Gamespot

Destiny 2's Season 19 will see the arrival of a new mode called Iron Banner: Fortress. Bungie describes Iron Banner: Fortress as a mode similar to Zone Control, in which players compete to capture and hold zones. Caital also apparently has some role to play in Fortress, but Bungie leaves the exact details of how she affects the mode's gameplay a secret.

Iron Banner: Fortress goes live on January 3, 2023.

For Season 19's Iron Banner rewards, Saladin will have Auto Rifles and Slug Shotguns for players. Following a year since the last Iron Banner armor refresh, Season 19 will also see sets from The Taken King era. In the teaser image, you can see Iron Companion sets for Titan, Warlock, and Hunter. These are older popular armor sets players have wanted to see return for a long time.

In other info covered in This Week At Bungie, the Eliksni Quarter community event launches on November 22. As part of the event, players get to restore the Quarter by donating Captain's Coins. In exchange for donating, players will obtain rewards like upgrade materials and more.

Though Pentiment doesn't look like your typical pre-Black Friday game from a major publisher like Xbox Game Studios, it's maybe hitting at just the right time--after all, all the forthcoming holidays likely mean a lot of new Xbox players are joining the ecosystem. With Pentiment landing in Game Pass on day one, it could be a sleeper hit after receiving mostly positive reviews. Both new players and tenured Xbox fans may be wondering: How long does it take to beat Pentiment? It's a good question given the novelty of such a game. Is it a five-hour game? A 30-hour game? The answer is actually somewhere in between, so keep reading as we explain the time investment you're in for with Obsidian's talky 2D RPG.

How long is Pentiment?

Pentiment is split into three acts across approximately 15-20 hours of gameplay. Though it's an RPG, the world is structured in such a way that you can't do everything available to you on any given in-game day. This means that you'll necessarily miss some content--it is, in part, a murder mystery, so not all leads can be followed. It also means that multiple playthroughs can unfold differently, both between players or even if you're just reloading a save and going down a new path.

The day-night cycle of Pentiment essentially restricts your actions so that choosing to follow one lead will sometimes remove or temporarily block other opportunities. It's quite like Night in the Woods in that way, if you know that reference. As a journeyman artist turned momentary private detective, Andreas Malers can't be in two places at once, so while this isn't the sort of RPG where you'll ditch the critical path for five hours as you min-max your sorcery stats, some branches on this elaborate story tree will simply take longer to go down, hence the range of hours.

The details of a patent filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment suggest the PlayStation parent company may be interested in implementing NFTs and blockchain technology on its platform. The patent title is "Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger," as reported by Video Games Chronicle.

The patent details a system where the history of a unique in-game item would be tracked with blockchain technology, including details of who created the item, who owned it in the past, and whether it has been modified along the way.

In the background section, Sony compares the digital assets in question to sports memorabilia, saying "individuals often find it meaningful to own or use unique physical items related to respected celebrities or activities."

The patent suggests fans might want to collect in-game objects that were owned or created by notable esports players or gaming influencers, saying that the tracked data could show if an item was the one used by a player to win a major game tournament, as one example. The patent also mentions transferring items between games and even across platforms.

"The techniques and technologies described herein expand the functionality of digital assets associated with video games, and of systems that create and manage such digital assets, by tracking a history of the digital assets," the description concludes.

Rocket League's Octane landed in Fortnite in early October, as part of a collaboration between two games both owned by Epic. The vehicle is currently only available in Fortnite's creative mode, but tweets made by both Fortnite and Rocket League suggest that the Octane might be appearing in battle royale this week.

A video posted to both Fortnite and Rocket League's Twitter accounts show a vehicle from a Rocket League match disappearing into a rift, a visual that's been used in the past to promote Fortnite's numerous crossovers.

The Octane has already been available in Fortnite's creative mode, giving players an advance look at its special abilities, which include a wall-climbing feature and a boost.

The tweet lists November 15, when Fortnite's next update v22.40 is scheduled to go live, meaning it's very likely we'll see the Octane come to battle royale once the update is finished.

The maintenance period for v22.40 is set to begin at 4 AM ET on November 15, with matchmaking suspended shortly before the downtime.

Microsoft Flight Simulator dropped its 40th anniversary update on November 11, and keen fans have already unearthed a cool new easter egg celebrating the series' long history--emulated versions of the first four games in the series, which can be played right in your virtual cockpit.

