biteho.com

Game of Thrones Season 8 starts on April 14, marking the beginning of the end for the popular television show. The final season is set to wrap up a story that has gripped viewers for eight years now, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

The Night King and his army are closing in on Westeros and, all the while, the figures vying to take their place on the Iron Throne are now more desperate and ruthless than ever. The casualties thus far have been numerous, but the next battle will decide the fate of everyone in Westeros.

At the end of Season 7, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen’s relationship went from being political and in the name of survival, to one of romance and intimacy. Together they hope to deliver the people to safety, but they’ve got a whole lot of work cut out for them, especially as Cersei Lannister’s selfish ambitions reach new heights. All the while, Sansa Stark’s power is growing and Arya Stark is carving a bloody path through the land. How it’ll all end is anyone’s guess.

Given that the show has a history of making unexpected twists and turns, passionate fans have spent the long wait up until the new seasons start by crafting theories on what could happen. In the video above, we explore some of the most interesting and creative ideas that fans have come up with. There’s a potential double-identity for Bran and Arya Stark, a character who may have faked his death, the fate of everyone’s favorite power couple, and more.

If you want an even closer examination of what lies ahead in Game of Thrones, take a look at our frame-by-frame breakdown of the latest trailer. Our weekly video series, GameSpot of Thrones, will also be returning to provide you with detailed discussions, examinations, theories, and more after each episode. Get ready for it by subscribing to GameSpot Universe on YouTube.

While Season 8 will be the end of the beloved series as we know it, a Game of Thrones prequel show is already in the works. Production is set to begin in the first half of 2019, with Jessica Jones director SJ Clarkson helming the series and X-Men: First Class’ Jane Goldman serving as showrunner. Naomi Watts has been confirmed to star in it.

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

With the upcoming arrival of Dark Phoenix, the future of the X-Men film franchise is in a strange position. In the wake of Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, and the rights to the Marvel characters it controlled, it seems to be a foregone conclusion that the team of mutant superheroes would become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But what about the universe that’s been built over the last 20 years through X-Men movies? If the continuity of this franchise ends, will fans get a sense of closure from Dark Phoenix? That’s the question GameSpot posed to Dark Phoenix director Simon Kingberg and producer Hutch Parker at WonderCon, during a roundtable interview.

“When I first started talking with Hutch and the studio about the movie, and when I first started writing it, which was three plus years ago–it takes a long time to gestate a movie–long before there was any idea of a Disney acquisition of Fox, I felt as though, and we all did that, this was the culmination of this cycle of X-Men movies,” Kingberg said. “Not necessarily the end, but the culmination. You’ve lived with this family for 20 years now in one form or another, and 10-plus years with the X-Men: First Class family. And that this story, which is the ultimate and most iconic X-Men story was sort of an opportunity to test that family more than they’ve been tested, break that family part like they’ve never been broken apart before, bring them back together, ultimately, in a new configuration. It would feel as though you had culminated where those characters could go within this cycle, and started something really quite new by the end of this movie, as you’ll see. And so yeah, I think fans will feel closure, but not because of the merger. That’s something that happened even after we were shooting, so the movie was in the can already.”

Instead, part of what made him think about giving fans that culmination was the unlikelihood they’d be able to reunite the cast, many of whom have become in-demand stars, again after Dark Phoenix. “I also felt like, this was probably the last time we were going to get Michael [Fassbender] and James [McAvoy] and Jennifer [Lawrence], and Nicholas [Hoult], maybe, for these films,” he continued. “And so there was this feeling of if, in fact, this is the last of this cycle, and it was an if, and it remains an if, then this is the right story to tell to do that.”

