Horror fans who came to New York Comic Con looking for info about Five Nights At Freddy's 2 did not go home disappointed. While Blumhouse's follow-up to the hit Five Nights At Freddy's movie hasn't started filming yet, fans were treated to the first poster for the film's sequel. Additionally, the studio confirmed the release date is December 5, 2025.

Come find me. #FiveNightsAtFreddys2 in theaters December 5, 2025. #FNAF2Movie pic.twitter.com/zscVU1x9Bm

— Blumhouse (@blumhouse) October 18, 2024

For the uninitiated, it would be easy to assume that the killer animatronic glimpsed in the poster is simply Freddy Fazbear. But it's actually Toy Freddy, one of the major additions from the Five Nights at Freddy's 2 video game that was released in 2014. This lends further credence to previous reports that the film sequel is taking its influence from the game that shares its name.

Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutcherson are both confirmed to reprise their respective roles as William Afton and Mike Schmidt in the sequel. Additionally, Piper Rubio is expected to return as Mike's sister, Abby, as is Elizabeth Lali as Vanessa despite her character being left in a comatose state at the end of the last movie.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Marvel's superhero movies tend to be very expensive, and Deadpool & Wolverine was no exception with a reported $200 million budget. It's not unusual to wonder where all of that money is going, but we do know about $100,000 of that total went toward one of Hugh Jackman's alternate Wolverine costumes.

The scene in question came early in the film, while Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) was visiting alternate worlds to find a replacement Wolverine. One of Deadpool's stops found a Wolverine in his classic comic-book-inspired tan-and-brown outfit during his battle with the Hulk. That costume was only onscreen for under a minute, but it was still extremely costly to realize, according to Deadpool & Wolverine editors Dean Zimmerman and Shane Reid.

"We spent around $100,000 building that suit," Zimmerman told Comic Book Movie. "They're expensive. To build this kind of stuff… we have to get a little economical with what we could actually come up with and do... They were all thought out, but also done with budget in mind and also time. We didn't have much time. Once we resumed shooting [after the actors and writers strikes], our deadline on this movie was so tight. When we went back to photography in London, we did have a finite amount of time and even coming up with all those ideas, once we got back, we were like, 'Hey everyone, we're going to do this' and everyone's heads are exploding. How are we going to do this in the time we have left?"

Continue Reading at GameSpot

This is the internet, so it was inevitable that details would slip out about an upcoming Nintendo Switch Online playtest shrouded in secrecy. That's apparently happened before the event even goes live. The program will reportedly see players checking out a brand-new MMO project from Nintendo that focuses on building and developing a planet with others.

Vooks.net reports that people selected for the Nintendo Switch Online playtest can now access a website with details about the upcoming experience, which will run from October 23 through November 5. The game sort of seems like a Minecraft MMO, in which players farm resources and build on a big shared planet.

Beacons reportedly seem like an important commodity. Once put down on the planet, only players who placed them can edit or build within that area. It's recommended that players stash their special items within their beacon zones. Outside of these areas, everyone can edit stuff and take on enemies.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Valve's Steam Deck has done a lot to expand handheld gaming--you can enjoy a whole lot of different kinds of games on the Deck, including many that would previously have been impossible to play without a much bigger PC or gaming console. Fanatical's latest bundle, the Build Your Own Play on the Go Bundle Premium Edition (Fall 2024), is packed with games that are great for playing while traveling and are all Steam Deck Verified.

Build your Steam Deck game bundle

The Build Your Own Play on the Go Bundle includes 15 games, including numerous standouts. There's Tails of Iron, a gorgeous side-scrolling RPG with brutal combat and a hand-drawn art style, Arise: A Simple Story, a story-driven, emotional adventure game, the charming Zelda-like adventure game Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince, the well-designed Pokemon-like Coromon, and the throwback 3D platformer Demon Turf.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Almost a year after it was first released, survival-horror game Alan Wake 2 is set to receive a big update focused on quality-of-life enhancements and expanded accessibility options. The Anniversary Update will be free to all players when it's released on October 22, and will introduce tweaks and changes based on community feedback.

