Gamespot

This weekend kicks off an absolute assault of spring sales, and if you're looking to save money on some games, then there hasn't been a better time in quite a while. The Xbox One store just revealed its slate of spring deals, all of which are available to snag now. Hundreds of games are on sale, including this year's Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot as well as some of the best games of recent years like Red Dead Redemption 2, Resident Evil 2, and Mortal Kombat 11.

A sequel to the 2013 action-platformer Rogue Legacy is now in development, the game's creator Cellar Door Games announced. The studio didn't have much else to share beyond confirming that Rogue Legacy 2 is on the way. However, "a lot more info" about the sequel will be dropping "in the coming days." For now, Cellar Door shared some in-progress screenshots showing Rogue Legacy 2's more bubble-like art style.

Week 7 of Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 2 is here, and that means a new batch of challenges is now live in the hit battle royale shooter. This week brings the first set of Skye's Adventure challenges, and in keeping with the season's spy theme, one of them asks you to hide in Creepin' Cardboard at the Box Factory. If you're not sure where that's located, this map and guide will point you in the right direction.

Where Is The Box Factory Location?

The trickiest part of this challenge is tracking down the Box Factory. Since it isn't a named point of interest, the factory isn't displayed prominently on the in-game map, so you may not even know where to begin looking. As it happens, the Box Factory is located in grid square G7, southwest of Retail Row. You can see exactly where on the map below.

The PlayStation 4 virtual reality exclusive Marvel's Iron Man VR has been pushed back "until further notice" amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment announced.

Alongside the Iron Man VR delay, Sony also pushed back the launch of its flagship exclusive The Last of Us Part II, which was originally slated to arrive this May. Neither game now has a release date.

Iron Man VR previously held a February 2020 released date before developer Camouflaj and Sony pushed the game back to May 2020. Both Iron Man VR and TLOU2 were scheduled to launch within two weeks of each other, with the former arriving on May 15 and the latter coming out on May 29. The two PS4 games now share two delays in common.

Spring is in full bloom, and with the changing of seasons comes a new wave of digital games sales. The Nintendo Switch Eshop and PlayStation Store have already kicked off their respective sales, and now the Epic Games Store is jumping into the action with over 100 discounts on PC games. The sale will be live all month long, ending May 1. If you still have a $10 coupon from the Epic holiday sale, you can (and should) use that on any games $15 or more this month--the coupons expire May 1.

Epic's Spring Sale includes Red Dead Redemption II, which released on PC last year. The acclaimed open-world adventure is on sale for $48; you can also find discounts on its Special and Ultimate editions. You can also get one of the best games of 2019, Control, for $39. With the new Foundation DLC out now, there's no better time to dive into this mind-bending story. Alan Wake, another excellent Remedy game, is on sale for just $4.49.

Apex Legends is getting a new limited-time event all about Bloodhound, but it's coinciding with a permanent change that should make fans happy. When the Old Ways Lore Event begins on April 7, players will be able to select from the game's two maps: Kings Canyon or World's Edge.

As detailed on the EA Blog, the update will add permanent map rotation to the game, letting you choose which map to play in Trios or the newly-returning Duos. This is a marked change from the previous status quo, as Kings Canyon would only be available through limited-time events after it was replaced by World's Edge.

The Old Ways Lore Event will run from April 7-21, offering a Town Takeover in World's Edge and a new exclusive prize track with exclusive cosmetics.

Despite The Last Of Us 2 delay, developer Naughty Dog has dropped a bunch of new The Last of Us Part 2 screenshots to tide eager fans over while we wait for the game's now-unclear release date.

The screens are all captured on a PS4 Pro, showing off The Last of Us 2's incredible detail in everything from its lighting to its skin textures and more. We also get a better look at Old Man Joel, both blinded by the sun and strumming around on an acoustic guitar. The TLOU2 screens also show Joel's younger brother Tommy sitting across from Ellie in a room, Ellie exploring some overgrown forest, and more.

You can check them out below.

A new Bloodhound-themed event is coming to Apex Legends next week, following the premiere of a new animated short (embedded below) and in-game map changes that teased a new town takeover. The limited-time event, The Old Ways, begins on April 7 and continues through to April 21.