As reported by Eurogamer, the easter egg was first picked up by Redditor HughesMDflyer4, who found the games hidden in the cockpit of the Diamond DA62. The easter egg is enabled by flicking the ELT switch, which then brings up the games on the cockpit's Garmin screen. Players can switch between Flight Simulator 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 using buttons at the top of the screen.

There are no restrictions on when you load up this little in-game treat, meaning you can fly a plane in one of the retro flight sim programs, while also flying your Flight Simulator 2020 plane. Already fans have used the easter egg to attempt challenges such as landing planes at the same airport in both games at once.

The 40th anniversary update also brought a number of other highly-requested features to Microsoft Flight Simulator, including helicopters and gliders, which haven't made an appearance in the sim franchise since 2006. The update also adds a number of notable historic aircraft, as well as the Airbus A310.

Green Man Gaming is offering huge deals ahead of Black Friday, making it easy to stock up on PC games this holiday season. Beyond its sprawling catalog of discounts, you’ll want to check back in every 48 hours, as the retailer is offering new “Star Deals” that will further lower prices on select titles.

As if discounted games weren’t enough, Green Man Gaming is running a Black Friday 2022 Giveaway that could secure you a bundle of free games and a free one-year subscription to GeForce Now. To enter the competition, all you need to do is buy a game during the Black Friday 2022 Sale.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, recently announced an investigation into Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. Now, the Commission has had to speak out after one staffer made a comment that caused some gamers to believe he might have a certain preference in the ever-churning console war.

Commission member Ricardo Cardoso said in a tweet that the body was "working to ensure you will still be able to play Call of Duty on other consoles (including my PlayStation)." While this technically describes Microsoft and Activision's position on the matter, given that both companies have repeatedly stated that COD will continue to come out on PlayStation, some felt that Cardoso was expressing his own opinion on the matter, rather than that of the body.

In a statement, the Commission clarified that Cardoso is not involved in the body's investigation, as he works in the Director General for the Internal Market. The investigation is being handled by a separate department, the Directorate General for Competition. The Commission also notes that Cardoso intended his remarks in a personal capacity, as "indicated clearly in his Twitter profile." In other news, retweets are not endorsements.

Enotria: The Last Song isn't the first game to take inspiration from Souls-likes, the genre forged from the fires of From Software's Dark Souls and Bloodborne games, but it may very well be the sunniest and warmest-looking one yet.

Developer and publisher Jyamma Games is still aiming for that particular flavor of combat, timing, and player agency in a world made almost entirely out of hope, but with some changes that just might shake up the Souls-like genre.

Enotria: The Last Song takes place in a sad and broken world, but you might not know it at first glance with the sun-bathed landscapes and lush green grass looking inviting rather than creepy.

This action-RPG almost carries a stirring sense of wonder, like B-roll footage of the Xbox 360's Fable trilogy, but the Italian summers of Enotria carry much more under the surface than sun damage.

Jyamma Games is working toward a feeling and aesthetic that will transport players to the Italian countryside while also keeping the dread and despair baked firmly at the center of it all.

As a show of appreciation for players' patience during Disney Dreamlight Valley's early access troubles, developer Gameloft is offering some compensation in the way of 2,500 Moonstones--enough to unlock a Star Path, the game's battle pass-like cosmetic rewards system.

Disney Dreamlight Valley has been a huge success for developer Gameloft, with its early access period bringing in tons of fans eager to spend time with their favorite characters in a cute life simulator. Things haven't been perfect, though, as the game has seen its fair share of problems ranging from frustrating quest glitches to game-breaking bugs and beyond--not to mention it has some fundamental areas that could benefit from improvement.

Blizzard is giving away beta keys for its upcoming mobile game Warcraft Arclight Rumble, and all you have to do to score one is ask nicely for it.

In a tweet, the official Warcraft Arclight Rumble account called on those "jonesing for the beta" to "try asking nicely," followed by a link to a set of official contest rules. As the rules explain, those interested in snagging a limited time access beta key just need to tag the @WarcraftRumble Twitter account and ask nicely for a code.