Some of the helpful gameplay updates include a quick-turn function, the ability to invert the X (horizontal) axis on mouse and controller in addition to the Y (vertical) axis, and improvements to haptic feedback on PS5. Gyro-aiming motion-control support is being added and haptics will also work with healing items and throwables, rather than just weapons.

For anyone looking to enjoy the game purely for the story and puzzles, there'll also be gameplay toggles to experiment with, like one-shot kills, player immortality, and infinite ammo. This is similar to what Remedy did with Control, so if you find yourself stuck on a certain level, you can breeze through the obstacles with these optional settings.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The next big Call of Duty game, Black Ops 6, launches on October 25. Many might be wondering how long the campaign will take to complete. That remains to be seen, but one of the game's senior developers has informed fans about the length they should expect and how it compares to the franchise's past.

IGN reported that associate creative director Jon Zuk said the Black Ops 6 campaign is "slightly longer" than that of 2020's Black Ops Cold War. That game was criticized for, among other things, a campaign that some said was too short.

We won't know precisely how long Black Ops 6's campaign is until the game releases and people start playing it. And even then, since everyone plays games differently, there will never be an "official" length.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

It's apparently been 18 years since a major studio has released a movie on VHS, but that drought will be broken when Alien: Romulus comes out for the outdated platform on December 3. That's right: An actual tape of the sci-fi horror movie is getting made, though it will be a limited edition.

The official Alien account on X shared that Alien: Romulus writer/director Fede Álvarez revealed the special VHS release at Beyond Fest over the weekend. Artist Matt Ferguson has created the cover for the tape, which will come out at the same time as the Alien: Romulus Blu-ray. The previous major studio release on VHS was reportedly A History of Violence in 2006, according to Inverse. 20th Century Studios--now owned by Disney--is behind the Alien: Romulus VHS launch.

Just announced by writer and director Fede Álvarez at #BeyondFest: A limited-edition VHS of #AlienRomulus will release on December 3. Artwork by @Cakes_Comics. pic.twitter.com/P0O9DFYbKW

— Alien: Romulus (@AlienAnthology) October 20, 2024

There apparently is a bit of debate about whether A History of Violence actually was the last big VHS release. Some people point to Eragon (also from 20th Century) in 2007, while Disney apparently put out a Cars VHS. However, both of these runs were arguably quite limited in scope.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Assassin's Creed Shadows needs a little bit more time in the development oven, but the good news is that you can secure a preorder right now for the official strategy guide that'll be released alongside the game on February 14, 2025. While this is sure to be good news for Assassin's Creed fans who miss collecting physical strategy guides, the even better news is you can preorder the Collector's Edition of the book at a slight discount for just $40.49 (was $45). Preorders for the standard edition are also available for $30.

Assassin's Creed Shadows: The Complete Official Guide - Collector's Edition

$40.49 ($45)

Assassin's Creed Shadows: Official Art Book

As you'd imagine, there's going to be a lot of things to do in Assassin's Creed Shadows. These strategy guides have been developed in conjunction with the development team at Ubisoft, and they serve as useful companion pieces that you can consult whenever you find yourself stuck in certain points of the game or looking to gain mastery in every skill tree. While there'll likely be no shortage of online guides to consult, guidebooks like these are nice because they get straight to the point of what you're looking for instead of spending valuable time trying to convince you to like and subscribe to a channel.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

A number of Call of Duty: Black Ops games over the years have had multiple endings, but Black Ops 6 will not continue this tradition. Associate creative director Jon Zuk confirmed this in a new interview.

He told IGN, "Black Ops 6 is a linear story, so there is not a branching ending for this one."

While the overall Black Ops 6 narrative has one ending, some of the game's missions will allow players to pick and choose how they want to complete objectives. Lead narrative producer Natalie Pohorski said, "Some of the missions have those options of like, 'Okay, these are the objectives,' and then you can kind of get the lay of the land and choose which one you want to tackle first."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

A "large percentage" of Call of Duty players have never seen the original version of one of the franchise's most famous maps, Nuketown, according to level designer Adam Hoggatt. That's part of the reason why Hoggatt is excited to bring it back for Black Ops 6 this November.

