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The first of Fortnite's Movie Nite events took place this morning, allowing players to watch a full-length Christopher Nolan movie from inside the game. For those in the United States, that movie is Inception, and I watched a significant chunk of it myself, only to find it was a far less strange experience than I had imagined.

The showing happens inside Fortnite Party Royale, a playlist introduced earlier this year that disables combat and throws players onto a smaller, custom island with a variety of activities that don't involve shooting each other. If you haven't jumped into this mode before, it's a bit confusing as to where you need to go, but look around and you'll quickly see spotlights in the distance calling attention to The Big Screen. As I approached and could see a corner of the screen from around a rock, I was worried the quality of the video would be low, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually quite smooth, with no stutter or issues to report.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered is coming in August, and when it releases you won't necessarily need a copy of the game to start dungeon-crawling with your friends. Square Enix has announced that a free demo for the game that will give you access to a handful of dungeons, as well as let you play with those who have purchased the full game.

The demo will be called Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered "Lite." As explained by a new trailer, Lite players will be able to play three dungeons, and since the game is based on co-op, you can team up with up to three other Lite players. If a player with the full game hosts by inviting others to their caravan, Lite players can join in all 13 dungeons for free.

Both the full game and the Lite demo will have cross-platform play across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and mobile devices. Plus any progress you make in the Lite version will carry over to the full game.

Premium gaming chair manufacturer Secretlab has revealed its latest special edition chair, and it's themed around Cyberpunk 2077. The Cyberpunk 2077 Secretlab gaming chair is available to purchase now in both Titan and Omega series models. If you're looking forward to the upcoming CD Projekt Red game and are in the market for a new gaming chair, this may be hard to pass up.

The front of the Cyberpunk 2077 chair matches the neon yellow theme that we've seen with most of the game's products and marketing. The back of the chair is black and is emblazoned with a large Samurai logo. Samurai is the rock band led by Keanu Reeves' character Johnny Silverhand.

Limited quantities of the Titan and Omega models are available now, and orders ship same day. However, once they sell out, you'll have to wait until November for a restock. So if you want to have the chair in the months leading up to Cyberpunk's release, you'll probably need to place your order fairly quickly.

After closing its retail stores in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft has announced that it will permanently shutter the majority of its retail spaces, with only a handful staying open across the globe.

Microsoft's retail stores have been home to its hardware, including Xbox consoles, Surface laptops and tablets, and numerous peripherals. As the company was forced to shift to an entirely remote and online shopping experience and its products have shifted largely to digital goods, it's decided that the cost of retail stores isn't worthwhile any longer.

"Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location," said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porterin in a statement. "We are grateful to our Microsoft Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations."

Marvel's Avengers just got a fresh look during Crystal Dynamics' debut War Table event, but studio head Scot Amos shared more details with GameSpot during an interview for Play For All. Amos said that his combat director's experience on the recent God of War would have made Thor a natural fit to tackle first, but instead he started with the hardest of all: Black Widow.

"We actually went out and pulled in some amazing talent like Vince Napoli, our combat director. Vince was on God of War, the most recent one. Looking at how certain games play, it's like, that weapon looks a lot like what Thor's hammer should be like, that would be cool. The idea of having him come on-board and say, 'great, I'm going to start attacking this, which one should I do first?' Do Black Widow first. And he's like, 'What? But this is the hardest one to make her feel super.'"

But Amos says that Napoli's Player Enemy Traversal (or "PET") team tackled the challenge and planned Black Widow from the core of what makes her an Avenger. That started with the skill trees, then branched out into the perks and gear that fit those skill trees, and on from there. This made the heroes differentiated from each other. Widow controls like a third-person shooter with melee abilities, while Iron Man is akin to a jet fighter. The protagonist Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, uses her Embiggen ability to snatch enemies with her enormous hands.

Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox this year with the Xbox Series X, and while the graphics will indeed look better than current-gen games, the jump in visuals might not be as pronounced as before in the last console transition. Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke about this during a Gamelab interview.

