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The recently released A Plague Tale: Requiem is already generating end-of-the-year awards buzz, including a Game of the Year nomination at The Game Awards, and you can get a hefty discount on the game right now via Amazon. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are marked down to $39, more than $20 off their original price.

A Plague Tale: Requiem got this discount just ahead of Black Friday, and if you're on PS5, you likely won't find a cheaper way to play the game. Xbox players have the game via Game Pass, as well, though it likely won't be a permanent inclusion. The game's predecessor A Plague Tale: Innocence was removed from Game Pass just before Requiem was added.

Like its predecessor, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a stealth-focused action-adventure game, with siblings Amicia and Hugo attempting to survive a disease-filled and rat-infested world. You have some more tools at your disposal for defeating enemies in the sequel, though the focus is still largely on finding clever ways to avoid and mislead your foes.

A Plague Tale: Requiem is just one of the many games already on sale as part of early Black Friday 2022 deals. For more, check out our Black Friday hub, and grab an extra DualSense controller for your PS5 with big discounts.

Bayonetta 3 has only been out for a few weeks, but series creator Hideki Kamiya has already confirmed that Bayonetta 4 is in development. He also said that the game's ending "wasn't conveyed correctly" and that Bayonetta 4 will be an "unexpected development," per Eurogamer.

Though Bayonetta 3 enjoyed significant critical acclaim, fans have expressed displeasure over the game's ending, which made certain decisions about Bayonetta's future and romantic life that proved unpopular with the general playerbase. Its technical performance on aging Switch hardware has also been the subject of criticism.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has players adventure through the vast region of Paldea, where you may occasionally want to stop and have a bite to eat. Eating food can provide some buffs to your gameplay, although the actual effects aren't immediately clear within the game. Here's everything you need to know about food buffs and picnics in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

The buffs

There are a large number of buffs available to get from eating food. These buffs seem to last almost indefinitely, not going away until the next time you eat food.

The full list of buffs is:

• Egg Power: More likely to find Pokemon Eggs
• Catching Power: More Likely catches will succeed
• Exp. Point Power: More Exp. Points gained
• Item Drop Power: More materials found after battle
• Raid Power: More rewards from Tera Raid Battles
• Title Power: More likely to find Pokemon with titles
• Sparking Power: More likely to find Shiny Pokemon
• Humungo Power: More likely to find large Pokemon
• Teensy Power: More likely to find small Pokemon
• Encounter Power: More likely to find certain types

With the exception of the Egg Power buff, all of these buffs will also come with a listed Pokemon type, so each buff itself only affects that specific type. If you are looking to have better chances of encountering a Charcadet for example, you would want the Encounter Power buff, specially marked for Fire-type Pokemon. Each buff has a level indicator as well, telling you how much of a boost you will get.

A Call of Duty fan booted up Warzone 2.0 recently and discovered they had a very, very generous double XP boost applied to their account and they had no idea why.

Reddit user CranberryCarney posted about this recently, asking the Reddit community, "Can someone tell me how and why I have a 1 YEAR double xp???"

Commenters quickly replied that CranberryCarney was likely a winner of a Mountain Dew promotion that offered up 12 months of double XP in Call of Duty as a grand prize. Now, CranberryCarney doesn't get double XP for every minute of the next year. Instead, they get one hour's worth of double XP each day for 365 days after they activate the token, according to the fine print.

In any event, CranberryCarney should be able to level up faster than most Call of Duty players thanks to this promotion. Not a bad perk for drinking some soda.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 just welcomed the launch of Season 01, which includes a heap of new content and updates for both titles. Additionally, timed with the start of the World Cup, Neymar Jr. is now available to buy as a playable Operator in Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0.

New Pokédexes mean new novelties and Game Freak's Pokemon Scarlet and Violet sticks with that tradition with Tera Types. Similar to X and Y's Mega Evolutions, Sun and Moon's Z-Crystals, and Sword and Shield's Dynamaxing, the Terastal phenomenon is a new mechanic in the Paldea region that remixes the battle system and how it works. It pins type charts to movepools and introduces an entirely different form of discovery for new Pokemon such as Charcadet, Finizen, and Tandemaus. Terastallizing a new Pokemon has its positives, but it also makes Scarlet and Violet one of the more exciting entries in recent years. For starters, here's everything you need to know about Tera Types, including how to find them.

What is Terastallizing?

