Looking for a something to play this weekend but don't want to spend any cash? Microsoft has announced the latest Free Play Days games, and they are good ones.Now until Sunday, February 7, you can download and play The Sims 4 and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 at no cost, provided you have an Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate membership. You can start your download from the Xbox.com website or by visiting the Subscriptions tab on your Xbox from the Xbox Store in the Gold area.Free is a nice priceOnce the free weekend ends, you can buy the full versions of The Sims 4 for 80% off, which brings it down to $8, or the standard edition of Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 for $30 instead of $40. The Sims 4's Snowy Escape expansion pack ($16) and the Realm of Magic expansion pack ($12) are also on sale right now.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

It's been nearly a year since the gates of Disneyland closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, other California theme parks like Universal Studios Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm have also remained shuttered due to state guidelines. It's possible those guidelines could be changing, though.According to The Hollywood Reporter, two California assembly members have proposed a new bill that would accelerate the opening of the state's larger theme parks. Currently, larger parks like Disneyland are in Tier 4 of the state's reopening plans. That essentially means the counties the parks are located in have to achieve a COVID-19 infection rate of fewer than one new daily case per 100,000 people and fewer than 2% positive tests.Under the new bill, all theme parks would be able to open once their home counties entered Tier 3, which allows for 1-3.9 new cases per 100,000 people and a 2-4.9% positive test rate. Assembly members Sharon Quirk-Silva and Suzette Valladares have sponsored the bill, AB 420, and it shouldn't be surprising that they have the support of the theme park industry.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

A bidding war has erupted to buy a new movie starring Will Smith and directed by Deadpool 2's David Leitch. According to Deadline, multiple studios and streaming services are vying to buy the action movie, Fast & Loose.The drama, written by The Megs's Erich Hoeber, is reportedly attracting bids from Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM, and Sony, as well as unspecified streaming platforms. The size of the bids is unknown, and there is no word on any potential frontrunners at this stage.Fast & Loose tells the story of a criminal organization leader John Riley, played by Smith, who suffers memory loss after an attack. He then reunites with his crew but things are not how he remembers.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Following the mobile game BTS Universe Story, the popular K-pop boy band is back in yet another game. Titled Rhythm Hive, the new mobile rhythm game features music from artists under BTS's label, Big Hit Entertainment.Rhythm Hive Pre Season Open!!!!📢Downlaod: https://t.co/dKxqwYwfZL#RhythmHive #RhythmGame #with_your_artist #BTS #TOMORROW_X_TOGETHER #ENHYPEN pic.twitter.com/QTqwGcyIKc — Rhythm Hive Official (@RhythmHive_twt) February 4, 2021Rhythm Hive offers solo, multiplay, and competitive modes. Players can choose the short or full version of a single song or a mix of three different songs. Performance cards with your favorite member from BTS, TXT, or Enhypen are also available and offer different bonus points."Rhythm Hive allows users to optimize the game’s level of difficulty, speed and other factors so that a wide variety of players, from experts to beginners, can enjoy it," the developer Superb Corp. told Variety.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

