Warzone's Season 2 Reloaded update will add a new mode inspired by Call of Duty's original Blackout battle royale. This new mashup is called Black Ops Royale, and it will be played on Black Ops 7's massive Avalon map. Here we highlight all the details about this new Warzone experience, including major weapon, attachment, and perk changes.

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• Black Ops Royale Start Times
• What is Black Ops Royale?

Black Ops Royale Start Times

Black Ops Royale won't launch at the normal start time for Call of Duty's seasonal updates. This battle royale experience goes live on Thursday, March 12 at 9 PM PT/Friday, March 13 at 12 AM ET.

What is Black Ops Royale?

This is an original battle royale mode inspired by Black Ops 4's Blackout. Black Ops Royale strips away several of Warzone's features, including custom loadouts, the Gulag, the cash system, and Buy Stations. Instead, players will start the match with a pistol and need to scavenge everything for the fight.

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It's the final month of Pokemon Go's Precious Paths season, and the mobile game is wrapping it up with a variety of big events over the next few weeks. In addition to new Raid bosses and Spotlight Hours, the game is hosting a Community Day starring both Vulpix and Alolan Vulpix, while the Paldean Pokemon Flamigo is set to make its debut as part of a Carnival of Flamigo event.

That's not all that's happening in the mobile game this month. Pokemon Go's annual Valentine's Day and Lunar New Year celebrations also return, and the game is closing out the season with the global Pokemon Go Tour: Kalos event. You can read more about all of this month's biggest events below.

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• February Raid Schedule

February Raid Schedule

A new slate of legendary and Mega Pokemon are coming to Raids in February.

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Christofer Sundberg, who is known for his hot takes, has made another bold statement about the state of gaming. In an interview, Sundberg said he's observing things in the games industry today that he hasn't seen in his 30+ years making games.

"I've been making games for over three decades and never experienced such a desperate, cowardly (they call it 'risk averse'), and confused state of the business," Sundberg told wccftech. "After the acquisition / over-investing party during '21-'23, we are dealing with the hangover and it's been going on for three years."

Sundberg is referring to the video game boom from the pandemic, and how it seemingly has not paid off the way investors imagined. The result of this has been mass layoffs, game cancellations, and investors not spending as much on new projects.

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The Phantom (4K Blu-ray)

$45 | Releases April 14

Preorder at Amazon

The Phantom (Blu-ray)

$45 | Releases April 14

Preorder at Amazon

Superhero movies of the '90s were completely different to the blockbusters of today, and only a handful of them were hits at the box office. Sadly, 1996's The Phantom wasn't one of them, but you can revisit the pulp-classic adventure movie with a new 4K Blu-ray release. Starring Billy Zane as the legendary hero, The Phantom is priced at $45--or $25 for the standard Blu-ray--and it'll be released on April 14.

The Phantom (4K Blu-ray) $45 | Releases April 14

This new edition of The Phantom is a 4K restoration that uses the original camera negatives. The updated version was approved by the film's director, Simon Wincer, and the Blu-ray comes with reversible cover art and an O-card slipcase protective cover.

The first Blu-ray cover is based on the film's theatrical release poster art, featuring the hero delivering a knockout blow--and a nasty skull-shaped scar--to any villains on the receiving end of his fist. The second cover is based on the teaser poster, an atmospheric shot of Zane's character seated on his throne inside of his jungle lair.

There aren't many special features listed for this release, but several are brand-new. Wincer is joined by filmmaker Douglas Hosdale for an audio commentary track, there's a lengthy interview with Zane about the making of the movie, and composer David Newman talks about the film's score. The original theatrical trailer for The Phantom rounds out the selection of bonus materials.

The Phantom special features

• Limited-edition reversible art and O-card slipcase
• Audio Commentary by director Simon Wincer and filmmaker Douglas Hosdale (new)
• Kismet in the Jungle: Interview with Star Billy Zane (new)
• Slam Evil - Scoring The Phantom: Interview with composer David Newman (new)
• Theatrical trailer

Preorder at Amazon The Phantom (Blu-ray) $45 | Releases April 14

The standard Blu-ray edition of The Phantom has the same cover art and includes the same special features as the 4K version.

Preorder at Amazon

Plans to bring The Phantom to the big screen had been in the works for years, with Gremlins director Joe Dante aiming to bring the comic strip character to life in a cheeky manner on the silver screen. After he was fired from the project, Wincer took over, and the project took on a more serious--yet still self-aware--tone, with Zane landing the lead role. The movie loosely adapts story arcs from the original 30s strips, but it does retain the core mythology of the source material.

Zane stars as Kit Walker, the latest in a long line of masked avengers known as the Phantom. Regarded as an immortal hero and known as the "ghost who walks," Walker fights evil in the jungles of Africa and travels to New York City to stop a criminal genius from harnessing the power of three magical skulls. Unlike other superhero movies of the decade, The Phantom wears its inspiration on its sleeve and is unashamedly pulpy at times, echoing the two-fisted adventures of classic radio serials.

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After years of speculation, Starfield will reportedly finally make its way to PS5 next month. Reliable leaker Dealabs states that the sci-fi RPG is slated to launch April 7 on Sony's system, with preorders possibly beginning March 17 or 18.

This echoes a report from last month that mentioned Starfield arriving April 7 on PS5 with two editions. The only difference is that Dealabs claims these differing options are named standard and premium, instead of standard and deluxe. Dealabs also added pricing, with standard supposedly costing €49.99 and premium going for €69.99. It'll be intriguing to see whether these prices are similar in the US or possibly converted to $60/$80.

Starfield is set to get new story DLC, though game director Todd Howard has tempered expectations regarding Starfield 2.0 claims. "I think it's the kinda thing where if you like Starfield, we think you're going to love this," the Bethesda boss told Kinda Funny last month. There's no release date yet for the expansion, though releasing with the PS5 version would make sense.

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Just one day after launch, Resident Evil Requiem has already surpassed the player counts of both Resident Evil 4 Remake and Resident Evil Village on Steam, making it the most popular entry in the series to date.

As reported by GamesIndustry, Requiem's all-time peak on Steam was 344,214 on February 28, according to player tracker SteamDB, just one day after it arrived on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Eurogamer noted that this peak was double that of Resident Evil 4 Remake (168,191) and triple that of Resident Evil Village (106,631), making Requiem the biggest launch in the franchise's history thus far.

Of course, Requiem is available on other platforms as well--including the Epic Games Store--so the true player count could be significantly higher than what is reported. However, with just Steam data alone, Requiem saw more players than RE4 Remake and RE Village combined. And thanks to Requiem's release, GI.Biz noted that RE4 Remake and RE Village saw a gradual increase in player counts since February 15, likely in anticipation of Requiem since it serves as a sequel to RE Village.

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