Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis will launch June 9, publisher Sega announced. Rather than a new game, New Genesis is a Realm Reborn-style revamp of the existing game that overhauls nearly every aspect of it--though the original will still be available--complete with an entirely new progression system that is separate from the original game.The company recently held a closed beta test for New Genesis back in May, and then another in June. Though New Genesis will change essentially every aspect of PSO2, the original version of the game will still be playable, with characters shared across both games. However, as mentioned above, all character progress will be independent across the two different versions.Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis will be available on both PC and Xbox One. The server maintenance that would've normally happened on June 9 will be moved forward a few days, though the exact timing of that is not clear. Additionally, an ongoing "road to New Genesis event" will give players login bonuses in celebration of the new content pack, so keep an eye out for that.Info from Gamespot.com

It's been nearly three decades since the Super Mario Bros. movie arrived in theaters, with a tagline boldly proclaiming "This ain't no game." Now, after all of this time, an extended version of the film has been unearthed, restored, and released online for all to see.This version of the film--dubbed "The Morton Jankel Cut" after co-directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel--has been released by The Super Mario Brothers Archive, a group of fans who celebrate the movie and have been involved in the special features on previous home releases of the film. They've teamed with film restorationist and filmmaker Garrett Gilchrist to present a version of the movie that has never been seen by anyone outside of the production team. Their hope is that this cut will resonate more with fans than the theatrical cut of the film, which was panned critically and flopped at the box office. You can watch it for yourself at the link aboveFor years, Super Mario Bros. has been looked down on because it doesn't resemble the game it's based on. Now, with the new cut, Gilchrist and the Super Mario Bros. Archive team hopes people will see why that's the case. "It's always going to be a controversial film," Gilchrist told GameSpot. "The directors, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, thought they were making Max Headroom again. They wanted this cyberpunk dystopia. And I think they were pitching the movie more for teenagers, like a Star Wars film. Or even Roger Rabbit, which is a little bit adult in many ways and was obviously an inspiration for this film in some respects."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

David O. Russell's next movie has added yet another big name to its cast. According to Collider, music superstar Taylor Swift will appear in the film, adding to its already impressive cast.Swift has appeared in movies before, as she had parts in The Lorax, Valentine's Day, The Giver, and Cats most recently.She joins a cast for the film that includes Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Rami Malek, John David Washington, and more. You can see the full list of the cast so far below.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Prolific Mission: Impossible writer-director Christopher McQuarrie has let the world know he would be open to explore helping steer the post-Daniel Craig era of James Bond. When asked on Twitter about a ScreenRant article fancasting McQuarrie into the franchise, the director coyly replied: "I have never been a hard guy to find."The only hitch? McQuarrie has something of a full plate at the moment. He has both Mission: Impossibles 7 and 8 on the immediate horizon, which will no longer shoot back-to-back and therefore take further time away more unpredictably. It's also going to be quite a while before anyone knows how Daniel Craig's final James Bond adventure, No Time to Die, will be received after finally coming out on October 8. It was originally slated for April 2020, but was pushed back repeatedly due to the pandemic.I have never been a hard guy to find. — Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) May 31, 2021Regardless, a fresh approach to the storied and stylish action-espionage franchise is to be expected. Amazon recently purchased MGM for $8.45 billion, meaning at the highest levels there is a staggering amount of new blood governing the super-spy franchise. Star Craig has already been hard at work rebranding himself as a surprisingly adept straight-face comic foil for the expansive casts in the burgeoning Knives Out franchise, which may in some butterfly effect provide inspiration for an unexpected twist for Bond. In the past, McQuarrie has expressed an interest and floated several general ideas about the possibilities lighter tone for Bond might yield.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Episodic adventure game Tell Me Why is free on Xbox platforms, Windows 10, and Steam for the entire month of June to celebrate Pride Month, and developer Dontnod has a few recommendations on where players can instead spend the money they may have spent on Dontnod's game to more directly help transgender and queer communities.In a blog post, the developers made clear their reasons for making Tell Me Why free."Our intention in making Tell Me Why free for June 2021 is both to allow even more people to access the game and to encourage our players to spend their money in places that will directly affect trans and queer communities," the post reads.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

