After several teases, the remake of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 has officially been confirmed. It will be launching for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Switch on July 11, and in addition to a standard edition of the game, there'll also be deluxe and collector's editions that offer three days early access. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 will also be a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass.Developed by Iron Galaxy, the remake will feature all of the skate parks from the original games, as well as a brand-new one called Waterpark. All of the skaters from THPS 3 and 4 will be back, and new faces include Yuto Horigome, Rayssa Leal, Jamie Foy, Chloe Covell, and Zion Wright. Iron Galaxy says that the Create-A-Skater and Create-A-Park modes have been expanded.As for the soundtrack, the playlist hasn't been confirmed yet but the trailer does use Ace of Spades by Motorhead and Amoeba by Adolescents--two songs that were originally used in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Donkey Kong has always been the more brutal, off-putting relative to the affable, approachable Mario brothers. Both Donkey Kong Country and the Super Marios are classic side-scrolling platformers at their core, but DKC has been known less for joyful leaping and more for clenching your jaw. Now as the Nintendo Switch approaches its eighth year and Nintendo is increasingly reaching into its back catalog for ports, DKC Returns is back with a package that combines all the features of the Wii and 3DS versions--including some assists and visual enhancements--but still feels tough-as-nails in a way that could push away more casual platformer fans.DKC Returns HD does retain the tweaks made to the 2013 3DS port, including a Modern mode (originally called New mode in the 3DS version) with additional items in Cranky's shop and an extra pip of health. The items in Cranky's shop are especially tuned to let you selectively tweak the difficulty, since the banana coins currency are so plentiful that you'll almost always have enough to spare on an item or two. Those items range from help finding collectible puzzle pieces to temporary invincibility. You can always opt for the original mode to play with the original Wii difficulty, if that's more your flavor. And it does look nicely polished on Switch, especially on the OLED screen. That said, the character models look relatively simplistic compared to Tropical Freeze, a 2014 Wii U game that was already ported to Switch in 2018.The Modern mode is meant to sand off the edges of the notoriously punishing game and make it more approachable, but make no mistake: This is still a brutally difficult game. Even with three hearts instead of the original two, it's very easy to lose multiple lives (or near the end, tens of lives) in a single stage as you learn its rhythms and assorted traps. And the difficulty in DKC Returns is true to its roots, which centers heavily on memorization. The game frequently introduces threats too quickly to react to the first time, and DK himself feels stiff and heavy compared to the acrobatic Mario. Trickier stages will even give the appearance of one type of obstacle and then frustratingly punish you for reacting to the fake-out.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

During its developer livestream on March 4, Bungie confirmed that Destiny 2's Io location is coming back to the game. It will be the one of the locations where the new Heresy Act 2 activity, Court of Blades, will take place.Io was sunset back in 2020 with the launch of Beyond Light to a critical response from players. In recent years, Bungie has also reprised formerly sunset planets and moons including Mars, which was home to Savathun's Throne World, and Titan, where we rediscovered Sloane. This time around, Io's Remnants of Silver area will be the home of a new activity inspired by the roguelike elements that Bungie has been playing with in recent months.The return of Io's Remnant of Silver areaIo is completely engulfed in Darkness, which Oryx, The Taken King, is desperately seeking out to regain power following his discovery that the Guardians were the ones to kill him. As he heads to Io, players will take part in the new Court of Blades activity and have direct interactions with him for the first time in years.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Marvel Rivals has come for the hero-shooter crown, and it's hard to argue that it doesn't have a legitimate claim to the throne. It has a big roster of heroes with a ton of variety across them, no role queue, and 6v6, all of which are important to a great hero shooter. Although it lifts more than a few of Overwatch's ideas, it is actively targeting and addressing some of the biggest complaints players have about Blizzard's shooter. Marvel Rivals expands on familiar ideas in smart ways and has a visually striking and distinct art style. Add in that it's a fun multiplayer experience and it makes it far more than just another also-ran hero shooter clone.Opting for 6v6 and a third-person camera view, Marvel Rivals has a vast variety of playstyles across its launch roster. Offering everything from simple shooting-focused heroes like Punisher to complex melee heroes like Spider-Man, all the while making it feel cohesive. Although it will undoubtedly be chaotic for players trying a hero shooter like this for the first time, there are a variety of heroes that make picking up the game simple and an impressive roster of alternative picks that can gradually increase complexity.It does have limited main game modes at launch, with only Domination, which involves fighting over a control