For Parker, though, it’s not just about a culmination of the current cycle of the franchise. Some of the closure, in his mind, is due to the creative team’s reluctance to hold anything back. “There’s a tendency when you’re making movies that you know are part of a sequence of movies to hold back and to sort of play it safe to keep some powder dry for the next one. And, and I don’t think these movies can afford that,” the producer explained. “I think you have to kind of go into movies now, given how competitive landscape is, and play everything you’ve got. And that’s part of what was behind certain decisions, maybe shocking traumatic ones of killing off characters, are seeing some of the philosophies run their course or emotional ideas be completed. So for me, there’s a lot of closure just in that, just in feeling like it’s not full of lots of dangling potential winks. It’s really taking ideas and saying we’re going to play them through and that’s a bittersweet quality, but I also think it’s part of what makes the movie feel more emotional and more substantive.”

If anything, it’s been clear from the beginning that this movie was laying it all out on the table, with the first trailer confirming the death of a major character. As for how fans will feel once the film concludes, that remains to be seen. Dark Phoenix arrives in theaters on June 7.

Google Maps has released a “new game” for April Fool’s Day called Snake. The title is free-to-play, and doesn’t require any sort of download. This new game does actually exist, unlike some other April Fools’ Day jokes, and you can play it right now. The joke Google is making is that Snake–a game that’s decades old–is somehow new.

Google’s Snake is relatively simple. After booting it up, you select one of seven different locations–Cairo, São Paulo, London, Sydney, San Francisco, Tokyo, or the whole world. You then take control of a train that’s constantly moving forward, which you can redirect with the arrow keys on your computer. Your goal is to pick up passengers and drop them off at city landmarks, all while avoiding driving into the ocean. As you pick up passengers, the train grows longer, making it easier for you to accidentally corner yourself.

According to GameSpot sister site CNET, a Google spokesperson said that Snake will remain available to play on Google Maps for about a week. This isn’t the first time Google has made an old-school style game for April Fools’ Day, as, back in 2015, a Pac-Man game was added to Google Maps. For more gaming-related April Fool’s Day gags going on this year, check out our round-up.

The original Snake released on the Nokia 6110 back in 1997. In it, you did play as an actual snake. The mechanics and goals of the game are similar to Google Maps’ title, only you were eating little dots as opposed to picking up passengers.

Google recently made a fairly large splash in the gaming industry with the announcement of Stadia, a cloud-based streaming service designed solely for video games. The service is scheduled to launch in the US, Canada, UK, and most of Europe within 2019. Both Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom Eternal have been confirmed for the platform. With Stadia, games can be streamed to any Google-connected device, whether that’s a mobile phone, tablet, computer, or TV. We had the opportunity to try Stadia at GDC 2019, and though we weren’t blown away, Google’s service has potential.

With only two episodes left, Gotham has finally revealed its final version of its take on The Joker. After Jeremiah (Cameron Monaghan) got dumped into a vat of chemicals by Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), fans waited eagerly to see what the outcome would be. Now, to celebrate April Fools’ Day, Mr. J has delivered a couple of treats.

While this new poster and trailer stop short of flat-out calling the character Joker, something Gotham has shied away from doing since Jerome–the first iteration of the character–was introduced in Season 1, it’s hard to deny it at this point. Still, the teaser trailer lists the character’s name as J.

The teaser also shows what happened to Jeremiah after his Ace Chemicals bath. Horribly scarred, he’s locked up in Arhkam Asylum and seems numb to the world as the song “I Feel Pretty” plays until something knocks him out of his stupor. “I feel something new,” he says. “Something beautiful.” The next show shows the character with his face painted white and The Joker’s trademark red lipstick, while maniacal laughter echoes.

While this may be a shocking new look for the Jeremiah character, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Firstly, the series finale of Gotham will feature a 10-year time jump, which finds Bruce Wayne returning to the city as Batman. Additionally, Gotham executive producer John Stephens previously told GameSpot that the final evolution of this character would lean into the horror side of Joker.