MLB The Show 22 launched back in April for $70 on current-gen platforms, and unless you were subscribed to Game Pass, you were left paying a pretty penny to play the baseball game. That has changed, however, as GameStop is currently running a deal that slashes the PS5 version down to just $20.

MLB The Show 22 is actually on sale on multiple platforms through GameStop, including a $10 price on PS4 and a $20 price on Xbox Series X. However, it's PlayStation owners who stand to get the best deal here, seeing as the game is still available on Xbox Game Pass and likely will remain there until MLB The Show 23's release next year.

Building on last year's games with improvements to the Road to the Show mode and the best-in-class Diamond Dynasty, MLB The Show 22 is a terrific baseball game. The cover athlete Shohei Ohtani is a two-way phenom, capable of striking batters out and launching towering home runs, and two-way players can change the dynamic of a game.

Because rewards are given out in Diamond Dynasty much more generously than some other sports games' similar modes, that $20 you pay will likely be the only money you ever pay for MLB The Show 22.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is coming hot on the heels of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's striking success, and it's more of the battle royale action that fans have come to expect. Now, a release trailer set to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird shows off the new map's many thrills and spills, as well as a number of surprising changes to the formula. You can pre-load it now.

As expected, Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is a free battle royale game that serves as an official follow-up to its successful predecessor. Warzone 2.0's new map is called Al Mazrah, and it's a desert environment with rivers, cities, and shanty-towns. It includes several locations from previous Warzone maps, as well as a revamped Gulag that's 2v2 instead of the usual 1v1.

A new trademark for "Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections" has been filed by Bandai Namco, a subtitle that was previously used for the Naruto series of games developed by CyberConnect2.

As spotted by Gematsu, the listing was filed in Europe, although no further details were supplied in the online paperwork. The Ultimate Ninja Storm series has been dormant since the last entry in the series, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, launched all the way back in 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, as well as a Switch port in 2020. Since then, CyberConnect2 has worked on an Ultimate Ninja Storm trilogy that collected the older games into one big package, a Demon Slayer game, an update of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle for modern systems, and more.

As for the Naruto franchise, the last couple of years have seen the manga and anime franchise keep a low profile. Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker, a multiplayer take on the series that starred Naruto's son, was released back in 2018 to mixed reviews, and 2019 saw the debut of the mobile game Boruto: Borutical Generations. The most noteworthy Naruto appearance of recent history wasn't even in a standalone game, as Naruto and his friends eventually made their way into the metaverse of Fortnite

Nominees for the annual Game Awards have been announced, and unsurprisingly, the 2022 pack is led by heavyweight blockbusters God of War Ragnarok at 10 nominations, while Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West have 7 nominations each.

In a big surprise, Stray has the third-largest number of nominations for a single game, with this indie title having earned 6 nominations in total. Overall, Sony has games with a combined total of 20 nominations, Annapurna Interactive and Nintendo share second place with 11 nominations each, and Bandai Namco's games have an impressive 8 nominations across the 30 award categories.

The Game Awards will once again be hosted by Geoff Keighley, and like previous shows, it will feature more than just the titular awards. The event has become a showcase for game reveals, with each award category usually bookended by new games making their debut and updates on highly anticipated titles before they release. The return of Crash Bandicoot has been teased for the 2022 Game Awards, and the show launched its own Discord server ahead of the main event.

GAME OF THE YEAR

We're just days away from the biggest Nintendo Switch release of the year. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the ninth generation of mainline entries in the massively popular RPG series, release on November 18 exclusively for Nintendo Switch. If you haven't preordered a copy yet, you can lock in your preorder for just $49 at Super Shop with promo code SBSPKMN.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II may receive customizable killcams in the future, according to a leaker who has accurately revealed unannounced details about the game in the past.

The news comes from RalphsValve (via Insider Gaming) in the form of two tweets. One tweet claims players will be able to choose between Final Kills or Play of the Game sequences in a future update, and that each will be highly customizable with the ability to display messages, GIFs, certain audio, and more. There will also reportedly be templates for players to choose from.

Remedy Entertainment has confirmed that it is working on Control 2, which will be co-developed and published with 505 Games. Formerly known as Codename Heron, Control 2 will release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in the future. The developer added that the sequel is currently in a concept stage of development, and will be powered by Remedy's Northlight engine.