While the increase in visuals might not be as immediately identifiable with Xbox Series X compared to Xbox One, Spencer said next-generation games will feel more "immersive" thanks to the power of the Series X.

"I think we're at a point now--with immersion, with the tools we have and the compute capability--that the deltas will be smaller from a visual impact, or that feature X was never possible before and now it is," Spencer said, as reported by GI.biz. "And that might sound depressing to some, but what I would say is the advantage side of what I'm seeing now is really the immersive nature of the content that's getting created."

The Last Of Us Part II is a big sales success. Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4-exclusive sold more than 4 million copies during its first three days, surpassing the original game's sales during the same period.

Sony shared the sales number with GameSpot sister site CNET. The Last of Us Part II is now among the fastest-selling first-party PS4 games ever, surpassing the initial sales periods for God of War and Spider-Man. God of War, for example, sold 3.1 million copies in its first three days, while Spider-Man narrowly beat it with 3.3 million copies sold in its first three days.

Additionally, The Last of Us Part II's 4 million copies sold in its first three days beats the 2.7 million first-week sales of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4: A Thief's End in 2016.

One of Microsoft's biggest exclusives of 2020, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, has reached a new milestone. The game's Twitter account announced that the Xbox One and PC game has reached "2 million spirits," which seems to be how many people have tried the game so far.

This isn't a direct sales figure, however, as Will of the Wisps is available on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One and PC like all of Microsoft's games are. Sales figures going forward for Microsoft's games may be harder to pin down specifically and compare to previous titles due to the rise of Xbox Game Pass.

Of the 2 million people who have played Will of the Wisps, around 423,000 people beat the game, Moon Studios announced. That works out to a completion rate of around 21 percent. Only 45,000 people completed the game on the Hard difficulty.

The first "deep dive" gameplay livestream for Madden NFL 21 is coming very soon. EA Sports will show off the next-generation football game and detail some of its new features during a broadcast that is set to start at 8 PM ET on June 25, which is coming up in the next hour.

The event will be broadcast on Twitch, and you can watch it below.

Following recent allegations against now-former Assassin's Creed Valhalla creative director Ashraf Ismail, Ubisoft has issued a public statement on the matter.

"We have started by launching investigations into the allegations with the support of specialized external consultants," the studio said. "Based on the outcomes, we are fully committed to taking any and all appropriate disciplinary action. As these investigations are ongoing, we can't comment further. We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behavior."

Though the studio didn't go into further detail, Ubisoft said it will be sharing "additional measures" that will be put in place company-wide in the coming days.

Getting dragged to the gulag after an intense gunfight in Call of Duty: Warzone is both demoralizing and invigorating. You just lost all your loot, but you've been given a second chance to get back to the action. It turns out that some players want to recreate that feeling in other games, too.

Redditor u/leonejedi built his own version of the gulag in his Minecraft survival server. He set it as his spawn point, so whenever he's killed by a mob, he'd get sent to the grimy prison basement just like he would in Warzone.

Developers Ghost Town Games and Team 17 have revealed Overcooked 2's latest DLC. Sun's Out Buns Out, which introduces new chefs and stages, hits Steam on July 5 and consoles later in the month.

Sun's Out Buns Out brings the summer and all of its festivities to Overcooked 2's crowded kitchen. The DLC features some new doggy chefs, chaotic stages with challenging environmental obstacles, themed summer recipes, and more. You can check out the trailer below, which was revealed by IGN.

Overcooked 2's last DLC, Carnival of Chaos, dropped in September 2019. It retails for $6 but is also included in the game's season pass, which costs $20 and comes packaged with all current and future add-ons. Carnival of Chaos, like the upcoming Sun's Out Buns Out, features new chefs, environmental hazards, recipes, stages, and more.

Diablo 4 is still coming in the nebulous Blizzard future, with no precise release date, but in the meantime the studio is keeping us posted on its progress with promised quarterly updates. The latest development update gives fresh insights on how the dungeon-crawler will handle elements like storytelling, open-world elements, and seamless multiplayer without compromising the feel of Diablo. Here's all of the new info we learned about Diablo 4.

