The first official details for Sony’s next video game console have been released, and while the specs seem straightforward, they warrant some important context. Ray tracing is powerful rendering technique that can simulate realistic interactions between light and objects of different materials, producing more lifelike virtual worlds. The PS5’s GPU and CPU will be designed by AMD with ray tracing in mind from the beginning. It’s impressive — but it’s worth remembering that that’s a PS4 game, not

The Verdant Forest is similar to the Haunted Forest from Festival of the Lost last year, but Bungie has changed some of the rules around. The Revelry centers around the Verdant Forest, a brighter, happier version of the Haunted Forest from last October. However, the Verdant Forest works differently than the Haunted Forest in a few ways. For every area you move to in the Verdant Forest, you’ll gain time for the bosses. She’ll set you up with Reveler’s Tonic and 50 Reveler’s Essence.

Microsoft is promising its “biggest E3 presence ever” at E3 2019, and will kick off this year’s expo with the company’s annual Xbox E3 briefing on Sunday, June 9, at 1 p.m. PDT/4 p.m. EDT. The Xbox E3 2019 briefing will stream live on the official Xbox Mixer channel, as well as other unannounced platforms — expect Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to all carry the stream. The Xbox team promises updates on unannounced titles coming in 2019 and in-depth looks at previously announced games dur

Microsoft officially announced a new tier of Xbox Game Pass on Tuesday: It’s called Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and will include Xbox Live Gold as part of the monthly subscription. The company confirmed previous reports about Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which will cost $14.99 per month. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate’s pricing scheme would be a savings for monthly Xbox Live Gold subscribers. But the official price point will match what it costs to subscribe to Game Pass monthly and get Xbox Live Gold annually

Microsoft’s discless version of the Xbox One — officially known as the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition — will be released on May 7 and will cost $249.99. That makes it the least expensive Xbox One in Microsoft’s lineup, $50 less than the standard Xbox One S.The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition will, as its name implies, will only play digital games and other digital content, like movies, music, and television series. Those three games would cost $119.97 if you were to purchase them digitally, makin

GameStop’s latest promotion is a doozy: The gaming retail giant will offer returns within two days of a game’s release in the form of store credit worth the full price of the game, even for opened software. And the deal is valid only for the standard edition of the game through Sunday, April 28 — two days after Days Gone’s April 26 release date — at GameStop retail locations throughout the U.S. In other words, you can’t buy the game at any time and still take advantage of the promotion. But that

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will add Joker from Persona 5 on April 17 as part of the game’s first Challenger Pack, Nintendo revealed in a new YouTube video. In a new 15-minute video outlining this week’s update, Nintendo detailed Joker’s Super Smash Bros. Version 3.0 of Super Smash Bros. Joker will be available to purchase individually, but he’ll also come as part of the Super Smash Bros.

Square Enix is bringing its “HD-2D” role-playing game, Octopath Traveler, to Windows PC on June 7, the company announced on Monday. It’s not clear yet what will differentiate the PC version of Octopath Traveler from the Nintendo Switch version released in 2018. Octopath Traveler features eight main characters, each with their own distinct stories and adventures. In our review of Octopath Traveler, we said the game “comes together brilliantly to create a refreshing take on the genre. It genuinely

Turn 10 Studios’ Forza racing game franchise is getting a new spinoff starting Monday: Forza Street, a free-to-play game “designed to be played anytime, anywhere” is now available on Windows PC. Forza Street — previously released on the Microsoft Store under the name Miami Street — uses simplified controls for racing. While the racing is whittled down to simple inputs (there’s no steering required), Forza Street promises a long list of cars to collect and upgrade. Forza Street is not the driving

Game of Thrones and Mad Men may seem unlikely bedfellows — Game of Thrones’ medieval “tits and dragons” vibe isn’t doing period drama like Mad Men’s meditations on ’60s/’70s America — but the parallels between the two seem especially stark when it comes to two particular characters: Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) and Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser). After last night’s Thrones season 8 premiere, in which Theon makes a seemingly uncharacteristic choice that put him back in the thick of things, the

The Game of Thrones opening title sequence is famous for changing every episode. Until, however, the first episode of season 8, the show’s final season. The second carving on the astrolabe shows images shows a dragon, beset on all sides by a stag, a wolf, and a lion, depicting the events of Robert’s rebellion. This opening sequence was designed as a subtle history lesson. In the past, the astrolabe images have set a historical foundation for the series.

Ever since Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy was tossed out the airlock, there’s been a bit of a gap in the Star Wars timeline. Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes place some 30 years after the end of Return of the Jedi. The Star Wars universe has never explored a period like that in detail, and Favreau seems eager for the chance. But, while The Mandalorian is firmly rooted in Star Wars’ 40-plus year history, it’s also closely tied to modern fan culture itself. In November Disney also ann

But given this is a world record that concerns a game celebrating its 30th anniversary, it still seems timely to me. Not only was a new level reached in Tetris for the NES back on Feb. 15, the Tetris savant who accomplished it made it past what is considered the game’s kill screen. But the game has run out of levels to count, and it also cannot speed up the tetrominoes any more. Elite Tetris players, for whatever reason, have not gone past Level 30 before, much less reached Level 33. Who knows h

Marvel’s modern Star Wars comics will be trading hands this summer. Eisner-award winning writer Kieron Gillen and artist Angel Unzueta will be replaced by writer Greg Pak and Eisner-nominated artist Phil Noto. The announcement was made during a panel at this year’s Star Wars Celebration. Both he and Unzueta, who took a while to ease into the Star Wars style in my opinion, have been on a streak lately. His art has been a highlight of many covers in the Star Wars line since it made the transition

Kitana is in Mortal Kombat 11. But on Friday, Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm finally showed Kitana in action. In Mortal Kombat 11, Kitana will always use her trademark fans. This big baby bug has its own distinct moveset; it can spit at and stab its opponent, and will hopefully make for some wild comeback moments in competitive Mortal Kombat 11. Mortal Kombat 11 is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and Xbox One on April 23.

The vehicle is a glass sphere with a chair inside and a suction cup gun mounted to the front. When inside the Baller, players are completely protected from damage until it’s destroyed. To help relieve players’ frustrations, Epic released a hotfix on Thursday morning that takes the Baller’s health from 300 down to 200. The Baller is the most useful vehicle Epic has ever added to Fortnite, and that’s exactly the problem. All of this is useful in normal game modes, but the Baller’s biggest strength

That conflict isn’t coming to an end any time soon, but there’s a rude third participant knocking on the door: the Old Gods, specifically N’zoth. The Old Gods have been a villain to various degrees since Classic, where players stormed Ahn’Qiraj to kill C’thun, but this expansion gives players a whole new Old God opportunity — the ability to accept their “gift” and wear their corruption around like a neat little hat. The quest can be started at a Naga Invasion World Quest, and begins when a Naga

You’re in luck: March brought the most compelling slate of iOS and Android releases so far in 2019, and we’ve picked five of the top games from the pack. The rhythmic roguelike action of Crypt of the NecroDancer: Amplified leads March’s list, while games such as Sprout: Idle Garden and Rest in Pieces offer other kinds of entertaining on-the-go experiences. Crypt of the NecroDancer: AmplifiedCrypt of the NecroDancer is an incredibly charming, one-of-a-kind hybrid of roguelike dungeon crawlers and

The PlayStation Network ID you chose in 2006 or 2007, as anachronistic as a Facebook poke or a Motorola Razr, may now be changed. I have one of the games from the critical issues category, and I still changed my PSN ID this morning. On your PlayStation 4, go to Settings, then to Account Information, then Profile, and lastly this new category, Online ID. Step Five: Choose the form of The DestructorAfter accepting those two screens, you’re taken to this one where you actually and finally change yo

Minor Power: Your heals have a very high chance to grant the target 304 Haste for 8 seconds. Minor Power: Every 2 seconds, the Heart of Azeroth absorbs nearby latent Azerite energy, increasing your Haste by 29, stacking up to 10 times. Minor Power: Azerite energy courses through your veins, increasing maximum health by 3,430 every 4 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. Depending on the Essence, players may need to raid, PvP, or complete a simple world quest to collect them. We’ll learn more informa