The Old Ways introduces Bloodhound's Trials as a town takeover on World's Edge, which will be placed in the northwestern portion of the map. Drop into the new location and you and your squad will find yourselves facing off against a hoard of prowlers. Braving the enclosure will allow you to find high-tier loot though. In a blog post, Respawn advises that players should take the opportunity to "explore the enclosure, especially with a certain hunter at your side" once the fighting is over, implying there may be some lore implications to discover.

Like Grand Soiree and System Override, The Old Ways introduces a new prize track that allows you to unlock exclusive cosmetic rewards by completing event challenges. The event will also see an assortment of rare and legendary cosmetics rotated into Apex Legends' in-game store, including a brand-new skin for Bloodhound, Young Blood, that dresses the technological tracker as they appeared in The Old Ways animated short.

The Nintendo Switch exclusive fighting game Arms is holding a brand-new limited-time event just in time for its free trial period on the console-handheld hybrid.

Arms' new LTE is a Party Crash featuring the game's main two stars, Spring Man and Ribbon Girl, and runs from April 2-4. Like previous Party Crashes, the purpose is to score points in-game to see which of the two Arms characters are the most popular.

The last Arms LTE was a Martial Arts Mash-Up Party Crash between Min Min and Ninjara back in June 2019, in which Min Min came out as the fighting game's most popular ninja warrior.

Sony has announced it is delaying the launch of The Last of Us 2 indefinitely, saying in a tweet that the global crisis caused by the coronavirus is "preventing us from providing the launch experience our players deserve."

Developer Naughty Dog issued its own statement on Twitter as well. In it, the studio said that while it's in the final stretches of development, there are logistical issues that will prevent it from ensuring the best experience, including a simultaneous global launch.

"We were bummed about this decision but ultimately understood it's what's best and fair to all of our players," the statement reads. "We're hoping that this won't be a long delay and we'll update you as soon as we have new information to share."

Multiple digital storefronts--Switch Eshop, Epic, Xbox Store, and PlayStation Store--have massive Spring Sales going on right now. While there's no hint that Steam will join in on the Spring Sale fun this year, the PC games storefront has a pretty great sale right now anyway. Xbox Game Studios titles are up to 75% off on Steam, which means you can get titles from Microsoft's most well-known franchises for cheap. The Xbox Game Studios publisher sale only runs until April 6, so you'll have to make your selections fairly quickly.

Since its launch last year, Apex Legends has been experimenting with limited-time modes that introduced varying squad numbers, with playlists for both duo and solo play. The standard three-player squad mode has persisted, but on April 7 Apex Legends will let you play duos forever.

The new mode is part of the larger The Old Ways event, which has fleshed some of Bloodhound's backstory while making substantial changes to the game moving forward. Duos is one such change--now you can decide on your squad size before launching into a match, as well as what map you want to drop into. Apex Legends is introducing map-rotation permanently too, letting you switch between King's Canyon and Worlds Edge.

Unlike most of the event's content, these changes are here to stay. The Old Ways will also introduce a new Town Takeover called Bloodhound's Trials, feature an exclusive rewards track with daily and weekly challenges on top of those included in the battle pass, and more items in the direct to purchase store pertaining to the event and the short story that started it all.

Fortnite's Week 7 challenges have arrived on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. This week brings us the first batch of Skye's Adventure challenges, and one of the seemingly trickier missions asks you to visit three specific locations: The Shark, Rapid's Rest, and Gorgeous Gorge. If you need help tracking those places down, we've put together this map and guide to show you where to go.

Where Are The Shark, Rapid's Rest, And Gorgeous Gorge Locations?

As usual, the areas you need to visit to complete this challenge are spread out across the map, but they're not too difficult to find. The Shark is the most obvious; it's the island in the northwest corner of the map, in grid square B1. Gorgeous Gorge is located between The Agency and Lazy Lake in grid square E5, and Rapid's Rest is directly southeast of it in grid square G6. You can see where all three areas are on the map below.

While the Switch Eshop always has games on sale, it's rare to see a huge collection of notable Switch games discounted at one time. Fortunately for Switch players, that time has come: the Spring 2020 Eshop sale has arrived, with over 700 Switch games currently on sale. Quite a few publishers are getting in on the action, including Devolver Digital, Blizzard, and NIS America, and there are some real gems worth snagging while they're on sale.