In the Paldea region, local Pokemon can crystallize through a new phenomenon called Terastallizing. When a Pokemon Terastallizes, a shiny Tera Jewel appears above its head (like a hat) and its original type changes into a tertiary Tera Type that grants special powers. Terastallizing requires a Tera Orb that’s acquired from Nemona in the first hour of Scarlet and Violet, and you cannot Terastallize a Pokemon again until the Orb is recharged through shining crystals or at a Pokemon Center.

What are Tera Types?

Tera Types are a third typing assigned to Pokemon through Terastallizing and they can increase the power of a Pokemon's moves with the same Tera Type (i.e. Fire, Psychic) and change their strengths and weaknesses. Tera Types are inactive until a Pokemon Terastallizes during a battle or a Tera Raid and each Pokemon's Tera Type can be viewed in the menu system next to their original typing.

Atari is one of the most legendary names in gaming, and its history spans several consoles, arcade games, and even handheld systems. With Amazon's early Black Friday deal on the newly released Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, you can learn all about Atari's history and play over 100 games.

Typically $40, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is just $29 at Amazon during this sale. It's a brand-new collection, so this is a great chance to save some cash without having to wait months and months. The linked deal above is for the Switch, but it's also available on Xbox and PlayStation.

Hearthstone's new expansion, March of the Lich King, is introducing a whole new class with the long-awaited appearance of the Death Knight. But as always it's giving the existing classes some new tools, including a set of cards that synergize around Shaman having big big beefy minions to dominate the battlefield into the late game. GameSpot can reveal not one or two but four of those cards, which all look to work together nicely.

In the current meta, the Shaman typically focuses on smaller minions like Murlocs, or a midrange deck. The class is no stranger to big minions, but it has typically used Evolve tools to randomly borrow big minions from other classes. This new package gives Shaman some more high-cost tools to call its own, starting with Prescience. This four-cost spell is built to fetch your big minions while giving you the benefit of smaller Taunt minions to buy you time until you can roll out the power hitters.

Hey, did you know that Bloodborne is still a PlayStation exclusive? Of course you do--the internet will never let you forget. Recently, Sony deleted a Bloodborne-related tweet after a legion of fans dogpiled it in the vain hope that an announcement was in the works. Indeed, it doesn't take much for the 2015 game to trend on popular social media sites like Twitter. Even a pointed tweet from a noted figure in the Souls community like Lance McDonald can stir up the hornet's nest.

But while the constant swirl of fan fervor can be annoying at times, it's ultimately based on a fundamentally sound fact: Bloodborne is one of the few modern classics that's limited by aging hardware. Regardless of where you stand on the console/PC divide, the fact that the version of Bloodborne that you can play on your shiny new PS5 is still locked to 1080p/30fps borders on publisher malpractice. But I would much rather play it at 144fps on my shiny gaming PC, and I'm far from the only fan who feels that way.

Fellow high-profile PS exclusives like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and even the humble Days Gone have received patches that improve their performance on PS5, supporting 4K and higher frame rates. And it's clear that Sony is committed to porting its exclusives to PC, as God of War and Days Gone are both on Steam. Despite this, Bloodborne remains stuck in the past.

We all know the drill by now. You want to be the very best, like no one ever was, so you set out on a cross-country journey to catch and train adorable monsters and rise to the ranks of Pokemon Master. It's a tale as old as time, or at least as old as 1996, and Pokemon games rarely venture outside this comfortable template. That made it all the more surprising when Pokemon Scarlet made me actually care and look forward to two of its three main story paths.

Spoilers follow.

If you've been following Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, you know that the game consists of three main story paths that you can take in any order. Victory Road is the traditional quest to become a Pokemon master while doing battle with your friendly rival, Nemona. Starfall Street is also a take on the classic Pokemon formula, as you invade and topple the bases of this game's ostensible antagonists, Team Star. And the Path of Legends has you venturing into the wild to battle against massive Titan Pokemon.

None of these seemed particularly interesting to me pre-release. Victory Road and Starfall Street were the same old story we've seen several times before, while the Path of Titans appeared to be a way to wring out another quest type by adapting the Raid battles from Sword and Shield. I don't exactly come to Pokemon games for their stories, so I had assumed they'd be fine and serviceable at best. But while Victory Road is still the same-old traditional story, Starfall Street and the Path of Legends are actually engaging, funny, and heartfelt.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are here and each version has something unique to offer the completionist trainer. If you're anything like me, you probably want to know the differences between the two versions to inform your purchasing decision (or to know what to look out for in your travels). While each version will have easy access to unique Pokemon not available in other versions, Scarlet and Violet's exclusives extend beyond that. Players will attend different schools, have a different Professor, and even have different outfits, all unique to their version of the game. Now it's time to break them down.