Diablo 4 Storytelling

Blizzard started by addressing how it is changing its storytelling mechanisms. Whereas Diablo 3 used character portraits to deliver dialogue, the studio is experimenting with bringing the camera in closer to characters so you can see the conversations firsthand. Some conversations will rely on a general library of animations, while more complex conversations will have handcrafted animations.

For the most important story moments, Blizzard is planning to use real-time cutscenes. That allows the angles to be more cinematic, but you'll still be shown as your own character with any visual elements like your currently equipped armor.

If you've seen the latest Cyberpunk 2077 trailer and caught up with the new gameplay shown off during today's Night City Wire stream, you probably understand how detailed developer CD Projekt RED is making its latest RPG. But did you expect character creation to be so detailed that it includes various pubic hair options?

Cyberpunk 2077 character creator has been previewed briefly before, but the first hands-on chance for media has uncovered just how deep it really is. Kotaku Australia chronicled all of the anatomy options available to you when creating your own version of protagonist V, and it includes some options you've likely never seen elsewhere.

Here's everything you can customize when creating V:

Amid growing concerns of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a recent surge in cases in Texas, entertainment conglomerate Rooster Teeth has canceled the in-person RTX Austin 2020 event that was scheduled to take place in September.

"Despite all our wishes and best efforts to bring us together in person this year, due to citywide restrictions on large scale events, RTX Austin 2020 has officially been canceled," Rooster Teeth said. "We wish nothing more than to be able to see all of you in person as soon as it’s safe to do so."

Though RTX Austin 2020 has been canceled, Rooster said it will host a virtual event instead. Details about this RTX replacement have yet to be revealed, but it's planned to take place later this year.

Biomutant, the third-person action game initially revealed in 2017, hasn't been show much recently, with out last real look at the game dating back to Gamescom 2018. But in an extended gameplay trailer for the game, its initial charm hasn't faded, and we get a look at its vibrant open world.

There's a lot going on in the nine-minute trailer below. You get to see the game's action again, spread across various weapons. Combat is centered on switching up between ranged gunplay and close-quarters melee action, with quick dashes and slow-motion dodges making it look very fast and exciting.

Biomutant is home to numerous monstrous foes you'll need to fight, spread out in a world that looks as large as it is colorful. In one highlight you see the player-character scampering up a mountain before leaping off and using a back-mounted glider to soar across the map. It's reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a way, but it's unclear yet how large this space really is.

Pokemon Go Fest 2020 takes place on July 25 and 26, but there will be plenty to do in the game before the big event. In addition to a couple of summer events, Niantic will hold several weeks' worth of limited time challenges in the leadup to Go Fest 2020, and completing these will unlock additional bonuses and Pokemon during Go Fest weekend. Here's the rundown.

Week 1 Challenges

• July 3 (8 AM local) - July 8 (10 PM local)

The first weekly set of challenges will coincide with Pokemon Go's fourth anniversary event, and the theme of this set is skill. Week 1's challenges will revolve around catching Pokemon, so you'll need to throw your Poke Balls precisely to clear the tasks.

If you complete all three sets of Week 1 challenges, you'll earn encounters with Ducklett and Flying Pikachu, the latter of which will be appearing as part of the fourth anniversary event. You'll also earn a Star Piece and other items for completing the challenges. Depending on how many players from each team complete Week 1's set, you'll unlock the following Pokemon during Go Fest weekend as well:

Summer is always a busy time for deals, and while huge sales from Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation have already ended, one of the season's biggest gaming sales just launched. Every June, Steam users look forward to an absolute truckload of PC games going on sale as part of the platform's annual Summer Sale, and the time has finally come: Steam Summer Sale 2020 is live now, as predicted by a developer at SteamDB back in May. The sale includes major discounts on a ton of great games, from Rainbow Six Siege and Disco Elysium to Skyrim, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Grand Theft Auto V, and Terraria.