“When you look at the Joker, and you break down elements of his personality, and you cleave off certain character traits,” he explained. “Some of those character traits we gave to Jerome. Some of those character traits we gave to Jeremiah. But, there were still some leftover character traits that we said, we haven’t used these elements yet. Specifically to me, horror or terror. I feel like there are elements of the Joker, some iterations of him, which he’s not just a clown prince of crime, but he’s actually a nightmare. And I feel like… some of those remain to be explored.”

Gotham returns to Fox for its penultimate episode on Thursday, April 18. The series finale, which includes the introduction of Batman, follows one week later.

Battle royale is everywhere, from Battlefield V to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Even Tetris has been infected, with Tetris 99 offering the same every-player-for-themself design in the Tetris universe. While the genre’s overflowing with a myriad of titles, the man who popularized it in the video game space, Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene, is moving on to something new.

Greene recently announced that his “new day-to-day focus will be heading up to a new division of PUBG Corp.: PUBG Special Projects.” Green served as both the director and designer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and while he’ll “remain as a consulting creative director on PUBG,” he’s leaving the project behind to concentrate on new initiatives for the company. He’s also leaving PUBG Corp.’s headquarters in Seoul, which will continue to work on PUBG, and moving to the newly-established Amsterdam office where he’ll put his attention “on building out an entirely new division to focus on research & game development.”

In a new interview, Greene signaled that he’s also done with the battle royale genre. “The last man standing concept is great, but I’ve done that,” Greene said in a GamesIndustry.biz interview. “I don’t really intend to make PUBG 2. I’ve done battle royale, it’s time to try something else.” Greene also doesn’t have much interest in players killing each other anymore, either. “I think I’ve provided others with a good way of killing each other. But I want to explore some other things.”

So what exactly is Greene doing now? According to GI.Biz, PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim approached Greene about taking the ideas in his head and “[turning them] into something that may be playable.” Kim’s allowing Greene to form a new team in a new location to create new things. The purpose of Special Projects, it seems, is to experiment. There are no in-depth details “because I don’t have them yet,” Greene said, but he does want to continue “[exploring] online experiences and how to connect people in ways that we haven’t really done before.”

Greene’s considered the father of the battle royale gaming genre. With both H1Z1 and PUBG, Greene’s proved that it’s possible–albeit difficult–to strike gold twice. However, according to Greene, there’s no pressure to strike gold again with Special Projects. “There is no deadline here, this is us with a few years to play,” he said. “Gaming and the industry has become so hard this is a very lucky thing to have. We can genuinely explore and be curious for some time.”

April 1 has arrived, and in the spirit of April Fools’ Day, Ubisoft has kicked off a ridiculous new event in Rainbow Six Siege. The Rainbow Is Magic event is now live across PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it introduces a special playlist along with an assortment of colorful new cosmetic items in the popular tactical shooter.

For a limited time, players can take on a special rescue mission set in a redesigned, candy-colored version of the Plane map. The object: safely retrieve a VIP teddy bear from the vehicle. For this mission, players will be able to choose between four Operators–Blackbeard, Montagne, Smoke, and Tachanka–and nine “toy soldiers.”

In addition to the special mission, Ubisoft has rolled out a new line of exclusive Rainbow Is Magic cosmetics. The collection consists of 17 colorful items ranging from BDUs to headgear. Players will receive one free Rainbow Is Magic Pack when they log in during the event and can earn additional ones by completing Ubisoft Club Challenges or purchasing them for 300 R6 Credits. As with other Rainbow Six Siege loot packs, there will be no duplicate items.

The Rainbow Is Magic event runs until April 8, while the Rainbow Is Magic cosmetic packs will be available for an additional week until April 15. You can read more details about the event on the official Rainbow Six Siege website and on Xbox Wire.

In addition to Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft is holding a ridiculous, 24-hour April Fools’ event in its swordfighting game, For Honor. Until 9 PM PT on April 1 (12 AM ET on April 2), players can take on swarms of Rabbids, and everyone who participates will get a melee pack. You can watch footage of the Rabbids crossover on YouTube and see all the other April Fools’ pranks and events going on in games in our big roundup.

