Move over, America’s ass. There’s another MCU backside in town that is just as rotund and delightful to see in spandex. The “Merc with a Mouth,” better known as Deadpool, has buns that are so nice that there’s a new Xbox controller made in its image. No, this is not a promotional joke for Deadpool & Wolverine. There is actually an Xbox controller that is shaped like Deadpool’s butt. (Suddenly, I hear Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body” playing.)

Microsoft unveiled this odd controller on Xbox Wire, calling it the “Cheeky Controller” with a firm, um, grip to it. We really appreciate Deadpool’s creativity and thought he put into this design. The sad news is that fans can only get it via a competition at this point. If you’re 18+, following Xbox on X (always Twitter in our hearts) and sharing the Xbox sweepstakes tweet gets you an entry. Maybe the Xbox controller with Deadpool’s butt on the back will become available for all at some point. Until then, we are totally jealous of the lucky winner (assuming it will only be one!) 

In addition to the controller, the winner will get a sweet custom console that features Deadpool’s katanas. The contest ends on August 11, which is after Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on July 26. Let’s see who wins the battle to own Deadpool’s best asset.

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No one thought a 1:1 Earth flight simulator would have been among the best games in recent memory. That sounded dumb and boring. But in the midst of lockdown, people loved the peace and grandeur of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Now, as part of the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, the follow-up is here. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 somehow looks even more beautiful, robust, and real than its predecessor. Just take a look!

Microsoft promises the game will be “the most ambitious consumer flight simulator ever undertaken,” and will utilize the “latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming.” Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 goes beyond merely operating the aircraft; it will allow simmers to pursue their dream of an aviation career. Loads more aircraft types, and actual life out there in the game.

The game is an Xbox Games Studios project, so it’ll only be for Microsoft devices (sorry PlayStation gamers), but it’ll be available on Gamepass day one, so that’s nice. And what is that day? November 19, 2024. Just in time to pretend to fly for the holidays.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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Harrison Ford went on a grand adventure for the last time with last year’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. But even though Ford hung up his famous fedora, it doesn’t mean that’s the end of the character. Indy will continue in other media, like the brand-new Xbox game that was recently announced by Bethesda Softworks and Lucasfilm Games, Indiana Jones, and the Great Circle, which has a five-minute long trailer reveal from Xbox Games, which you can watch right here:

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Trailer and Synopsis

Here’s the game’s official description:

Uncover one of history’s greatest mysteries in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a first-person, single-player adventure set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only one person can stop them – Indiana Jones. You’ll become the legendary archaeologist in this cinematic action-adventure game from MachineGames, the award-winning studio behind the recent Wolfenstein series, and executive produced by Hall of Fame game designer Todd Howard.

The game will take players “From the halls of Marshall College to the heart of the Vatican, the pyramids of Egypt, the sunken temples of Sukhothai, and beyond.” This looks like everything anyone could want from an Indiana Jones game.

Where on the Indiana Jones Timeline Does the Great Circle Take Place?

As mentioned in the synopsis, the events of this game fill in the timeline between two franchise movies. Timeline-wise, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle fits in between Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, which took place in 1936 and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which happened in 1938. It will be interesting to see how the film evolves the canon, offers Easter eggs, and sets up the events of its “future.”

To tease us, MachinesGames’ co-founder and lead game designer Jerk Gustafsson shares, “He has separated from Marion… We know that he is sort of lost again after that. He is adrift.”

Who Voices Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?

If Indy’s voice sounds familiar in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, it’s because Indiana Jones is voiced by Troy Baker, who gave voice to Joel on The Last of Us. We love this nerdy connection.

Who Can We Expect to See in the Game and When Will The Great Circle Release?

From what the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game trailer depicts, we see good old Dr. Henry Jones Jr. in his prime. He’s evading death traps, scouring for hidden treasure, and of course, punching some Nazis. Also, his mentor Marcus Brody is in the game as well. Our fingers remain crossed that Sallah shows up at some point too. But we imagine Bethesda has a few surprises still in store. The Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game arrives in 2024. You can WishList the game now by heading over to the official Indiana Jones Bethesda site.

Originally Published Jan 18 2024

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The animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem film knocked everyone’s socks off last summer. Although Paramount is planning a spin-off series, as well as a sequel, the latter won’t arrive for quite a while. In the meantime, we’ve learned (via IGN) that a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed 3D action platformer game will keep the Mutant Mayhem going. It will launch in the fourth quarter of 2024 from publisher Outright Games. Mutants Unleashed will be available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam and Windows.

Click To View Gallery

In Mutants Unleashed, players defend New York just like Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello. The game can be played as a single-player or a two-player local co-op. New York City’s five boroughs will also feature, inspired by the Mutant Mayhem film. You can read the official synopsis for Mutants Unleashed right here, as well as check out several screenshots of the boys in action in our gallery above.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, after finally being accepted into society and pursuing their dream of attending a regular high school, the Turtles’ newfound happiness is abruptly interrupted by a new wave of mutants causing unrest across New York City. Players take control of the four masked heroes, each with their own unique playstyle, as they traverse the sewers and city streets of New York. With an immersive world to explore both above and below ground, meet familiar faces as the ragtag heroes in a half shell gear up to delight fans at home with their chaotic capers. Players can get ready to order in a pizza and adventure solo or team up with a friend in two player local co-op mode later this year.

A different Ninja Turtles game based on the Last Ronin comic is also in development at Black Forest Games. That one won’t tie into the new animated universe, however. Mutants Unleashed should keep fans of the film happy until the sequel arrives in theaters in 2026. The game arrives in the latter half of this year.

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Believe it or not, 2024 marks twenty years since the release of the original Star Wars: Battlefront game. In honor of the big anniversary, Star Wars: Battlefront and 2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront II are coming to devoted fans in a new classic collection. This collection will bring 64-player online gameplay to consoles for the very first time. It will showcase several new special features as well. And you won’t have to wait very long for either one to arrive. These classic Star Wars shooters are launching on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC on March 14.

The Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection contains both Star Wars: Battlefront and its sequel all in one package. These are the original Battlefront games, and not the Star Wars: Battlefront games developed by Dice, which came out in 2015 and 2017. You can watch the announcement trailer for the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection above.

This Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection contains the original versions, which were only available on PS2, Xbox, and PC. This release marks the first time any of the classic Battlefront games will be playable on Nintendo consoles. All previously released bonus content and DLC will be included, and Steam Deck will be supported too. The Battlefront classic Includes the Bonus Map of Jabba’s Palace. Battlefront II, meanwhile, includes these bonus maps: Bespin: Cloud City, Rhen Var: Harbor, Rhen Var: Citadel, and Yavin 4: Arena. The original game has 17 total maps. Battlefront II boasts 22 ground maps, 6 space maps, and 9 more space maps.

In another first for this collection, classic Star Wars: The Clone Wars bonus characters Asajj Ventress and Kit Fisto will be playable on PlayStation. Before, they were Xbox-only. Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection will officially launch on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Switch, and PC on March 14 for $35.01. If you already own the original games on Xbox or Steam, you’ll get a 20% discount when pre-ordering the games. For more details, head on over to the official PlayStation blog.

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We all know the old joke about gamers loving MTN Dew and Doritos, but a new toaster could change that perception forever. At minimum it’s going to bring video gaming to breakfast. You can now give your favorite bread or bagel a hint of console with the new Xbox Series S Toaster.

Walmart is now the exclusive home to a very special toaster (that we first heard about at DesignTAXI). The white exterior with black trim and an LED screen is designed to resemble a Microsoft’s Xbox Series S gaming console. The two-slice toaster will also leave an Xbox X-logo on your food. That includes bread slices, frozen waffles, English muffins, and bagels (which it’s wide enough to handle). The toaster’s six-setting shade selector dial will let you customize just how brown you want you food to be. The toaster also also includes a digital LED countdown timer with clock so you can use it to reheat food.

The kitchen appliance also has a Quick Warm Up setting. It allows hungry gamers to defrost frozen items. The device’s official description points out that also includes items straight from the freezer or “your Xbox Series X Fridge,” just in case you’re looking to have an entire Xbox-themed kitchen.

It will also fit on any kitchen counter and/or TV stand. The toaster measures 15-inches wide, 7.6-inches tall, and 4.6-inches deep. It also comes with an anti-jam function, automatic temperature control, removable crumb tray, and non-stick coated plates.

You can get yours from Walmart’s online store for $39.99. If you are literally a gamer cliché and plan on using yours to try and toast loose Doritos we recommend buying two so you’re covered when the first one breaks. Even better, we recommend not doing that. But if you want to wash down your morning bagel with some MTN Dew while playing your favorite game, go for it. That won’t do any damage to your toaster, just possibly your digestive system.

The post This Xbox Series S Toaster Just Changed the Breakfast Game appeared first on Nerdist.

Why would anyone want an Xbox controller with seven analog sticks and no buttons? It’s a valid question. And it’s one the person who made this all-analog Xbox controller is also asking. This maker replaced every trigger, bumper, and button. The ABXY and directional pad are straightforward enough, but even the menu is now part of an analog stick. The analog Xbox controller is meant as a prank gift, but we can’t help but wonder what it would be like to use it to play our favorite games. Based on the Skate 3 gameplay shown at the end of the video below, we think it would probably be very confusing, but also fun.

“It is so stupid, I just had to make it,” says YouTuber Solderking as he replaces all the usual buttons with analog sticks. In case you want to create this abomination for yourself, the steps are relatively straightforward. You’ll just need specialized equipment to drill, weld, and solder the monstrosity together. Parts of the video look and sound like a game of Operation. At the end, the final product includes seven of the raised, rotating controllers instead of the usual two.

After years or even decades of using analog sticks for some things and pushing buttons for others, it would be incredibly confusing to get used to this new controller. Not to mention the amount of stick drift that now threatens every action from shifting the camera angle to starting a game.  

Solderking mails his creation to vCuda, another YouTuber, who reviews controllers. The video of that unboxing and review is below. It also contains a lot of “but why?” questions. These talented gamers can make do with the analog Xbox controller in skating and driving games, but others, like first-person shooter games, may just be too confusing.

The Solderking YouTube channel has a number of interesting videos where he repairs and restores video games and controllers. For other DIY controller projects, check out this Furby monstrosity and this joystick addition for flight simulators.

Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth. 

The post This Xbox Controller Has Seven Analog Sticks and No Buttons, Just Because appeared first on Nerdist.

While every decade had its fad toy crazes, the ’90s took the cake in that department. There was Tickle Me Elmo, Beanie Babies, the Tamagotchi, just to name a few. But the Crown Royalty of ’90s fad toys might have been the Furby. Between 1998 and 1999, the furry little robot that spoke its own language— aptly called Furbish—sold some 40 million toys. Although, much like the Gremlins film that inspired them, they were both cute and also kinda creepy.

Now, a Twitter user named Chad Etzel has doubled down on the Furby creepy factor, by fusing the Furby with an Xbox controller. Because who doesn’t want to stare down at that while playing a game? And it is both amazing and slightly terrifying. In a tweet, Etzel said his “Furbtroller” was “fully functional, you just jam your thumbs on the eyeballs and wiggle them around. Same for mouth d-pad.”

So where did the inspiration for this adorable little monstrosity come from? Well, it seems that Etzel got the idea from someone else’s tweet last year. A Twitter user named Ben Bayliss created a Furby/controller mock-up image, and said in a tweet “I was overcome with inspiration earlier and so made a new Xbox Series controller design. Xbox Series x Furby.” Bayliss also notes to Nerdist, “the idea came about when Xbox announced the revival of its Xbox Design Lab last year.” And we love to see the creativity.

Ultimately, Etzel decided to make that dream a reality. And thus, the Furbtroller was born. You can see the original image right here:

Although its creator says it’s really a “terrible idea,” we actually think these would sell. If someone had the gumption to make them. Enough people out there still have a soft spot for their Furby from childhood. Why not stare at one every day that looks like it was gene-spliced with an Xbox controller in a transporter accident from Star Trek? In the meantime, someone out there needs to create a petition to make certain that the Furbtroller becomes something you can buy for real. We’d sign it.

The post This Furby Xbox Controller Is Horrifying and Maybe a Little Cute appeared first on Nerdist.

Power on. It is hard to believe but Xbox has been around for 20 years. The Microsoft owned and created video gaming brand certainly wasn’t the first to get into the arena. But it’s been rather influential, raising the bar for online and wireless gaming. The Xbox took things to another level with its consoles going beyond gaming to allow for streaming and supporting apps. As always, any great staple in pop culture boasts a rich, interesting history. And Xbox history will come to light in a new documentary, Power On: The Story of Xbox, premiering on December 13, 2022.

This Xbox documentary will be a six-part miniseries telling the story of the console from its inception and beyond. The Story of Xbox’s trailer gives a peek into what fans can expect. It includes the people who were there for the early days when it was nothing more than a nebulous concept. There will be behind-the-scenes revelations and conversations about the snags and obstacles along the way. It will be a fascinating look into now-iconic games like Forza (a popular one in my household) and Halo, which is becoming a live-action series, among other things.

The word “chaos” pops up a few times in the trailer so there will be some drama sprinkled in for your curious pleasure. The documentary’s tagline is perhaps the most interesting: Four gamers, one idea, and a billion-dollar bet. Sure, Microsoft had the money but it certainly didn’t want a major flop on its innovative hands.

The Story of Xbox will be available to watch on a few platforms, including YouTube, The Roku Channel, IMDb TV, Redbox, and via Microsoft’s website, of course. It’s not immediately clear if all the episodes will drop at once or roll out in segments.  But it will be a vital documentary for gamers. FanFest attendees will get an exclusive first look on December 12 if they sign up early.

It’s almost time to dig deep into the console’s past and see how it became a global giant.

The post THE STORY OF XBOX Uncovers Gaming History in New Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.