Speaking to IGN, Hoggatt revealed that Black Ops 6's version of Nuketown will be "the original Nuketown" but with better visuals. The Black Ops 6 series has featured all manner of different iterations of Black Ops 6 over the years--including a futuristic take from Black Ops III--but Black Ops 6 will go back to the map's roots.

"I think the original has a kind of special place in my heart. Recently it started occurring to me that probably a large percentage of our players had never actually experienced the original one," he said. "So I am really excited that with Black Ops 6 can now get to basically revisit the original Nuketown and exactly the magic that was the original one but looking better than it has ever looked."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Sonic X Shadow Generations is two games: a remaster of a game from 2011 and a brand-new game for 2024. And yet, both games feel oddly similar, building most of their levels on the backbone of Sonic games from the 2000s. In that respect, they carry forward some of the shortcomings of those Sonic games, like unnecessary extra mechanics and a bland story, but at the same time, they do well what those games excelled at: delivering fun platforming gauntlets accompanied by memorable music and an exhilarating sense of speed.

If you've already played Sonic Generations, you know what you're getting with the first half of this package. Sonic's adventure remains largely unchanged--most notably, the visuals are better, since this is a remaster--seeing the blue hedgehog team up with his past self to speed through a collection of levels inspired by his many previous adventures. Each level has two acts--the first sees past Sonic race through 2D levels while the second features modern-day Sonic running through the same space but now in 3D. Past Sonic handles much like he did in the original games back in the '90s, while modern Sonic utilizes the mechanics added to the series during the 2000s, like the homing attack and dash. The whole collection is a celebration of Sonic's career up to 2011.

In 2024, Sonic Generations feels outdated. While the old-school Sonic levels remain a timeless look back at the hedgehog's origins, the second half no longer feels like an accurate presentation of modern-day Sonic, as the gameplay of the franchise has continued to transform over the past decade. This doesn't outright ruin the original experience, though it does leave the conclusion of Sonic Generations feeling lacking, as if the trip through Sonic's greatest hits abruptly stops partway through. It leaves the three-hour experience feeling rushed in a way it didn't back in 2011.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Having now played about an hour of Lego Horizon Adventures, it feels like a game with great ideas that are restricted by the IP it's based on. I love the world of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, but the opening hour of Lego Horizon often feels like its setting and characters are clashing with the comedic creativity and gameplay loop that so many Lego games excel at. The opening hour of Lego Horizon feels like a pretty decent start to what's hopefully a good game--at the very least, it's shaping up to be my favorite Lego game in terms of visuals--but there are moments where I could see the kid-friendly vibe of the Lego games conflicting with the more adult-oriented storylines of Horizon.

Lego Horizon is a loose retelling of Aloy's first adventure, in which the bow-wielding protagonist utilizes an assortment of hunting tools and high-tech gadgetry to fight mechanical dinosaurs, mammals, and birds in a world that feels both like a forgotten past and unforeseen future of our own. Aloy, mysteriously birthed from a mountain and subsequently made an outcast, desires to prove herself capable of joining the tribe that cast her out and returning to the mountain to uncover the truth about her origins.

"From the beginning when we started the conversations with [Guerrilla Games], they were very clear," Studio Gobo animation director Luismi Herrera told me. "They wanted to bring the Horizon series to a broader audience, and they thought that the best way was to retell the story of the original game, the Horizon Zero Dawn game. But obviously we started to go as a fairy tale, a light-hearted version of it, because obviously there are a bit more mature things for that game. It was like, 'Okay, how can we retell this story, keeping all the core values and everything, with this Lego universe?' And that's been the goal. That being said, the core story is the same, it's [just a retelling] in a light-hearted way."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Hardcoded is an open-world dating-sim, set in the lawless reaches of a cyberpunk dystopia, in which you take on the role of a thinking/learning droid who has recently escaped her owners and is on the run. While settling into your new life, you're able to befriend a cast of very horny characters who seek your help to investigate the lewd secrets of the Pira City. Establishing yourself in Pira City means becoming part of the gayest private detective gang reasonably imaginable. Delve in to the cities confusingly horny underbelly to distract yourself from the specter of the life you fled. You can spend your down time earning money, decorating your apartment, buying clothes, collecting sci-fi dildos, and of course, bonding (physically or otherwise) with your new friends.