Every version difference for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Scarlet Exclusives

The following exclusives can only be found in Pokemon Scarlet.

Scarlet Pokemon

Scarlet trainers will get the legendary Koraidon, Amarouge (Fire/Psychic), Larvitar (Rock), and Stonjourner (Rock). Because Larvitar is listed as exclusive, it's highly likely its evolutions, Rock-type Pupitar and Rock/Dark-type powerhouse Tyranitar, will also be exclusive.

Other exclusives include the following:

• Oranguru
• Stunky -> Skuntank
• Skrelp -> Dragalge
• Deino -> Zweilous -> Hydreigon

Scarlet Professor

Pokemon Trainers in Scarlet will be taken under the wing of the commanding woman, Professor Sada.

The latest installment in the Dark Pictures Anthology, The Devil in Me, is now available, giving players their fourth entry in as many years. In The Devil in Me, knowing how to save everyone is a delicate balancing act of wise, split-second decisions. It's not easy, and there's no way to overwrite a fatal error other than starting the game over, so if you're really keen on seeing the version of the slasher story where no one is slashed--or maybe you just want the related Achievement or Trophy--here's how to get the best ending in The Devil in Me and ensure everyone survives, even Connie the dog.

How to save all characters in The Devil in Me

If you've played The Dark Pictures or games like it before, you know by now that some decisions are more important than others. While some give the illusion of possible death, others really can deliver killing blows to your playable characters. Therefore, this guide will focus on those major branching moments where it's a matter of life or death.

Naturally, this guide contains many spoilers, but I'm guessing you knew that before you ended up here. The following steps are listed in the order in which they'll appear in your game, and I'll be listing both the name of the location/chapter and the playable character for each crucial moment. There are 12 main scenes that will decide the fivesome's individual fates, but some scenes contain multiple pass or fail scenarios, so follow along closely.

Blackout - Erin

The first chance for someone to die is when Erin is alone in the dark room and is offered her inhaler by the killer. Take the inhaler and do not attack the killer to survive.

Demon's Souls, a remake of the eponymous 2009 game and a PS5 launch title, is available right now for $30 at Amazon and Best Buy.

Like many other Black Friday PlayStation deals, this is the lowest we've seen Demon's Souls go on sale for. It was released in 2020 and since then has periodically been discounted. The lowest price the physical edition ever dropped to, before now, has been around $40.

NBA 2K23 is on sale right now for as low $30-$40 at several retailers.

Best Buy currently has the best price on physical copies, offering the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version for $30, or PS5 and Xbox Series X copies for $35, but you need to sign into your free My Best Buy account to get the discounted price.

If Best Buy's deal sells out, Amazon also has NBA 2K23 on sale. Standard physical copies for Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch are $30, while PS5 and Xbox Series X copies are $40. You can also grab the game digitally for several platforms, including $27 for Switch or Xbox One codes, or $35 for PS5.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is here with the new DMZ extraction mode. This is more of an objective-based sandbox game that plays very different to battle royale. With many ways to tackle a round, including a variety of objectives all set in a PvPvE environment, it can be a lot to take in. Here we'll list some tips and general information to help you get started and make the most of your time in DMZ mode.

Quick DMZ overview

DMZ is a trios mode in a PvPvE environment, where you can have the option to choose how you want to play, which includes looting for high-value items and weapons and completing faction objectives. You keep everything you loot with a successful exfil, but you risk losing almost everything if you die and fail to extract from the match.

General DMZ tips for beginners

Weapons work differently than battle royale

Before loading into a match of DMZ, it's important to understand how weapon loadouts work. Here's a full guide to DMZ weapon types, but basically, there are weapons you extract from the mode called Contraband, and there are the weapons you customize with the Gunsmith to take into DMZ, and those are called weapon blueprints.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure PS4 and PS5 editions are on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop. These are the lowest prices we've seen for Sackboy so far.

Both versions of Sackboy: A Big Adventure are $20, reduced by $40 from the original price of $60.

Ahead of Black Friday, The Xbox Series S "Holiday" Console is now available for $240 at Amazon. With the gift-giving season around the corner, the Xbox Series S will likely be a popular pick this year, especially at this limited-time price (it's $250 at most retailers). We wouldn't be surprised to see the console sell out in the coming weeks, so if you want to put the Xbox Series S under the tree, it's a good idea to buy it as soon as possible.