point; Convoy, where a team escorts a payload; and Convergence, which is a combination of the two. These are split across a variety of maps taken from the Marvel multiverse, with locations like Tokyo 2099, Yggsgard, and the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda. These different locations provide a ton of environmental variety, with the pristine look of Asgard contrasted with the dense buildings of Tokyo 2099. While the visual styles don't change the flow of the game, the map layouts do. For example, both Tokyo 2099 and Klyntar have hybrid maps--where the attacking team must capture a control point, which unlocks a payload to push--but Tokyo 2099 has multiple buildings blocking the defenders' line of sight, while on Klyntar the area from spawn to the point is much more open, promoting more long-range hero options. It can become visually stale, but more importantly, having fewer modes means that your team's strategies don't shift as much from match to match, which can result in them blending together because each individual match doesn't feel unique, aside from the team compositions.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

[UPDATE] The auction for the Charizard-shaped Cheeto, the "Cheetozard," if you will, has concluded. The item sold for the astronomical price of $72,000 USD. The buyer got a total of $87,840 after the buyer's premium is included. The Cheetozard garnered 60 total bids. What a world we live in.The original story is below.Pokemon fans are known to be passionate, especially as Pokemania nears its 30th anniversary in 2026. Sometimes, fans are even willing to pay shockingly high prices for unofficial Pokemon items, including--of all things--a Flamin' Hot Cheeto that bears more than a little resemblance to Charizard. "Cheetozard" recently went up for auction, and the highest bid has already cleared four figures.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Not every game needs to be more like IO Interactive's Hitman, but some games would benefit from adopting more of that incredible series' strong points. This is something Rebellion seemed to figure out around the time of Sniper Elite 3 back in 2014, when the series ditched linear levels set in tight, wartorn streets in favor of a much deeper, wider tour of duty, with each map allowing for player choice in how they navigate the world and complete missions. The series has even gone so far as to create some absurd, Agent 47-like situations in which you can assassinate Nazis. Sniper Elite: Resistance reintroduces that tried-and-true formula for the fourth time in 11 years, and though it's still enjoyable, I can't help but notice how this campaign through the French countryside elicits such a strong sense of deja vu.Sniper Elite is a third-person shooter set during World War II, and like other games in the series, it can be played in first-person when you're aiming. The series has made a name for itself on a deep ballistic physics model that accounts for wind, bullet drop, and positioning, as well as its cherry on top: the X-ray killcam. This feature shows you, in slow-motion, how each bullet shreds Nazis in grotesque detail, inside and out. Like in other Sniper Elite games, a well-placed bullet can shoot their eyes out, explode their hearts, or even obliterate their testicles, among other special displays of sharpshooting.Like its predecessors, the game is a fun and reliable shooter when it comes to sniping mechanics, though I've grown weary of the killcam. These days, I more often skip the killcam, or at least adjust my settings to see fewer headhunting highlight reels. I get it by now; it's neat tech, but they add up over the course of a mission, which already tend to take me about two hours each, because I'm much more interested in stealthily completing my missions than watching the highlight reels of long-range vivisections.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

When Donald Trump was running for reelection in 2024, he constantly spoke about his desire to add tariffs--or import taxes--on America's trading partners and rivals. Now, President Trump has gone through with that threat by imposing 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional 10% tariff on goods from China. The Chinese tariffs are on top of the 10% tariff that Trump ordered on the country last month. Taken together, this new round of tariffs may spell trouble for physical video games, according to an industry analyst.Circana's Mat Piscatella has shared his belief that physical video games that would be subject to these tariffs may simply not be made. Instead, publishers are likely to lean even harder on digital sales. Piscatella has previously written about the potential impact of these tariffs, while noting that manufacturing game discs in America isn't a viable option since physical sales have been declining for years.During Trump's first term in office, the video game industry successfully lobbied his administration to exclude them from the tariffs he placed on Chinese goods. There was no carveout in Trump's newest round of tariffs. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) issued a public statement earlier this month warning that these tariffs may have a devastating affect on all video game sales.