Who among us hasn’t played Microsoft Flight Simulator at one point or another? After all, it’s one of the oldest games around. It’s also one of the most peaceful games ever created. Given that its main objective is for you to successfully pilot a plane and soar off into the clouds, Microsoft Flight Simulator is basically an ASMR game that pre-dated the idea of ASMR. But now, the game is making a sharp veer in the skies. In news that we first saw on Collider, Microsoft Flight Simulator plans to add competitive racing to its roster of activities with its new expansion: Reno Air Races.

Jörg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, shared more about the game at Gamescom 2021, saying:

These planes, they fly faster than 500 miles an hour. 50 to 250 feet above the ground, so you are definitely going to be in the danger zone… Reno Air Races is actually the largest expansion we have had since we launched our flight simulator. It’s not just because we scanned all the famous race planes of the world… This is also the first time where you can basically race against your friends and pilots across the planet. A competitive multiplayer is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator and that will definitely test your piloting skills.

Xbox

Although Microsoft Flight Simulator has always been a more laid-back and atmospheric game, that sounds like it is all about to change. But with its first release in 1982, it makes sense some ideas need to evolve. Xbox also shared an official Reno Air Races teaser that shows off some of the action. Although blue skies and stunning scenery are still part of the fun, it looks the ante has been upped.

The game, now on Xbox, is getting its new look soon. Neumann revealed the expansion would be coming “this fall” and indicated it was right around the corner. So everyone, start your engines!

The post MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR Soars Into Competitive Sky Racing appeared first on Nerdist.

If you’ve played any kind of flight simulator before, you know using a joystick is way more fun than using any other kind of controller. Certainly, more fun than a console controller, which is disconnected from the look and feel of a real cockpit. Now, however, YouTuber-slash-engineer, Akaki Kuumeri, has made an Xbox controller that can pull off both handheld forms. And he did it with only a series of 3D-printed plastic parts and some glue.

Gizmodo first picked up on Kuumeri’s unique controller. This 3D-printing aficionado created an ideal at-home flight sim joystick. In the video above, Kuumeri shows how he 3D printed all of the parts necessary to transform the console controller. He also demonstrates how sweet the stick is at delivering a very IRL experience.

Akaki Kuumeri

As Kuumeri shows, he created his joystick by 3D printing plastic linkages and the actual joystick itself. He also printed all of the necessary buttons and springs. The latter of which, incredibly, Kuumeri made out of PLA (or polylactic acid) plastic as well.

Kuumeri assembles the exoskeleton of parts on top of a standard Xbox wireless controller. He also demonstrates how the joystick manages to deliver the tactile sensations of a flight simulator controller while only manipulating buttons that fingers would otherwise. This means the standard Xbox controller doesn’t need to be dismantled. Nor is there any messing about with electronics or other sensors and signal producers required.

Akaki Kuumeri/Microsoft

As for the end product? It obviously works incredibly well. Kuumeri offers a demo of the controller by playing Microsoft Flight Simulator, and his contraption is flawless from the get-go. The engineer even adds on a throttle control at the end of the video. Although that add-on, unlike the joystick, is not available as a series of downloadable files on Etsy. Even if it were, though, we’d still probably have more trouble 3D printing all of this stuff on our own than flying an actual plane.

Feature image: Akaki Kuumeri

The post Modified Xbox Controller Is the Perfect Flight Sim Joystick appeared first on Nerdist.

If you were around back in the ’90s, then you remember the R&B group All-4-One. Mostly thanks to their massive hit “I Swear.” They had a couple of other hits too. But it was “I Swear” that you couldn’t get away from even if you tried in the back in 1994. It was everywhere. And they even won a Grammy for it. Now, as with most things from the ’90s, it’s making a return to the pop culture zeitgeist. This time, in the unexpected form of an Xbox ad. You can watch the full music video right here.

All-4-One has come back together to do a special version of “I Swear,” with lyrics changed to “It’s All There.” This is a full two-minute ad, and parodies the candle-lit, soft-focus music videos that dominated ’90s MTV and BET. Now, the lyrics go on about the amazing deal you just can’t pass up. One where you pay Microsoft $25 a month for an Xbox Series S and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Xbox

Bogdan Bilan, the Sr. Marketing Manager for Xbox All Access, had this to say in a statement: “As gamers begin the next generation of play on Xbox Series X|S, we do so remembering the great experiences we had before with excitement for what’s to come. And no one knows how to navigate the waters of love, loss, and love again than 90s R&B singers. So, we thought, what better way to celebrate the reimagining of how you can join Xbox with the all-inclusive offer of Xbox All Access than with the ‘90s R&B sensation, All-4-One, reimagining “I Swear,” their 1994 ballad?”

It appears as though the All-4-One reunion isn’t the only retro revival they are planning. Bilan also said to “look out for more nostalgic Xbox All Access ‘90s themed content in the coming days.” Maybe All-4-One was just a warm-up act for a Boyz II Men Xbox commercial. There’s got to be a video-game angle to “On Bended Knee,” right?

The post New Xbox Ad Goes Full ’90s Retro R&B with All-4-One Reunion appeared first on Nerdist.

The show may be virtual this year, but that doesn’t mean E3 2021 isn’t going to be epic. This year, Nerdist has partnered with E3 to bring you first looks, breakdowns, and  analysis for all your gaming news. Make sure you tune into our daily livestreams for commentary from our very own Dan Casey!

Sunday’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase previewed 30 new titles, trailers, and gameplay, 27 of which will be available on the Xbox Game pass. The studios also announced back-to-back monthly releases now through the end of the year, including Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Age of Empires IV, and Psychonauts 2. Plus, Bethesda previewed new games like Starfield and Redfall, which will both be Xbox exclusives.

Bethesda Games

Take a look at the show’s highlights below!

Sea of Thieves:  A Pirate’s Life

Starfield

Bethesda Games’ highly anticipated new open-world RPG takes to space exclusively on Xbox Series X and Windows PC on November 11, 2022.

Back 4 Blood

Contraband

Redfall

Halo Infinite

Psychonauts 2

The Outer Worlds 2

Forza Horizon 5

Slime Rancher 2

Stay tuned this week for more from Nerdist and E3 2021!

Featured Image: Bethesda Games

The post Xbox & Bethesda Preview STARFIELD, HALO INFINITE, and More at E3 2021 appeared first on Nerdist.

The time for E3 2021 approaches. Taking place from June 12-15, E3 is ready to fulfill your gaming hopes and wishes with presentations by everyone from Square Enix to Nintendo. If you’re ready to make your plans for the completely virtual event, you’re in luck. We have E3’s schedule of press conferences and we’re making tuning in easier than ever. To watch all of the below events, all you need to do is point your browser to Nerdist‘s YouTube channel or Geek and Sundry‘s Twitch. It’s that simple! We’ll be streaming all the exciting moments to come.

Speaking of, let’s dive into that schedule with information from developers about what they’ll be showcasing.

E3

Saturday, June 12

• 10:00 a.m. PT – Broadcast pre-show begins.
• 12:00 p.m. PT – Ubisoft Forward: Featuring updates about the next entry in the Rainbow Six franchise, Far Cry 6, Riders Republic, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. They’ll also have info on the Werewolves Within film and Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest. Nerdist‘s very own Dan Casey will host the Mythic Quest session.
• Time TBA – Gearbox Entertainment: Details forthcoming.

Sunday, June 13

• 8:45 a.m. PT – Broadcast pre-show begins.
• 10:00 a.m. PT – Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase: Details forthcoming.
• 12:15 p.m. PT – Square Enix: Square Enix is bringing updates on Babylon’s Fall, Life Is Strange: True Colors, and Marvel’s Avengers (specifically details about the Black Panther – War for Wakanda expansion). They’re also premiering a brand new game from Eidos-Montréal.
• Time TBA – PC Gaming Show: Details forthcoming.
• 4:00 p.m. PT – Future Games Show.
• Time TBA – Warner Bros. Games: Details forthcoming.

E3

Monday, June 14

• 8:00 a.m. PT – Broadcast pre-show begins.
• No other specific times have been announced for this day, but you can expect presentations from Take-Two Interactive, Mythical Games, Freedom Games, Razer, and Capcom.

Tuesday, June 15

• 8:00 a.m. PT – Broadcast pre-show begins.
• 9:00 a.m. PT – Nintendo Direct and Nintendo Treehouse: Live: Nintendo Direct will take place for 40 minutes and exclusively cover software for the Nintendo Switch. And then for the following three hours, Nintendo’s Treehouse staff will get into games with gameplay and commentary from guests.
• Time TBA – Bandai Namco: Details forthcoming.
• Time TBA – Yooreka Games: Details forthcoming.
• Time TBA – Official E3 2021 Awards Show: Selecting from titles that will be showcased during the four-day live E3 2021 broadcast, editors from IGN, GameSpot, PC Gamer, and GamesRadar+ will determine the winners for the Official E3 2021 Awards Show.

The post All the E3 Events and How to Watch Them appeared first on Nerdist.

Leave it to Taika Waititi to see right into our dreams. The New Zealander directed a new Xbox Series X commercial and it’s delightfully bizarre. We’d expect nothing less from the guy who brought us Thor Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit.

The ad is titled “Lucid Odyssey.” It features YouTuber MoonLiteWolf. Waititi used their actual dreams after playing Xbox Series X to construct the commercial’s narrative. In it, we see MoonLiteWolf as part of a sleep study. There are several facets of the dream, including glowing animals in the sky. MoonLiteWolf also dreams that Master Chief from Halo is both a DJ and… a cat?

Honestly? It’s perfect. The authenticity factor here really adds a lot to the concept. These feel like real dreams. A little bizarre and amorphous. But also funny, fun, surreal… all of the words you could use to describe how you sleep after a day of gaming. That Taika Waititi sure knows what he’s doing. (That’s probably why he has an Academy Award for screenwriting.)

The ad is a follow-up to last week’s Xbox ad featuring a dog. It looks like the company is really courting both types of animal fans. In that video, the dogs merely play fetch with Master Chief. In this video, the cat is Master Chief. That sounds like a win for cat people, if you ask me.

Xbox

The commercial also yielded a number of incredible gifs, which you can find over on Xbox’s Giphy account. Trust me, you want to check these out. Xbox knows what the people want.

According to Polygon, Xbox is set to debut even more Xbox Series X commercials starring people like NFL player Odell Beckham Jr., artist Quentin Deronzier, and creators Stallion83, Johanna Jsokowska, Emericagirl24, and BlindGamerSteve.

Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are currently available. Although you might have some difficulties finding them, as there’s currently a shortage.

The post This Taika Waititi Xbox Ad Stars Master Chief as a DJ Cat appeared first on Nerdist.

Console war…console war never changes, but thankfully the consoles do. On Tuesday, November 10, the second-most significant Tuesday this month, the next generation of console gaming officially begins with the release of the Xbox Series X and its discless sibling, the Xbox Series S. This teraflop-filled bad boy will help usher in a new era of console gaming, which is basically becoming PC gaming but with less RGB and more sitting on couches.

That said, let’s cut to the chase: the Xbox Series X is an incredibly powerful, surprisingly thick console that feels and plays like the next generation of video gaming even if it looks like it’s a mini-fridge cosplaying as the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The leap may not seem as gigantic at first glance as the jump from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, but from lightning-fast load times to incredible graphical fidelity, the Xbox Series X is well worth your hard-earned money if you’re in a position to upgrade your console. Especially if you have a sickness for thickness and an appropriately sized entertainment center.

What’s the SSDifference?

Xbox

The most striking feature of the Xbox Series X isn’t how good everything looks or how the subtle changes to the controller make it feel better in your hand; it’s how quickly everything runs and loads. The Xbox Series X’s much-touted Velocity Architecture and solid-state drive reduce load times, which lets you get right into gaming. It’s also going to effectively mean the death of loading screen tooltips unless you’re really, really good at speed-reading.

While the speed with which individual games load is dependent on the software itself, every title I tested—from next-gen games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon to optimized current-gen games like Gears 5 to Xbox 360 titles like Mass Effect—they all loaded incredibly fast. Even titles like Grand Theft Auto V, which has load times long enough for you to cook a three-course meal, loaded from the home screen to in-game significantly faster than I’d ever experienced on a console.

Equally impressive, though, is the Xbox Series X’s Quick Resume feature, which lets you run multiple games at the same time and switch between them in a matter of seconds. Even after turning the console off, going to bed, and starting it fresh in the morning, Quick Resume let me continue turning my enemies in Gears 5 into a fine, red mist as though nothing had happened. I did run into some issues on occasion where the feature would not load back into a particular game or I had to restart my console, but those were far and few between. As with any newer technology, your mileage may vary, but for the most part, it worked seamlessly.

Storage?

The biggest limiting factor will likely be storage. Even with a native 1TB of storage space, next-gen games are awfully big, which means that you’ll likely need to drop some extra scratch on an Expansion Card for additional, high-speed SSD storage if you like having a large gaming library at your fingertips. Like previous consoles, you can plug an external hard drive into the console’s USB port but it won’t benefit from the same crazy fast load times as the built-in SSD or the expansion card slot will. It may seem like a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, but worth nothing for people who aren’t fans of constantly playing “Sophie’s Choice” with your game library.

How are the graphics?

Xbox

The hardware beneath the Xbox Series X is undeniably powerful. It’s a beast of a machine capable of running 60FPS at 4K and other games up to 120FPS. Everything I’ve played so far looks absolutely stunning. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty about teraflops, check out what the folks at places like Digital Foundry put together, but everything looks gorgeous and plays fantastically so far. From the way light reflects off of water to shadows dancing on the walls to breathtaking little details like the way a character’s hair is rendered, the Xbox Series X is closing the graphical gap between PC gaming and console gaming in a big way.

But the problem, thus far, and I use “problem” loosely, is that it will be difficult to truly assess just how powerful the Xbox Series X is until game developers push the hardware to its limits. Hotly anticipated games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Halo Infinite seem like they’ll be better indicators of what the machine can truly do, but they are unfortunately delayed while the devs crunch to the finish line. That said, the difference in nearly every game I have played so far is night and day, especially in titles like Sea of Thieves or Forza Horizon 4, which are optimized for the Xbox Series X.

