can also revisit Borderlands 3 thanks to the new expansion Bounty of Blood - A Fistful of Redemption, while Xbox One gamers can finally get their hands on The Foundation DLC for Control. Finally, Night Call is getting a console launch.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated -- June 23

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

This remaster of the original Battle for Bikini Bottom doesn't just look better--it also includes includes content cut from the original game. You can even play an all-new multiplayer mode with both cooperative and competitive modes. PS4 Pro and Xbox One X owners can see the sponge in shiny 4K resolution too.

Minecraft Dungeons is getting even more dungeons next week. The first DLC, Jungle Awakens, will be released on July 1, packing a bunch of new gear and mobs along with a free update that includes a new dungeon.

According to the announcement, the free update will come with the Lost Temple dungeon, new items, and game balance changes. Meanwhile, the Jungle Awakens DLC includes new weapons, armor, and artifacts, along with three new story missions. You'll be faced with new enemies like the Leapleaf and Whisperer, and face off against a new Jungle Abomination boss.

A handful of screenshots teasing the DLC show off some of the new gear and enemies, as well as the addition of pandas. The announcement also notes that the Dungeons soundtrack was recently released.

If you're not one of the 4 million PS4 owners who purchased The Last of Us Part 2 in the past week, you have a chance to join the party at a discount right now. Up until now, The Last of Us 2 has always sold at its full $60 price, and to be honest, it's surprising to see a PS4 exclusive like TLOU 2 discounted at all this soon after release. Rakuten has The Last of Us 2 for $48.49 with promo code GAL5, but you probably don't have very long to take advantage of this great offer.

To get the deal, you need to sign up for a free Rakuten membership, and then enter the promo code a checkout. Without a membership, you'll get The Last of Us 2 for $53.49, so you should obviously complete the quick registration process. The only downside to this deal is that the shipping window (July 1-10) is rather wide, but you do get free shipping.