The Devolver publisher sale includes discounts on some fantastic games like Ape Out ($7.49), a top-down beat 'em up where you control a gorilla trying to escape a maze, and Hotline Miami Collection ($12.49), a top-down shooter where your character is instructed by mysterious answering machine messages to hunt down and kill the local Russian mafia. You'll also find great deals on the beautiful platformer Gris, which is on sale for $8.49, and a shoot 'em up featuring a talking banana, My Friend Pedro, on sale for $14.

Diablo III: Eternal Collection is down to $30 (was $60) as part of the Spring Sale. The hack-and-slash RPG allows for both local and online multiplayer, and it's a perfect game to jump into while we're all social distancing. For a similar experience, Torchlight II is on sale for just $14, down from $20.

If you're an Xbox One owner looking for something to do this weekend, then Microsoft has just revealed the free games for its latest Free Play Days promotion. The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is available for two weeks from now until April 13 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET, while WWE 2K20 and Monster Energy Supercross 3 are both free to play until April 6 at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET. You can install and play these games as much as you want, but if you want to keep playing them past their free-play periods, you'll need to buy them. Thankfully, each game is currently discounted, so you won't have to pay full price to keep them forever.

The Elder Scrolls Online is an MMO based in the worlds of Skyrim, Morrowind, Oblivion, and more--that's right, the Elder Scrolls, baby! The latest free update, Greymoor, has you exploring the dark underbelly of Skyrim, as a Vampire Lord tries to conquer and rule the land of Tamriel. You'll have to banish supernatural storms that are terrorizing Western Skyrim. Thankfully, you'll have two full weeks to play for free, but if you want to keep playing, The Elder Scrolls Online is $8, down from $20.

Indie outfit Chucklefish has unveiled a new isometric artstyle for its supernatural life-sim Witchbrook, and it's quite a looker. The game previously featured a more-standard top-down style in early screenshots. Here's a side-by-side comparison:

Chucklefish is arguably best-known for publishing the farming sim mega-hit Stardew Valley, but its also developed some notable games, such as 2016's Starbound. The developer first announced Witchbrook back in 2018, and few details have emerged in the intervening years. Recently, it revealed an official website with some more information on the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is in the midst of its Bunny Day festivities, but alongside that came a new patch that fixed up some bugs. Though Nintendo hasn't shared official English patch notes yet, we have some idea from the Japanese notes (via Go Nintendo).

According to the patch notes, this update fixes a few notable glitches that could severely impact gameplay, including one that makes a crucial piece of game progression disappear, and another that impacted your ability to change the island to your liking.

Bunny Day is essentially the Animal Crossing version of Easter, with a rabbit visitor named Zipper coming and hiding eggs all over your island. Those eggs can then be used for a ton of special DIY recipes.

The action strategy game John Wick Hex, which first launched on PC in October 2019, is officially making its way to PlayStation 4 early next month, director Mike Bithell announced.

Bithell took to the PlayStation Blog to deliver the news, confirming that John Wick Hex will hit the PS4 on May 5. He spoke a bit about designing the game in the PS4 release date announcement post, where Bithell also mentioned that the editor of the last John Wick film, 2019's Chapter 3: Parabellum, provided feedback on Hex's gameplay mechanics. You can check out John Wick Hex's PS4 trailer below.

While the game is headed to PS4 and currently available on PC via the Epic Games Store, an ESRB listing claims John Wick Hex will supposedly launch at some point on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One as well. Neither Bithell nor the game's publisher, Good Shepherd Entertainment, have confirmed whether Hex will appear on other consoles.

Gamevice, the company behind a variety of controller solutions for iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices, is attempting to sue Nintendo over the Nintendo Switch for a second time.

According to GoNintendo, Gamevice cites similarities between the Nintendo Switch and its own mobile controllers, many of which are also designed around the idea of split controller that connect to your phone or tablet on either side. The Switch's design is similar, and Gamevice claims it infringes on their own patents in the US. It's seeking a legal order to prevent the import of Switch consoles from Japan.

This is familiar territory for Nintendo. Gamevice has previously attempted to sue the company for a similar cause, citing infringement on 19 of its patents. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of Nintendo in that case (a ruling which Gamevice is still appealing), but will now need to preside over a separate case with similar circumstances. If successful, Gamevice could prevent the sale of Nintendo Switch consoles in the US.