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Eternal Strands weaves together a deeply intriguing scene from its earliest moments, stitching together a picture of a fantasy world built around the concept of magic emulating threads. It's a world I wanted to dive into from the jump, if only to uncover more of how it came to be and what the cultures of the different locations are like. And as much as the worldbuilding retains that wonder with incredible-looking environments that make for engaging play spaces for the physics-based magic system, the beat-for-beat details of Eternal Strands' story aren't nearly as rewarding to unravel.Eternal Strands' story too often hits on familiar fantasy tropes, such as an inexplicable magical disaster that changed everything and a corrupting force that seemingly has no weakness and must be avoided at all costs. But the history that story is built on adds a semblance of life to the world, building memorable NPCs that you want to come back to again and again to talk about what in their life led them to where they are now, and painting a somber undertone to the world that begs to be uncovered through its detailed lore notes and optional collectibles.The world-building in Eternal Strands is superb.I especially love how Eternal Strands packages aspects of its history so they're viewed through the art of weaving--not a typical choice for action-adventure games. Concepts like spells are recontextualized, transforming from arcane runes into fashion choices. You can largely avoid the historical exposition if you'd rather spend your time swinging a sword and spewing fire, but there's some great writing to uncover here for lore hounds.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 launched in February to critical acclaim and more than 2 million in sales, but the game debuted with no ability to give your character, Henry, a look of your own choosing. That's set to change soon, as developer Warhorse has announced that Barber Mode is coming to the RPG in mid-March, and it'll allow players to change their hair and beard style. This mode was first announced in January when Warhorse revealed the game's post-launch content roadmap.This was announced as part of a Twitch livestream, during which Warhorse showed off the new beard and hair styles. Reddit user Valmont_DE captured some images from the stream, which show off how players will be able to customize Henry's look when the update arrives.[KCD2] Beardstyles from the new barber update byu/Valmont_DE inkingdomcome Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Sid Meier's Civilization VII is the newest mainline entry in Firaxis' long-running 4X strategy series, which is built on exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating across procedurally generated maps. Taken on its own, each campaign remains a superbly engaging escapade across eras that will keep you playing for "one more turn" until you realize you're late for your sister's birthday party. Civilization VII is not just a game that you play to pass the time during weekends--the experience is compelling enough that it is the weekend, and maybe several weekdays of your life, too.For Civilization VII, Firaxis has made some sweeping changes, most notably with how you progress through each historical period. Several of these new features are welcome, given that they address concerns from previous titles while also making campaigns more dynamic. However, a few design decisions are bound to be contentious, especially for longtime fans, since these mechanics tend to impact the player's control over certain outcomes.One of the biggest changes in Civilization VII is how you choose leaders and nations separately. Gone are the days when picking Augustus Caesar or Napoleon meant automatically playing as Rome or France, respectively. Instead, leaders have a unique trait that defines their playstyle, and you can select a country independently to complement that playstyle.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Hori Wireless Fighting Commander Octa Pro for PS5 & PC $100 | Releases April 14 Preorder at Amazon If you’re interested in improving your fighting game setup but don’t want a traditional fight stick, the upcoming Hori Wireless Fighting Commander Octa Pro for PS5 and PC should be on your radar. Hori's wired Commander Octa is one of the most popular controllers dedicated to fighting games on PlayStation, and the new model drops the wire while adding more premium features and customization options. The Fighting Commander Octa Pro is available to preorder at Amazon for $100 ahead of its April 14 release. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

There's a tavern in the town of Troskowitz where the barmaids must be sick at the sight of me. I've been there twice, and both times been involved in messy brawls despite not tasting a lick of alcohol. The second of these fisticuffs was against a small group of Cuman deserters. They seemed nice enough, but I was still wary considering the Cumans are who killed my parents a few months back. I wasn't the only one, and after failing to ease the growing tension, I decided to side with the local townspeople when push came to shove.Needless to say, we didn't put up much of a fight. Once the Cumans left, one of the locals implored me to track them down and deal with them once and for all. After eventually tracking them down, the sole Czech-speaking Cuman was so welcoming that I ended up getting drunk with them. I got so inebriated, in fact, that my night revolved around almost drowning, playing matchmaker for one of the soldiers, and then having a conversation with a talking dog that definitely wasn't real. This night of revelry would've been fine on any other evening, but I promised two new acquaintances that I'd be up bright and early to join them on a critical mission. Even after sleeping for seven hours, I was still completely plastered when I arose from my stupor. And let me tell you, fighting bandits with blurred vision, a swaying body, and a soundtrack of frequent farting isn't ideal.To some, this last part might sound utterly infuriating. To me, and