A new Fortnite update has gone live on all platforms to address stability and performance issues going into the weekend. Epic Games posted some notes explaining the update on Reddit, which you can also read below.We've released a maintenance patch to address:-The queuing bug with tournaments-The "Disable Pre-edit Option" in BR/Creative applying to STW-The recent performance issues on PC (DX12 still impacted)-The PS5 stability issues — Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) February 5, 2021The maintenance update, labeled patch 2.03, specifically addresses a bug that was preventing players from queuing in tournaments, an issue involving the "disable pre-edit" option, and performance issues affecting players on PC and PS5.According to Epic Games, running Fortnite in Performance Mode may degrade the game's texture quality after updating to this new version, which is an intentional feature meant to preserve high framerates.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The next gun for Apex Legends is being designed so that it has a meaningful impact on the battle royale's meta. In this way, the gun will fit a similar role to Season 8's 30-30 Repeater, a rifle that fires differently depending how you shoot it--a design decision that's wholly unique to it."[The 30-30 Repeater] is not just another gun similar to all the other guns," Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier told me when we spoke about the battle royale's transformative second year and plans for the future. "It actually has some design put into it and it has its own slot in the lineup of weapons. You'll see [the same] with our next weapon that's in development right now--it's also going to hold its own place and not just be another gun that's like the others."This change in pattern to only add more unique firearms every other season as opposed to just adding more guns every season is the developer's attempt to curb the rapidly expanding arsenal of firearms in the game.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The GameStop/Reddit stock price drama and controversy over the past week has been one of the most-discussed topics globally, and so it's no surprise that Hollywood has come knocking to turn the events into movies and TV shows. There are now several Hollywood projects in the works, with big names and famous studios attached trying to cash in.Following the news that Ben Mezrich had sold his book proposal to James Bond studio MGM to spin into a a feature film, it's been reported that numerous other studios are getting involved.The HBO ProjectVariety reports that HBO is working on a GameStop movie of its own, with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Television among the producers.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Bungie has released a trailer giving us the first look at Destiny 2's next content season, the Season of the Chosen. We now have a sense of a new threat facing the solar system in the form of a Cabal force and its new empress, Caiatl.This is Caiatl's first appearance in the game, and if you haven't been following the ins and outs of Destiny 2 lore, you might be a little confused. After all, this will be our third major Cabal villain since the release of Destiny 2 back in 2017, and they're all related to some internal political struggle in the Cabal Empire that you wouldn't know about if you hadn't read various lore entries. Caiatl is new to the game, but her name has been floating around for a while and her presence could have some big implications for past characters and where the Cabal enemy faction is headed next in the story.Caiatl is the Cabal empress, but she hasn't been in our solar system this whole time--instead, she was back at the Cabal homeworld. She has ties to the characters we've seen so far in Destiny 2, though. Caiatl is the daughter of Calus, the exiled Cabal emperor who spent the last few years hanging around in Nessus's orbit in his giant spaceship, the Leviathan. She was also an ally of Ghaul, the Cabal leader who deposed Calus and took over his reign. If you missed out on Destiny 2's vanilla campaign, the Red War, you should know that players walloped Ghaul, and the Traveler woke up and literally annihilated him.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Apex Legends may be getting something like a campaign in Year 3. Respawn's battle royale game came close to having something like that with Quest, which initially was a collection of PvE missions in Season 5 before transitioning to comics in Season 6. However, that transition wasn't a part of Apex Legends' original roadmap, and Respawn is "not done" with expanding on its interactive storytelling in the battle royale."We've got many developers here that would have loved to continue doing something like [Season 5's Quest]," Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier told me as we discussed the battle royale's transformative second year. "The problem is, well we did the Quest and then we had a lockdown."The COVID-19 lockdowns transitioned Respawn into a working from home structure, which forced the studio to rethink how to expand on Apex Legends in Seasons 6 and 7. New content became an issue of priority, and it was decided that the priority of Quest was to deliver on story, not story-focused missions. As such, the mode transitioned into comics--something easier to program into a game than a brand-new campaign. But Respawn hasn't given up on including interactive storytelling in its battle royale.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

If it doesn’t have RGB lighting, is it really a Razer product? Razer’s tendency to equip its products with rainbow LEDs has become the subject of jokes, though the company seems to take it with pride, even equipping its first-ever gaming monitor, the Razer Raptor 27, with an RGB stand. It might seem a little silly at first, but once you delve past the Raptor’s colorful gimmick and dive deeper into its specs, build, and performance, you’ll find that Razer’s first gaming monitor is another exceptional example of the company’s ability to deliver a quality product.Display and performanceAdorned with an RGB-lit base, the Razer Raptor 27 provides a gorgeous, vivid image on its 27-inch IPS display, which looks doubly nice with its thin bezel. Games look sharp at the screen's native resolution of 1440p, and the change in color tone between Valorant and Call of Duty: Warzone demonstrates the Raptor’s adept range. Bright sunny days in games like Saints Row: The Third Remastered and Metro Exodus are exceptional--the sun peeking through an overpass or set of buildings in Saints Row looks beautiful. Darker scenes, however, is where the Raptor struggles a little. Testing with the most recent Resident Evil games, dark hallways can look more gray than black. While these black levels leave us wanting, with the right settings, the Raptor is still capable of producing a good-looking image.Razer Raptor 27The Razer Raptor boasts a 144Hz refresh rate and G-Sync compatibility via FreeSync, both of which help it run and perform wonderfully. This provides a real advantage for competitive games like Rainbow Six Siege, Valorant, and Call of Duty: Warzone, where going from a low refresh rate monitor to a high one could make for a substantial improvement in your K/D ratio. In addition to much smoother gameplay over your typical 60Hz, the Raptor’s 144Hz refresh rate contributes to quicker reactions to movement and better precision aiming on the screen. For example, this makes sniping that enemy who pops into view much easier, dropping them before they can duck back into cover.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

