Harry Potter series stars Emma Watson and Tom Felton have posted a picture of a small cast reunion.
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter himself) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasely) are absent, but at least Neville Longbottom showed up. From left to right, there’s Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Bonnie Wright (Ginnie Weasley) and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom).
Emma Watson’s black and white picture on Instagram has over 1.9 million likes as of this writing. Felton’s Instagram pic has over 906,000 likes but it’s in color.
With the rise of digital downloads and monthly subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass, physical game rentals may soon be going the way of Blockbuster. One of the biggest companies still doing physical rentals, Redbox, announced earlier this month that it will no longer offer game rentals at its kiosks, and physical game sales will only be available through the end of the year, according to CNET. Redbox will still offer movie rentals.
In a recent tweet, Redbox customer service explained the decision was made after evaluating “changes in the industry,” which led it to shift its full focus to physical movies, which is the bulk of its business anyway.
Enter your zip code, and you’ll be shown the deal price if it’s in stock.
Here are some of the best game deals we were able to verify. While Redbox shows Nintendo Switch games on its site, only PS4 and Xbox One games appear to be available. Keep in mind stock will vary based on your location, and you’ll have to pick up the game at your local Redbox.
When you can play so many great games with a deck of playing cards, or even a pen and paper, it’s tempting to seek out good value in your gaming purchases. Thankfully, games that offer lots of playtime for very little money are enjoying a renaissance right now, so there’s plenty to pick from.
Most of these budget titles are card games. But if you can stretch a bit higher, it’s amazing how much sculpted plastic and great art you can buy in a board game for relatively little price. More and more big publishers are getting on the hobby game train, and that means better and better value for board gamers.
The Game Awards 2019 was a big success. The show scored 45.2 million livestreams around the world, which is up 73 percent from the 26.2 million people who tuned in for 2018’s show, organizers have announced.
The numbers were announced in a tweet from The Game Awards, and it was also confirmed that the show will return in 2020. No dates were announced, but presumably it will be back in December 2020.
The Game Awards, which are run by former GameSpot writer Geoff Keighley, began back in 2014 and have grown in viewership every year. Before that, Keighley organized the Spike Video Game Awards on traditional linear TV and then the VGX event in 2013 before the transition to The Game Awards.
The numbers are in: #TheGameAwards delivered a record 45.2 Million livestreams this year, up 73% over last year’s results. Thank you for watching and supporting video game’s biggest night. We will see you in 2020! pic.twitter.com/gbVor2f92S
Being a show on the internet, people had a lot to say–good and bad–about The Game Awards 2019. People criticized the show for having too many ads, but Keighley says he thinks the number of ads in 2019 was similar to 2018. He also pointed out that his team does not have final say in the ads that get shown, though he hopes this may change in the future.
I’m pretty sure we had the same number of ads this year as in past years of TGA. But I guess it felt different to you? Appreciate the feedback, but we’re not lucky enough to get to personally select and curate every ad the runs. Maybe one day.
In addition to awards, the event featured a lot of big news. The biggest and most unexpected announcement was the Xbox Series X, which is Microsoft’s next-generation console coming in 2020.
The bands Green Day and Chvrches performed at The Game Awards, while Grimes also played.
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Game Of The Year 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
New The Outer Worlds DLC Is Coming In 2020 – GS News Update
The MMO Final Fantasy XIV has brought back its holiday Starlight Celebration event. It’s live now and runs through Tuesday, December 31, consisting of quests and festive items. You can also obtain some of the previousy Starlight Celebration items in the seasonal shop. As usual with seasonal events, certain areas within home zones, like Gridania and Limsa Lominsa, will be decked with holiday decoration and festive tunes.
According to the official site, you can find the NPC Amh Garanjy in Old Gridania to begin the level 15 seasonal quest “All I Want For Starlight.” There are a number of seasonal items available including a Gobbue Wreath ready to devour your soul, Starlight Roll Cake, Choir Concert Advertisement, and Starlight de Chocobo Orchestrion Roll. The cutest may be the Saintly Barding, a festive bit of Chocobo armor that dresses your mount up in traditional Christmas colors, complete with a fluffy hood.
Square Enix has steadily supported FFXIV over the years through expansions–most recently with the Shadowbringers expansion–since relaunching as A Realm Reborn in 2013. And a consistent stream of updates further support the game with the last major one being patch 5.1 that added a slew of content like the Nier Automata raid. It has been a success for Square Enix since then, and was even noted specifically as a top performer in the company’s recent financial disclosures.
Following the reveal of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, fans quickly noted that the design of the hardware itself lends itself to custom designs inspired by any number of games, brands, and products. Fans and brands alike created mock ups that showed what special editions might look like, and the results were promising.
Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has responded on Twitter, saying that while Microsoft did not purposefully design the console with this in mind, he’s happy about the opportunity for limited editions, wraps, and other custom creations.