"With Control, we leaped into the unknown. We wanted to create something new. Something different and unexpected. A world like no other. Thank you, the audience, for making Control such a success for us," Control game director Mikael Kasurinen said in a blog post. "With Control 2, we'll take another leap into the unknown. It'll be an unexpected journey. It'll take a while, but to put it mildly, this is the most exciting project I've ever worked on. It's still early days, but it will be worth the wait."

505 Games co-CEOs Rami and Raffi Galante have described Control as the "biggest investment" that the publisher ever made and that the $51 million deal for the sequel with Remedy will allow the "success story" of Control to continue. Remedy will publish the game on PC and 505 Games will handle PS5 and Xbox Series X|S publishing duties.

Since it launched in 2019, Control has sold an impressive 3 million units, and an enhanced edition of the game was released later on PC and console.

Anyone who's ever been told to "respect your elders" will now get the chance, as Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration commemorates the full 50-year history of the developer.

Atari has partnered with Digital Eclipse--whose last release was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection back in August--to restore and compile over 100 games from the Atari library into one package. The collection features games from every console Atari manufactured, including for the first time on modern consoles the Lynx and Jaguar.

Atari 50's launch trailer shows off a few of the games that will be available in the compilation, including Asteroid Deluxe, Breakout, and Fatal Run. Digital Eclipse also reimagined or remade six games for the collection as well, including Airworld, the fourth game in the Swordquest series which famously was never finished and never released.

Finally, Atari 50 also features a full timeline of the company's 50 years in existence. The timeline gives players access to never-before-seen interviews with members of the Atari team, including company co-founder Nolan Bushnell and Defender lead programmer Eugene Jarvis.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is out today on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC for $40.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Spec Ops co-op missions have tons of intel to collect, and here we'll guide you to each intel location to collect all 20 pieces from the Low Profile mission. These pieces of intel are scattered around the map in the form of items such as USB sticks, audio logs, and crates. Additionally, it's worth noting that finding 20 intel items in Spec Ops will reward you with the Full SSE Trophy/Achievement. There are 50 intel pieces throughout all three Spec Ops missions, but this is the easiest route to get the 20 needed for the Trophy/Achievement.

MW2 Spec Ops - all Low Profile intel locations

These intel pieces can be collected by using stealth to move around the map, or you can go in guns blazing and just clear out every location as you work your way around the area. There's no time limit for completing the mission, so use what method you prefer.

The intel can be collected in any order, but starting at B and working around the map clearing out enemies with stealth is a great approach to avoid getting overwhelmed. You can scroll down to the last intel location on the list and choose if you want to start there to make that intel an easier grab, or if you want to nab it after clearing out all the enemies. It's a bit tricky, so I saved it for last.

The Game Awards has launched its own Discord server and announced multi-faceted partnership with the social media company leading up to the award ceremony on December 8.

In the official TGA Discord server, you can vote for nominees and watch the show live together. You can join via a link that the official TGA account posted on Twitter. In broader partnerships with Discord, TGA will introduce AMA stage events with special guests. This year's ceremony will also debut the Best Community Support Award in collaboration with Discord. The award will recognize the community managers and other staff that make the communities in and around video games possible. Whether this award will see actual screen time, or be shifted off in favor of yet another ad, remains to be seen.

Chinese studio Paper Games just announced a new open-world action game called Project The Perceiver, developed by internal sub-studio 17ZHE. It's certainly a surprise announcement, as Paper Games is very well-known for producing the popular dress-up game Shining Nikki and the Nikki Up2U series.

From the trailer, it looks like Project The Perceiver is set in a fantasy historical era with Dark Souls-inspired combat. According to an official description, players will also meet a lot of different characters against a backdrop of turbulent unrest, understand and transform their ideals into masks, and also participate in violent duels.

In the trailer, a character dies and after reviving, receives a "blank mask." The official Project The Perceiver website reveals only two characters so far, the "Mask of Devotion" (the main character in the trailer wearing white) and "Mask of Umbra," who appears to be a guy you can fight in the trailer.

Project The Perceiver has no release date set yet. So far it's confirmed for PlayStation, and other platforms are unannounced.

There seems to be a trend of open-world Dark Souls-inspired action games set in loosely historical fantasy settings from Chinese studios, such as, Black Myth Wukong. It remains to be seen if Paper Games can crack an entirely different genre from its usual fare, though if Love Nikki's narrative arcs (Blood curses! War!) and Shining Nikki's 3D models are anything to go by--we should have high expectations.