It seems like Company of Heroes 3 could be coming to PlayStation and Xbox. The game was only confirmed for a PC release so far.

The Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee has rated Company of Heroes 3 for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It looks, however, like it won't be coming to last-gen consoles at all.

If Company of Heroes 3 does indeed come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, that would mark the first time the franchise will be put on consoles. Neither 2006's Company of Heroes nor 2013's Company of Heroes 2 were on any consoles. Since its inception, the series has primarily been on PC. The first Company of Heroes saw a release on iOS, iPad, and Android in 2020.

Company of Heroes 3 was supposed to release on November 17 but was delayed to February 23, 2023. "We want to deliver the biggest and most immersive game in our franchise’s history, which means we need a bit more time for bug fixing, balancing, and polishing to ensure our players have a fantastic experience at launch," explained developer Relic Entertainment general manager Justin Dowdeswell at the time. The game will launch with four factions and two single-player campaigns.

NHL 23 was released in October 2022, but all PlayStation and Xbox editions are discounted at Best Buy right now for Black Friday.

NHL 23 PS5 and Xbox Series X|S editions are $40, a $30 reduction from the original $70 prices. NHL 23 PS4 and Xbox One editions are $28, a $32 reduction from the original $60 prices. These deals are still in Best Buy early access, so make sure you're logged in to your Best Buy account in order to see the discounted prices.

NHL 23 is an ice hockey sim game, and 2023's cover stars are Anaheim Ducks' Trevor Zegras and Team Canada's Sarah Nurse. Gameplay changes include "last-chance" moves, where when a character stumbles, they can execute surprise actions. For more information, you can check out everything we know about NHL 23.

Black Friday's prices are the lowest NHL 23 PS5 and Xbox Series X|S physical editions have gone on sale for. Surprisingly, back in September, NHL 23 PS4 and Xbox One editions sold for around $30--the price we're seeing now during Black Friday--at GameStop.

2021's PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal from developer Housemarque is discounted nicely right now as part of an early Black Friday markdown. The well-received shooter is currently on sale on Amazon and Best Buy for just $30, which is a nice markdown from its $70 list price.

Returnal was one of GameSpot's favorite games of 2021. Our 9/10 Returnal review praised the game's mysterious story and scary cutscenes, along with its innovative (at the time) use of DualSense haptics and 3D sound.

A major update, Ascension, was released in March 2022. It added co-op and a new Sisyphean endless mode to the roguelike third-person shooter. It also added a solo-only mode called Tower of Sisyphus, along with a series of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 will have PlayStation-exclusive content, just like other recent entries in the series, and now Activision has provided a closer look at this special content.

The bonuses include monthly double XP events, two additional loadout spots, a party bonus when teamed up with other people on PlayStation, and five extra battle tokens for the battle pass. PlayStation users are also getting Combat Packs with each new Season.

For Season 01, which just started this week, players get the ONI Revenger weapon blueprint, the Demon Fang charm, the Oni Tactical operator skin, and more. This content will be exclusive to PlayStation until at least October 27, 2023.

Sony pays Activision for exclusive content in the Call of Duty series, and this is continuing despite Microsoft's bid to buy Activision and the Call of Duty series. Microsoft previously held an exclusivity arrangement with Activision for Call of Duty content, but Microsoft lost out to Sony starting with 2015's Black Ops III.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is another PlayStation title discounted for Black Friday. It's been discounted regularly in 2022 with the PS5 physical edition going on sale at around $40 a couple times earlier this year. This Black Friday deal is one of the lowest prices we've seen it at so far.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PS5 physical edition is $30 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target.

A recently unredacted copy of a lawsuit first filed by Epic Games against Google in 2020 alleges that Activision Blizzard received $360 million over the course of three years in exchange for not building a rival app store to compete with Google's Play Store.

As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit accuses Google of being anti-competitive when it comes to its mobile game marketplace, and names numerous other video game-related-companies like Nintendo, Riot Games, and Ubisoft in a list of companies that allegedly received money from Google in an effort by the company to deter competition.

In a tweet, Activision Blizzard's executive vice president of corporate affairs, Lulu Chen Meservey, stated that Epic's claims are "false" and that "Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree to not compete with them." Meservey states that submitted documents and testimony disprove Epic's claim.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is live with the new DMZ extraction mode, where you risk losing all your weapons and loot if you fail to exfil from the match. You only start DMZ with one insured weapon slot, which is the only weapon you won't lose if you fail to extract. Our guide will help you unlock two more insured weapon slots, so you'll have even more weapon options for use in DMZ.