Releasing mini versions of classic consoles is an ongoing trend that took off with Nintendo’s SNES and NES Classics and continued with Sony’s PlayStation Classic. Now Sega is throwing its hat into the ring–the company announced March 30 that its own nostalgia console, the Genesis Mini (or Mega Drive Mini, for those in Europe), will launch worldwide on September 19.

The Genesis Mini will cost $80 / £70/ €80 / AUD $140 and comes with 40 games. Only 10 games have been confirmed so far: Sonic the Hedgehog, Ecco the Dolphin, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Space Harrier 2, Shining Force, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, ToeJam & Earl, Comix Zone, Altered Beast, and Gunstar Heroes. According to Sega, the rest of the games will be announced intermittently leading up to the console’s release date.

Some of the classic Genesis games that will be included

Based on the Model 1 Genesis, the mini console is about 55 percent smaller than the original and comes with two classic three-button controllers, a USB-to-Micro-B power cable, and an HDMI cable. If you live in America, a power adapter will also come with it.

If you’re itching to play all those old-school games from your childhood ASAP, there’s another option: the Analogue Mega Sg, which is more expensive at nearly $200 but comes with more adaptability. You can read more on that in our Mega Sg review. In the meantime, the Sega Genesis Mini is already available for pre-order–more info on that below.

Pre-order the Sega Genesis Mini

A few retailers already have listings for the Sega Genesis Mini, and we’ll update this story as more become available. The Sega Genesis Mini is offering twice the number of games that the PlayStation Classic had for $20 less, so we expect it’ll sell out quickly, just as the SNES Classic and NES Classic both did. So if you want the Sega Genesis Mini, consider pre-ordering now before scalpers get their hands on the console.

If you’re curious about Jordan Peele’s new The Twilight Zone TV series remake, you can watch the first episode for free. The show will be normally available exclusively through CBS All Access, but the first episode is currently live on the streaming service’s YouTube channel for all to see.

The first episode of The Twilight Zone is titled “The Comedian,” and it follows the tragic tale of Samir, a comedian struggling to connect with his audience with his humor. One day he’s offered a solution: add a little bit of himself to his routine and he’ll get the laughs he wants. However, once that part of his life has been turned into a joke, it will leave his life for good. Samir believes this warning is merely figurative, but as this is an episode of The Twilight Zone, of course it’s anything but.

“The Comedian” premiered alongside “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” which is itself a remake of one of the original The Twilight Zone’s most memorable episodes, titled “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” This new version of the classic episode replaces the story of a gremlin trying to take down an airplane–which only the protagonist and the audience can see–with one of a man frantically trying to prevent a plane crash he’s learned about through a podcast that’s seemingly from the future. “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” is only available through CBS All Access right now.

The Twilight Zone comes from the mind of Jordan Peele, who also serves as the new series’ host and narrator. His production company, Monkeypaw, is producing the show. Other cast members for the The Twilight Zone include Ike Barinholtz, John Cho, Lucinda Dryzek, Taissa Farmiga, Greg Kinnear, Luke Kirby, Sanaa Lathan, Kumail Nanjiani, Adam Scott, Rhea Seehorn, Alison Tolman, Jacob Tremblay, Jefferson White, Jonathan Whitesell, Jessica Williams, DeWanda Wise and Steven Yeun.

Although “The Comedian” represents The Twilight Zone’s willingness to approach new subjects, the show will continue to remake episodes from the original series as well–just like “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” A reimagined version of “The Wunderkind” is already confirmed, but the details have not yet been released for other episodes. Similar to the original series, each episode of The Twilight Zone is a contained narrative, which covers a supernatural or science fiction event that befalls an ordinary person after they’ve accidentally stumbled into a mysterious dimension that the show’s narrator refers to as “not only of sight and sound, but of mind.” Although many are designed to provide a moral lesson, others were just plain spooky.

Disclosure: CBS is GameSpot’s parent company.