This summer is stacked with gaming live streams and events, including the return of Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest. Keighley's Summer Game Fest will start with Kickoff Live, taking place on June 10 at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET. The show will contain over a dozen world premieres and reveals, in addition to a performance by Weezer. Check below for the embedded video of the upcoming showcase.Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live Start TimeThe Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live stream goes live on Thursday, June 10, at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET. Hosted by Keighley himself, the show promises appearances from around 20 new games, in addition to updates from live service titles, he told GameSpot. This live show serves as the focal point of Summer Games Fest, with Keighley passing the baton to individual publishers afterward. The event has partnered with a ton of companies, including 2K, EA, Ubisoft, Xbox, PlayStation, and many more.11 AM PT1 PM CT2 PM ET6 PM GMTHow To Watch Summer Game Fest Kickoff LiveThe stream will be embedded above when it's available and Kickoff Live will also be available on The Game Awards' official YouTube and Twitch channels. The stream will also be available on GameSpot when it's live.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

E3 is just around the corner in mid-June, and that's led many fans to wonder if Nintendo is going to host a special Nintendo Direct to go along with the usual onslaught of gaming news. While Nintendo has foregone the usual blockbuster press conferences to focus on a pre-recorded Direct, we do know that Nintendo is going to be a part of the E3 event sometime between June 12 to 15.That's because unlike Sony, Nintendo is still an official partner of the ESA, meaning that it's going to participate in the event proper, which runs during those dates. Again, we don't know for sure that Nintendo will hold a Direct at all, but we know it's going to do something in that time range, so keep your eyes peeled for it. You should be able to check out the hypothetical Direct right here at GameSpot, as well as Nintendo's official social media channels on Twitch and YouTube.Though Nintendo did not end up doing an E3 2020 Direct due to the impact of the coronavirus, the company's E3 2019 Direct came on June 11, the first day of the conference. In terms of what to expect from the Direct, rumors and analysis have suggested that the company may announce a Switch Pro or some other new hardware revision of its successful console as the big headline. A recent report suggested that the Switch Pro could even be announced before E3 begins.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Play For All is back for 2021. And while we'll be covering all of the summer happenings, including E3 and the assorted showcase events coming up, we'll also have two days in June where we'll be livestreaming a ton of content centered around the hottest upcoming games.While we're not ready to reveal our full schedule just yet, we can tell you that we'll be broadcasting E3 on June 14-15, followed by our own live show June 16-17. These will be home to interviews with AAA developers, exclusive gameplay reveals and trailers, announcements, and much more. We'll also be getting started with a one-hour kickoff show on June 4 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET where we'll preview Play For All, E3, and all of the surrounding events. We can't wait to show you what we have in store.Our streams will be available on GameSpot.com, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. We'll be updating this story with a more detailed schedule as we draw closer to the event, but you can get an overview of what we can share now. Be sure to also check out our E3 2021 schedule post for a more detailed rundown on the official publisher events.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

With the release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in May, the sci-fi series has been garnering a lot of renewed attention, including from developers who worked on the original game. For example, a designer who worked on Mass Effect 3's 2012 release recently unveiled an Easter egg that he put in the game that had never been discovered.Cinematic designer Richard Boisvert posted on Reddit in May about the secret and gave some guidance to players who were interested in seeing it for themselves in the remasters. It's a cool little homage to a Mars rover, probably Opportunity, near the beginning of Mass Effect 3's Mars mission. If you follow a specific route, you can find a rover that'll drive over to you and give you a little nod.Image of rover Easter egg courtesy of Reddit user Tuskin38.Boisvert himself believed that no one had ever even seen the rover, but that part isn't exactly true. As pointed out by Kotaku, the rover itself had been spotted last year--but no one had ever figured out how to trigger its action.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The gates of oblivion are open once more, as shown in the latest cinematic for The Elder Scrolls Online, released to celebrate the arrival of the game's latest expansion, Blackwood.Oblivion portals will be appearing throughout Tamriel in the form of public events, and as depicted in the trailer, it will be up to brave adventurers to "close shut the jaws of Oblivion" and foil the plot of the daedric prince Mehrunes Dagon.Players will remember that Oblivion portals and the demons within them played a large role in the storyline of 2006's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Elder Scrolls Online's Blackwood expansion, which takes place 800 years prior to the events of The Elder Scrolls IV, tasks players with uncovering Dagon's schemes and unraveling a conspiracy involving the Longhouse Emperors, along the way traveling to areas like the Imperial city of Leyawiin.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