If you're looking for a game to get lost in this weekend, one of the best role-playing games in recent memory is on sale right now. ZA/UM's 2019 wonder Disco Elysium is discounted to $30 (was $40) until April 6 on Steam. The innovative and gripping RPG was one of GameSpot's favorite games of 2019. In addition to the game, the official soundtrack is also marked down to $11.24 (was $15).

Disco Elysium nods to Baldur's Gate and Divinity: Original Sin with its top-down perspective and dialogue-heavy interactions. Unlike those games, however, Disco Elysium doesn't feature any combat. It's an RPG that relies on its masterfully written dialogue to both tell its story and advance its various mechanical and skill systems. You play as a detective who investigates crimes across a lush, hand-painted world filled with interesting characters and ideas.

The game earned a 10/10 in GameSpot's Disco Elysium Elysium review, with critic David Wildgoose praising the unparalleled writing, brilliant skill system, and gorgeous world. "Disco Elysium is a mad, sprawling detective story where the real case you've got to crack isn't who killed the man strung up on a tree in the middle of town--though that in itself, replete with dozens of unexpected yet intertwined mysteries and wild excursions into the ridiculous, is engrossing enough to sustain the game," he wrote.

Rare's jaunty pirate game Sea of Thieves will make its way to Steam. The game was previously available only through the Microsoft Store on PC, or through Xbox Game Pass. According to the announcement, the high seas game will feature cross-play between Xbox One and all PC users. However, there is no set release date as of yet, though the announcement says one will be announced "soon."

Upon its initial release back in 2018, Sea of Thieves garnered a less-than-enthusiastic reception from critics, who questioned whether or not its laid-back atmosphere and simple gameplay were worth full-price at the till. However, since the inauguration of Xbox Game Pass, the game's community has grown substantially, augmented in no small part due to Rare's steady schedule of fresh content every month. According to Rare, it is now Microsoft's most successful IP of this console generation, with more than 10 million total players.

The game's latest update added nasty firetraps and an explosive called the Blunderbomb to the game, as well as banana outfits for your ship's beloved pets. The one prior to that featured cosmetic items from the beloved Rare game Viva Pinata and very angry treasure chests that vomit lava everywhere.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 includes a lot of moments that stick in the memory, for a variety of reasons. The 2009 game's campaign features a Russian invasion of the U.S., sees your player characters killed not once, but twice, and heralds the return of fan-favorite hero Captain Price. It also puts you in a position to gun down an airport full of civilians and police in the infamous mission, "No Russian."

The newly released Modern Warfare 2 Remastered campaign updates the game's visuals and sound, but the gameplay and story are identical to what was originally released. Revisiting the game demonstrates that Modern Warfare 2's intense first-person shooter moments still stand up to more recent games and remain as powerful as they were more than a decade ago. But the whole game resonates a bit differently when considered in the light of what has happened in the last 11 years. That's never more apparent than with "No Russian."

I went into a replay of Modern Warfare 2 with the expectation that "No Russian" and the rest of the game's story had been misunderstood over the years. After all, if there's a subversive Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2 is probably it. The bad guy is an American general and the mission in which you have a hand in a massacre puts you in the role of an American CIA operative. I had come to think that Modern Warfare 2 was making a comment about United States foreign policy and militarization, rather than just being shocking for shocking's sake. Especially after years of rising mass shootings, though, "No Russian" just comes off as callous. There might be interesting underlying ideas in Modern Warfare 2, but the game either fails to commit to them, or tells its story so poorly that they don't come across.

A new set of patch notes for Borderlands 3 makes some big adjustments to the Vault Hunter Moze, the Gunner. Gearbox said it has been observing Moze's stats for a few weeks and made these buffs to focus largely on boosting her survivability. The studio also noted that it's not done tweaking the character and other buffs to "trouble spots" will be coming in the future.

In particular, the hotfix patch notes make some big changes to the Iron Bear, her mech suit, by reducing the cooldown time and increasing its fuel. The update also increases the bonus to three of her abilities: Behind the Iron Curtain, Security Bear, and Experimental Munitions.