others like me, this is part of what makes Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 utterly enticing. This is a game that sings when you're swept up in an entertaining series of events ignited by the consequences of your actions; where the game's quest design and emphasis on player choice wonderfully intertwine with its systems-driven sandbox to create a wholly immersive experience. While its 2018 predecessor was often disrupted by technical issues--which were further exacerbated by a frustrating save system--and clunky combat, Kingdom Come 2 refines and improves upon it in every respect. The obtuse nature of some of its RPG systems still won't click for everybody, but this is a confident sequel that builds on the foundations established by the original game, presenting a rich and sprawling adventure that effortlessly oscillates between medieval drama and slice-of-life hijinks in a world that feels distinctly alive.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Bungie has announced the upcoming arrival of Rite of the Nine, a limited-time Destiny 2 event centered around three of the space shooter's dungeons.The dungeons featured will be Prophecy, Spire of the Watcher, and Ghosts of the Deep. They'll rotate weekly throughout the event's duration. Three modes - Ultimatum, Explorer, and Eternity, will affect the way players experience each dungeon. Players will be working towards a high score, and that score is calculated on how often you die. Stay alive as much as possible, and your score will be higher. That score will determine how good the loot drop is at the completion of each encounter. "We're challenging you to go into this harder mode and not just execute, but execute in a way that gets you a higher score, better rolls, and in the Ultimatum mode, Adept versions," Bungie explained.Ultimatum mode is for players who are experienced in running dungeons looking for an extra challenge. Ultimatum mode will bump the power level to be equivalent with the game's most difficult content as seen in the likes of Contest mode. Each dungeon will have activity modifiers added which will craft the experience, or make it more challenging.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

There is no game series out there that means more to me than Virtua Fighter. I spent my weekly allowance to play VF and VF2 in arcades, cavorted cross-country in search of rare Virtua Fighter 3 cabinets, and eventually connected with overseas friends by playing VF4 Evolution and Final Tuned in Japan. So when I see a new--or new-ish, in this case--Virtua Fighter game get released, I want it to be the best it can possibly be. Not just for myself, but so others can pick it up and understand why we longtime Virtua Fighter players adore these games so much.Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown--released a few years back on PS4--was a solid attempt at this, bringing the much-loved VF5 Final Showdown to PS4 with a fresh coat of paint. However, it fumbled in some key areas--particularly the netcode, which was a bizarre delay-based system in an era when fighting game developers were quickly and vocally embracing superior rollback systems. Now, with a new Virtua Fighter in active development and people talking about the series again, Sega has given us Virtua Fighter 5 REVO: another revision exclusively for PCs with the much-longed-for and player-demanded rollback netcode.The rollback netcode is clearly the major selling point here, as much of the game is still built upon the foundation of VF5 Ultimate Showdown: The menu graphics, interface, and character models are largely the same, with a bit of extra polish and visual flair if you've got solid graphics hardware. But that's fine--those areas didn't need much improvement, so why fix what isn't broken?Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Standard Edition $50 | Releases July 11 Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Best Buy Preorder at Walmart Preorder at Target Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Digital Deluxe Edition $70 | Releases July 11 Preorder for PlayStaion Preorder for Xbox Preorder for Nintendo Switch Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Collector's Edition $130 | Releases July 8 Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Best Buy Preorder at Walmart Preorder at Target Activision announced today that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 will be released on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Game Pass on July 11. These enhanced versions of the classic skateboarding games will feature significantly overhauled graphics with new and returning content from both games, including levels, playable skaters, and licensed soundtracks. Three different editions of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 are up for preorder.The standard edition costs $50, but if you make the jump to the $70 Digital Deluxe or $130 Collector's Edition, you'll get additional in-game content and early access starting July 8. For skateboarding enthusiasts, the Collector's Edition looks pretty cool, as it also comes bundled with a Birdhouse skateboard deck.Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Preorder BonusesIf you preorder Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4, you'll get the Wireframe Tony Shader to use in-game. You will also get access to the Foundry Demo, which will be available at some point before launch. These bonuses are included with all three editions. And as mentioned above, preordering the Deluxe and Collector's Editions will grant you three-day early access to the full game starting July 8. Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com