Month: December 2020

Last week, Warner Bros. rocked the entertainment world with an unprecedented announcement: Every one of their 2021 releases would hit their streaming service, HBO Max, simultaneously with theatrical release. This means that in the upcoming year, major blockbusters like The Suicide Squad, Dune, and Godzilla vs. Kong will be available to watch from the comfort of your living room right away. It’s a plan they’re rolling out this month with the release of Wonder Woman 1984, the pilot film in the program, which will be in theatres were available and on HBO Max on Christmas day.

The plan has, unsurprisingly, caused quite a stir. Designed with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic in mind, Warner Bros. maintains that this is a temporary solution and will only extend through the end of 2021–but some of their partners in production are less than thrilled about the arrangement.

Variety reports that Legendary Entertainment, the co-finaner of films like Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong are considering legal action to fight against the decision. Sources say that, while no challenge has been filed yet, a potential breach of contract may be used as grounds to take things to court. Apparently the top brass of Legendary feel as though Warner Bros was not transparent in their intentions leading up to the big announcement, leaving those with financial stakes in the films without say in how their films were distributed.

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Now that the next-gen consoles are out, console manufacturers Sony and Microsoft are working hard to show off the games that will be coming to the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 over the next year or two. A new montage from Sony has revealed some details about exclusivity periods for notable games like Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Gran Turismo 7, and more.

For example, Gran Turismo 7 appears to be a true PS5 exclusive, with no apparent plans for any other releases, even on the PS4, whereas the stylish shooter Deathloop will be exclusive to the PS5 (and not other consoles) for one year after its release date. However, it will be available on PC at launch.

Ghostwire Tokyo has the same deal as Deathloop, with one year of PS5 console exclusivity and a simultaneous PC launch. Project Athia will also be available for PC at launch, but it will be console-exclusive on the PS5 for two years after its release date. The montage also highlights already-released PS5 exclusives like the Demon’s Souls remake and console-exclusive Godfall. For a full list of PS5 games, check out our list of confirmed and expected PS5 games.

Since the disastrous release of Nvidia’s RTX 30 series, many PC gamers have struggled to obtain the latest and greatest GPUs that they desire, particularly the 3070, 3080 and 3090. (We reviewed the first two of those, if you’re interested in their performance.) However, some enterprising thieves in China have taken the shortages to the next level. According to MSI, 40 cargo boxes worth of top-end GPUs were stolen from an MSI factory in China.

For those of you counting at home, that’s over 200 RTX 3090s, which currently retail at around $1500. However, thanks to the ongoing GPU shortage–which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic–the 3090 often goes for $2000 or even more on sites like eBay.

According to Tom’s Hardware, MSI believes that an insider stole the cards because the factory’s shipping area is covered by video cameras. They’re also offering clemency to those who participated in the heist, as long as they help recover the cards. There’s a 100,000 Yuan reward ($15,314) for anyone who has additional information on the cards.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons players dominated Tumblr in 2020. The small-town-with-animals simulator topped the video game and overall list of trendiest topics, beating out every other topic on the website.

Fans of the series have flooded Tumblr with original artwork, memes, and posts about their favorite villagers. Some have used the platform to expand on the relationships of their favorite in-game characters, like Flick and CJ. Others have made simple jokes about memorable in-game moments.

Raymond, Marshal, Poppy, and Fauna came in as the most popular Animal Crossing villagers while Tom Nook, everyone’s favorite tanuki landlord, was the third most popular video game character. He was more popular than Cloud Strife, Arthur Morgan, and Link on Tumblr.

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Cyberpunk 2077 generated a lot of buzz over the past few years. From its ever-expanding file size to Keanu Reeves’ involvement, the sci-fi open-world RPG sparked conversations even before anybody got their hands on it.

So does the actual content live up to its pre-release hype? Critics offered varying flavors of: It depends on what gameplay element you’re looking at. Most applauded the game’s beautiful technical construction and generally engaging RPG elements, but also noted the pre-release build’s many bugs. Some critics also thought Cyberpunk 2077 was very tame, as opposed to its marketed edginess. For a game with “cyberpunk” in its title, a couple reviewers thought it wasn’t revolutionary nor groundbreaking, and instead felt like a knit of past cultural and gaming references.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a pretty big game with a lot of side content, with some critics noting they weren’t able to fully explore everything. Completion of Cyberpunk 2077’s main storyline is estimated to be around 30 hours, and if you want to explore everything the game has to offer, it will be a much longer playtime.

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Nvidia and GOG are finally kicking off their GeForce Now streaming partnership with one of the biggest games of 2020, with Cyberpunk 2077 being the first officially supported title from the digital storefront.

GeForce Now is Nvidia’s own take on game streaming. Instead of paying for games exclusive to its service, like Google Stadia, it pulls supported games from launchers where you have already purchased them, such as Steam and the Epic Games Store. Until this week GOG had not officially announced support, but that changes this week with Cyberpunk 2077.

“Players around the world, who own the game on GOG.COM, will be able to play the game via the cloud gaming service, exploring the streets of Night City on nearly any device including low-powered or incompatible Windows and Mac laptops, Chromebooks and more,” the announcement reads.

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Update: Activision will unveil the first official gameplay look at Season 1 of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone at this year’s The Game Awards on December 10 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET.

The original story follows below…

After delaying the release of Season 1 for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone to December 16, a new trailer has unveiled what both games will get when the season kicks off.

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Cyberpunk 2077 is almost upon us, with its release date of December 10 creeping ever closer. Now, depending on what platform you plan to play it on, the game is available for preloading if you’ve already bought it. As the below tweet shows, you can now preload the game on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

As for non-PC platforms, things are a little more complicated. According to an official release map, preloading has been available on Xbox since December 3. However, preloading won’t be enabled until two days prior to the release date on PlayStation, meaning that it’s not available until tomorrow. The game is also available for preload on GOG, the storefront that is also owned by the publisher of the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 is certainly the biggest game of the holiday season, if not the entire year. In GameSpot’s Cyberpunk 2077 review, critic Kallie Plagge praised the game’s sidequests and characters, while faulting its superficial world and many, many bugs.

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