The update also makes several changes to weapon balance, including the entire suite of Hyperion weapon shields. The weapons appear to be buffed almost across the board, though the adjustment to The Lob comes at the expense of reducing its projectiles.

This week's freebies at the Epic Games Store just went live, and they are quite the pair. From now until April 9, you can pick up Gone Home and Hob free of charge. As usual, Epic also revealed next week's freebie, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, a seriously underappreciated adventure game starring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's ubiquitous detective. Crimes and Punishments will be free starting April 9 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. You simply need a free Epic Games account to claim any Epic freebie, and it'll be yours to keep forever.

Originally released in 2014, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is one of the many Sherlock games developed by Frogwares. While games that capitalize off of huge properties like Sherlock Holmes don't always inspire a ton of confidence, Crimes and Punishments is a genuinely great adventure game.

Crimes and Punishments features six separate investigations that you must solve alongside your trusted sidekick Dr. Watson. One of the main gameplay mechanics is the deduction board, which lets you piece together clues from each case to come to your own conclusion. This allows for more than a handful of endings for each crime, and moral choices you can make after finding the culprit add even more layers to the story.

Own Fallout 76 on PC already but wish you could play the game through Steam? You'll be able to do so starting on April 14, the same day that the new Wastelanders expansion launches

Anyone who purchases Fallout 76 through Bethesda.net before April 13 and links their Steam and Bethesda accounts will get the game for free on Steam. Atoms and Fallout 1^st memberships will not transfer between the platforms, but any items purchased through the shop will be available across both Bethesda.net and Steam.

This offer only applies to the PC version. Xbox One and PS4 players will have to purchase the Steam version separately in order to access it, and the game doesn’t support cross-platform play.

A new update for Borderlands 3 will introduce not one but two new events, as the legendary vending machine limited-time event rotates out of play. That event, which made legendary loot available in vending machines, will end and be replaced by Slot Machine Mania and Trials Take-All.

According to hotfix notes, Slot Machine Mania will increase your chance to win legendaries from slot machines, but also increases the chances for grenades to spawn instead. Less valuable loot still might appear, but those odds have been greatly reduced. The other event, Trials Take-All, boosts the chances of rewards during Proving Ground trials, and bosses will always drop loot from their pools. Both events start today and will last until April 9 at 9 AM PT.

This follows closely after the release of Guns, Love, and Tentacles, the second major expansion for the game. That introduces a Lovecraftian threat in the midst of a happy wedding ceremony, though it doesn't really explore some of Lovecraft's problematic aspects. The patch that introduced the DLC also raised the level cap to 57, which Gearbox says will greatly increase the end-game power level by allowing players to use two capstone skills instead of just one.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns could throw a wrench in its plans, but Microsoft is hoping to launch Xbox Series X in all regions at the same time.

Speaking to IGN during an episode of Podcast Unlocked, head of Xbox Phil Spencer said his team hasn't worked out a "plan B" if the pandemic forces Microsoft to stagger the system's launch. However, he understands why launching consoles in different regions at different times no longer works in the age of social media.

"I will say, having lived through the Xbox One launch, I know that significant delays in region launches hurt us," Spencer said. "It hurts us with the sentiment of the fans and every time I go to Japan I remind that we were, what was it, nine months late in launching there with Xbox One?"

Microsoft has announced that its game streaming tech, Project xCloud, will be part of its plans going forward with the Xbox Series X. In a new interview, Xbox head Phil Spencer says that putting the tech to work on consoles just makes sense for discoverability, based on the data it's seen both with xCloud testing and its Game Pass service.

"The xCloud scenario on a console makes a ton of sense," Spencer told IGN Unlocked. "One of the things we're seeing in xCloud today, in the preview, is we watch people sample games. We see that in Game Pass already, even on console. We call it the 'hummingbird effect.' People are just willing to try more games, but obviously you have download times. So on xCloud you definitely get people who are sampling a lot more games, and I think that's healthy for our industry. I want more different kinds of games played, more creators found, more new favorite games."

He also noted that in the tech preview for xCloud, players can go from watching a trailer to streaming a game almost seamlessly--a feature idea also touted by Google when it detailed its Stadia service. Spencer said that's also a boon to discoverability.