What about backwards compatibility?

Xbox

The Xbox.

The Xbox 360.

The Xbox One.

The Xbox One X.

Long ago, the four console generations…well, three and a half console generations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Xbox Series X attacked…our antiquated notions of backwards compatibility for older consoles. One of the single biggest selling points of the Xbox Series X for me is the fact that it can play practically any game from every previous console generation. In addition to loading older titles faster than ever, the Series X automatically adds HDR support to games created well before the existence of HDR. Even better, it does so without adversely impacting your CPU or GPU’s workload.

This feature mostly works well. When I tested it on Mass Effect, for example, it gave the game a film grain quality almost, which made the cut scenes feel even more cinematic. However, the Auto-HDR blew out certain lighting effects and resulted in a weird motion blur that made me question whether or not it was a technical error or if I had so much coffee and anxiety in my body that I was vibrating through the fabric of space and time itself. Anyway, my point is that while the feature is definitely a net positive, it might not be a perfect 1:1 fit for every game in the sprawling backwards compatible library.

What games can we actually play though?

Speaking of games libraries, let’s talk about one of the biggest criticisms of the Xbox Series X that I’ve seen so far: it doesn’t have as many exclusives as the PlayStation 5. But considering that Microsoft keeps dropping significant chunks of change on studios like Bethesda to become a part of Xbox Game Studios, that is a minor complaint. As next-gen games continue to roll out, we’ll have a better sense of which console’s game library reigns supreme, but if you’re the kind of person who wants to play a wide variety of titles at launch, well, you can basically play any previous generation game you own or you can sign up for Xbox Game Pass, which at the Ultimate tier will let you play 100+ games on your console, Android phone or tablet, and select titles on PC too.

Still, pour one out for no Halo Infinite at launch. Best of luck to all the devs. Can’t wait to play it when it’s finally out.

The $499 question: Should you buy it?

Xbox

The answer is yes, yes you should if you’re in a position to upgrade your console and spend the money, and if having the latest and greatest technology is important to you. Your life will not be markedly worse if you keep using your Xbox One, but your user experience will be markedly better if you upgrade to the Xbox Series X.

As with all next-gen console releases, you might be better served by waiting until there are more next-gen games, optimized last-gen titles, and more user data. But if you are looking for a top-tier video game console that will let you experience the best of next-generation gaming while playing basically any game that came before it, then you can’t go wrong with the Xbox Series X.

Bottom Line

If you’re a diehard PlayStation fan, then this probably isn’t going to sway you, but the good news is that you can always just buy a PS5 instead. Stay tuned for our coverage of that console too. But for $499 for the Xbox Series X and $299 for the Xbox Series S, Microsoft has created a worthy successor to the Xbox One that raises the bar in all the ways that matter.

Featured Image: Xbox

Editor’s note: The Xbox Series X review unit was provided by Microsoft for the purposes of this review.

Dan Casey is the creative director of Nerdist and the author of books about the Avengers and Star Wars. Talk to him on Twitter about video games

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Rare’s beloved side-scrolling beat-’em-up Battletoads finally returns this August. Developed by Dlala Studios, Rare first announced the game during Xbox’s 2018 E3 briefing. Then, they set a 2019 release date for the game. The original Battletoads launched in 1991. Later in 2015, Rare Replay anthology included the title alongside other Rare hits, like Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark. The most recent game in the series, Battletoads Arcade, landed 26 years ago, in 1994.

“The tenacity and split-second reflexes required to beat the original Battletoads has given it a fearsome reputation among fans,” Rare said in a new blog post at Xbox Wire. Paying tribute to the wild cartoons of the 1990s and featuring the return of classic characters, this new Battletoads also looks to appeal to a wider audience than ever before.

“Dlala’s new approach,” the licensor explained, “focuses on maintaining this mayhem while ensuring you have enough options to play at your own pace. That includes bringing in some buddies for couch co-op, which allows up to three players to drop in and out at will, along with difficulty settings designed to suit everyone from Tadpole to Battletoad. Just like before, you’ll be faced with hugely varied challenges as you play, including new vehicle sections and even some puzzle-solving this time around.”

Rare

Previously, Dlala Studios has worked on Sea of Thieves, The Escapists, and projects for clients like Disney. Rare promises an animated story penned by award-winning writers. The new game features voice-over talent bringing these classic characters—including Zitz, Rash, and Pimple—back to life for a new generation. The game will be available to pre-install on Xbox and PC for Game Pass subscribers sometime in the immediate future.

Battletoads is set to hit Game Pass for Xbox and PC, as well as Steam, on August 20. Get ready to soak in the nostalgic feelings.

Featured Image: Rare

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In a showcase that touted Fable, a Halo Infinite grappling hook, Fable, Psychonauts 2, and Fable, was it enough to get Xbox fans on board for the upcoming Xbox Series X? Dan grapples with all things Xbox on this episode of Nerdist News!

Are you all in on Xbox Series X? How does it stack up for you against the PS5? Let us know in the comments!

The post Are Xbox Fans On Board for Halo Infinite and Xbox Series X? (Nerdist News w/ Dan Casey) appeared first on Nerdist.

On Thursday, 343 Industries revealed the first look at Halo Infinite‘s campaign mode, featuring a Westworld-esque trailer and an eight-minute gameplay demo set on a sprawling Ringworld. And you know what? Their plan is working. To needlessly paraphrase the late, great Marcel Proust, “No sooner had the Spartan armor mixed with the cries of murderous gun-toting aliens graced my screen than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.”

That extraordinary thing was a sense of wonder, excitement, and anticipation—the kind I haven’t exactly felt for a Halo game in quite some time. I felt it once more on Thursday afternoon when Nerdist joined a small group of journalists for a virtual Q&A with the game’s developers to dive deeper into the ambitious, open-world game set to launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC later this year.

Microsoft/343 Industries

The game is gigantic

Halo has always harbored a sense of grandeur and nowhere is that more apparent than in Infinite. According to a post on Halo Waypoint, “The scale of the environment accessible to players [in Halo Infinite] is several times larger than that of the last two Halo games combined.”

Those sprawling vistas in the gameplay demo weren’t just for show, it seems. You may have also noticed the presence of a tactical map full of different discoverable locations. According to Halo Infinite Studio Head Chris Lee, in addition to the main storyline, there will be “opportunities to discover hidden rewards and assault Banished fortifications in brand new ways.”

Lee told us, “For the open, expansive experience and campaign, we really wanted to create an experience that delivered on that promise that players had when they first set foot on the Halo ring in [Halo: Combat Evolved]. You’re filled with this sense of mystery and wonder and there’s this new universe to explore and discover secrets that the Forerunners held in different aspects.”

Halo Infinite associate creative director Paul Crocker added, “It takes place in a huge world that is open and expansive. We have a storyline that pulls you through it, which is effectively unlocking certain areas. But once you progress through it, you have the ability to backtrack and explore. There’s a lot to find out in the world.”

Lee continued, “So for Infinite we really wanted to create this ring and fully realize it for players to explore. Infinite will be the most open and expansive campaign. It gives players the freedom to experience this rich Master Chief story, but deviate and find a lot of things that are on the ring. Players will be rewarded for that exploration with upgrades and different equipment that can give you more strategies and tactics to take the fight to the Banished.”

Microsoft/343 Industries

Halo Infinite is the last Halo for a while

Speaking with IGN in advance of the Halo Infinite gameplay reveal, Chris Lee revealed that this could be the last standalone Halo release for quite some time.

“Halo Infinite is the start of our platform for the future,” Lee said. “We want Infinite to grow over time, versus going to those numbered titles and having all that segmentation that we had before. It’s really about creating Halo Infinite as the start of the next ten years for Halo and then building that as we go with our fans and community.”

“For content for the future, Halo Infinite continues Master Chief’s saga from Halo 4 and 5, and it’s really the start of the next series, the next generation of gaming for Halo,” Lee said when asked about these plans for the future during our session. “We look at this as a platform that will grow over time, and we’ll continue to bring new stories into it. It’s important that each story is self-contained and that it will tell a complete story. You won’t have a need to have multiple releases to have a full story of beginning, middle, and end. We don’t have specifics that we’re sharing today around how it will unfold, but we are thinking about how we do that for years to come.”

Microsoft/343 Industries

History is in Infinite’s DNA

If you felt a wave of nostalgia watching the gameplay demo earlier, that was a conscious choice. From the color palette to the way weapons and items are designed, Halo Infinite is a love letter to the Halo series designed to make you remember that same visceral thrill you felt way back in 2001.

“This really speaks to the spiritual reboot concept that we started this project with,” said Lee when asked about the game’s brighter color palette. “We really wanted to take the learnings from Halo 4 and Halo 5 and then take that really look across the history of the Halo franchise, and embrace the most iconic elements, and bring those forward for gamers today. We really want to make sure this is a game that feels great to our longtime fans that have been playing Halo games, as well as a great entry point for new players.”

“The visual language hearkens back to some of those iconic looks we’ve had in Halo, and I think Master Chief’s design, that we’ve talked about previously, really is a great example of that from the past,” Lee added. “Looking in the world today, you can see it’s a world that’s filled with hope, that’s filled with wonder and mystery, and that was really important to be able to embrace that and bring it forward for fans today.”

Microsoft/343 Industries

Choice is your greatest weapon

If you’re anything like me, you went absolutely hog-wild when Master Chief busted out a grappling hook in the gameplay demo, using it as both a traversal tool to access higher ground and as a weapon to propel himself towards enemies like a meat rocket. As it turns out, items like the Grappleshot and that nifty deployable shield wall are just the tip of the iceberg for Master Chief’s arsenal in Halo Infinite, and they’re representative of a core design ethos based around giving players the freedom to play the game exactly how they choose to play, according to Halo Infinite head of design Jerry Hook.

“Our sandbox is something that we spent a lot of time on, and we absolutely spent a lot of time on the style of the art and that went to our weapons and the slickness of the weapons that the original iconic Halo brought to the franchise,” Hook told us. “It also went to the iconic way in which the weapons feel.”

“What you’re going to find is, as [Master Chief] explores the ring, you’re gonna find a lot more equipment,” Hook added. “You’re also going to find upgrades for the equipment. All of it not about power, but about options for the player. That’s critical to what we wanted to provide. It’s about ensuring players are able to make the choices that they wanted to both in the moment, as well as throughout the game world to be successful in the way they want to play the game. That is critical for us and also critical for how the legacy of Halo has really been brought to the forefront for Halo Infinite.”

Microsoft/343 Industries

The Pilot does have a name

As we saw in the game’s trailers and Thursday’s gameplay demo, Master Chief isn’t alone on this massive ringworld. He is accompanied by an extremely stressed out pilot, who seems to play a major role in the game’s story. Well, we can proudly confirm that the pilot does, in fact, have a name.

“Yes, the Pilot has a name, and yes you will learn what it is. His name is actually not that important in the grand scheme of things. But it was an amazing moment for us because we had a bunch of different names for him through the development of the game, but the actual character’s name was actually named by our actor who plays the Pilot. He was ’round my house at our last sessions and we were talking through what his name was, and he was like, ‘I don’t want to call him that! We should call him this.’ So we were like, ‘That’s cool, let’s do it!’ So yes, he has a name.”

I guess some secrets will just have to wait until we actually play the game…

Microsoft/343 Industries

There will be couch co-op

For many gamers—myself included—it released a wave of nostalgia for late nights spent playing couch co-op in this incredible sci-fi series. Thankfully, Halo Infinite sounds like it will include local, split-screen co-op as well, according to Jerry Hook.

“Classic Halo—my son and I sat down and played all the [Halo] games on the couch,” Hook enthused. “We have spent a lot of time not only in split-screen, but doing co-op as well. Halo Infinite is going to bring co-op to you. You’re going to be able to explore the ring absolutely with your Fireteam. Keep them together, have a blast, make it your ring, and defeat the Banished.”

While we’re still champing at the bit to see the multiplayer in action, at least we can take solace that co-op lives on.

Halo Infinite is available for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on Steam this holiday season.

Featured Image: Microsoft/343 Industries

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Cyberpunk 2077 is almost here, and there’s plenty of new information to keep fans hyped for the release later this year. Dan breaks down all the details in today’s Nerdist News.

What aspect of Cyberpunk 2077 are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!

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“According to sources familiar with the game’s production,” VentureBeat reports, “Star Wars: Squadrons is [a] game about piloting ships in head-to-head battles. It features a single-player campaign, but the main focus for Squadrons is on the multiplayer. The idea is to get players fighting against each other in team battles featuring iconic Star Wars vessels.” The game is likely to hit consoles and PC this fall.

In February, Kotaku mentioned that “a smaller, more unusual [Star Wars] project” was in development at EA Motive in Montreal. That turned out to be a game codenamed Project Maverick, which leaked to the public the following month by way of a data-mined PlayStation Network listing.

Electronic Arts / Lucasfilm Games

Flight shooters like Rogue Squadron and TIE Fighter are among the most beloved Star Wars games ever made. Naturally, fans have been clamoring for something along those lines ever since the partnership between EA and Lucasfilm began with DICE’s 2015 Battlefront. We may not have to wait much longer.

EA’s last Star Wars game was 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, a critical and commercial success from Titanfall developer Respawn. A challenging action game set several years after Revenge of the Sith, Fallen Order follows a former Jedi Padawan finding his destiny in the time of the Empire. By March 31, it had sold upwards of 10 million copies.

A virtual event, EA Play Live, is taking place next weekend starting on June 18 at 4:00p.m. PT, so there’s a good chance we’ll see some gameplay from Squadrons then.

The reveal trailer for Star Wars: Squadrons will go live on Monday, June 15, at 8:00 a.m. PT.