Steam Summer Sale 2020 dates and times

Steam Summer Sale 2020 kicked off today, June 25, and will run until July 9, ending at 10 PM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST.

Steam Summer Sale 2020's best deals

As usual, literally thousands of games are seeing major markdowns across nearly every genre, from first-person shooters and action-adventure games to city-building games, horror games, and more. See our full roundup of Steam Summer Sale 2020's best game deals for our recommendations on what to grab.

NBA 2K20 is getting players from the NBA 2020 draft class far earlier than normal. Players from the 2020 draft, like LaMelo Ball and Onyeka Okongwu, are coming to the MyTeam mode as part of the Next collection of card packs and boxes.

Normally, NBA rookies wouldn't be available until the next game in the series is released after the draft, which in this case would be NBA 2K21. The NBA 2020 draft is currently scheduled to take place on October 16 after being delayed from June due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NBA 2K20's New 2020-21 Rookies

• LaMelo Ball
• James Wiseman
• Anthony Edwards
• R.J. Hampton
• Cole Anthony
• Onyeka Okongwu

The collection is available through July 3 and players can earn a Galaxy Opal Zion Williamson card for completing the collection. Williamson was the number one draft pick in 2019. NBA 2K also announced that it would be announcing three NBA 2K21 cover athletes on TikTok next week.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a deep level of customization that allows you to craft your ideal V and assortment of skills. And although CD Projekt Red's upcoming RPG is not an immersive sim, the nature of its world allows you to take advantage of the many levels of customization to interact with it in unique ways.

"It especially blew my mind to see playtesters use offensive combat abilities to solve stealth situations," Cyberpunk 2077 senior level designer Miles Tost said. "Previously, I had thought of our reflex-enhancing cyberware, like Kerenzikov, or its more advanced form, Sandevistan, as purely useful in combat situations, since it allows your character to temporarily enter a bullet time-like state, making you move at superhuman speeds. But I was very surprised to see when our playtesters were using bullet time to bypass security cameras and enemy patrols, pulling off complex stealth maneuvers…or to simply catch a green traffic light at a pedestrian crossing."

When it comes to unlocking new abilities, there are several different ways. At the start of the game, you'll be able to allocate a number of skill points into Body, Reflex, Intelligence, Technical Ability, and Cool to give your V a starting baseline of abilities to specialize in. As you play, you'll level up and unlock perk points to further develop these baseline abilities. However, you'll also unlock special skills by how you play--for example, kill lots of enemies with guns and you'll naturally increase your proficiency as a Gunslinger, which makes you even more deadly with a firearm.

Developer id Software has announced that Update 2 for Doom Eternal is now live on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One. The lengthy patch notes show a bevy of additions and changes made to Doom Eternal.

The most notable is the brand-new Battle Mode map, Torrent. Once occupied by UAC and now home to eternal prisoners, Torrent is a marsh-covered location that features long hallways and various platforms.

In addition to the new map, Battle Mode has been given some quality-of-life improvements to enhance stability. This includes latency adjustments to ensure smoother matches, adding keybinding support for each individual demon, fixing various other issues like missing audio, and more.

Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't feature an established protagonist like developer CD Projekt Red's The Witcher series--instead, you build main character V from the ground up by choosing their appearance and shaping their personality. This agency extends to V's backstory, of which there are three to choose from.

"We wanted to give the players freedom of creating their own character, but at the same time establish some kind of connection with V on a narrative level," Cyberpunk 2077 lead story writer Tomasz Marchewka said. "The three origin stories share a common motivation, but give the character different roots which will have consequences throughout the whole game."

Much like BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins, the backstory you choose will have significant ramifications on your story (though it will likely hit hardest in the side missions instead of the campaign), starting with the opening prologue. Your prologue will take place in different locations and see you encounter different people depending on which backstory you choose, ultimately shaping how your V perceives the world and other people for the rest of the game.

Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming first-person RPG from CD Projekt Red is currently in the spotlight after their recent Night City Wire broadcast revealing some new information about the game, as well as a bunch of previews cropping up after the studio allowed select media to play a hands-on demo of the game.

At GameSpot, three of us were fortunate enough to experience what it's like to play the opening hours of Cyberpunk 2077--we've got a video feature that details our three different experiences. This allowed us to see each of the three different prologue sequences of the game that introduce the protagonist V, and portray V's growing relationship with her partner Jackie in different ways. The three different scenes corresponding to the three "Life Paths" that game allows you to choose: Street Kid, Nomad, and Corporate. We've got an article describing what happens in each prologue if you'd like to know more.

I was the one who chose to play the Corporate path, where V begins the game as a counter-intelligence operative for the Japanese firm Arasaka. V is given a treasonous order by her conniving, garbage boss (who weirdly uses the c-word twice in the space of 30 seconds so you know he's bad), and you're introduced the cutthroat world of corporate espionage that helps to define a lot of cyberpunk fiction. It's all very exciting, so naturally, the first thing I set off to do was to poke around the corners of the Arasaka office to look at trashcans, vending machines, and the workspaces of employees.

It should come as no surprise that the team behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is making another rich and detailed world, but there's a huge difference between watching blades of grass dance in the wind as the warm glow of the sun emerges over distant trees, and being in the middle of a city bathed in blinding neon lights that's also screaming thumping bass and ear-piercing guitar riffs at you at every turn. In Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red trades natural serenity for the overwhelming, furious progression of technology. We're not in Kansas anymore: This is Tokyo turned up to 20.

For the sake of transparency it must be noted that my hands-on with the game was conducted remotely. I was playing over the cloud and, although latency was not discernable, visual fidelity was not the same as what it would be on a machine running the game locally.

Nevertheless, Night City was impressive to behold. It has a raw, grimy kind of majesty, and the sensory overload hits the moment you walk out into its bustling streets. It's a cacophony of chattering citizens, a barrage of lights, a constant hum of music, invasive advertising, distant sounds of gunfire, strange cars whizzing by, unsavory characters just looking for a reason to start trouble, and helpless people calling out for aid. It's a place that makes you feel completely out of sorts and instills an odd sense of discomfort, but also beckons you to unlock the potential it holds. From the very outset, as an up-and-coming merc named V, you're told that it's a city of dreams where legends are born, and that's exactly what you hope to become.

During CD Projekt Red's Night City Wire livestream, the developer announced that a Cyberpunk 2077 tie-in anime will hit Netflix in 2022. Titled Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, it will be produced by Studio Trigger, the animation company known for hits like Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, BNA: Brand New Animal, and others.

You can check out the announcement trailer below.

Edgerunners is a "standalone, 10-episode story" that features original characters disconnected from Cyberpunk 2077. While it is an original story, Edgerunners will take place in the same universe, with Night City being a prominent location in the show.

With July right around the corner, we're starting to hear about the free games you can claim next month. Xbox just revealed July's Games with Gold lineup, and Twitch Prime has also announced its next batch of freebies that will be available to claim next month. Twitch Prime comes with any Amazon Prime subscription, so if you're paying for fast and free shipping from Amazon, you should also be snagging free PC games every month.

Five games will be free to claim starting July 1: Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, Dear Esther, Grip: Combat Racing, Kunai, and Dark Devotion. To claim them, you simply need to link your Twitch account to your Amazon Prime account.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is a classic first-person shooter that originally released on Nintendo 64 in 1998. While it's certainly dated now, Turok 2 was a beloved FPS of the era, so you may be interested in checking out a relic from the past.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is bringing back all the skaters you know and love from the original two games alongside the games' 19 courses, but it's more than a simple remaster. Several additional skaters are coming, including younger talent like Australian street skater Shane O'Neill. Speaking to GameSpot for Play For All, O'Neill shared the impact the early games had on his career.