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 launches on November 16 with the start of Modern Warfare 2: Season 1, and the game launches with Call of Duty's new DMZ extraction mode. Activision has been light on the details, but content creators were able to livestream gameplay of DMZ during a reveal event on November 9. Here we break down everything we learned about DMZ from the event.

DMZ Mode Explained

Activision's official description of the mode says, "DMZ is an open-world, narrative-focused extraction mode where Operator squads have free rein to complete faction-based missions, take on additional side objectives, engage with enemy Operators or AI combatants, and search for valuable items, all while fighting to survive toward exfiltration."

The new DMZ mode seems to be Call of Duty's take on the extraction shooter genre, with players dropping in as trios on Warzone's Al Mazrah map to loot, fight, and extract. There are objectives players can complete for XP and cash, and players have the choice of how they want to play. They can just drop into a match for looting, they can choose to look for gunfights, or try to complete specific objectives.

Just like other extraction shooters like Escape From Tarkov and Hunt: Showdown, players can keep all the weapons and loot earned from a successful extraction, while also losing everything if they die before extraction.

The second phase of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's pre-patch is right around the corner, and Blizzard has now revealed the official patch notes ahead of the update's arrival on November 15.

As previously announced, phase two of the pre-patch update will introduce Dracthyr Evokers, the game's new race (that is also a class). Players will be able to play through the Dracthyr starter zone so that they are ready to dive into Dragonflight proper come launch day on November 28.

The patch will also include a revamped version of a classic WoW dungeon, Uldaman, alongside a new Primal Storms event that tasks players with completing quests and world events as they look to fend off attacks from the Primalists and their elementals.

Though the previous pre-patch update introduced the new talent tree revamp and user interface changes, the phase two update will further refine both. Icons for some class talents will be changed to prevent confusion and duplicate icons within a talent tree, and numerous balance changes and bug fixes are slated to come to the game's various classes both in PvE and PvP. Mousing over a talent will highlight where it is on a player's action bar come the update, and in general, talents should be a little more readable.

With winter closing in for the chill, now is a good time to start preparing for the cold months that lie ahead. There's nothing cozier than a warm blanket and a mug of your favorite hot beverage, and adding a book only makes things better. Over on Amazon, you can score a number of great books detailing the history of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series at an exceptional discount as part of Amazon's current B2G1 free sale.

Each book has received a big price reduction, but as an added bonus, you can buy two of them and get the third book for free. Or technically, buy three books, and the cheapest one in your basket will be free (Amazon spreads the discount across all three times). The items on offer include the expanded edition guide to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a 512-page hardcover guidebook that covers everything in the main 2017 game as well as the two Expansion Pass DLC packs.

As part of Fanatical's 10th Birthday Bash celebration this month, the retailer is running a special mystery bundle deal where you can pay what you want for a grab bag of mystery PC games.

The bundle is offered on a sliding scale, starting at one game key for $1 and up to 10 keys for $7. Since you’re purchasing random mystery keys, there’s no way to tell which games you’ll get. The store description says you could unwrap “everything from the biggest and best games from AAA publishers to awesome indie games and hidden gems."

If you've purchased other recent mystery bundles, please know there's a chance you'll get games you already have. The terms also say that “if you buy one bundle of 1-10 games in a single order, you will receive different games,” but it’s possible you could end up with duplicate keys if you buy multiple bundles.

Along with the mystery games, you also get the usual 5% off coupon to use on future purchases. There’s a chance you could also find one of ten $100 spending spree coupons you can use to buy more games from Fanatical. Those are admittedly slim chances, but an extra $100 to spend on more games is an awesome perk if you’re lucky enough to score one.

In God of War Ragnarok, an early mine puzzle in Svartalfheim may prove to be the first time you'll be stopped dead in your tracks. This tricky puzzle demands Kratos use his frosty Leviathan Axe in a clever new way, but without much of a tutorial from the game, you're likely to get stuck. Fear not: We're here to help. Here's how to solve the mine puzzle in God of War Ragnarok.