Featured Image: Electronic Arts / Lucasfilm Games

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1977: Atari Joystick

Atari

While not the first console or controller, Atari laid the groundwork for all successful controllers that came after with the Atari 2600. This simple design mimicked arcade cabinets of the era with its four-directional joystick and only one button, and that little black stick established the directional standards we use in all consoles. And if using a directional joystick sounds like the obvious play, it wasn’t. Case in point…

1979: Intellivision

Intellivision Entertainment

The late ’70s and early ’80s were the Wild West for video game consoles. No one really knew how you should interface with these new machines. How do you simplify hardware for new audiences while allowing input for complex actions? One route was number pads. If the Atari joystick was Steve Jobs, the Intellivision was Steve Wozniak.

Its number pad and rotating dial allowed for complex actions far beyond that of the Atari joystick, but at the cost of form factor. The number pad design would linger for years and appear on the ColecoVision and even the Atari 5200 until Nintendo launched their home console. By the way, there’s a new version of the Intellivision coming out.

1983: Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo

Pure joy in a rectangle. Nintendo recognized the need for more complex inputs while still presenting a friendly piece of hardware. The result was a classic design whose influence can still be seen today. The controller housed a centered start and select with A and B buttons on the right and a directional pad on the left.

Though the D-pad’s design looked at first like a four-directional interface, players quickly realized that diagonal movement was possible by pressing two adjacent directions at once. The Sega Master System would go on to make a similar square D-pad with hash marks so diagonal movement would be clear.

1988: Sega Genesis

Sega

So we’ve established what a successful video game controller looks like, but how does it feel? Around this time, video game cartridges were implementing battery-powered save features, allowing for longer games played over a longer period of time. With longer playtimes came a need for comfortable controllers, and Sega delivered. Though the original Sega Genesis offered no additional inputs over the NES controller, it did address ergonomics with its rounded grips and overall smooth design. Later, a six-button version was introduced for the Genesis.

1990: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo

Nintendo took the shape of their successful NES controller and softened it. The edges rounded into actual grips instead of sharp corners, but it still maintained the NES’s flat design. But the Super Nintendo controller really left its mark is by introducing shoulder buttons. Actions like aiming in Super Metroid and chaining combos in Street Fighter 2 became possible, while other games utilized these buttons for camera control or banking left and right.

1994: PlayStation

Sony

The first PlayStation controller took what was working and made it their own. The standard inputs were all there like a D-pad and right side buttons, but with an additional second row of shoulder buttons for greater functionality. More importantly, the PlayStation controller was a major step forward in style.

The gamepad’s elongated grips formed the iconic shape of all future PlayStation controllers, and four new symbols replaced the lettered buttons of the past. The blue cross and red circle represented yes and no, the green triangle represented a point of view, and the pink square symbolized a sheet of paper for menus.

1996: Nintendo 64

Nintendo

Either this is your favorite controller or you think it was designed by an alien who didn’t understand human anatomy. The N64 featured similar grips to the PlayStation gamepad, but with a third middle grip for its new miniature joystick and back trigger. This joystick made navigating 3D games like GoldenEye and Super Mario 64 smooth as butter. Plus, the optional Rumble Pak made for a unique handheld experience. Though the N64 popularized the thumb-sized joystick, this was actually first seen in the short-lived Neo Geo CD in 1994.

1997: PlayStation DualShock

Sony

This is where the modern controller began. PlayStation cracked the code of fluid motion with its dual joysticks and combined that with everything that came before. The “shock” in DualShock came from its integrated dual-motor rumble functionality, which outshined the N64 Rumble Pak with more motors, placement inside the grips, and no need for a battery. The result is what many consider to be the greatest controller of all time. 

It was exactly what a controller should be: an advanced piece of hardware that worked so seamlessly that you practically forgot about it. From there, the DualShock 2 added pressure-sensitive buttons, allowing for more realistic control in racing games. Then the DualShock 3, or Sixaxis controller, added motion control and wireless connection.

1998: Sega Dreamcast

Sega

Sega’s time as a console maker may have come to a close with the Dreamcast, but they left us with a truly unique controller. The Sega Dreamcast controller was a spaceship with dual triggers, an offset joystick, and the coolest memory card of all time.

The Dreamcast’s VMU (Visual Memory Unit) looked like a Tamagotchi but plugged into the controller to save files and act as a second screen. In games like Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the VMU would actually display your current health; in D2, it would act as a compass. The VMU could even be coupled with another VMU to trade save files and play minigames.

2001: Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo

The GameCube controller was like the goofy younger brother of the DualShock. Both featured two joysticks, dual shoulder buttons, and long grips. But there’s something about the GameCube that embodied the friendliness of Nintendo beautifully. Instead of a grey piece of plastic, you got an indigo accessory with a yellow offset joystick and button layout that looked almost like a face.

It was adorable, comfortable, and the gold standard for any Smash Bros fan. There was even a Wavebird model that introduced wireless play through radio signals and didn’t require line of sight. Going off looks alone, the GameCube and Dreamcast controllers would probably get along at a party.

2001: Xbox “The Duke”

Microsoft

While the original Xbox controller was one of the most comfortable controllers, it was also one of the biggest. It looked like you filled up a GameCube controller with Monster Energy Drink. The bulky North America model seen above was quickly replaced by the slimmed-down Japanese version “S.”

Like the Dreamcast and GameCube controllers, the offset joysticks presented an alternative grip to the PlayStation’s DualShock series, and it continues to be the defining characteristic between the two console makers today. Though this model was still wired, the Xbox 360’s controller would go on to be the first Bluetooth controller, setting the standard for modern wireless controllers.

2006: Nintendo Wiimote and Nunchuck

Nintendo

The controller that broke thousands of TVs. This two-part controller used an optical sensor to track movement so gamers could literally stretch their legs. Between the two parts were all the controls—joystick, trigger, D-pad, etc.—with the addition of a built-in speaker.

The Wiimote also housed an IR emitter that let you point at the screen with the controller instead of using the joystick to navigate menus. And if gaming in-motion wasn’t your style, you could turn the Wiimote to the side and use it as a classic Nintendo controller. Of course, then you’d miss out on the greatest multiplayer game of all time: Wii Sports.

2013: PlayStation DualShock 4

Sony

Sony’s DualShock 4 was a leap forward for PlayStation. The DualShock 4 added a light bar and touchpad to the center of the controller. What could this touchpad do? Well, game makers don’t really know, so the touchpad has been used as a large button in most games.

But while the touchpad remains underutilized, features like a headphone/microphone jack and share button have become standard, and the color bar enables controller tracking for PlayStation VR games. The DualShock 4 also ditched batteries in favor of an internal lithium battery, making it lighter (but requiring regular recharges).

2013: Xbox One

Microsoft

The Xbox controller perfected. This controller wasn’t all that dissimilar from a 360 controller (hence its omission) save for a body redesign to make it even more comfortable. We got the inclusion of a headphone/mic jack like the DualShock 4, but beyond that, it was just a really solid controller.

Unlike the DualShock 4, the Xbox One ran on batteries so gamers could choose whether or not to use rechargeable lithium. But even the extra weight couldn’t take away from this unparalleled controller.

2017: Nintendo Switch JoyCons

Nintendo

What if you could break the controls off your GameBoy and give half to your friend? Surely this was the actual pitch presented at Nintendo when proposing Joy-Cons. After the Wii U’s lukewarm reception in 2012, Nintendo set out to make a truly portable home console: something you could play with a friend right now, literally anywhere.

Thankfully, they got it right with the Switch. Thanks to Joy-Cons, you could bust out Mario Kart without having to lug around multiple controllers, then snap the whole thing into a dock for a home console experience. It’s the best of both worlds, even if Joy-Cons drift sometimes.

2020: PlayStation DualSense and Xbox Series X

Sony/Microsoft

This year, Sony and Microsoft continue their tradition of excellence with a new generation of controllers. And while much is already known about these controllers, the adventures they’ll take us on are yet to be told.

So what’s your favorite controller of all time? Let us know in the comments, and check back for updates on these next-gen consoles.

Featured Image: Sony/Microsoft

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Sony offered fans their first look at the PS5’s graphics, but how do they hold up? Dan breaks it all down in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

Which next gen console are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments!

The post First Look at the Playstation 5 Graphics! (Nerdist News w/ Dan Casey) appeared first on Nerdist.

It’s time to dust off the old virtual skateboard and crank up the 90s punk rock because Tony Hawk Pro-Skater is being remastered! Dan breaks down all the details in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

What’s your favorite memory playing Tony Hawk Pro-Skater? Let us know in the comments!

The post Why the Tony Hawk Pro-Skater Remaster Has Fans Losing Their Minds (Nerdist News w/ Dan Casey) appeared first on Nerdist.

Xbox Series X is almost here, and fans are getting a closer look at the first wave of games officially confirmed for the next gen console! Dan breaks it all down in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

What game are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments!

The post XBOX SERIES X: All of the New Games Revealed! (Nerdist News w/ Dan Casey) appeared first on Nerdist.

Call of the Sea

Call of the Sea is the first game from new studio Out of the Blue. Developed by a team of 12 with credits like Metroid: Samus Returns and Celeste under their belt, it’s a first-person adventure starring Firewatch’s Cissy Jones.

“We are all huge H. P. Lovecraft fans and are inspired by his work,” writes game director Tatiana Delgado. “Call of the Sea is not a horror game. Far from it. But you might say that we are inspired by the way Lovecraft tells some of his stories. We want you to solve the mystery we have created, slowly realizing that there is more to the world than meets the eye and piecing together what has taken place before you arrived on the island.”

Call of the Sea will hit Xbox Game Pass in late 2020.

Chorus

Deep Silver’s Chorus was the second title to really catch my eye this morning. Chorus is a slick-looking space shooter with moody visuals. It appears to be serving up a side of dark magic with its space opera.

“In Chorus, players take control of dual protagonists: ex-cultist Nara, an ace pilot with a haunted past, and Forsaken, a sentient AI starfighter and her closest ally, with a mysterious backstory of his own to unravel,” Deep Silver’s Tobias Severin explains. “This story-driven single-player experience invites gamers to unlock devastating weapons and mind-bending abilities as they fight to free the galaxy.”

Chorus will launch on the Series X sometime in 2021.

Deep Silver

Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2

This long-anticipated first-person RPG lets players live the life of a vampire. It supports Smart Delivery. So, you can buy it on Xbox One and then upgrade to the Xbox Series X version at no cost. Then it will transfer your save file in the process.

“Set in a dark reflection of our hometown of Seattle, we want to make you feel like a vampire—a monster hiding among humans,” writes Paradox Interactive’s Florian Schwarzer. “You’ll meet fascinating characters, competing factions, and get to choose who to support and whose night to wreck. As you uncover more of Seattle’s supernatural underbelly, you will decide how to grow and what being a vampire means for you.”

Bright Memory: Infinite

Bright Memory looks like a quirky hybrid of Battlefield-style gunplay, sword fights, and ’80s action movies. Conceived by a one-man studio in China, it’s set “in a sprawling, futuristic metropolis in the year 2036,” according to creator Zeng Xiancheng. Players can look forward to “navigating a spaceship that can travel through time, battling ancient samurai displaced from 1,000 years ago to the present, and exploring a wormhole that has appeared on Earth.”

The Medium

The Medium is the next psychological-horror game from Bloober Team, the folks behind Blair Witch, Layers of Fear, and Observer. Its soundtrack is being written in collaboration with Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.

Players take on the role of Marianne, “a medium hounded by visions, living and interacting across two worlds: our one, and the spirit world,” explains lead designer Wojciech Piejko. “Her visions lead her to an abandoned hotel in Krakow, the site of a terrible tragedy many years ago, hiding a mystery only a medium can solve. With access to both worlds, players will have a wider perspective and discover that there’s no one simple truth.”

Featured Image: Deep Silver

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The trailer for the latest installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise has arrived and it offers plenty for fans to be excited about! Dan jumps into the viking action to break down all the details in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

What’s your favorite Assassin’s Creed game? Let us know in the comments!

The post ASSASSIN’S CREED: VALHALLA – Trailer Breakdown! (Nerdist News w/ Dan Casey) appeared first on Nerdist.

As more and more details emerge around the next generation of gaming consoles, fans are eagerly awaiting their chance to finally pick one up. However, it now seems like getting your hands on a Platystation 5 may be even harder than it initially seemed. Dan takes a closer look in today’s episode of Nerdist News!

This video is made in paid partnership with FX’s What We Do In The Shadows. Now Streaming FX on Hulu. All-new episodes Wednesdays at 10PM on FX. Learn more and watch the trailer here: http://bit.ly/ShadowsFX #ad

Will you be battling the odds to get your hands on a PS5 at launch? Let us know in the comments!

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The post Why Getting a PS5 Will Be Harder Than You Think! (Nerdist News w/ Dan Casey) appeared first on Nerdist.

The dawn of the next generation of gaming consoles is on the horizon, and with them, the war between Microsoft and Sony continues. New details for the Xbox Series X have been revealed, but how do they stack up against the Playstation 5? Dan breaks it all down in today’s Nerdist News!

What console are you more excited for? Let us know if the comments!

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At this year’s Game Awards, held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, a giant, unexpected announcement took the audience, and the internet, by storm: The reveal of the next-generation Xbox, dubbed the Xbox Series X. The surprising reveal was delivered by Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, who said that the Xbox Series X will be released during the 2020 holiday season, and will “lead us into the future of console gaming.” Microsoft also dropped some details and specs on the new Xbox in a related blog post, so you can go ahead and start speculating on whether or not that claim is accurate.

Microsoft’s first trailer for the Xbox Series X. 

Right off the bat, there are a couple of big highlights worth noting. First of all, there’s that name. Previously known only as “Project Scarlett,” the new Xbox Series X name is more or less a logical continuation of the gaming console’s naming scheme, but this newest iteration does apparently have a lot of gaming fans wondering what Microsoft’s obsession with the letter “X” is all about. The most powerful Xbox currently available, the Xbox One X, is also obviously X’d to the max, and a lot of gamers think the letter needs to be benched for a while. Some have pointed out the allusion to the word “sex” as a possible reason for the new moniker (say it aloud a few times fast and watch the name transform), although that’s only speculation.