“One thing we really like about the design is the ability to do do LE editions, wraps, custom etc. It wasn’t a design criteria (that was all about the function of the console) but the result leaves a nice forward face for some creative opportunities,” Spencer said.
No official limited edition Series X consoles have been announced. The Halo Infinite mock-up above looks really nice, but it’s too soon to say if Microsoft will go forward with anything like it. Microsoft also created a new Xbox controller featuring a Share button for the next-generation console.
In other news, it was recently confirmed that the Xbox Series X name is referring to this super-powerful model alone; the actual name of the next-gen console is only “Xbox.” Microsoft says this leaves open the possibility for the company to release other next-generation consoles with different names. One ongoing rumour is that Microsoft will also release a less-powerful, disc-free version of its next-generation console, though this has yet to be confirmed.
Rise of Skywalker currently holds a 54 on Metacritic, with 50 published reviews factoring into the score at the time of writing. Of the 50 presently available, only 16 give the film a positive score of 63 or better. The 34 other reviews score the film negatively, handing it a rating of 60 or lower. Bookending the total number of reviews are two extremely positive (100) and two extremely negative (one 38 and one 30) ratings.
Things don’t look too different on Rotten Tomatoes, with Rise of Skywalker earning a 58%. Rotten Tomatoes includes far more reviews, with Rise of Skywalker receiving a whopping 145 entries. Of that number, 84 are considered “Fresh” while 61 are labeled “Rotten.” The review aggregator’s general consensus says the film “suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.”
We scored the film a 4/10 in our Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker review, saying, “In the end, it all feels simply empty. It should never be so clear to audiences that something in the filmmaking process has gone so terribly wrong–that the people who made the first film in a trilogy apparently didn’t bother to sketch out a plan for the second and third, and that the movies’ directors had visions for the series’ future that were so fundamentally at odds. Star Wars deserved better.”
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Game Of The Year 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
New The Outer Worlds DLC Is Coming In 2020 – GS News Update
Infinity Ward has released the full patch notes for the December 18 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The update is pretty big, adding several new pieces of content and implementing numerous balance changes and bug fixes.
In terms of what’s new, the update adds three maps to the multiplayer rotation: Shipment, Vacant, and Winter Docks (the latter being a winter-themed variation of the Docks map). Long-time Call of Duty fans will recognize Shipment and Vacant as remakes of the same two maps from 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. With the addition of these new maps, both Vacant and Shipment have been rotated into the 24/7 multiplayer playlist. Cranked mode has also been rotated in, as has Gunfight.
The new update also adds a new Operator to Modern Warfare, Nikto. A former Russian FSB undercover agent, Nikto is an Allegiance Operator. Thanks to the update, you can also now jump into Special Operation Strongbox and classic Special Operations Disinform and Bomb Squad.
The full patch notes for this update are long, too long to cover in any meaningful depth. Instead, the remaining bug fixes and balancing changes are outlined in bullet list form below. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC–if you haven’t tried it, you may want to as the game has set new records as the most-played Call of Duty title this console generation.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare December 18 Update Patch Notes
What’s New
New Operator: Nikto
New Maps
Shipment
Vacant
Winter Docks (Winter themed Docks 2v2 map)
Playlist Update
Vacant and Shipment 24/7
Cranked
Gunfight is back
New Special Operation! “Strongbox”
New Classic Special Operation Missions! “Disinform” and “Bomb Squad”
General
Fix for a bug that could players to be stuck in a “Update requires restart” loop
Fix for a bug where creating a custom mode could prevent access to private match game mode options
Fix for players disconnecting and experiencing the “TURTLE” error code
Fix for a bug where the green new notification icon was not clearing off the screen even though there weren’t any new items to view
Implemented fixes for various exploits and boosting techniques
Fix for some players experiencing a drift while using an Xbox controller
Fixed two bugs that could cause players to accidentally use multiple XP tokens due to a delay between clicking the button and confirmation on our end
Fixed an issue where Care Packages could fall through the roof of various buildings in Port
Fixed a bug where players were unable to swap Field Upgrades after selecting Field Upgrade Pro
Attempting to deploy the Weapon Drop Field Upgrade at the beginning of a round-based mode would result in the Field Upgrade becoming unusable until the player respawns. This has been fixed
Fixed a bug where all tablet-based killstreaks/Field Upgrades have a zoomed-in view when using on Aniyah Palace
Made some slight UI adjustments to the base and officer rank progression screens to both have similar designs
Fix for watches not appearing in modes with preset loadouts
Added a new menu that allows players to launch a specific Trial
Fixed a bug that caused keybinds to reset to their default values
Friend Request & Party Invite Notifications option will be set to Enabled by default after the patch. Players can disable that option through the Account tab of the Options menu