Sony has announced that it will be committing $100 million in support of COVID-19 relief around the world. The fund is called the "Sony Global Relief Fund for COVID-19," with the intention of providing much-needed relief to those in need during this crisis.

Support will be divided into three main areas:

1. Assistance to individuals engaged in the medical field like doctors, nurses, and first responders efforts fighting the virus on the front-lines.

2. Implementing new forms of education for children and educators who can no longer attend school and must work from home.

3. Support for members of the creative community within the entertainment and gaming industries impacted.

Sony has pledged that $10 million of the fund will be sent to medical support, in conjunction with the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO powered by the UN Foundation and Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). These foundations are devoted to assisting medical professions and workers currently assisting in the effort to prevent the further spread of the virus and contribute to the treatment of the public.

MSI has revealed its upcoming slate of gaming laptops, which all come equipped with 10th-gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia RTX Super graphics cards. The new laptops include the GS66 Stealth, GE66 Raider, and Creator 17. The company states that these laptops were made with gamers and content creators in mind, with specs that can easily handle tasks like gaming and rendering high-quality video.

The GS66 Stealth is available now for pre-order, while the GE66 Raider and Creator 17 laptops will launch online on April 15. Each laptop comes with a TN display with the option to switch out for an IPS-level panel, which provides brighter and better colours.

GS66 Stealth gaming laptop

Starting at $1,599; available for pre-order now

In a lengthy interview with IGN, Phil Spencer, the executive vice president of Gaming at Microsoft, discussed the release and lineup for the launch of the upcoming Xbox Series X. Set to release later this year, Spencer is confident in the next generation of the Xbox making it out on time, despite the setbacks caused by the ongoing pandemic around the world.

At this point we know that the day one launch lineup consists solely of Halo Infinite, Xbox’s flagship franchise. When asked about the launch lineup, Spencer skated around the topic, not really confirming anything new, but instead outlining his own beliefs on how Microsoft will be handling the launch. “For the momentum of the platform, it’s not about any one day, it’s about a sustained stream of great games coming from our first party and our third party partners,” he said.

Spencer went on to comment on how he thought the Xbox One had too many games released on the launch day. "It doesn’t really help somebody to have eight games launched on one day, and I think you can pace those out,” he said.

Activision's Call of Duty Mobile is a juggernaut. With more than 150 million installs worldwide, the game's big success has helped mobile become Activision's biggest platform by revenue.

The game, which is developed by Tencent's TiMi Studios in China, recently hit a milestone in Australia: 1 million installs. Chris Plummer, Activision's vice president of mobile, spoke to GameSpot about this achievement and a lot more about the mobile game in a new interview.

Plummer tells GameSpot that Call of Duty Mobile is resonating globally, but for the Australia audience specifically, he had a message to share: "Personally, I want to thank the Australian fans. You were part of our beta program and really helped us in the lead up to launch."

April Fool's Day 2020 has been and gone, and as usual many studios have gotten in on it with fake announcements. But one prank in particular seemed very cruel, because the game announced looked both very good and extremely plausible--Ducktales: Quackshot, from Monster Boy developer FDG Entertainment. But there's a reason why it looked so professional--it was the result of a real pitch made to Disney.

In a follow-up tweet, in which the studio announced that the game was just a prank, FDG Entertainment clarified that while the game was not happening, it was not for lack of trying. "We worked hard on a legit pitch to Disney but unfortunately never got the license," the tweet reads. "It would've been a shame to bury the material so it became this years #AprilFools. Maybe someday Disney will reconsider?"

After the huge release of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord early access recently, the developers have been working hard to fix some of the issues that have arisen post launch. Since the early access launch, the developers have released three patches, with bug fixes as the main focus of each one.

Players have been reporting losing their save files and encountering various bugs in the game since launch, but the developers are confident that they will be able to work their way through each thread and find a solution for these problems.

Mount & Blade II is a realistic medieval RPG, where players lead a small army of soldiers to complete quests and fight against other small armies, growing renown with each fight until they eventually become a lord or even king. Bannerlord takes place 210 years after the events of Warband, the DLC pack from 2008, with the focus shifting to the historical Migration Period, a period of time that place not long after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is nearly upon us, and the latest installment of the Inside Final Fantasy VII Remake video series is here to prime us for the game's battles. While episode 1 was a general introduction and episode 2 focused on story, the third episode of this documentary series, embedded below, dives deep into the new combat system for the remake.