Power Your Dreams.#XboxSeriesX #PowerYourDreams pic.twitter.com/R4ulND4KAx

— Xbox (@Xbox) December 13, 2019

Next up is the design. While many have likened the shape of the Xbox One and Xbox One X to a VCR, this new, much more vertical design, now has gamers reminiscing of the Monolith from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Microsoft says that the rectangular obelisk can be flipped on its side without issue, however, which means there’s a simple fix to the many, many design jokes owners of the new Xbox are doubtlessly going to encounter. There is that cooling grate at the top of the console though, which may work better when the Series X is in the vertical position. (Insert Abe Simpson shaking his fist at physics.)

Although Spencer didn’t discuss granular details during the Game Awards, Microsoft’s blog post for Series X did to some extent. According to the post, the Series X will have “world-class visuals” with 4K resolution, 8K capability, support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and the ability to deliver up to 120 frames per second. The gaming system will be powered by Microsoft’s custom-designed processor that uses architecture borrowed from that of AMD’s Ryzen processor, which Microsoft says will allow for “a new level of performance never before seen in a console.” Microsoft also claims that its Xbox Series X GPU and next-generation SSD “will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Designed to Power Your Dreams. #XboxSeriesX #PowerYourDreams

A post shared by Xbox (@xbox) on Dec 12, 2019 at 6:22pm PST

Microsoft also revealed an updated, wireless controller, which the company says has been “refined to accommodate an even wider range of people.” But the biggest highlight gamers are noting is the addition of a new Share button, which will hopefully make capturing and sharing game clips and screenshots a fluid and intuitive experience. The new controller will be backward compatible with the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, and will be included with the console.

Speaking of backward compatibility, the Series X will allow people to “preserve [their] gaming legacy,” by being backward compatible with thousands of games from the first four generations of the console. All of the gaming accessories for the Xbox One will work with the Series X, as well as services like Xbox Game Pass. Game Pass, for those unfamiliar, is often referred to as the “Netflix of video games,” as it enables gamers to play numerous titles from a large library of games for a monthly subscription fee.

It will play all original Xbox games that are currently supported on the Xbox One.

— Xbox (@Xbox) December 13, 2019

In terms of games, the Series X reveal also came with the announcement of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, a follow-up to the Norse- and Celtic-inspired dark fantasy action-adventure game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. The spooky, somewhat NSFW trailer for Hellblade II (above), gives a glimpse of what to expect graphically from the Series X—watch it in 4k if you like being confused about what reality actually is. On top of the Hellblade II trailer, Microsoft also dropped a world premiere trailer for Gears Tactics, a Gears of War spinoff game.

The premiere trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. 

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t announce any release date or price for the Series X, although some are speculating that it will match the price of the Xbox One X, which cost $499 when it was first released. This IGN article discusses one possible way to preorder the Series X, by subscribing to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which, at some tiers, includes the option to upgrade to the Series X in 12 months.

What do you think of the Xbox Series X? Are you thrilled with the new name, design, and specs, or do you plan on skipping this monolithic console when the 2020 holiday season rolls around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Images: Microsoft 

The post Microsoft Unveils Next-Gen Xbox, Release Set for Late 2020 appeared first on Nerdist.

Part 3 of the Borderlands 3: Prep for Pandora cosplay series, Hendo Art prepares and applies Maya’s tattoos, makeup, and body paint to complete her Maya cosplay.

Special thanks to 2K for partnering with us on this video! Mayhem is coming Sept. 13, Pre-Order your copy of Borderlands 3 now: www.borderlands.com

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Part 2 of the Borderlands 3: Prep for Pandora cosplay series, Hendo returns and shows us how she fabricates a Maliwan SMG for her Maya cosplay!

Special thanks to 2K for partnering with us on this video! Mayhem is coming Sept. 13, Pre-Order your copy of Borderlands 3 now: https://2kgam.es/NerdistBL3

The post Hendo Art Borderlands 3 Cosplay Build: Prep for Pandora – Maliwan Prop appeared first on Nerdist.

If you look up the definition of “cult classic” in the dictionary, you might find a screenshot from the original Psychonauts next to it. The 2005 game — the first from Tim Schafer’s studio Double Fine, which was just acquired by Microsoft — received plenty of positive reviews, but bombed sales-wise. Through the power of word of mouth, Psychonauts found a second life when it was ported to PC in 2011. A decade-and-a-half later, the PS2-era classic is finally getting a sequel, and we got a chance to see it at E3 2019.

In the first Psychonauts, young psychic Razputin (better known as Raz) attends psychic summer camp to develop his skills. He soon gets wrapped up with the titular Psychonauts, who are impressed with his mind-bending abilities. Psychonauts 2 begins after the events of the first game and VR spinoff In the Rhombus of Ruin; it’s Raz’s first day at Psychonauts HQ, and he’s finding that life in a corporate office isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

It’s amusing that even as part of a top-secret psychic organization, Raz’s workplace has many of the staples of dreary office life: drab cubicles, banal discussions about profits, and team meetings designed to boost morale (hilariously called the “Morale Corral,” which sounds exactly like something a middle manager would come up with). Thankfully, he doesn’t have to wait long for action — his first mission is infiltrating the mind of the maniacal Dr. Loboto (recently captured by the Psychonauts and named Employee of the Year) and finding out who he’s working for.

This is where things get interesting. Journeying through the minds of others turns mundane settings into something strange, almost nightmarish. What’s a worse way to spend a day: in a cubicle or a dentist’s chair? In Psychonauts 2, you don’t have to choose! Inside Loboto’s brain, the spy headquarters is suddenly adorned with teeth. Raz’s old skills come back to him in no time: he uses telekinesis right away to toss a tooth on an exposed, wriggling nerve and create a platform. There are even zippers of teeth that serve as entryways to new areas.

As Raz gets his old skills back, he also gets badges — a throwback to his camp days. From the demo we saw, everything looks very streamlined and fluid. Raz can easily move from melee attacks to telekinesis to pyrokinesis, platforming his way through Loboto’s brain while fighting enemies like chattering teeth and red-stamping bureaucrats. Plenty of characters from the original game are back, and the demo heavily features agents Sasha and Milla, as well as fellow camper Lili (also now a Psychonauts employee).

Though Psychonauts was beloved among its small group of fans upon its original release, it was also criticized (and rightfully so) for its initial slowness and sometimes clunky gameplay. It appears that the sequel remedies those issues. The action begins right away, and everything looks more streamlined, from the camera to the platforming to the combat. It also looks amazing; it’s great to be able to see Double Fine’s distinct art style fully realized without the limitations of three-decade-old technology.

It’s a light-hearted game, to be sure, but it’s interesting to see how things like doubts and regrets manifest deep in the dentist’s psyche. Raz has to exploit these doubts, which manifest as physical beings, in order to get the information he needs out of Dr. Loboto. Within the first half hour, Raz has a whole slew of abilities at his disposal; no lengthy tutorials are bogging it down this time around.

It’s been a mind-boggling five years since its announcement, but now that it’s almost complete, Psychonauts 2 looks like everything that made the first game special in a more streamlined, polished package. It’s still full of humor, the characters are compelling, and the bizarre levels are only limited by the developers’ imaginations. Fans have been waiting a long time for this one, but the wait is almost over. Likely to be Double Fine’s last multi-console game, Psychonauts 2 launches next year for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Images: Double Fine

The post PSYCHONAUTS 2 is a Delightfully Weird Journey into the Mind appeared first on Nerdist.

If you’ve played a Gears of War game, you’re already familiar with the likes of Kait Diaz, J.D. Fenix, Marcus Fenix, and the rest of the Gears. But Gears 5 will introduce a brand new character into the mix when it launches this fall. Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed this hulking soldier and recognized his dulcet tones during the game’s announcement trailer at E3 2018, but today Nerdist can exclusively reveal that the character of Fahz Chutani will be played by Rahul Kohli (iZombie).

Microsoft and Gears 5 developers The Coalition announced that Kohli joined the cast on stage at the E3 Coliseum on Tuesday morning. Kohli joins a star-studded cast including Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz, Liam McIntyre as JD Fenix, Eugene Byrd as Del Walker, and John DiMaggio as Marcus Fenix. Speaking exclusively with Kohli and The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson, Nerdist has the inside scoop on who Fahz is, how he fits into the Gears 5 storyline, and what you should expect from the highly anticipated sequel.

While Fahz is a new addition to the franchise, he has a history with some of the other Gears. “He adds a new dynamic to the group,” Kohli said. “He isn’t the sweetest guy in the world and he shares a kind of checkered past with Del and JD, which you learn more about as the game goes on. But, yeah, he’s a bit of a dick in the most cool and fun way to play.”

Fergusson quipped, “It’s king of typecasting. We figured we didn’t want to stretch Rahul too far.”

This time around, though, Kait Diaz is front-and-center, continuing a narrative thread that began in Gears of War 4. But while Fahz knows the other members of the gang fairly well, this is the first time he has crossed paths with Kait, who seems to be increasingly paranoid that her allies are plotting against her.

“One of the things when we look back at Gears 4 [we felt like we wanted] is to have a little bit more tension within the group itself,” Fergusson explained. “And so when we came to Gears 5, we realized we wanted to have another character who’s a bit more of a foil and not just another buddy to get involved with.”

As the game unfolds, we’ll learn more about Fahz and his relationship with the likes of Marcus and JD. Through Fahz, Fergusson said, The Coalition was able to provide a unique insight into events that happened before Kait joined the team.

“He’s a sort of a nemesis in a way to JD,” Fergusson teased. “Fahz is sort of true to the [Coalition of Ordered Governments]. He’s one of those people, he’s a true believer, he likes the system. A lot of people look at the COG, the outsiders look at the COG as being a fascist organization where you potentially trade away your freedom for security and Fahz is totally fine with that. And I think it gives Fahz some freedom of power that I think he enjoys as being part of the COG.”

“He’s younger like the others, he didn’t live through the same events,” Fergusson elaborated. “He didn’t have the 75 years of Pendulum War and he didn’t have the 15 years of Locust War, so you have a soldier who’s looking for a fight. A lot of the times we talk about how when the war ended Marcus became a warrior without a war. I think this is the opposite, it’s what you see, just young soldiers who want to prove themselves and actually want the fight and that’s where Fahz is, he’s looking for a fight.”

As for Kohli, he wasn’t looking for a fight. He didn’t even realize he was about to audition for one of the most anticipated games of the year. While Kohli has been a staple of the CW’s iZombie for the past 5 years and spends much of his spare time playing video games, he hadn’t managed to merge his two passions until now.

“I didn’t even know it was an audition,” Kohli revealed. “I hadn’t done one before for voiceovers. It was like a five-minute walk from my apartment in Vancouver, which was cool. I got there and [they] gave me the sheets and a picture of Fahz, and it was a whole new experience for me like, ‘Oh this dude, what does he sound like?’ And then just sort of swing for the fences in the booth. You guys test my vocal cords with a few shouting lines…”

“Yeah, that’s Gears of War, right? You have to be able to yell,” Fergusson added. “We’ve had Minnie Driver, she put it on Twitter that we had to let her go because she couldn’t yell. It’s one of the things that’s not part of auditions; we have to get people to yell.”

What struck Kohli most about the process was how different it was compared to acting in the theater or on TV. “Obviously [in TV and theater] you get scripts, you’re able to piece together what’s going on fairly early on and plan your journey, but with the video game world it doesn’t necessarily work out like that,” Kohli explained. “The scripts are so huge you have to get the character nailed down quickly because the choices you make are happening in the booth real-time. Rod will take you through the scenarios that you’re in. You kind of just have to suspend yourself, be the character in the booth, know exactly where their head space is at, how their delivery would be and then just react within the situations that have been fed to you. And that was definitely a new experience, especially for me.”

“To have him come in and immediately make interesting choices, and he wasn’t just doing the same thing three times, he was experimenting creatively and he was giving different options to me,…It all clicked usably into place and so there really wasn’t anyone else in mind for Fahz,” Fergusson said. “Once Rahul read we knew we had found Fahz and we’re going to go forward.”

The toughest part for Kohli, by far, was the simple act of keeping this a secret until now.

“I am a big gamer. Before anything I was playing video games and I’ve always had the, in the back of my mind, that gaming could that be a destination for me in terms of performance,” Kohli explained. “And then I land Gears, which is like landing a fricking Avengers movie for your first movie. Do you know what I mean? It was like, ‘Holy crap, I’m in a AAA title straight away.’ And when the trailer went out last year, I got messaged so much about it. And then Rod will put up really cool artwork and stuff, I can’t like it, I won’t touch it, I won’t go near Rod’s account. I don’t go near the Gears account. So that’s been tricky, I’ve been waiting for this day.”

While Fahz won’t be a playable character in the game’s main campaign, he will be a playable character in multiplayer. “In fact, he’s a much beloved character on the team in multiplayer because of his lines,” Fergusson revealed.

Gears 5 launches with Xbox Game Pass on PC Xbox One on September 10. 

Images: Microsoft

The post GEARS 5 Adds IZOMBIE’s Rahul Kohli to the Cast (Exclusive) appeared first on Nerdist.

After unveiling everything from a surprise George R.R. Martin-designed video game to literally Keanu Reeves, Microsoft raised the stakes on their annual E3 press conference by formally announcing the first details of Project Scarlett, the codename given to the next-gen Xbox console.

Set to hit stores in holiday 2020, this ultra-powerful console boasts an array of impressive technical jargon, including 8K compatibility, a custom-designed CPU running on an AMD chipset, lightning-quick solid-state hard drives, 120 FPS, advance ray-tracing abilities to render light, and much more. This next generation Xbox console is being developed by the same team behind the Xbox One X, the reigning heir to the title of “most powerful console on the market,” and will be optimized for “one thing only: gaming,” according to Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer.