What are insured weapon loadouts

Here's a full guide to DMZ weapon types, but basically, the custom blueprint you place in your insured weapon slot is the only item that you won't permanently lose from a failed DMZ mission. However, you do get penalized for not successfully extracting from the match. This penalty is a two-hour cooldown timer, meaning the weapon is unavailable for a period of time, and this can be a bummer if you don't have any other insured weapon slots unlocked.

How to unlock the second insured weapon slot

With early Black Friday sales kicking off everywhere, one of the weirdest games in recent memory is getting its price slashed in time for the event. Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding: Director's Cut is now just $20 for the PS5 version at Amazon and Best Buy, dropping the price on this strange but hauntingly beautiful adventure to a record low.

This version of the game features plenty of extra content and tweaks, and was originally launched on PS5 in September 2021. Eventually making its way to PC this year, the Director's Cut packs in new gear, gameplay tweaks, expanded areas, and extended storylines. Death Stranding did well after launch, as the game recorded more than 5 million sales across PS4 and PC as of March 2021 and then cleared the 10 million players mark earlier this month.

Actor Chris Hemsworth, best known for playing Thor in the MCU, has announced he is taking a break from acting after learning that he is genetically pre-disposed to develop Alzheimer's.

In a recent episode of his National Geographic TV series Limitless on Disney+--as reported by IGN--Hemsworth said, "It's not a pre-deterministic gene, but it is a strong indication."

It was claimed that Hemsworth's risk of getting Alzheimer's is 8-10 times higher than the average person in the general population due to his genetic makeup. "The idea that I won't be able to remember the life I've experienced or my wife, my kids; this is probably my biggest fear," Hemsworth said.

You can watch Hemsworth talk more about this in a recent interview with Good Morning America.

Hemsworth isn't retiring forever, however, saying he is open to coming back to play Thor again someday if that works out. After discovering his pre-disposition to Alzheimer's, Hemsworth said he plans to return home to Australia and spend time with his family.

Sea of Thieves Season 8 comes ashore next week on November 22, and with it comes the de facto replacement for the game's Arena mode, which was taken offline earlier this year. Since then, the game's fierce PvP contingent has been eager for something like it--a way to jump into action against other crews, rather than having to search for targets across the open world or rely on AI threats such as the Kraken or Skeleton Forts. With the new Hourglass of Fortune onboard every pirate ship in the game, PvP is much easier to initiate without taking players out of the game's marquee sandbox mode, Adventure.

Historically, some players, creative director Mike Chapman told GameSpot, would "server-hop" if they arrived in the open world and didn't see any targets on the game's Emissary tables. These serve as an in-game system that lets players sail on behalf of different trading companies while also marking themselves as high-value targets of The Reaper's Bones, the PvP-centric company. But to give such players what they were seeking, Rare saw a need to simplify things.

"Those players, they're playing Sea of Thieves and they're playing it for hours," Chapman continued. "They just want to get to that bit, not at the expense of everything else, but that's just what they fancy doing tonight. [L]et's give them what they want without affecting adversely the people that don't want that right now, which is the people doing Tall Tales, or the people doing Skeleton Forts, or Sea Forts, all of that stuff."

It’s Friday, and players should end the week right by getting the Wordle correct. If you're here, then you're probably struggling in some shape or fashion, and that's not something you want to do on a Friday. Fortunately, we're here to make sure that you end the work week with aplomb and get the Wordle correct. However, that might be difficult, as today's answer is rather tough. It's an uncommon word with an uncommon spelling, which is always a dangerous pairing. If you haven't started the November 18 Wordle yet, though, you can check out our list of recommended starting words to give yourself an advantage before you've begun.

However, if you're a few guesses deep, then it might be time to seek some helpful advice. We have exactly that just below. We’ve come up with two hints that should help players come up with relevant guesses for today's puzzle on November 18. If those don’t work, though, we’ve spelled out the full answer further down in the guide if players simply want to head into the weekend with their streak still intact.

Today's Wordle Answer - November 18, 2022

We'll begin with two hints that directly relate to the Wordle answer, but won't immediately give the word away.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are out now, marking the ninth generation (or Gen-9) of Pokemon games. While the Pokemon series has inspired countless spin-offs and iterations including the very similarly structured Pokemon Legends: Arceus from earlier this year, Scarlet and Violet are part of the mainline RPG series. The series is known for its lengthy story modes and endless hours if you want to catch 'em all. So how long will Pokemon Scarlet and Violet last?