The Quest for Tyr mine puzzle

You'll encounter this mine puzzle during the main story mission titled "The Quest for Tyr." Kratos and Atreus will be exploring the realm of Svartalfheim when they come a a mineshaft that includes several manmade waterways. You'll need to redirect this water in order to turn a crank that will allow you to cross an opening, but the trick that "unlocks" the solution is something you'll not have done yet in-game. Follow along with pictures below, or just follow our words.

First, you'll want to send Atreus up the climbable wall next to the entrance, which you do by looking toward it and pressing Square when prompted. Next, take your axe and throw it at the left waterway so that the icy collision creates a dam right after where the wheel is, causing the water to spill over. Tell Atreus to spin the crank he's standing next to and several chunks of ore will come floating down the waterway, colliding with your frosty impromptu dam. Now you can recall your axe and the ore-made dam will continue to reroute the water onto the wheel, moving a platform to the middle of the room.

EA Sports has released the results of its World Cup simulation, predicting that Argentina will claim the title this year and keep EA's own win streak alive for accurate predictions. Impressively and notably, EA's World Cup simulation accurately predicted the past three men's World Cup winners, including France (2018), Germany (2014), and Spain (2010).

EA simulated all 64 matches and determined that Argentina would beat Brazil 1-0 in the World Cup final, according to VGC. In real life, Argentina and Brazil haven't competed against each other in the World Cup since 1990 and have never played each other in a World Cup final.

Lionel Messi scored the only goal in EA's World Cup final simulation (his eighth in the tournament) to help lift Argentina to the country's first title since 1986 and third overall. Messi will also take home the Golden Boot (most goals) and Golden Ball (best player), the simulation said.

Messi has said this will be his final World Cup, so it would be a storybook ending to his international career if this comes to frution.

EA also published a list of the top goal-scorers in the World Cup, according to its simulation, and you can see all the top players in the graphic above.

The real men's World Cup begins November 18 in Qatar, with the tournament stretching through December until the final on December 18.

Key Disco Elysium developers' departures from ZA/UM has been shrouded in controversy, with game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov disagreeing with ZA/UM over the circumstances of their removal.

Kurvitz and Rostov claimed they were forced out by investors who scammed their way into obtaining a majority share of the company, while ZA/UM representatives disagreed, and said the duo were fired for workplace misconduct.

Kurvitz and Rostov detailed their full allegations in a Medium article and claimed that the majority stakehold in ZA/UM, previously held by Estonian businessman Margus Linnamäe, was bought out by Tütreke OÜ, an entity owned by two individuals named Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel. After the transition of ownership, the duo alleged Kompus and Haavel pushed them out of the company.

"As soon as they became majority shareholders, we were quickly excluded from daily operations, our employment was terminated and our access to the company’s information was shut off," Kurvitz and Rostov wrote. "Our firing came weeks after we started asking for documents and financial data, which is still being kept from us."

They then claimed that Kompus and Haavel fraudulently obtained the majority stake by using ZA/UM's money.

Fortnite has a huge weekend ahead. The Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) Invitational will unfold live in Raleigh, North Carolina on November 12 and 13. The Duos tourney will not only be the first in-person Fortnite event since the COVID-19 pandemic stalled such gatherings for a few years, it'll also be streamed around the world, of course. With 50 teams full of rising stars and former winners colliding in one chaotic weekend, we reached out to several of the experts covering the event to put some context behind the event's biggest names, take predictions, and offer a few tips for players, like me, who aren't (yet) good enough to compete on Fortnite's biggest stage.

Speaking with a caster, an analyst, and a host for the upcoming tournament, we were able to get a well-rounded view of the event in this period of calm before the inevitable storm that will be the FNCS Invitational 2022. Let's meet our experts.

Javier: My name is Javier Collazo, and I go by the online alias "MonsterDface." I started my journey into esports as a player in 2012 and since then have branched into professional commentary and now operate my own esports production company, the Practice Server.

My history with Fortnite started with the game's Battle Royale release in 2017. I immediately fell in love with how different the universe was. It wasn't long before I found myself leading the push with educational content on YouTube, and then receiving an invitation to cast my first Fortnite tournament. It was at that moment I knew what my career would be.