When the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater launched for the PlayStation, Shane O'Neill was only nine years old. That's very early to start shredding a bowl, but it's perfect for playing a game and grasping the basics of skating.

He used the early games to learn about tricks, and despite the series also going for a "skateboarding superhero" style over a more grounded experience, he said most of the tricks are more common now than in 1999. Tony Hawk's famous 900 has been replicated by numerous skaters since he first landed it in 1999. In fact, just last month the 11-year-old skater Gui Khury landed a 1080 on a vert ramp.

While Halo fans might be buzzing about the new Halo Infinite teaser, developer 343 Industries continues to support and update Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

The newest update has now arrived across Xbox One and PC, and it's a small one. Update version 1.1619.0.0 introduces two new Pride Month nameplates and some bug fixes.

You can unlock the Pride nameplates simply by playing The Master Chief Collection anytime between now and July 24 at 5 PM PT. You can see the nameplates below.

Xbox executive Phil Spencer has commented on Sony's recent PlayStation 5 showcase, stating that the competitor did a "good job," while also acknowledging that the Xbox Series X has "hardware advantages" over Sony's next-generation console.

"As a competitor, it's great to have them out there now so we kind of know what the program is, we see the device, we see the games," Spencer said during the recent GameLab event, as reported by VideoGamesChronicle.

Spencer says he "felt good" after watching the PS5 event because he thinks Microsoft's own Xbox Series X stacks up well against Sony's machine.

Dr. Mario World, the mobile spin-off of Nintendo's puzzle series, has debuted a new character, and it's a curious one. From June 26 at 3 AM PT, Dr Baby Wario will arrive in the game, and will be available to use as a character.

The little guy, pictured in the tweet below, might or might not be cute depending on whether or not you can deal with his two enormous walls of teeth.

Baby Wario previously appeared in Yoshi's Island DS, and in the 14 years since he has seemingly earned a medical degree. While his incarnation in that game wore just a diaper, this time he's fully dressed with a doctor's coat and tie. They grow up so fast.

Skate 4 is finally in the works, and while we're yet to see any gameplay footage, we've got some minor insights into what it might look like. While current EA job ads don't show much, EA CEO Andrew Wilson recently talked about the game in an EA fireside chat, and it's given us a few things to work with.

Wilson talked about how enthusiastic people were for a new Skate, and dropped some hints at features the game might contain. He said that while skateboarding "in and of itself has tremendous appeal to a huge, global audience," Skate will also tap into a "trend that’s happening inside our industry around user-generated content, open-world, and interaction."

Reflecting on skateboard culture, and how much art and fashion tie into it, Wilson said that while skating itself was a "starting point" there's more to it than that. "You start to build in user-generated content, exploration, and community on top of that and that expands the opportunity exponentially," he said.

Doom Eternal released on March 19 to critical acclaim (including an 8/10 from GameSpot), but it was originally scheduled to release in November 2019. The game was delayed to ensure a certain level of quality, and now, thanks to a new podcast interview with Pete Hines, Bethesda's senior vice president of global marketing and communications, we know why.

Talking to USGamer for the site's Branching Narratives podcast, Hines has reflected on the reception Fallout 76 received at launch, and how that influenced the development and release of Doom Eternal, as well as the Fallout 76 Wastelanders expansion.

"We said, 'These are not ready, and we're not going to make another mistake, and we're going to take the extra time even though that time hurts, and is painful, and you miss a holiday,'" Hines reflects.

Project Cars 3 was only just announced earlier this month, and as it turns out we won't have to wait long at all to play it on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The third game in the series will release on August 28, 2020.

The game, which will have more cars than previous entries in the series, is offering car upgrades, customization, and personalization options that were not in Project Cars 1 or 2. New tracks have also been added, including the Brazilian Grand Prix track Interlagos, as well as a new track in Tuscany.

This game will also boast a more robust campaign mode, which will, according to the press release, "entice players on a driver’s journey from weekend warrior to racing legend."