The reworked combat system came about because action is "the mainstream style right now," according to director and concept designer Tetsuya Nomura. However, the numbers and stats that fly off enemies during combat were maintained because "they make Final Fantasy what it is."

The battle system has been designed with the thought that this is how it would work if it was designed for the first time today, but the developers report that it was difficult to decide just how action-focused it would be, and whether things like reflexes would be important. Classic Mode, which automates a lot of the fighting and lets players focus on making choices through menus, was included because a lot of fans online were worried about not being able to play because they are not good at more action-heavy games.

In a recent interview with video game magazine Game Informer, Apex Legends general manager Dusty Welch and game director Chad Grenier touched on which Legends are played the most and how characters evolve over time.

Like most games with a hero or character pool, players drifted towards different Legends more in each season, but Wraith and Pathfinder were consistently high picks across the board. In the interview, Welch and Grenier spoke about which Legends were the most popular.

“Caustic has been from a pro player or tournament standpoint. He’s been an interesting player favorite, especially when they get into the final areas,” said Welch.

Scalebound, which was poised to be a major Xbox console exclusive from Platinum Games, was sadly cancelled back in 2017. Rumors persist to this day that the game will eventually be re-revealed, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that it is not happening, and that he regrets how things played out with the title.

In an interview for IGN's Unlocked podcast, when asked about the huge passion fans still have for Scalebound, Spencer clarifies that the game is not coming, and seems sad about the situation around its announcement and cancellation. "Yeah, it's a tough one," he says. "Because I have a ton of respect for Platnium, (director Hideki Kamiya), the team...and I have feel no ill-will. And we talk to those guys, there's no animosity between the teams."

Spencer says that he wishes he had held back on the game's reveal. "We tried to go do something, and it didn't work," he says. "And I regret that we were as public about what we tried to go do." He cites the also-cancelled Fable Legends as another example of a time when a game was shown off too early, and says that he learned a lot from both projects. "I did some learning around Fable Legends, I did some learning around Scalebound, about being public about things before I kind of know that we've got a real believable plan in something I've felt in my hands.," he says.

Gaming giant Activision has emerged victorious in a lawsuit brought against it by the makers of Humvee vehicles who claimed the publisher was infringing on their trademark.

A New York judge has dismissed the lawsuit from General Motors, bringing an end to this case. The lawsuit dates back to 2017 when GM sued Activision for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and false advertising, among other things. Activision responded (via The Verge) by saying it had the protection of the First Amendment to use the image of real-world military equipment in its franchise.

Activision's lawyers said GM was acting in bad faith by trying to use a trademark to control the creative use of a US military vehicle paid for by American taxpayers and used in every war and conflict for decades.

According to Respawn, fans of Titanfall and Titanfall 2 may be excited to see what Respawn has in store for Apex Legends at the start of Season 5. Season 5 is scheduled to begin in late May or early June, as Season 4: Assimilation is halfway done, having gone through its ranked series split.

In an interview in Game Informer Issue 324, Apex Legends general manager Dusty Welch and game director Chad Grenier spoke about the future of Respawn's battle royale game, with one of them saying, "We're always bringing in stuff from the Titanfall universe. We built an awesome world in Titanfall 1 and 2 and want to make sure we're bringing that forward. I will say this: There could potentially be a pleasant surprise for Titanfall fans in Season 5."

Neither Welch nor Grenier provided further details beyond that, though Season 5's tie to Titanfall could be hinted at with the arrival of Bloodhound's town takeover. The arrival of the technological tracker's town takeover was teased with a prowler, a vicious wolf-like creature native to the planet Leviathan (the setting of Titanfall 2's incredible Effect and Cause level). Perhaps, just as Apex Legends left Kings Canyon after two seasons, the battle royale is getting another brand-new map after two seasons on World's Edge--one that will be located on Leviathan.

Thanks to the addition of terraforming and infrastructure options available in the newest Animal Crossing game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players are free to create almost any island home they like. One player, reddit user VaynMaanen, has created an impressive homage to Zelda: Link to the Past, recreating the original SNES map with high levels of detail and dedication.