This summer is littered with gaming events, sure to be filled with new announcements, surprises, and updates. For anyone looking to know what limited-edition physical games they can get their hands on, the Limited Run Games 2021 showcase will be taking place on Monday, June 14, at 1 PM PT/4 PM ET. Limited Run Games has said that the hour-long showcase will feature 25 announcements, including new games, physical editions of cult classics, and reissues of classic titles.Limited Run Games 2021 Start TimeLimited Run Games' "#LRG3 2021" goes live Monday, June 14, at 1 PM PT/4 PM ET. The show, produced by Mega64, promises 25 physical game announcements in an hour-long presentation. During the 2020 show the company announced physical versions of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, Katana Zero, To The Moon, and many more, so expect a variety of titles to be announced during the showcase.1 PM PT3 PM CT4 PM ET8 PM GMTHow To Watch Limited Run Games 2021 ShowcaseIt's about time for our annual very exciting electronic announcement event showcase video, produced by @mega64!#LRG3 2021 is stacked with over 25 physical game announcements. Join us live Monday, June 14 at 4 PM ET on https://t.co/vzY9JjjJzs. pic.twitter.com/JJbdUIoiOT — Limited Run Games (@LimitedRunGames) May 24, 2021Limited Run Games 2021 showcase will be available on the company's official Twitch page.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Pokemon Go is kicking off its new Season of Discovery with a Slowpoke-themed event from June 8-13. The event is called A Very Slow Discovery, and it introduces Galarian Slowpoke and Galarian Slowbro to the mobile game, as well as standard Slowbro's Mega-Evolved form.The event marks the first chance you'll be able to encounter and catch Galarian Slowpoke in Pokemon Go. Unlike standard Slowpoke, this form is a pure Psychic type, and to evolve it into Galarian Slowbro, you'll need to catch 30 Poison Pokemon while it's set as your Buddy. The following Pokemon will also be appearing in the wild more frequently during the event:SlowpokeSlowbroSlakothVigorothGulpinSpoinkGalarian SlowpokeIn addition to the wild Pokemon spawns, Mega Slowbro will debut in Mega Raids, while the following monsters will be appearing in lower-tier Raids during the event:Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The pandemic has been tough on just about everyone, but as far as businesses go, movie theaters suffered quite a bit, having to shut down all but entirely. After filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, theater chain Alamo Drafthouse is now emerging with plans to open new theaters, according to The Hollywood Reporter.The independent theater chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, a move that begins a reorganization process for a struggling business. The company sold assets to pre-existing investor Altamont Capital and newcomer to the chain, Fortress Investment Group, to keep the business afloat as theaters stayed closed, pushing studios to delay upcoming movies.Thanks to new financing from the sale, Alamo Drafthouse is now looking to open a 14-screen theater in Manhattan alongside its planned Staten Island theater. The chain is also planning 9-screen theaters in Washington D.C. and Arlington, Virginia, as well as a theater in St. Louis, Missouri. Meanwhile, two Texas theaters and one in Kansas City, Missouri will close; the chain is also ceasing development of a planned Orlando, Florida location.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Razer BlackShark V2 Pro Wireless Headset $160 (was $180) See at Amazon PlayStation HD Camera $50 (was $60) See at Amazon WD Easystore 5TB External Hard Drive $100 (was $180) See at Best Buy PS Plus 1-year membership $39.50 (was $60) See at eBay PS Now 1-year membership $42.74 (was $60) See at Green Man Gaming Demon's Souls $59 (was $70) See at Amazon Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Launch Edition $60 (was $70) See at Amazon The Nioh Collection $60 (was $70) See at Amazon The Last of Us Part II $29.39 (was $60) See at Amazon Ghost of Tsushima $40 (was $60) See at Amazon Death Stranding $19.88 (was $40) See at Walmart Amazon Prime Day 2021 will bring a huge wave of gaming deals when it kicks off later this month (June 21-22, if reports are true), and there's sure to be no shortage of Prime Day PlayStation deals. Now that we're over six months out from the PS5's launch, we're starting to see more PS5 deals on games and even some accessories, and PS4 deals are already out in full force thanks to Sony's Days of Play sale. In the days and weeks leading up to Prime Day 2021, we'll be tracking all the best Prime Day PlayStation deals as we spot them, but for now, here's an overview of what to expect from Prime Day's PS4 and PS5 deals along with some great discounts to take advantage of now.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Sophie Turner is joining the cast of The Staircase, HBO Max's adaptation of the 2004 docuseries The Staircase, according to a report from Variety.Turner joins Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Parker Posey, and more; the Game of Thrones actor will play the role of main character Michael Peterson's adopted daughter Margaret Ratliff in the eight-episode limited series.The Staircase, like the docuseries before it, follows the case of author Michael Peterson (Firth), accused of murdering his wife Kathleen (Collette). Peterson claimed at the time that his wife had fallen down the titular staircase, but police suspected Peterson's involvement and he was convicted in 2003.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com