Implemented several settings for the Auto-Sprint option (Always Sprint, Always Super Sprint)
Added an Auto Move Forward feature for Keyboard and Mouse as well as Controller
For Keyboard and Mouse, a keybind can be added in the Options menu via the advanced section of Move Forward
For Controller, when this feature is enabled in the Options menu, it can be activated in game by pushing the movement stick forward twice
Keyboard and Mouse
Improved navigation in the Store and Battle Pass menus
Added a Change Zoom/Toggle Hybrid Behavior gameplay option to change which keybind triggers the Change Zoom/Toggle Hybrid
Audio
Footsteps: reduced audible range of 3rd person footsteps
Increased occlusion on footsteps
Adjusted various foley sounds that played at a larger range than footsteps during ADS/crouch movements
Fix for air vehicles not occluding properly
General occlusion adjustments to all air vehicles
Fix for knife impact sounds missing from kill cams
Weapons
Adjusted hip spread for the .357 Snake Shot so it’s consistent regardless of stance
Reduced flinch on the Kar98k, EBR-14, and MK2 Carbine
PC
Several fixes were implemented to prevent crashes and improve stability
Special Operations: Survival
Various exploit fixes
Classic Special Operations:
Fixed a bug where players were receiving inconsistent amounts of XP
Special Ops
Fix for rank up UI splashes no working as intended
When using a Respawn Flare, no UI icon would appear on the minimap (Operation Harbinger)
Fixed a bug where pistols were dealing too much damage against Juggernauts compared to other weapon classes
In Operation Crosswind, nearby enemies will not become alerted if a player uses a rocket launcher, causing the player to not break stealth. This has been fixed
Fixed a bug where players were able to go prone with the minigun if they get revived while having it equipped
Added the reward players could earn if completing an Operation within the playlist menu
Call Of Duty League
Reduced the lethality of non-car explosives
Adjustments to spawns for Hardpoint
Search and Destroy
Fix for a bug where the defending team could see the bomb carrier objective icon
With the Weapon Pings on Minimap option is enabled, the bomb carrier would not show as a red dot on the minimap when shooting their weapon. This has been fixed
COD Caster
Added an in-game data view to display various stats
Implemented support for Domination
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Game Of The Year 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
New The Outer Worlds DLC Is Coming In 2020 – GS News Update
There were a lot of great movies in 2019. From the superhero adventures of DC’s Shazam to the superhero adventures of Captain Marvel to the superhero adventures of Midsommar, there sure were a lot of films worth every moment of your time. However, not every movie that gets released is an award-winning masterpiece. Every year, there are plenty of movies released in theaters and on streaming services that are real stinkers.
That’s why we’ve decided to comb through the worst movies of the year. However, this won’t be the opinion of a few folks at GameSpot; we’re using the review scores from GameSpot’s sister site Metacritic–a site that collects critic reviews–to find out the 20 worst movies of the year.
If you want to know even more about these awful movies, you can click the Metacritic score to check out the reviews for yourself or watch the trailers. We highly recommend watching the trailers because they’re terrible.
With only days before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters, there are so many questions about how the Skywalker Saga will end. There are so many mysteries when it comes to how director JJ Abrams will wrap up the nine-movie franchise.
One of those mysteries, thanks to Disney+’s The Mandalorian, is no doubt whether or not lovable scamp Baby Yoda will appear in the film. As the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) finds himself in the middle of a surprising number of fights, battles, and near-death scenarios, the real breakout star of the series is the toy green puppet that looks an awful lot like the late Jedi Master we all know and love.
Given that The Mandalorian is set after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, it’s entirely possible that Baby Yoda could appear, even in a cameo role. What’s more, given that he was born the same year as Anakin Skywalker, it seems perfectly logical that he would have a tie to the bigger story of Star Wars.
Does he pop up in the new movie, though? Unfortunately for fans of adorable puppets that also have magical powers, the answer is no. Baby Yoda is nowhere to be seen in the new film, which isn’t exactly a surprise. After all, the show was filmed at the same time as the movie in different locations.
That said, it’s entirely possible Baby Yoda–or other characters from The Mandalorian–could show up in future Star Wars films. At this point, we don’t know what the next movies in the franchise will be about. All that’s clear is that a second season of The Mandalorian is shooting now, while the animated series Clone Wars is returning, and an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone series is being developed.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters Friday. In his review of Episode IX, GameSpot’s Michael Rougeau said the movie feels “empty.” “It should never be so clear to audiences that something in the filmmaking process has gone so terribly wrong–that the people who made the first film in a trilogy apparently didn’t bother to sketch out a plan for the second and third, and that the movies’ directors had visions for the series’ future that were so fundamentally at odds,” he wrote.
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Game Of The Year 2019 | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
New The Outer Worlds DLC Is Coming In 2020 – GS News Update
