Microsoft first announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at E3 2019, and it’s been ramping up its offerings for the subscription ever since. Game Pass Ultimate combines Xbox Live Gold, a service that gets you free monthly games and exclusive discounts, with Game Pass for both Xbox One and PC, which grants you unlimited access to a huge library of games, with new games added regularly. While generally priced at $15 a month, Microsoft is offering a limited-time promotion that lets new subscribers claim two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $2.

The deal will be available now through September 20. Note that your subscription will automatically renew at full price after the two months unless you cancel.

There’s no better time to try out Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, as Microsoft announced a slew of new games for the service during its Inside Xbox stream before Gamescom 2019. With the subscription, you can dive into games like Devil May Cry 5 and Age of Empires starting today. The two-months-for-$2 deal also coincides with the release of Gears 5, the highly anticipated shooter and sequel to Gears of War 4 scheduled to release September 10. If you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you’ll be able to install Gears 5 Ultimate Edition during the game’s early access period starting September 6. Gears 5 also has some neat pre-order bonuses worth checking out.

Get 2 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $2

Below, you’ll find an overview of what’s coming to Xbox Game Pass in the near future. All of these games will be available via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

August 19

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)
• Devil May Cry 5: (Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)
• Stellaris: (Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and coming soon to Xbox Game Pass for PC)

August 22

• Ape Out: (Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance — (Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)

August 27

• Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut — (Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)

August 30

• Blair Witch: (Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)

September 5

• Dead Cells: (Xbox Game Pass for Console, Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate)

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-get-2-months-for-2/1100-6469209/

At Gamescom Opening Night Live, Hideo Kojima appeared on stage to debut new gameplay footage from his upcoming PS4 game, Death Stranding. In the brief segment, we saw Norman Reedus’ character exploring the environment and making a special delivery.

First, Reedus’ character Sam stood up in the middle of a hilly field, and after making a menu selection he urinated on some plants. (The camera strategically kept focused on Sam’s back, and they demonstrated how you cannot swing it around to see his front.) Somehow, that appeared to grow a mushroom. After climbing a hill with a high-tech deployable ladder, Sam delivered a package. Then he exited the building, but fell down a hill. Since he was caring for the baby (BB) at the time, he comforted it before sliding down the rest of the way. You can watch the gameplay video below or check out the full Death Stranding portion of the stream above.

Kojima spent some time both before and after the presentation talking about his upcoming game. And since this event was being hosted by Geoff Keighley, the two made a point to point out that the man Sam delivered a package to was played by none other than Keighley himself, and voiced by Matthew Mercer.

Before this, we also got a better looked at another of Death Stranding’s characters, Mama. The game still largely remains a mystery despite its launch coming up quite soon–its release date is scheduled for November 8 on PS4.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/death-stranding-new-gameplay-video-takes-the-piss-/1100-6469229/

Whenever new hardware releases, especially the latest PC graphics card, I tend to fight myself over it–adding it to my cart, removing it from my cart, adding it back again. Eventually, I lose (I always lose), but if you’re more sensible than me and have waited for the right deal, then this one from Best Buy is a good option.

GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2070

$680 ($800) | $480 ($600)

See the RTX 2080 at Best Buy See the RTX 2070 at Best Buy

The RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 Founders Editions are on sale for $120 off. This brings the RTX 2080 down to $680 and the RTX 2070 to $480. As part of Nvidia’s current game bundle promotion, you’ll also get the upcoming Control and the recently released Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

Nvidia has been touting Control as a showpiece for its ray-tracing technology. You shouldn’t expect the best performance with ray tracing turned on, but turned off, the RTX 2080 and 2070 will absolutely deliver an awesome experience. You can check out the two Founders Editions’ specs at the bottom of this article.

If you’re not quite sold on these two cards, then you should check out our recent review of the best graphics cards under $500. We cover the RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2060, the Radeon RX 5700 XT, and RX 5700.

GeForce RTX 2080

Founders Edition specs:

• Base Clock Speed: 1515 MHz
• Boost Clock Speed: 1800 MHz
• Memory Configuration: 8GB GDDR6
• Memory Speed: 14 Gbps
• Memory Interface: 256-bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 448 GB/s
• CUDA Cores: 2944
• RTX-OPS: 60T

GeForce RTX 2070

Founders Edition specs:

• Base Clock Speed: 1410 MHz
• Boost Clock Speed: 1710 MHz
• Memory Configuration: 8GB GDDR6
• Memory Speed: 14 Gbps
• Memory Interface: 256-bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 448 GB/s
• CUDA Cores: 2304
• RTX-OPS: 45T

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/get-a-great-pc-graphics-card-120-off-with-2-free-g/1100-6469221/

Sony has added another acclaimed studio to its development family. The company announced today that it has acquired Insomniac Games, the developer behind the Ratchet and Clank series and, most recently, PS4’s critically acclaimed Marvel’s Spider-Man.

“Big news: Insomniac Games is joining PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios!” the official PlayStation Twitter account announced. “We are honored and thrilled to join forces with this legendary developer.”

“Joining the WWS family gives Insomniac even greater opportunities to achieve our studio vision of making positive and lasting impressions on people’s lives,” Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price said in a press release. “We’ve enjoyed a special relationship with PlayStation practically since our inception. Our partnership amplifies our potential, and Marvel’s Spider-Man was a testament to this.”

Insomniac is responsible for some of PlayStation’s most beloved titles. In addition to the aforementioned Ratchet and Clank series, the studio developed the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy, as well as the Resistance games. While most of Insomniac’s output has been exclusive to PlayStation consoles, it has occasionally branched out onto other platforms, notably with Sunset Overdrive on Xbox One and PC.

Insomniac’s latest effort, Marvel’s Spider-Man, launched exclusively on PS4 last September. GameSpot selected it as one of the best games of 2018. “Minor shortcomings don’t detract from Insomniac’s achievement in creating a game that feels like an authentic interpretation of a beloved creation,” critic Edmond Tran wrote in our Marvel’s Spider-Man review. “he feeling of embodying Spidey and using his abilities is astonishing, and the time spent on exploring its major characters help make its story feel heartfelt, despite superhero bombast.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sony-acquires-spider-man-ratchet-and-clank-dev-ins/1100-6469226/

Sega took the stage at Gamescom Opening Night Live to debut a new game from Amplitude Studios called Humankind. The strategy game has you building your civilization up from the Neolithic era to a modern age.

As your culture develops, you can combine different societies together for unique combinations. The game will launch with 60 historical cultures like Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Khmers, and Vikings, and you can mix them to more than a million combinations. The game will throw real historical events and figures at you to deal with, and you can make your own scientific discoveries and visit wonders of the world.

Combat will include tactical intricacies like terrain elevation. You can build your city on high ground to make it more difficult to siege, keep archers in the woods to serve as a line of defense. The game is slated for release on PC in 2020.

“Amplitude Studios was founded with the intention of creating this game, all the games we’ve created up until now have been leading up to this moment,” said Romain de Waubert in the announcement. “We are so excited to finally be able to share with the community what has been at the heart of Amplitude since day one.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-debuts-civilization-building-game-humankind/1100-6469223/