How long does it take to beat Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Based on our experience, you can expect to finish the story quest in roughly 35-40 hours if you mostly work on the critical paths. These games use a very different structure than most other Pokemon games, though, with three separate story quests and a non-linear progression structure. Once you progress out of the tutorial section, you can pursue the missions in these three stories in almost any order you would like.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are here, representing a massive change to the traditional Pokemon formula. While these open-world games bear some resemblance to Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it all takes place in a single contiguous world and lets you go just about anywhere you'd like after you've completed the tutorial. But before you make a beeline for the toughest gyms, here's our recommendations for which order to take on the various challenges.

Which gym should I do first?

Scarlet and Violet actually have 18 badges in all--eight gym badges, five Team Star badges, and five Titan badges. Those are your rewards for the three distinct mission types in the game: Victory Road, Starfall Street, and Path of Legends. By the time the tutorial is done, you'll have every mission for each of those three mission types marked on your map and you can wander freely. However, the game doesn't tell you what level your opponents will be, so it's easy to wander into a gym that's too tough for you. Similarly, later Team Star bases and Titans will be set at much higher levels. As a rule of thumb, the further north you go, the harder the missions will be.

Since you need gym badges to get higher-level Pokemon to listen to you, you'll probably need to do those roughly in order of the gyms themselves, so that you can have powerful monsters to match. Gyms in Scarlet and Violet often revolve around some non-battle activity, so you may not know how tough your Gym Leader opponent will be until you're face-to-face with them in battle. See below for our recommended levels to take on certain gyms.

A new Pokemon generation is here, and as usual, that means you have another selection of three starter Pokemon to choose from. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet don't break from tradition too much, once again presenting you with three adorable creatures representing the three most fundamental types in the series: fire (Fuecoco), water (Quaxly), and grass (Sprigatito). Before you make your selection, though, you might want to know more about what they ultimately become through their evolutions, and that's where we can help.

Spoilers follow.

Ultimately, the final evolutions of all three Pokemon revolve around different types of stage performers. As a result, each of them look bipedal to some extent. Adorable little Fuecoco, for example, becomes Skeledirge, the "Singer Pokemon," and its entry in the Pokedex reflects the posing of an opera singer.

The three also get some unusual subtypes this time around. Typically Fire has been matched with Fighting, to the point that Pokemon fans crack jokes at the repetition, but this time it's Quaxly's water evolution that gets a Fighting subtype. Fuecoco evolves into a Fire and Ghost type, while Sprigatito gets Grass and Dark combo. They each learn a handful of other move types as well--for example, Sprigatito eventually learns the Fairy-type move Play Rough.

Whichever you choose, your rival Nemona will choose the one weak to it. So if you choose Sprigatito, for example, you'll regularly battle against Nemona and her Quaxly, because water is weak to grass. Ultimately which one you choose will depend on personal preference, and as always there will be plenty of fire, water, and grass Pokemon roaming the wild to fill any gaps in your roster.

Sprigatito - Floragato - Meowscarada (Magician Pokemon) - Grass, Dark

Fuecoco - Crocalor - Skeledirge (Singer Pokemon) - Fire, Ghost

If you walked through Stray's neon-soaked streets and thought "this game could use a lot more unicorn killing," then you're in luck thanks to Gori: Cuddly Carnage's latest trailer.

The "skate-and-slash" action game's trailer debuted during the PC Gaming Show 2023 Preview. It features the titular Gori--who the game's official Steam page describes as a "a badass murder-kitty on a death-dealing hoverboard"--and shows off his heavy-duty arsenal of weaponry including neon-lit whips and massive energy blasts.

Gori must battle mutated unicorns, possessed toys, and more who call themselves the Adorable Army, all while zipping through the streets on the aforementioned hoverboard, whose name is F.R.A.N.K--he's sentient by the way. The two are aided by an AI named CH1-P, who guides them to the leaders of the evil army throughout the game.

Cuddly Carnage was originally announced as a PC exclusive earlier this year, but in September developer Angry Demon Studio and publisher Wired Productions announced the game would be coming to consoles as well. Angry Demon Studio's previous games include a pair of Norse-inspired horror titles, 2017's Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn and 2019's Apsulov: End of Gods.

