Silent Hills was never released, but thanks to the work of game hacker Lance McDonald, new details continue to emerge about the cancelled horror project. McDonald, who previously revealed that Lisa is right behind you as you play through P.T. (the game’s playable teaser,) has now uncovered the player model you’re controlling in-game.

McDonald, who also recently discovered some cut story content in Sekiro, has shown the character model off on Twitter. The identity of the character model shouldn’t serve as a huge surprise–it’s Norman Reedus, who pops up at the game’s conclusion. This is, however, the first real definitive confirmation that you’re embodying Reedus throughout the experience, even if that had been the assumption all along.

It’s a small reveal, but a meaningful one, considering that we will never get to experience Silent Hills in full–the next Silent Hill game will be a video slot machine.

Reedus would, of course, go on to start in Hideo Kojima’s new game, Death Stranding. Kojima has said that he would like to work with Reedus again, and has also suggested that he might return to horror in the future. It’s possible that we’ll still see Reedus getting spooked by Junji Ito-inspired ghouls eventually.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pt-hacker-uncovers-the-character-model-in-silent-h/1100-6472243/

Gears Tactics, which is coming to Xbox One and PC (including Xbox Game Pass) on April 28, 2020, was first revealed at E3 2018, before dropping off the radar until this year’s Game Awards. Now we’ve learned that game, a turn-based tactical spin-off from the Gears of War series (think XCOM but in the Gears universe), will be single-player only and will not feature cosmetic microtransactions.

This news comes via Rod Furgusson, studio head at Gears developer The Coalition, who tweeted it out after being asked for details.

The Gears of War series has typically had a multiplayer focus, with co-op and competitive modes available in the shooters, including the recent Gears 5; Gears Tactics will be the first single-player only Gears game. Gears 5 also features numerous paid cosmetic items, but in Tactics players won’t have the option of spending additional money. There will be plenty of customization options, but you’ll have to unlock them by playing the game.

Gears Tactics promises a 40-hour campaign, and is set before the original Gears of War.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gears-tactics-will-be-single-player-only-and-wont-/1100-6472239/

Whether it’s video games, movies, or TV shows, entertainment is filled with iconic tools of warfare, and much of the stories we love are defined by them; the Pulse Rifle is synonymous with the Aliens franchise; the Man With No Name’s mystique and effortless cool is heightened by the revolver he whips out in the squint of an eye; and the sound of a bullet from the Intervention hitting an enemy immediately conjures up Call of Duty-flavoured nostalgia.

These weapons are the focus of Loadout, a new show that will identify some of pop culture’s most influential armaments and explore them in-depth. Each week, host Dave Jewitt will tackle a different weapon, delve into its origins, examine how it has been used, and lay out the impact it has had on pop culture.

In Episode 1, Loadout takes hold of the revolver, a legendary weapon that has been present from the earliest days of cinema to the current era of video games. Why is it so popular? Watch Episode 1 of Loadout to find out. For Episode 2, Dave takes a look at The Intervention, a weapon that Call of Duty players will be intimately familiar with and, given its status as arguably the most meme-able video game weapon, you may know it even if you haven’t played the shooter series.

New episodes of Loadout will air every Saturday and you can find them on GameSpot’s YouTube channel–make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

Episode 1: Revolvers

Episode 2: The Intervention

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/watch-loadout-episode-2-the-call-of-duty-weapon-th/1100-6471998/

Over the next few days, we will reveal what we believe are the 10 best games of 2019, organized by release date. Then, on December 17, we will reveal which of the nominees gets to take home the coveted title of GameSpot’s Best Game of 2019. So be sure to come back then for the big announcement, and in the meantime, follow along with all of our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in our Best Games of 2019 hub.

Disco Elysium is unlike anything else we played this year. It takes traditional CRPG mechanics and puts a psychological spin on them, with your skills feeding into how conversations unfold in clever and unexpected ways. To that end, it has some of the best writing we’ve seen in a game to date–at once unavoidably bleak and effortlessly funny, both a brilliant detective game and an incredible work of existential fiction besides.

While the bulk of the game is reading, Disco Elysium’s inventive twist on traditional RPG systems sets it apart from a regular novel. A lot of the text you read consists of the main character’s interior monologue, and the loudest voices are the skills you spec into–things like empathy, logic, and even electrochemistry, the part of him that’s addicted to drugs and alcohol. How you craft your amnesiac, alcoholic cop transforms how conversations play out, what responses are available to you, and the kinds of clues you pick up on in relation to the murder investigation at the core of the story. Logic might tell you that a locked door must have a key somewhere, while electrochemistry might encourage you to do the drugs you confiscated from a kid and empathy will suggest that you look into his clearly troubled home life.

Whether you listen to any of these inner voices is up to you. Sometimes they’re wrong; there are always skill checks being rolled in the background, and if, say, your empathy isn’t high enough for a particular situation, it might suggest something inaccurate or insensitive instead of helpful. While you are afforded some freedom in how you roleplay the detective–including whether he’s a communist or a fascist, for instance–a lot of the time, you are instead deciding whether to act on his impulses or not, and that makes him feel more human.

Because of that, you really do feel like a detective, even if the detective you control is a bit of a disaster. A passing observation early on can lead to an unexpected revelation down the line, leaving you to wonder what you might have missed. The side activity that seems like a distraction may very well lead back to the case, if only because it gives you a fuller picture of the city you’re in and the people who live and die there. Seemingly unrelated events and interactions come together in surprising ways. And crucially, the story isn’t tied up with a neat bow–events and people intersect in believable ways that make Disco Elysium’s world feel lived-in, and while the murder mystery has its satisfying aha moments, it’s also beautifully messy.

The game finds humor in flaws, too. Choose too many non-committal answers and you’ll unlock an achievement mocking you for being a centrist. Fail a critical skill check while trying to crack a joke and everyone will just stare at the detective blankly. He can even die from sitting in an uncomfortable chair for too long (heart attack–the alcoholism has done a number on his body). Often incisive comedy provides much-needed levity in Disco Elysium’s darkness: the immense emotional pain the detective feels but can’t identify, the ills of late capitalism and corruption that rot its world, the frank descriptions of human decay during an autopsy.

It’s a testament to the quality of Disco Elysium’s writing that the sheer volume of it doesn’t get overwhelming. It’s a dense game, both in the number of words and the depth and breadth of the subject matter, but no words are wasted. Not everything has a direct purpose–you might inspect something suspicious-looking at the behest of your drama skill to discover it’s obviously unrelated to the murder case, for example–but every conversation, observation, and interaction provides something for your trouble. It might be a deeper insight into the world, its inhabitants, or yourself, or it might just be a witty joke, but regardless, taking the time to read and explore in Disco Elysium always yields something worthwhile.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/best-games-of-2019-disco-elysium/1100-6472234/