With less than a month remaining in Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 4, it's time to look ahead to what's next. We don't know a lot for sure about next season--for example, we don't know if it will be Chapter 3 Season 5, or Chapter 4 Season 1. But there are plenty of rumors in the air, along with some datamined info that may or may not mean anything. From battle pass rumors to start date inferrences, there's a lot to discuss. First, let's start off with what we know for sure about the next season of Fortnite.

Everything that's been officially announced about the next Fortnite season

Technically, the answer to this is "nothing," because Epic hasn't made any reveals or even teased anything yet. But we know that the current season will end the first weekend of December, and thus we also know that the next season will start within a day or so of the current season's conclusion.

When is Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 1--or is it Chapter 3 Season 5?

You should expect to be playing a new season of Fortnite on Sunday, December 4.

There is an odd wrinkle to this, however. Currently, The Herald's quest timer says her quests last two weeks past that date. That would be unusual, since The Herald is part of the current battle pass, and battle pass quests haven't extended past the length of the actual battle pass before.

Could next season be delayed? Or was this just a typo? It's almost certainly just a mistake, because the battle pass end date recently changed from December 3 to December 2 (more on why they did this in a moment). If The Herald quest timer was correct, then Epic probably would have changed the battle pass end date to two weeks later to match it. But they didn't.

Fanatical is celebrating its 10th birthday by offering a bunch of cheap Steam games in its Birthday Favorites Bundle, as well as giving away free games, coupons, and other prizes--including a $150 grand prize.

Electronic Arts and DICE have released the latest development update video for Battlefield 2042, revealing what's next for the multiplayer shooter. This includes multiple free play opportunities to come in the future and the start of a new season for the game. Additionally, EA announced that Battlefield 2042 will join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (via EA Access) with the start of Season 3 very soon.

Season 3 will introduce a new Specialist character, a new map that is described as being one that DICE "always wanted to realize," a new battle pass, more Portal content, and additional events. "We're only a few weeks away from the start of Season 3. This season will see us head to an all new Battlefield, in a location we've always wanted to realize, but haven't so far in our 20 years of creating Battlefield," DICE said in a blog post.

With Season 3 tipped to begin in the coming weeks, fans shouldn't have to wait much longer to find out more about what's on the way. EA also teased that Season 4 is also in the works, and that DICE is already in pre-production on "new content" to come after that in 2023.

Sony has announced the most-downloaded games on the PlayStation Store for October 2022, and as confirmed earlier this month, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has been the biggest winner in a very competitive period. Across the world on both PS5 and PS4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has won first place, easily beating EA and Take-Two's popular sports games along the way.

Modern Warfare II surpassed $1 billion in global sell-through revenue in just its first 10 days of sales, having earned $800 million of that total in just its first three days alone. According to Activision and Sony, it's the biggest PlayStation Store launch of all time for the COD series.

That doesn't mean that there haven't been a few surprises in the battle for second place, as Gotham Knights took silver on PS5 last month. While it received mixed reviews across the board when it debuted, the current-gen console and PC game grabbed second place in the US and Canada, and third place in the European charts.

Forza Horizon 5 has added a new story mission set in the Donut Media Test Track, eight accolades, and cosmetics themed around Donut Media. These cosmetics include clothing, emotes, and other collectibles.

Other new content includes new unlockable cars, such as the brand new 2020 Lynk&Co #62 Cyan Racing 03. The 1965 Morris Mini-Traveller, the 1946 Ford Super Deluxe Station Wagon, and the 1953 Morris Minor Series II Traveler all return to Forza in this update. In car customization, the update adds 21 new Rocket Bunny Widebody kits.

The PC version has also received a number of improvements, most notably two new presets, Ultra and Extreme, which render reflections for the player's car in Free Roam, Races, and Drivatar in Photo mode. Other additions include AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2, Enhanced DirectX Raytracing, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution, NVIDIA DLAA, and 3DRap Hand Controller HC1 compatibility.

Humble’s new 11 Bit Studios Complete Collection bundle includes every PC game and piece of DLC released by the publisher, including acclaimed titles like Children of Morta, Frostpunk, This War of Mine, and more.

Amazon is currently running a Buy two, get one free promotion, and hundreds of games are included in the savings. This includes blockblusters such as Elden Ring, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

As usual, the cheapest of your three games will be the one sold for free. After adding the three items to your cart, the B2G1 coupon will be automatically applied. The offer doesn’t apply to digital goods--so you’ll need to settle for physical copies. But beyond those restrictions, this is a pretty enticing deal and a great way to knock a few games off your backlog as we enter the busy holiday season.