The Nintendo Wii U console is officially 10 years old today, which is traditionally a number that's accompanied by a tin or aluminum gift to symbolize strength and resilience. While the Wii U's longevity wasn't as durable as those materials, many of the games that appeared on that system were a different story entirely and represent some of the best Nintendo experiences that fans could have at the time.

NPD Group's Mat Piscatella went back into the archives of the Wii U charts and pulled up a top 10 list of best-selling games, which is nothing less than a highlight reel of Nintendo's first-party strength. The Wii U had plenty of other great games--some of which are still waiting to be ported--but the list below is pure Nintendo magic.

The director of Fallout: New Vegas has said he could see himself returning to the Fallout universe one day, though it's too soon to say if that will happen. Josh Sawyer directed 2010's New Vegas and told Kinda Funny Games that he still loves Fallout and offered up some possible locations for a future title.

"I could see myself working in it again, but you know, we'll see where the future takes me," he said, as reported by VGC.

New Vegas takes place in Las Vegas far into the future. But where could a future game be set? Sawyer said he hasn't thought about this in some time, but mentioned New Orleans, California, or the Midwest as locations that could be "very interesting" for a new Fallout game. Sawyer also said a Fallout game set outside of the United States could be another angle to take.

"I think there's lots of cool opportunities. It really depends on what the moment is and what the team looks like," he said. "I'm a big believer in finding things that, obviously I have to be passionate about it as a director, but also that the team is really excited about, and also that works within the larger idea of the property."

Sawyer's newest game is Pentiment, a 16th century adventure game made by a relatively small team within Obsidian. For this game, Sawyer said he had the freedom to make decisions "more or less however I want." But for a Fallout game, he would have less influence and overall control.

"When it's part of a larger IP and franchise it has to kind of work within a larger vision of, 'What is Fallout?' and I don't get to decide everything about that; it's not my thing," he said.

Big changes are coming to Destiny 2's PvP modes in the future, as Bungie plans to overhaul the Crucible in a manner similar to how Trials of Osiris was revamped several seasons. In an update on its blog post, Bungie detailed how it plans to revisit various aspects of the game to see how well they fit with the rest of Destiny 2.

This redesign will begin in Season 19 and will continue well into the future of Destiny 2, as Bungie plans to update the Crucible playlist structure and streamline it. This plan includes collapsing the Control and Clash game modes into a single Quickplay playlist, bringing some of the lesser-played modes into weekly rotations, and introducing a new Crucible Seal to encourage players to engage more frequently in PvP.

Lord Shaxx will have engram-focusing available from his vendor position in the Tower, and in next year's Lightfall expansion, this will be expanded to include older weapons and armor sets across Crucible, Iron Banner, Trials, and more. Matchmaking, which has recently been updated to loose skill-based matchmaking for several modes, will evolve to encompass skill, connection, and team sizes in the future. Bungie says that this new approach will begin the quickplay playlists and will roll out to more playlists over time, while new matchmaking techniques in Trials of Osiris are being tested so that solo and duo fireteams can have a better experience outside of the Freelance match option.

More maps will be added to the Crucible over the next year, including two from the earlier years of Destiny 2 and a brand-new map that will debut during the year of Lightfall. Finally, a competitive division is being introduced to act as a Ranked space for Crucible players looking to test their skills against opponents of similar strength.

Call of Duty fans who also subscribe to Comcast's Xfinity internet service can get a nice perk for Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0. Subscribers are able to claim a free Season 01 battle pass.

Members can head to their rewards and deals page in their account, and a code should be waiting, according to CharlieIntel. It's a nice perk, but not the first for Xfinity members--they also got a Modern Warfare II beta code.

The Modern Warfare II/Warzone 2 Season 01 battle pass does away with the linear nature of previous ones and instead offers a multi-sector map. Players use Battle Tokens to unlock items within a certain sector; claiming all items in a sector unlocks the next one.

The gaming conglomerate Embracer Group recently released its interim Q2 report, and it revealed a "transformative" six-year deal with multiple partners. However, it's not clear who these partners are, and what this deal will actually involve.

According to the report, the Embracer Group expects "the whole or parts" of this six-year transaction to close during the financial year. The partnership apparently covers a range of "large-budget upcoming games," and Embracer expects it to "improve predictability, lower business risk, and provide a positive impact on our cash flow and profits."

This apparent blockbuster deal is a ray of good news in a report that featured a few negative revelations. For example, Saints Row developer Volition will merge with Gearbox, after the game failed to recapture the critical acclaim of previous games in the series. (However, Embracer insists that the game sold in line with expectations.)