During the Final Fantasy XIV announcement showcase, the next expansion for the MMORPG was revealed through a teaser trailer--it's called Endwalker and it's set to launch in Fall 2021. You can watch the trailer from the livestream below (be aware that there may be spoilers in the trailer).The trailer shows the Warrior of Light (your character) on the moon of your realm, and is stylized as a Paladin. You then see core characters Alphinaud and Alisaie fighting alongside each other against what looks to be a dragon (maybe Lunar Bahamut). And the Warrior of Light shows up to join the group. There are also teaser shots of the new villain over looking the new "Final Days" and you see returning villain Zenos as well. The final shots return to the moon to reveal the new representation of the Warrior of Light.New JobsThere will also be new Jobs in Endwalker, one healer and one melee DPS. In the trailer, Alphinaud is sporter the new Job and it was further explained during the showcase. It's called Sage and uses a set of floating aether-infused knives called Nouliths. It'll start at level 70 with no required class, but you need at least one other Job at level 70 and own the Endwalker expansion.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Marvel has a huge slate of movies on the way over the next few years, but one of the most anticipated movies on the list is the upcoming Blade film. Blade is still a ways out, but Marvel has settled on a writer for the superhero horror film.Stacy Osei-Kuffour will write Blade for Marvel Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Osei-Kuffour worked previously as a writer and story editor on HBO's critically-acclaimed Watchmen and Amazon Prime's Nazi-hunting series Hunters. Marvel first revealed the project at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, where it also revealed that actor Mahershala Ali (Luke Cage, House of Cards, Moonlight) will step into the role once occupied by Wesley Snipes.THR reports that Marvel spent the last six month searching for a writer before tapping Osei-Kuffour, and that Ali was directly involved. The team seriously considered only Black writers, focusing on diversity and representation. Osei-Kuffour becomes the first Black woman to write a Marvel film (Nia DaCosta will be the studio's first Black woman director with Captain Marvel 2.)Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Update: Treyarch has pushed the Firebase Z Easter egg quest back one hour. The quest was originally set to go live at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET, but now it will be available to play at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. The quest will still be dropping on Friday, February 5.UPDATE: The #FirebaseZ main Easter Egg quest will now be enabled at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 6PM GMT Friday, Feb. 5th.That's an extra hour to rest up, shower, and hydrate before the gates open! See you then. — Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) February 5, 2021Original story follows...The new Firebase Z map may now be available for everyone to play in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Zombies mode, but one of its key elements--the main Easter egg quest--is temporarily disabled. Treyarch recently confirmed that the Easter egg wouldn't be available immediately upon the launch of Firebase Z, but will instead arrive on Friday, February 5.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of WallStreetBets--the Reddit group that launched the recent GameStop/Reddit stock price drama and controversy--has sold his life rights to producer Brett Ratner, who is working on one of at least three major Hollywood projects in the works about the stock price drama and controversy. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ratner's production company RatPac intends to first tell the story in a movie "and then move on to podcasts and other mediums."For those who aren't yet aware of the story or are simply sick of explaining it to their uncles, in January, the online investor forum community Rogozinski formed sparked a recent Wall Street stock frenzy when its members manipulated the stock market against hedge fund managers assumptions about GameStop stock trajectory. The retailer, like many businesses, has been struggling due to COVID-19, plus the overall shift to digital distribution of video games and other entertainment products. The deal was closed for a reported "low six figures," but also trucks in additional controversy as Ratner recently lost a major deal amid sexual-harassment accusations. As an indicator of future success, RatPac is a mixed blessing--it had the savvy to get involved and co-produce 2017's Wonder Woman, but for its sequel star Gal Gadot threatened to not be involved unless Ratner was fired, which did ultimately happen. (Elliot Page spoke out around the same time about issues with Ratner.) Ratner has denied all misconduct claims by them and four others, but it's a consideration the upcoming GameStop/Reddit project will need to navigate, especially with fierce competition from other productions.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Apple's rumored VR headset continues to have its alleged details leaked, this time with information about its potential price, feature set, and more making it out.The Information has reportedly seen early designs and spoken with at least one Apple employee directly tied to the project, stating that the headset is in the late stages of development and could launch as early as 2022. The headset is said to feature 12 cameras for tracking and capturing video from outside of the headset, which will be crucial in delivering its AR functionality, too.It will additionally feature eye-tracking which can help reduce rendering loads on parts of the screen where you aren't focusing, as well as LiDAR sensors to accurately measure distances between objects in AR. The design is said to be like traditional consumer VR headset, albeit with two 8K displays for each eye, interchangeable head straps, and spacial audio like that featured in the AirPods Max.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com