In fact, a handful of titles in the catalog are recent releases that have yet to see any worthwhile discounts. So, if you’re looking for a cheap way to pick up new games like Modern Warfare II, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, or Madden NFL 23, you’ll want to take a closer look at this impressive B2G1 free deal.

Interested in the savings but don’t want to wade through hundreds of product listings? You’ll find our favorite eligible games below. Also, note that tons of other products (such as books and home office supplies) are included in the catalog, and you can mix-and-match across all available categories.

The battle for the very heart of Sea of Thieves now seems inevitable, and in Adventure 9, Return of the Damned, you'll need to find all journals across two islands and two Sea Forts in order to earn all limited-time event cosmetics before the fearsome Flameheart returns. This event is live in-game until November 17, and though it's perhaps the most straightforward of them all so far, knowing all journal locations still proves tricky, especially when you've got phantoms, skellies, and Ocean Crawlers breathing down your neck. Here's where to find all Return of the Damned journals.

Sea of Thieves journals - Return of the Damned

Characters in Sea of Thieves simply love writing in journals, about as much as folks in Rapture enjoy leaving audio logs. For this adventure, you'll need to find four journals in total, two from Belle and two from the Servant of the Flame. These journals never change spots, and two of them aren't far from where you'll greet these characters.

You can complete this Adventure in any order, playing it as the heroes (Belle) or villains (Servant) first. For this guide, we'll imagine you've sided with Belle first, but you can jump around as needed.

Microsoft released DirectStorage 1.1 this week and its biggest feature is GPU decompression for Windows. The new feature promises to improve load times on PC.

Here's how it works. When you download a game, all the assets have been compressed for ready them for distribution. When you launch the game, the assets get decompressed for presentation during play. This can take time, as the decompression goes from storage to the central processing unit to the graphics card. As Cassie Hoef, a senior programmer at Microsoft, explained, "Typically, decompression work is done on the CPU because compression formats have historically been optimized for CPUs only."

The new update lets developers shift that work to the GPU, which are more efficient at "performing repeatable tasks in parallel." In effect, this will speed up load times if developers implement changes via "metacommands."

Google has begun to process refunds for its Stadia streaming service, which the internet giant announced would be shut down back in September. Refunds are being processed by an automated system, and users who purchased games and add-on content will get their money back soon.

In a statement, Google asked fans to be patient in this process and urged people to not contact Google's customer support, because they are unable to expedite the refund process. The majority of refunds are expected to be processed by January 18, 2023, which is the day that Stadia's servers are shutting down.

Refunds are being applied to the same form of payment used to make the purchase originally. Should there be any processing issues, Google will reach out by email with details on next steps.

Refunds are available for the following Stadia products and services:

• All Stadia hardware, including the controller, Founder's edition, Premiere edition, and Play and Watch with Google TV packages
• Software, including games, add-ons, and in-game transactions

Google is not refunding Stadia Pro subscription fees issued prior to September 29, 2022. People who had an active Stadia Pro membership as of September 29 will not be charged to access their library or any other subscription benefits until the service shuts down in January. The Stadia Store is already closed.

For more on Stadia's forthcoming shutdown, check out the refund FAQ page.

The latest addition to Lost Ark's roster of playable classes is coming November 16 in the form of the dagger-wielding Reaper, joining the Deathblade and Shadowhunter as the third Assassin advanced class.

As detailed in a new Lost Ark Academy blog post, Reapers are masters of stealth that bounce between three different attack modes: Normal, Chaos, and Persona. Players taking the Reaper for a spin will want to build up their Persona meter, which grants access to a number of stealth-focused abilities like Shadow Illusions and stealth attacks. If the Persona meter is full, players can opt to unleash Chaos mode, which greatly increases their crit rate, attack speed, and movement speed for a limited-time.

There are two primary ways to build Reapers using the game's class engraving system. The Hunger class engraving is focused on quicker Chaos meter buildup, increasing attack power when the Chaos meter is full. The other, Lunar Voice, tailored around more powerful attacks while in Persona mode, greatly increasing the base damage of Swoop abilities while in Persona mode. Like other classes, Reapers also have two Awakening skills to choose from: