The Biggest TV Shows To Look Forward To In 2019

GameSpot’s Lowest Reviewed Games Of 2018

The Biggest Netflix Originals To Look Forward To In 2019

Pikachu The Possum Looks Just Like (Wait For It) Pikachu

A strange mutation has made one of the world’s ugliest real animals look like one of the cutest fictional ones. A brushtail possum was brought to a clinic in Melbourne, Australia, with unique golden coloring. The caretakers there affectionately named her Pikachu, after the famous Pokemon.

The Age reports that Pikachu (the possum, not the Pokemon) has low levels of melanin which causes the fur color abnormality. She also happens to have large ears, which helps the comparison. She was found lying on the ground and vets say she probably fell off her mother’s back. Though she’s in good health now, the vets say she probably won’t be released into the wild because her unique coloring makes her an easy target for predators.

The golden possum abnormality isn’t unheard of, but they usually don’t live long due to their vulnerability. Caroline Dazey from Wildlife Victoria says the state has “little pockets” of the critters, but they try to keep their location secret.

The family resemblance makes sense. Pikachu the Pokemon is classified as an “Electric Mouse,” so its design was loosely based on a member of the rodent family. Possums are similarly rodents, so all it takes is a little coloring and a cute complexion to bear some similarity.

Pikachu has been the breakout star and mascot of the Pokemon franchise since the early days. Most recently, he’s getting a starring role voiced by Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming Detective Pikachu film, and was one of the two mascot characters to appear on the cover of Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee.

Spider-Man And Fortnite Lead To Rising Game Industry Sales, Says NPD

Video game spending in the US increased in the third quarter of 2018 over the previous year, according to a report by the NPD Group. The sales tracking firm said the games having the biggest impact on the figures were Candy Crush Saga, Fortnite, Madden NFL 19, Spider-Man, and NBA 2K19.

Altogether the firm says that total spending on video games increased 24% from July-September, over the same period in 2017. It reached a total of $9.1 billion. “Video game content” accounted for $7.9 billion, but that broad category includes full games, DLC, and subscriptions. Mobile games and digital content sales had the highest growth.

Hardware grew by 11% to $737 million, while accessories like headsets grew by 44%. Game cards had a particularly sharp increase of 63%, marking the first time they’ve beaten accessories during this period of the year.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of games like Spider-Man and Fortnite lifting the industry up. Earlier this year NPD announced similarly rising figures on the back of Fortnite and God of War. Similarly, Sony boasted in September that Spider-Man had broken sales records set by God of War, and sales have apparently been so strong that the PlayStation business lifted Sony’s financial forecast as a whole.

“The Video Game market in the U.S. continues to thrive with compelling gaming content expanding the market, driving higher spending of hardware, accessory and software,” said Mat Piscatella, games industry analyst at The NPD Group. “And with the sales strength of recent releases such as Marvel’s Spider-Man and NBA 2K19, combined with cross-platform titles such as Fortnite, there appears to be no slowing down as we head into the final stretch of the holiday shopping season.”

Why Fallout 76 Fails In Delivering An Interesting World

An online, multiplayer-only Fallout game, Fallout 76 was roundly criticised at launch for a number of reasons, one of which was its lack of meaningful events and interactions with NPCs–which do not exist in the game.

In a new GameSpot video, Jess McDonell covers the many ways that Fallout 76, in its current state, fails to deliver an interesting post-apocalyptic world. In short, the way Fallout 76 delivers quests and story elements simply isn’t all that interesting or engaging, Jess argues.

Fallout 76 is of course not the only game that lacks other human characters, and in the video piece, Jess examines the ways in which titles like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Tacoma, Return of the Obra Dinn, and The Division do a better job than Fallout 76 of telling stories when the world’s other humans are dead and gone.

Be sure to watch the full video in the embed above to get the rundown on the failures of Fallout 76’s storytelling elements and how things could have been different using one of the many alternate approaches. And once you’re done, leave a comment below about what games you think handle the post-apocalypse or minimal characters best and whether or not you’re a fan of how Fallout 76 handles it.

For more on Fallout 76, check out GameSpot’s review and all of our previous coverage here.

ThinkGeek: Get 50% Off Everything, Today Only

There’s a good chance you still have holiday shopping left to do, either for someone else or–ahem–for yourself. If the person you’re buying for is into video games, Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, or other things of the sort, here’s a tip: For four hours, today only, between 1 PM – 5 PM ET (10 AM – 3 PM PT), you can get half off anything on Thinkgeek’s online store. All you have to do is visit the site during that time, and you’ll find a promo code you can enter at checkout.

You can peruse Thinkgeek at your leisure to see what you might want to get with this generous discount, but we’ve highlighted some of our suggestions below, along with their prices after the discount.

Pokemon Snorlax Bean Bag Chair

No Caption Provided

Sure, you can sit on any old chair. But when you could be sitting on this enormous Snorlax bean bag, why would you want to rest your body on anything else? (You wouldn’t.)

_____________________

Harry Potter: Hagrid’s Lantern

This human-sized version of Hagrid’s lamp lights up the room with a low-power LED candle that flickers realistically. Just note that the three AA batteries it requires are sold separately.

_____________________

Captain Marvel Crossbody Purse

No Caption Provided

The Captain Marvel movie is slated to hit theaters on March 8. If the superhero fan in your life is in need of a purse, you can’t go wrong with this stylish one.

_____________________

Game of Thrones Jon Snow Fur Hoodie

No Caption Provided

No Caption Provided

For anyone in the northern hemisphere, winter is literally coming. Be prepared with this fur hoodie inspired by Jon Snow’s iconic cloak.

_____________________

Fallout Nuka-Cola Quantum Mood Light

No Caption Provided

No Caption Provided

For the Fallout fan in your life, get the only bottle of soda that comes with its own atomic glow. Batteries are included, but you can also power this nuclear nightlight using a USB cable (also included).

_____________________

Star Wars Choose Your Side Cap

No Caption Provided

No Caption Provided

Do you want to represent the Empire or the Rebellion? You can pick your side with these simple, stylish caps–or buy one of each so you can switch them out depending on which side of the Force you’re feeling on any given day.

Firewatch Nintendo Switch Release Date Revealed — And It’s Soon

The Nintendo Switch continues to get great games. Developer Campo Santo has announced that its acclaimed 2016 adventure game, Firewatch, is coming to Switch very soon.

You don’t have to wait long at all to pick it up on Nintendo’s hybrid console, as it arrives in the eShop on December 17 in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Japan. It’s being published by the Portland, Oregon-based independent studio Panic. Campo Santo announced Firewatch for Switch earlier this year, at the time pegging it launch in spring 2018, so the wait has been longer than expected.

Set in 1989, Firewatch takes place in the Wyoming wilderness and puts you in the role of Henry (voiced by Mad Men‘s Richard Sommer), a man with a troubled past who seeks a new life as a fire lookout. The other main character is Delilah (Cissy Jones), whom Henry speaks with using a walkie-talkie. The game was originally released in February 2016 for PC and PlayStation 4, before landing on Xbox One in September of that year.

It was Campo Santo’s first title and reviews were positive across the board. Here at GameSpot, it was one of our favourite games of 2016. It was also a commercial success, selling more than 1 million copies in its first year.

A Firewatch movie is currently in the works at Good Universe, the film company that also produced the well-received horror movie Don’t Breathe and Last Vegas.

Campo Santo’s next game is the intriguing-looking In The Valley Of Gods, which was announced during The Game Awards last year. In other news, Valve acquired Campo Santo earlier this year for an undisclosed sum.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC – Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted Review

As the first part of the first batch of post-launch content for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Legacy of the First Blade: Hunted is a short, straightforward dose of just some of what makes Odyssey so good. Though it doesn’t do anything particularly new, Hunted doubles down on the behind-the-scenes shadow-syndicate structure that made picking off the Cult of Kosmos across the Ancient Greek world so enjoyable and introduces a great new villain.

Hunted is a good starting point for a much larger plot that was just alluded to in the base game. While the lack of an Assassin’s Brotherhood subplot in Odyssey never bothered me, this introduction of a well-known Persian figure from that lore – and his backstory – is interesting enough to make me want to continue filling in those gaps after the Hunted’s three-to-five-hour run time is over.

Continue reading…