Using a newly developed SSD, Project Scarlett claims to be 40 times more powerful than the current generation of Xbox consoles, according to a Microsoft spokesperson. More importantly, it will feature Halo Infinite as a launch title, hearkening back to one of the greatest console launch titles of all time, Halo: Combat Evolved way back in 2001. Developed by 343 Industries, Halo Infinite will pick up in the wake of the events of Halo 5: Guardians. In the trailer unveiled during the press conference, we see a familiar face, Master Chief, awaken from his slumber and immediately launch into a mission to presumably once again save the universe as we know it.

This announcement comes hot on the heels of Sony’s reveal of the PlayStation 5 in an interview with Wired. That console also includes a solid state drive and promises backwards compatibility, a feature that has been largely missing since the original chunky model of the PlayStation 3.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on both of these devices as the great console war of 2020 begins to heat up. For the latest updates on all things E3, make sure you stay tuned to Nerdist all week long.

The post Microsoft Reveals Next-Gen Xbox Console Project Scarlett appeared first on Nerdist.

Huge bummer for people ready to spend hundreds of hours in a Syd Mead art book. Cyberpunk 2077, the game we’ve been jazzed about since Keanu Reeves called a guy “breathtaking,” will no longer see release in April of 2020. The game’s studio CD Projekt Red tweeted out a statement Thursday morning that sent our techno-future hearts into a tailspin.

We have important news regarding Cyberpunk 2077’s release date we’d like to share with you today. pic.twitter.com/aWdtR0grYV

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) January 16, 2020

Co-founder Marcin Iwinski and Head of Studio Adam Badowski mentioned in their shared statement the game is playable but because of the sprawling world of Night City, they need more play testing. So that means the game will no come out September 17, 2020. That’s about five months later. They’re hoping this will give them the “precious months needed to make the game perfect.”

So, pretty annoying, but better late than never, as the saying goes. We’ll update you more as news develops.

Original Reporting Below
From walking in slow motion to music to saving the day when travel delays strike to wreaking havoc across New York City, Keanu Reeves just seems to make everything better. So why not add the Internet’s favorite dog person to the Internet’s most anticipated video game, Cyberpunk 2077?

Well, at Sunday’s Xbox E3 press conference, that’s precisely what CD Projekt Red did. The studio that brought us The Witcher 3 gave us another extended look at their AAA adaptation of the fan-favorite tabletop RPG through a brutal cinematic trailer featuring nightclub brawls, more ridiculous lingo, betrayals most foul, spider-like cybernetic limbs, and, of course, the man himself, Keanu Reeves.

What role does Keanu play in the game? My brain is apparently full of spiders, so I can only think of the name “Tron Wick.” But maybe he is playing one of the most seminal characters in Cyberpunk‘s lore, the rocker hero Johnny Silverhand. After all, he’s sporting an awfully shiny, silvery artificial limb in the trailer. Keanu’s mystery character offhandedly refers to the player character V as “Samurai,” which is coincidentally the name the mega-popular rock band in the Cyberpunk mythos, fronted by none other than Johnny Silverhand himself. It’s probably a stretch, but it would be beyond cool to see the dystopian sci-fi version of Wyld Stallyns.

In addition to showing off glimpses of gameplay and cinematics, Keanu Reeves himself appeared like a smiling, gossamer avatar of joy to banter with the audience about Cyberpunk 2077 (and graciously dealing with an audience member who shouted out “You’re breathtaking!”) before revealing that the game will hit PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC on April 16, 2020.

Stay tuned to Nerdist for even more details about Cyberpunk 2077 later this week, as well as the latest updates, trailers, and hands-on impressions of your favorite games from this year’s E3.

Images: CD Projekt Red

The post CYBERPUNK 2077’s Release Date Has Moved Back appeared first on Nerdist.

There are a lot of unfair and insulting stereotypes about hardcore video game enthusiasts, a group of people who are so diverse and different it would be impossible to ever paint all of them with a single brush. However, if someone were to say to you, “That person smells like a gamer,” you would definitely recognize that as pejorative statement. At the very least it wouldn’t be meant as a compliment, even if we all know it’s a stupid thing to say. That’s why we have no idea if this new line of personal body care is meant as a joke or if it is the first step in righting a grave injustice about the bathing habits of video game lovers, because the company that makes Axe body spray has announced gamer-scented hygiene products.

Lynx, known in the U.S. as Axe, is teaming up with Microsoft to release a line of Lynx Xbox “Game” hygiene products (which we learned about at CNET) that are meant to….uh….make you smell like a gamer.

Seriously.

So what the hell does a gamer smell like, exactly? Based on our own experiences we would have guessed wires, plastic, and Doritos, but in a press release Lynx said their “Lift Your Game” deodorant, shower gel, and body sprays will have “a fresh scent of pulsing green citrus, featuring top notes of kaffir lime and winter lemon, aromatic herbal middle notes of mint and sage, and woody bottom notes of patchouli and clearwood.”

Oh, sure, yeah, that makes total sense.

Or at least maybe it will in Australia and New Zealand, where these gamer-scented products will be available for the first time starting this July. We’ve never played video games there, so maybe they eat a lot of citrus when they sit down for a session of Mortal Kombat.

No word yet on if Lynx has plans to release them anywhere else, or if this is really just a huge joke. Either way, at least now “smelling like a gamer” won’t be such a bad thing.

Images: Lynx

The post New Line of Xbox Hygiene Products Will Make You Smell Like a Gamer appeared first on Nerdist.

Scorpion heats things up with his new Chain Reaction finisher in Mortal Kombat 11, pulling a heated chain through his opponents, but could this be done in the real world? Kyle fires up the void on this episode of The Science of Mortal Kombat!

The Science of Mortal Kombat is a co-production between Legendary Digital Networks and WB Games.

Mortal Kombat 11 is available now! Purchase your copy here: https://go.wbgames.com/MK11

The post Can Scorpion Cut a Person in Half with Heat? | The Science of Mortal Kombat appeared first on Nerdist.

Spending holidays with family isn’t always an ideal vacation, but if anything can make a gathering better, it’s couch co-op games that get everyone involved. If you’re looking for some good gaming for the whole family, but want to experiment beyond classics like Smash, Mario Kart, or Just Dance, then we’ve compiled this list just for you.

1. Overcooked

Overcooked, or its equally awesome sequel, are full of fast-paced hilarity and cooking chaos. You and your friends play as chefs in a kitchen, working to complete tasks such as chopping vegetables or boiling broth in order to complete your meal. The only caveat is that the kitchen might be, for instance, on a pirate ship or split in half between the beds of two trucks barreling down a highway. (Available for Windows, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch)

2. Gang Beasts

Set in the fictional metropolis of Beef City, Gang Beasts pits you and three of your friends against each other in a beat ’em up brawl, where your goal is to throw the other players into or from one of the game’s many environmental hazards like cliff or shredders. Last person standing wins. (Available forWindows, macOS, Linux, and PS4)

3. Divinity: Original Sin II

Maybe you want to take a break from the classic couch co-op by diving into the more traditional fantasy RPG Divinity: Original Sin II. Assemble a party of four and explore the vast world, level up your skills, and fight some epic battles. You can also try your hand at the competitive multiplayer mode, where players are divided into two teams to fight in an arena map. (Available for Windows, macOS, Xbox One, and PS4)

4. Starwhal

In this bright and colorful indie game, you and three friends play as narwhals who glide, flip, and drift through the game’s various maps. The goal? Stab all of your opponents’ hearts with your horn before they get yours. Simple, yet endlessly entertaining. (Available for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Windows, and WiiU)

5.  A Way Out

A Way Out is a narrative-based two player co-op game that tells the story of two men breaking out of prison. It’s designed to be a split screen game, so you have to work together to sneak past guards, jack cars, and smuggle items to find your freedom. It’s also one of the darker games on this list, so if you want to bum your family out, this might be one to check out. (Available for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One)

6. Cuphead

None of these games challenging enough for you? If not, grab a friend and dive into side-scrolling shoot ’em up Cuphead‘s co-op mode. Come for the devastating difficulty, stay for the delightful 30’s style animation and jazzy soundtrack. (Available for Windows, macOS, and Xbox One)

7. Snipperclips

One of the most slept-on multiplayer games for Switch, Snipperclips is a co-op puzzle game where up to four players solve shape and physics-based puzzles. The game has a cute, pen-and-paper art style, and players snip pieces out of each others’ characters to get the job done. (Only available for the Switch)

8. Viscera Cleanup Detail

Love sci-fi adventures set in space? If so, Viscera Cleanup Detail offers an interesting twist: you’re not fighting aliens and saving the human race—that part’s already been done. Instead, you’re simply cleaning up all of the alien guts the heroes left behind. It’s cartoony, silly, and honestly kind of disgusting. (Available for Windows)

9. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

This game turns your living room into a bomb squad operation. The player acting as the “defuser,” looks at the procedurally generated bomb onscreen and describes it to the “experts,” who read through a many-paged, real life manual to give instructions on how to shut it down. (Available for Windows, OS X, PS4, Android, Linux, Switch, and Xbox One)

10. Ultimate Chicken Horse

If a platformer is more your style, grab some friends and check out Ultimate Chicken Horse. Four people playing as a raccoon, sheep, chicken, and a horse, maneuver their way through the level to the flag at the end. The players also place obstacles around the map to trip up the others, but all have to be careful not to make it too challenging for themselves in the process. (Available for Windows, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch)

Images: Clever Endeavor Studios, Ghost Town Games, Double Fine, Larian Studios, Breakfall, Hazelight Studios, Studio MDHR, SFB Games, Runestorm, Steel Crate Games

The post 10 Surprising Co-Op Games to Play This Holiday Season appeared first on Nerdist.

In Halo 3, Master Chief seemingly survives falling from space with only a makeshift heat shield, but is that really possible? Kyle asks Kyletana on this week’s Because Science!

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Since it debuted in 2001, Halo has become one of the most popular video game franchises of all-time. However, Microsoft has had an extremely difficult time bringing Halo to Hollywood. A Halo feature film to be produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp fell apart in pre-production, and several subsequent attempts to revive it stalled. In 2013, Showtime lined up the rights for a Halo TV series, but the project was stuck in development for almost half a decade…until now.

Via Entertainment Weekly, Showtime has finally given Halo a series order, with a first season of ten episodes. Kyle Killen (Awake) has been signed as the showrunner, while Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt has come on board to executive produce and helm several episodes of the series. In a statement, Showtime’s David Nevins said “Halo is our most ambitious series ever, and we expect audiences who have been anticipating it for years to be thoroughly rewarded.”

So far, there’s no indication that Master Chief, the primary protagonist of the games, will appear in the Halo TV series. But according to EW, the show will maintain its 26th century setting as humanity faces the alien Covenant in an ongoing conflict that will determine the future of both species. Halo‘s universe has a very rich backstory that could be explored on the show. But we suspect it will probably carve out its own corner of the mythos rather than simply adapting one of the previously released games.

The Halo TV series may begin filming as soon as this year, which means a 2019 debut on Showtime could be in the cards.

Are you excited to finally see Halo make the jump to TV? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Microsoft

More of the latest nerd news!

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The post The HALO TV Series is Finally Happening At Showtime appeared first on Nerdist.

The Console War, or the intense competition among the gaming consoles of large companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, has been going strong since the ’90s. With devout fans on all sides, that competition is usually pretty fierce. But in the past few years, a clear winner has emerged: the PlayStation 4. That’s right, the PS4 is even outperforming the beloved Nintendo Switch, having sold 19 million units in the last year against Switch’s 17.79 million. Not to mention that the PS4 has sold a staggering 76 million consoles in its lifetime (statistics via Business Insider). (Incidentally, Microsoft apparently won’t release their sales figures for the Xbox One at all.)

So what happened? What caused such a flip from when the Xbox 360 dominated with Halo in the 2000s? Isn’t the Xbox One supposed to have more processing power and better graphics? I have some theories.A head start

Microsoft got off to a bit of a (self-imposed) rocky start with the launch of the Xbox One. The console was going to launch with mandatory online check-ins, an inability to share or sell games, and an inescapable inclusion of the Kinect that jacked up the price, and gamers were not happy. All of these features have since been redacted, but the damage was already done. In a move that left us all scratching our heads, most of the announcement press conference just showed off the console’s cable and streaming services. Why they would spend so much time showing how you can watch The Price is Right (I wish I were kidding) when they were announcing a gaming console is beyond me. PlayStation got a head start, and Xbox is still playing catch-up.

Japanese origins

Thanks to Sony’s friendships in the East Asian market, the PlayStation has traditionally sold much better than Xbox in Asia, and they’re able to secure more games from Japanese developers. With Microsoft being American, they’re seen as more of an outsider.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is an increasingly large part of the gaming landscape, and I think it’s definitely played into PlayStation’s success. The PS4 has its own virtual reality device (aptly named PlayStation VR) that’s compatible with its console. It is possible to play VR games on an Xbox One, but it isn’t as easily accessible as PSVR.

User Interface

Players have bemoaned the clunkiness of the confusion-inducing Xbox One user interface. On the other hand, the PlayStation home screen is minimalistic but functional. It’s a little thing, but sometimes the little things can go a long way. As a bonus, there’s a theme you can buy that’s styled after the PS2 UI, iconic start-up sound and all. Ah, sweet nostalgia.

Exclusives

If we’re honest with ourselves, exclusives are probably the biggest factor in why the PlayStation 4 has been so popular. Xbox has Halo, Gears of War, Sea of Thieves, and Quantum Break. But PlayStation has The Last of Us, Spider-Man, God of War, Metal Gear, Death Stranding, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted, Resident Evil, Days Gone, Horizon Zero Dawn, Detroit: Become Human, Until Dawn, Journey, Bloodborne, The Last Guardian… you get the idea. Not only does PlayStation have a ton of exclusives, but most of them are really good, too. There are two reasons for this. One: It takes a lot of money to make games, and even more to make exceptional ones, and Sony is willing to foot the bill. They started acquiring smaller studios all the way back in 2005, and could give them the resources they needed to put out a product to be proud of.