The last section of the report mentions tumultuous market conditions, and suggests that Embracer may have to offload some of its many companies and studios into separate publicly traded companies under a Swedish tax policy called Lex Asea. While that's not exactly the most promising news in the world, let's hope that we at least get that new Legacy of Kain game that's been teased.

The Division Heartland, Ubisoft's upcoming free-to-play Division game, has been rated for release in America, which suggests the game might be set to launch relatively soon.

The ESRB database contains a listing for Heartland on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The ratings group assigned the title an M rating, which is the same rating as The Division and The Division 2. The ratings description doesn't give much away, but it does mention how players will take on the role of an elite government agent trying to restore order.

"Players use machine guns, rifles, and explosives to kill members of hostile factions. Battles can be frenetic at times, highlighted by realistic gunfire, cries of pain, blood-splatter effects, and explosions," the rating's description says. "Cutscenes depict further instances of violence: non-combatant characters executed at close range; a silhouetted scene of Russian roulette, culminating in a head shot; first-person camera footage of a gunfight; captives hit with bats or hammers. Blood pools are sometimes depicted under corpses. The words 'f**k' and 'sh*t' appear in the game."

The ESRB's page also mentions that Heartland will have microtransactions, which is no surprise given the game uses a free-to-play business model.

Heartland does not have a release date, but as mentioned, the fact that the ESRB has now assigned the game a rating suggests its release might be right around the corner.

In addition to Heartland, Ubisoft is working on a mobile game called The Division: Resurgence and a feature film.

The Nintendo Switch eShop is getting 45 new games this week, including the highly anticipated Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Game Freak's next mainline Pokemon game is set to release on November 18.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is an open world game set in Paldea, a region loosely inspired by Spain. The three different starter Pokemon are the Grass cat Sprigatito, Fire crocodile Fuecoco, and the water duck Quaxly.

Scarlet and Violet also has three different quest lines: Victory Road, The Path of Legends, and Starfell Streets. Victory Road is the typical route of conquering gyms, Path of Legends appears to be more research and mystery based, and Starfell Streets offers a new way for players to challenge antagonists. For more information on this new Pokemon game check out our Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Review, as well as everything we know about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

For the holiday season spanning November 1 to January 10, if you're a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscriber, you can get double My Nintendo Gold Points on eligible purchases. So if you purchase an item in the eShop, you'll get 10%. A $60 purchase in the eShop will now return 600 Gold Points, which can be redeemed for $6 towards your next purchase.

Check out the full list of new games in the Nintendo eShop below.

Frozen Flame is a new survival adventure game that puts players in the dying world of the Dragons. The game has now launched into early access for Windows users on Steam after a recent beta period. First-time players will be thrust into a land of the unknown, where they only know a little about the combat and exploration the game has to offer. While Frozen Flame does offer some tutorials along the way, the first hour or two will be challenging for players trying to navigate the landscape. Luckily, we've compiled nine beginner tips for players so they don't feel so lost at the start of the game. These tips won't contain any spoilers for the game's campaign or gameplay loop. However, they will give starting players an edge as soon as they step into the survival world.

1. Pick up all crafting materials early on

As with any survival game, your crafting items are key, especially when you first start out. Frozen Flame is no different, and there are a plethora of resources ripe for the taking in the game's first area. While you don't want to go too overboard, it's vital that you pick up any resource you see during the process of completing your first few quests. Whether it's branches, stones, apples, or anything else, you want to pick it up if you're just walking by.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is live, and the sequel includes the brand-new Stronghold locations for battle royale and the DMZ extraction mode. Here we break down everything you need to know about Warzone's new high-tier looting grounds, so you can get loaded up with some of the game's best gear.

New Strongholds feature explained

Strongholds are buildings filled with high-tier loot and cash, but they're well protected by AI enemies. There are 77 possible Stronghold locations on Al Mazrah, but only a few locations activate per match. These buildings exist in both battle royale and DMZ, but they operate differently for both modes, so it's important to know the differences between the two.

Warzone Strongholds

At the end of the first battle royale circle collapse, Strongholds are activated on the map and do not require any keys to access. There will only ever be three active Strongholds on the map at any given time. Strongholds become marked on the map as a large castle icon. The first team to reach one must defuse a bomb there before a timer expires. Afterwards, the objective for all other Strongholds is simply to clear out a specific amount of AI enemies, but any human players you encounter will also count towards the total needed.