Bandai Namco also revealed several new screenshots, showing off some of the game's car models.

It must be tough iterating on an established formula, especially in racing games. Across the spectrum of styles within the genre, from Need For Speed Underground to Gran Turismo and Forza Horizon somewhere in between, I've loved but also felt burnout to some degree. Rally racing is one area I hadn't experienced much until Dirt 4, but having known about where the series has come from, Dirt 5 noticeably takes a turn in a different direction.

I got hands-on with a preview build of Dirt 5 on PC, which features four tracks for brief circuit races with a handful of cars to select. One track mixes street and off-road racing, two are purely muddy off-road endeavors, and one is a hectic drifting loop with sprint cars. It's quite a small piece of the game, but it's immediately clear that--based on the demo--the emphasis is no longer on keenly following a co-driver's course instructions in a time attack. The game is trying to tap into the excitement of head-to-head competitive racing with a bit of attitude.

2016's Warcraft movie from director Duncan Jones made more than $439 million globally to become the highest-grossing video game movie in history worldwide. Multiple sequels were planned, but they never came to be due to the movie's very poor performance in the US, where it made only $47 million.

Jones has now shared more details on what he had planned for the Warcraft sequels.

Hitman III was unveiled recently during the PS5 reveal event, and the first location, Dubai, has been shown off. We still don't know a lot about the upcoming game, beyond the fact that it will launch on January 21 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. But it seems likely that we'll know more very soon. The sequel was first announced just days ago, and we're going to learn about it in a special live presentation.

Developer IO Interactive has announced a livestream for today, June 25 at 4 PM CEST (7 AM PT), and Hitman III will be the focus. The stream is hosted on the developer's Twitch channel. You can also view it directly below.

This is the return of IO Interactive's monthly stream series, so it's likely (although not confirmed) that we'll get a peek at Hitman III once a month in the lead-up to its release. What will be shown off in this stream remains to be seen, though.

While Microsoft has yet to announce the price point for the Xbox Series X, it's expected to be an expensive console as most new machines are. To help the system reach the widest possible audience, Microsoft will be pushing its mobile phone-style Xbox All Access program for it.

Under this program, people can get an Xbox Series X with no cost upfront and pay it off over the course of two years. This is a common business practice in the world of smartphones, but it's new for console. Microsoft has been trialling the program since the Xbox 360 days. However, the Xbox Series X launch will mark Microsoft's biggest push yet in that regard, Spencer said.

"Xbox All Access is going to be critical to both our launch for Xbox Series X as well as just the overall generation," Spencer said during a GameLab speech, as reported by GI.biz.

After Microsoft announced it was shutting down Mixer and moving to work more closely with Facebook Gaming, some wondered what impact this could have on the Xbox dashboard.

Currently, the dashboard on Xbox One contains advertisements and links to Mixer streams. Some were wondering if Facebook Gaming streams will replace them in the carousel. That won't be the case, according to Xbox's Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb.

Warning: This post obviously contains massive spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2. If you're not finished yet, we recommend you turn back now.

The Last of Us Part 2 is a story about obsession, anguish, trauma, and vengeance. It centers on the inability of some of its characters to let go of their pain, and the massive harm they do to themselves and others as a result.

But even though the revenge aspect of The Last of Us Part 2 is pretty straightforward, its structure is anything but. The game uses multiple flashbacks to alter your perception of characters and events as they unfold. Which people know what information, and at what time, changes how The Last of Us 2 wants you to see and interpret its characters. Most of the twists in the story are flashbacks that work to change your perception of the characters when given new context.

2K Sports has announced that this year's NBA 2K21 will have not one but three cover athletes, and they'll be announced through the very popular social media platform TikTok.

That's right--NBA 2K has launched a TikTok channel. The three cover athletes will be announced over the course of three days: June 30, July 1, and July 2.

NBA 2K's first post on TikTok shows NBA 2K20 cover star Anthony Davis hyping the upcoming announcements. The video already has more than 1 million views. Check it out below.