That leads into reason number two: Sony gives studios complete creative freedom to make the games they’re passionate about, and that’s exactly how Naughty Dog‘s hit The Last of Us came about. After finishing up Uncharted 2, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley were promoted to game directors and given their own team to reboot the PS2 classic Jak and Daxter. But Druckmann and Straley soon realized that project would have been more of a cash grab than anything. When they brought this up to their boss, he told them to scrap it and make whatever they wanted. And so, The Last of Us was born, and went on to become what many consider the best game of the last console generation.

I also like the PS4 controller way better, but that’s more of a personal preference than anything.

But what do you think? Is the PS4 really the best console right now? Do you think this trend will continue into the next generation? Let us know in the comments!

Images: Sony, Microsoft, Naughty Dog

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The post Why PlayStation Is Winning the Console War appeared first on Nerdist.

For ten long years, gamers have suffered a severe drought of incredibly shredded dudes with anime-style hair, a perpetual sneer, and a penchant for murdering demons with explosive, combo-based combat. Today, that drought comes to an end with the promise of Devil May Cry 5, the first true Devil May Cry sequel in a decade.

Capcom announced Devil May Cry 5 during the Xbox E3 press conference on Sunday, and it will arrive in spring of 2019. The game also features the return of acclaimed director Hideaki Itsuno, and featured familiar faces like Nero, who used some of the series’ iconic weapons to carve through hordes of demons. Best of all, the trailer ended with a shot of O.G. protagonist Dante riding on a motorcycle, which is really all you need to make a good Devil May Cry trailer, if I’m being totally honest.

The original Devil May Cry was released by Capcom in 2001 for PlayStation 2, and developer Ninja Theory–who Microsoft announced at their press conference has been acquired as a first-party studio–attempted to reboot the series in 2013 with DmC: Devil May Cry, but it didn’t achieve the critical acclaim of earlier entries. Devil May Cry 5, however, is going to be the latest canonical entry in the series’ main timeline, following the adventures of Nero and Dante once more.

What do you hope to see from Devil May Cry 5? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest and greatest in E3 coverage.

Images: Capcom

Even more gaming news!

• Check out this DIY of God of War‘s Leviathan axe!
• We’re officially getting a Hitman 2!
• This Overwatch fan made ASL signs for all of the heroes!

What if Majora’s Mask made our moon fall to Earth?

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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

The post DEVIL MAY CRY 5 is Officially Coming in 2019 appeared first on Nerdist.

Much like The Ink Spots, Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard may not want to set the world on fire, but he left the stage ablaze at the Xbox E3 press conference on Sunday with the first details about the hotly anticipated Fallout 76. 

According to Howard, Fallout 76 is a prequel to all the other Fallout games. In terms of size, it is four times larger than Fallout 4, taking place in the sprawling mountains and hills of West Virginia.

Announced earlier this month by Bethesda, Fallout 76 takes place in the Shenandoah Valley, putting players in the shoes of a survivor from Vault 76, emerging from the relative security of the vault to brave the post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland and rebuild society.

The trailer featured all manner of iconic imagery from previous Fallout titles, as well as some monsters that look like brand new additions to the game. According to Kotaku, the game is rumored to be an online survival RPG in the same vein as DayZ or Rust, but there have been no official details yet. We will learn more about Fallout 76 at Bethesda’s E3 press conference on Sunday evening, so stay tuned for updates as they come in.

What do you hope to see from Fallout 76? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest and greatest in E3 coverage.

Images: Disney/Lucasfilm

Even more gaming news!

• Check out this DIY of God of War‘s Leviathan axe!
• We’re officially getting a Hitman 2!
• This Overwatch fan made ASL signs for all of the heroes!

What if Majora’s Mask made our moon fall to Earth?

[brightcove video_id=”5794448371001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=“rJs2ZD8x”]

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

The post FALLOUT 76 Will Be Four Times Larger Than FALLOUT 4 appeared first on Nerdist.

Microsoft kicked off their annual E3 press conference with a bang by revealing a cinematic trailer for 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite. The game, which was rumored in advance of the press conference, features the return of Master Chief and is rendered in a brand new graphics engine that 343 Industries is referring to as “Slipcase.” This marks the first new Halo game since 2015’s Halo 5,

The trailer starts off slow, showing slow, sweeping shots of the forest, the desert, and all sorts of verdant vistas before following a group of soldiers walking through arc-like ruins. The camera then zooms back to reveal a familiar-looking person in an iconic suit of armor: Master Chief.

“We will join Master Chief on his greatest adventure yet to save humanity,” said Xbox chief Phil Spencer after the trailer aired. Little else is known about Halo: Infinite at this time, but we will keep you updated as we learned more over the course of this week.

In a blog post, 343 Industries revealed that the game is still in very early stages of development.

“The E3 demo showcases some of the exciting potential of this technology – everything you see is running in-engine,” they wrote. “We still have a long way to go until we ship the game, so things will certainly evolve between now and the release of Halo Infinite, though the engine demo is a clear indication of the direction we are heading with our next game and a great snapshot of where our tech is right now.”

What do you hope to see from Halo: Infinite? Let us know in the comments below!

Stay tuned to Nerdist all week long for the latest and greatest in E3 coverage.

Images: Disney/Lucasfilm

Even more gaming news!

• Check out this DIY of God of War‘s Leviathan axe!
• We’re officially getting a Hitman 2!
• This Overwatch fan made ASL signs for all of the heroes!

What if Majora’s Mask made our moon fall to Earth?

[brightcove video_id=”5794448371001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=“rJs2ZD8x”]

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

The post Microsoft Reveals HALO: INFINITE With Surprise Trailer at E3 appeared first on Nerdist.

With the end of the year approaching faster than someone instalocking Genji at the start of an Overwatch competitive match, it’s time to take a look back at the year that was and celebrate the best games of 2017. So without further ado, let’s see what games have unlocked the year’s best achievement: being truly spectacular.

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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Image: Bluehole

Is it riddled with bugs? Yes. Is it endlessly frustrating? Yes. Are you likely to spawn into a server full of people in their underwear screaming racial slurs at you? Yes. But once you mute your fellow players, I’ll be damned if PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds isn’t one of the most addictive, tense, and thrilling shooters in ages. The 100-person battle royale shooter is filled with epic kills, unexpected encounters, and the most satisfying chicken dinner since the original horrifying ending in the director’s cut of Chicken Run. Platforms: PC, Xbox One (coming soon)

Cuphead 

Image: StudioMDHR

If you put Fleischer Studios’ animation, Contra, and old-school Mega Man games into a blender, then poured them into a nice mug, you would get Cuphead. The game is as difficult and devilishly challenging as it is gorgeously animated, which is to say: very. The years it spent in development hell were worth the unrelentingly adorable bullet hell that followed. Yet the best part may be what too many games lack nowadays: the feeling of fist-pumping accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with finally, finally beating that boss that brutally murdered you three thousand times in a row.

Platforms: PC, Xbox One

NieR: Automata

Image: Platinum Games

In a year of stellar action RPGs, NieR: Automata was one of the most unexpectedly rewarding. Platinum Games’ long-awaited sequel to the cult classic NieR, NieR: Automata is equal parts lovely and lugubrious, oozing with stylish world-building and killer, combo-based combat. The best part? There are 26 endings you can get, so you’ll have no shortage of reasons to keep playing and replaying this game long after you see the end of 2B and 9S’s melancholy tale. Oddly enough, there are also 26 endings to this episode, but you’ll have to watch it differently each time to unlock them.

Platforms: PC, PS4

What Remains of Edith Finch 

Image: Giant Sparrow

Much like 2013’s Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch is an unexpected treat that will build you up and break you down with undulating waves of emotion. Its series of vignettes about a seemingly cursed family from Washington unfold in a first-person perspective in which you slowly learn the terrible truth of America’s most unfortunate family. What it lacks in interactivity, it makes up for in a deeply engrossing narrative that will make you laugh and cry, but mostly just make you glad that you gave this offbeat gem a shot.

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Xbox One

Yakuza 0 

Image: SEGA

Take a trip down the neon-soaked streets of 1980s Tokyo in this epically weird and weirdly epic action adventure game that puts you in the shoes of two members of the Yakuza who are forced to become unlikely allies when they get caught up in a power struggle. Your heroes are Kazuma Kiryu, the series’ longtime protagonist, and the eyepatch-wearing Mad Dog of Shimano himself, Goro Majima. The game not only delivers a violent, grizzled crime drama, but it is packed to the gills with an oddball sense of humor, goofy side quests, and more ways to fritter away time than there are in actual Japan. In short, it’s cheaper than a vacation and it’ll make you feel almost as good.

Platforms: PS4, PS3

Night in the Woods 

Image: Infinite Fall

Behind its cutesy cartoon animal aesthetic lies the beating heart of a game that will both entertain you and make you confront some deep-seated truths about yourself. As a feline college dropout named Mae Borowski, you experience a homecoming in all of its bittersweet glory. In your hometown of Possum Springs, you’re not just trying to reconnect with the people you left behind; you’re trying to figure out the kind of person you want to be. This is basically a simulation of what it’s like to visit your hometown after a long time away, rendered beautifully as one of the best adventure games in recent memory.

Platforms: Andoird, iOS, Linux, Mac, PC, PS4

Horizon Zero Dawn 

Image: Guerilla Games

A game as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as it is expansive, Horizon: Zero Dawn was the breath of fresh air that open-world action-adventure fans needed. As Aloy, you stalked the plains using your bow and arrow to hunt down massive robotic dinosaurs and uncover. If you told me that the same people that made Killzone were going to make a game so good that Kyle Hill wouldn’t shut up about it for literal months, then I would have had you burned alive for being a bad witch. Now I’ll just have to burn you for being an actual witch.

Platforms: PS4

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 

Few games had more expectation attached to them than Breath of the Wild. Not only was it the first major new Zelda game since Skyward Sword, it was THE Nintendo Switch launch title, charged with making a risky new console a smash hit. The results are nothing short of breathtaking, offering a truly challenging open world experience, hearkening back to years of Zelda lore while introducing new wrinkles, bold gameplay innovations like weapon durability, and a dolphin prince that half of the internet wants to sleep with. In short, it’s everything we could have asked for. And if you didn’t like it, well…

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Persona 5 

Image: Atlus

One of the weirdest and most wonderfully addictive games I’ve ever played, Persona 5 puts you in the role of a bunch of disaffected high schoolers who basically incept adults into not being shitty people by altering their darkest impulses within their psyches. It’s a heady premise that is executed in wildest way possible. But that’s just half the fun of this sprawling JRPG. You’ll spend the other half working part-time jobs, trying to conquer hamburger challenges, and dating every living human you come in contact with. At least that’s how I played it… which can lead to a nasty surprise come Valentine’s Day.

Platforms: PS4, PS3

Super Mario Odyssey 

Image: Nintendo

An unemployed plumber seeks to ruin a wedding by stealing the free will of those around him using a parasitic alien life form masquerading as a hat. Such is the basic plot of Super Mario Odyssey, but the Mario games have never been about the plot; they’re showcases for exquisitely designed platforming gameplay. In what may be the greatest Mario game since Super Mario 64, Odyssey takes players to increasingly inventive levels and presents endless challenges, minigames, collectibles, and reasons to keep coming back to the wild worlds it presents. After all, it takes a special kind of game to let you not only possess a T. Rex AND hang out with a corgi wearing an Indiana Jones hat.

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

And those are the very best video games of 2017. What are your favorites? What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.

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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).

The post The Best Video Games of 2017 appeared first on Nerdist.

If you had to guess — without looking at any numbers, of course — what modern console is selling more than any other, you’d probably say that it’s the PlayStation 4. It’s just accepted that Sony’s console is the most ubiquitous one around, and concrete figures prove that this is definitely true: Business Insider reports that the PS4 is winning the console wars, and that it’s doing it in a landslide.

From its North American launch on November 15, 2013 to June 30, 2017, the PS4 has sold about 63.3 million consoles, which puts it pretty far ahead of its competition. Microsoft doesn’t report sales numbers for the Xbox One, but it’s estimated that it’s sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 million units. So yes, less than half. As you’d expect, both are super far ahead of the Nintendo Switch, though, which has sold about 4.7 million consoles since its launch in March. [brightcove video_id=”5469582353001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]

As Business Insider notes, there are several reasons why the PS4 found its way to the top and stayed there: It was the cheapest console at launch, it’s a versatile machine that can do a lot more than just play games, and it has some strong exclusive titles. How does the PS4 stack up historically, though?

It’s the sixth best-selling console of all time, behind the PS2 (about 155 million consoles), original PlayStation (102 million), Wii (101 million), Xbox 360 (84 million), and the PS3 (83 million). Considering all of those were released before 2007, the PS4 is off to a pretty darn good start.

Are you a PlayStation 4 owner? Do you think it will ever join the 100 million club? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Featured image: Pete Slater/Flickr

The post PlayStation 4 is Winning the Console Wars and It’s Not Even Close appeared first on Nerdist.

There are only three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the full-body hangover that comes from spending countless hours on the E3 show floor. The biggest event in video gaming got even bigger this year as it opened to the public for the first time, allowing 15,000 lucky fans to purchase passes to the previously exclusive, industry-only event. The 68,400 attendees were able to test out more than 2,000 products showcased by 293 exhibitors, and it was our enviable task to find the best of the best, wading through the muck and the mire to find the cream of the crop. After many hours of deliberation, spending extensive hands-on time with games on the show floor, and agonizing over which was worthiest of accolade, we have winnowed down the list to the 10 best games we saw at E3 2017.

The awards are split into two distinct categories, Editor’s Choice and Best in Show. Our Editor’s Choice seal of approval marks the most innovative, energizing, and genuinely fun titles we saw at E3. However, for that one game that rose above the competition to stand on its own, we have the equivalent of a high five wrapped in bacon: our Best in Show award. In a year with many very impressive entries, these are the games worthy of additional accolade as selected by our editorial team.

Editor’s Choice

Detroit: Become Human

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAmKdZdfV1cWhat happens when machines develop emotions? This was a question posed by author and futurist Ray Kurzweil, and serves as the basis for French game developer Quantic Dream’s neo-noir thriller Detroit: Become Human. The game takes place in a world where androids are as commonplace as iPhones and are used to perform all manner of menial tasks, existing as a class of secondary synthetic citizens. Now they are achieving a manner of sentience and questioning the system that subjugates them, and you are in the driver’s seat of this burgeoning mechanical mutiny. With breathtaking graphics, a 2,000-page-long script, and compelling gameplay, Detroit: Become Human is an expansive, engrossing experience that looks like it won’t just offer hours upon hours of entertainment, but cause its players to ponder some of the deeper moral and philosophical questions about identity, personhood, and free will that are fulminating below the surface. Every decision you make matters, and will have dire consequences that come along with it. Characters can die, the story can mutate in unexpected ways, and the only way to find out what else might have happened is to play it again.

Assassin’s Creed Origins

For the tenth major installment of its mega-popular Assassin’s Creed series, Ubisoft couldn’t afford to rest on its laurels. Rather than take us back to a familiar location or continue the narrative of an Assassin we’ve already met, Ubisoft Montreal is taking us back to where it all began: ancient Egypt. Assassin’s Creed Origins takes the series, quite literally, back to its roots as it explores how the centuries-long struggle between the freedom-loving Assassins and the fascistic Templars first began. Set in a stunningly rendered, open-world version of Ptolemaic Egypt, Origins puts you in the shoes—or sandals, in this case—of Bayek, a Medjay, who works to keep order in the realm and fight for the common people. With a robust loot system, refined combat that feels fluid and fast-paced, and a vibrant ancient world to explore, Origins is the freshest the series has felt in ages. While the hallmarks of a great Assassin’s Creed game are all in place, what makes Origins feel special is its potential to surprise you. Whether that comes in the form of shooting a flaming arrow at a barrel of oil to take out enemies aboard a heavily guarded ship or finding yourself in a life-or-death struggle against nature’s deadliest creation, the hippopotamus, while you’re swimming underwater is entirely dependent on how you play the game—and therein lies its magic.

Sea of Thieves

My timbers were well and truly shivered this E3 thanks to multiplayer pirate games like Skull & Bones and Sea of Thieves. Yet where Skull & Bones opted for the gritty realism that made it work so well in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Sea of Thieves takes a far jauntier approach to being a scourge of the seven seas. It’s a game that lets you do nearly anything you can think of—provided you can think of piratical antics for you and your crew to undertake. You and your teammates can hoist the mainsails, batten down the hatches, prepare a plank to be walked, plunder that booty to your heart’s content, fight undead warriors, drink your body weight in grog, eat a banana like a goddamn monster, and so much more. It’s still a bit clunky in its current condition, but the premise of the game is so strong, so deeply silly and unreasonably fun that it cannot be denied. While Rare definitely has its work cut out for it between now and when it finally sets sail onto Xbox consoles, it is one of the most endlessly fun, uproariously funny gaming experiences in ages, and that is something to be celebrated.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

When Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor hit consoles in 2014, it reminded us why we fell in love with the rich, gritty fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien in the first place, and washed the taste of those abysmal Hobbit movies out of our mouths. For the first time, it didn’t feel like we were just retreading ground already laid by Tolkien’s novels or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films; rather, it felt as though we were blazing our own trail through a new segment of Middle-earth’s expansive lore on our own terms. When I played the first game at E3, I meant to play for 20 minutes and wound up playing for 90. I’m proud to say the same thing happened with its sequel. With Shadow of War, the forthcoming sequel from Warner Bros. Interactive and Monolith Productions, the ante has been upped in every conceivable way to make a stellar sequel to a tremendous game. Whereas the first game offered the experience of being a solitary badass, a lone wolf stalking the plains of Middle-earth, Shadow of War recasts you as a burgeoning general, recruiting and commanding forces to wage war against the forces of Sauron and the Nazgul. With enhanced combat, the addition of an upgradeable gear system, and an overhauled Nemesis system (which allows you to dominate and recruit orcs and uruk hai as your minions), Shadow of War is shaping up to be “The Battle of Helms Deep” of this franchise, which is to say bigger, better, and more epic in every conceivable way.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

It has been a long, dark decade-and-a-half since we’ve had a good Spider-Man game. In 2004, Treyarch released a Spider-Man 2 tie-in game that proved to be the most authentic and joyful video game version of being Marvel’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to date. Now, Insomniac is finally ready to claim the crown of “best Spider-Man game ever” for its PS4-exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man, which releases in 2018. The game looks and feels like the Spider-Man version of Batman: Arkham City you’ve always wanted. Set in a massive version of Manhattan, Spider-Man will let you swing around New York City, laying the smackdown on members of Spidey’s incredible rogues gallery with all manner of gadgets and fisticuffs, and strike a delicate balance between being Peter Parker and being Spider-Man. And the best part? Since it takes place when Peter is an adult—fresh out of college—so you won’t have to relive the trauma of seeing poor, sweet Uncle Ben die for the umpteenth time.

Far Cry 5

After four games of globetrotting, open-world survivalist action, Far Cry 5 is bringing its unique blend of FPS action and survival back to the United States with a new game set in a version of rural Montana that has been taken over by a violent doomsday cult called Eden’s Gate. Does its imagery evoke uncomfortable parallels to real-world political analogues? Yes. Does the main antagonist look weirdly like Jared Leto? Yes. Can you have an adorable dog named Boomer help you take down these gun-toting loons, then pet him for being a Very Good Boy? Oh, hell yes. With a vast open world to explore, teeming with dangers both human and bestial, Far Cry 5 gives you endless tools with which to complete your myriad missions, and does looks damn good doing it. Far Cry 5 is not a radical departure from the formula that has made the series a fan favorite, but it is an incredibly polished, vibrant, absorbing experience that I felt myself jonesing to play more of long after my hands-on demo ended.

God of War

“Why is Kratos such a daddy?” asked Tumblr, presumably. “Because he actually is a daddy,” replied Cory Barlog, creative director of Santa Monica Studio, also presumably. Influenced deeply by Barlog’s relationship with his own young son, as well as the countless parents on the Santa Monica Studio development team, God of War is plumbing new emotional depths with its latest iteration while still delivering the blood-soaked, spine-ripping, epic action we’ve come to expect from the series. The game so nice we awarded it twice, God of War is pushing the envelope in every conceivable way—narratively, graphically, mechanically—and the results are as breathtaking as the world serpent, Jörmungandr, rising from the depths of the ocean before Kratos and his son, Atreus. The next chapter in Kratos’ saga recasts him as not just a warrior, but a father too, and explores the difficulty in finding a balance between those two roles. While Kratos struggles to suppress the rage within and teach his son a better way of living, he must also teach his son the skills necessary to surviving in the harsh Norse wilds in which they now find themselves. As we’ll come to learn, being essentially immortal doesn’t mean you have to stop growing up.

Monster Hunter World

If using a grappling hook to swing around a lush, primordial jungle, and doing righteous battle with all manner of dinosaurs, dragons, and other gargantuan megafauna doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time, then I guess I never really knew you to begin with. One of Japan’s most popular franchises, Monster Hunter, is poised to break big in the United States with the release of Monster Hunter World. What Capcom has created with its next-gen version of Monster Hunter is less of an open-world and more of a living, breathing ecosystem teeming with life. Granted, most of that life wants to rend your flesh from your bones and tear you limb from limb, but no one said it was going to be easy. Whether you explore this dangerous land solo or with up to three of your friends online, Monster Hunter World looks like a land in which we most definitely want to be lost.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

While we never condone using physical violence to solve one’s problems here at Nerdist, there’s just something about punching a Nazi that feels like a time-honored tradition, both pop culturally and historically. And punching is just the tip of the iceberg of what you’ll be able to do to the Nazis in Bethesda and MachineGames’ Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. You’ll be able to unleash flame-spewing mechanical dogs, turn them into a fine red mist with an electricity cannon, and blow them to smithereens with grenade launchers, too. Set in an alternate universe 1961 where the Nazis won World War II, The New Colossus puts you back in the shoes of B.J. Blazkowicz as you try to launch an insurrection against the Nazi regime occupying the United States. It’s alt-history pulp action at its finest and looks to build upon the sterling FPS pedigree MachineGames established with 2014’s excellent Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Best in Show

Super Mario Odyssey

You can sum up our excitement for Super Mario Odyssey in five words: Mario possesses a freakin’ dinosaur. But here are few more words anyway. From our first glimpse of Super Mario Odyssey, we felt a strange compulsion to play it, but we had so very many questions. What the hell kind of name is New Donk City? Why does Mario’s hat have eyes now? Wait, Mario can possess people? Is this game about Mario stealing free will? While those deeply philosophical debates are still raging hot and heavy in the Nerdist office, our excitement remains unabated, especially after getting hands-on time with the game on the E3 show floor. This time around, we’re leaving the well-worn territory of the Mushroom Kingdom behind to explore places unknown, and the results are so gloriously weird, so uproariously fun, and so full of secrets to uncover that we barely scratched the surface in the two levels we played. Like many games on our list, Super Mario Odyssey is a game that rewards exploration and experimentation, and offers a wide world to explore through the classic Mario mechanics you’ve come to know and love. While I still find Cappy, your sentient hat, to be deeply disconcerting, using him to take control of various creatures and objects in your environment or simply to thwack everything in sight is unreasonably fun. Video games are one of the ultimate expressions of play, and Super Mario Odyssey looks like it is going to be sheer joy distilled into a weird, wonderful little package.

Honorable Mentions:

• Destiny 2: Activision and Bungie have upped the ante for their shared-world co-op FPS, and it’s looking better than ever. We can’t wait to play more this September.
• Dragonball FighterZ: Our excitement level for this Dragon Ball Z fighting game is over 8,000. Sorry, anime fans, but we’re staying true to the source material on this one.
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm: While you won’t be able to travel through time, this prequel to Life is Strange that puts you in the shoes of Arcadia Bae is one of our most anticipated summer releases.
• A Way Out: A co-op prison break game? Lock us up, then sign us up!
• Anthem: Is it the Mass Effect sequel we deserve? Only time will tell, but we are thirsty for more details about BioWare’s gorgeous-looking new sci-fi action RPG.

What were your favorite games from E3 2017? What would be on your list? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Nintendo

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It’s about damn time. The most hotly anticipated indie game in recent memory has finally finagled itself a release date. First announced at E3 2014, Cuphead, Studio MDHR’s throwback platformer that evokes classic Disney and Fleischer cartoons, is coming to Xbox One and PC on September 28, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5iGwE0XJ1sThe game, which focuses on grueling combat against massive, screen-filling bosses, was originally intended for a 2016 release, but was ultimately pushed back when Studio MDHR kept making it bigger and bigger. Cuphead lets you play as two adorable anthropomorphic cups, Cuphead and Mugman, as you make your way through a gorgeously animated world to kick ass, take names, and avoid an untimely death at the hands of some brutally difficult boss fights. With both single-player and local co-op capabilities, Cuphead looks like the perfect new obsession for anyone lamenting games that feel too easy or want to scratch the nostalgia itch for Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo-era platformers. As part of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere program, Cuphead can be purchased on either Windows 10 or Xbox One and played across both platforms, so there’s really no excuse not to play this one unless you own a PS4 or a Switch.

In more surprising news, Cuphead is getting a lavish vinyl soundtrack release, too, courtesy of the creative geniuses over at iam8bit. The 4XLP set comes in throwback packaging made to look like a folio straight out of the 1930s. With nearly 3 hours of music by Kristofer Maddigan, album art by Jango Snow, and a digital copy of the soundtrack, this collection will run you $100. Honestly, even if you don’t wind up playing Cuphead, you might want to pick up a copy of this so your next cocktail party can have that vintage vibe you’re striving to create.

Will you be playing Cuphead? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: Microsoft/Studio MDHR/iam8bit

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

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If you felt a quiver in your loins during the final moments of Microsoft’s Xbox E3 press conference, there’s a good reason for that: your brain was processing the wonderful sci-fi jambalaya of BioWare’s newly revealed game Anthem and realizing that it looks like a bonkers hybrid of Iron Man, Destiny, Attack on Titan, and Mass Effect. With stunning graphics, compelling combat mechanics, and what looks like the Jericho missiles from 2008’s Iron Man, Anthem‘s first gameplay demo delivered in a major way and looks like it will deliver on the futuristic action-RPG promise made by Mass Effect: Andromeda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL5GSfs9fi4In the world of Anthem, you are a mercenary known as a freelancer, who lives behind the walls of a city protecting what seems like the last vestiges of humanity. Wearing customizable exosuit armor suits called Javelins, players will be able to equip themselves in a variety of ways that suit their play style. For example, the Ranger is a balanced class suitable for all kinds of combat, whereas the Colossus is a beefy, hulking suit of armor equipped with heavy-duty weaponry like mortars capable of taking out large groups of enemies in explosive fashion.

The shared-world action RPG allows for a cooperative online experience as you and your teammates undertake different missions in order to stave off the human race’s imminent demise at the hands of all manner of creepy-crawlies. Based on what we saw in the gameplay demo, Anthem looks like it will be a strong competitor for titles like Destiny 2, which launches September 8. Those looking to fly around the weird, wild world of Anthem fighting megafauna, gazing at bioluminescent underwater life, and launching all manner of tiny missiles at enemies will have to wait until it launches in spring 2018, though. We will learn more about Anthem, previously codenamed “Dylan,” at this year’s E3, so keep your eyes on this space for updates to come later this week.

What do you think of Anthem? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Is Anthem the Mass Effect Sequel we deserve?

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Images: BioWare

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

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