Fanatical's big Summer Sale is live now. As is usually the case with these giant sales, you can find deals on PC games from just about any genre you're interested in. You can pick up strategy games like Age of Wonders 4 and Crusader Kings III, challenging souls-like RPGs like Lies of P or Lords of the Fallen, first-person shooters like Doom Eternal or Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, and plenty more games and bundles during the event, which runs from August 5 to 19.If you spend over $12 on your order, you'll get to (virtually) smash a piata to earn either a free game or coupon to use on a future order. This freebie offer is repeatable, so you'll want to split up the games you pick into multiple orders--as long as you stay above $12 with each order. See all deals at Fanatical Fans of Capcom's games can grab many of the company's latest games at nice discounts, including Street Fighter 6, Resident Evil 4, and Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak. You can also load up on Sega-published titles, including Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Sonic Frontiers, and Soul Hackers 2. Along with the deals on individual games, you can also grab multiple titles in bundle deals like the A Plague Tale bundle, the Batman: Arkham Collection, the Darksiders franchise pack, and the Star Wars Classics Collection.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Although Keanu Reeves' titular assassin seemingly wrapped up his story in John Wick: Chapter 4, the actor is executive producing a new sequel series that will pick up where the film left off.Via Deadline, the potential show is called John Wick: Under the High Table, which will introduce new characters who are trying to make a name for themselves in the world of assassins. Meanwhile, the High Table itself is "in a tenuous position," probably because John Wick killed most of the major power players in the organization. The description for the series teases that some of the "franchise stalwart characters" are still "committed to the old world order."John Wick director Chad Stahelski is executive producing the show alongside Reeves, and he will also direct the pilot episode. Robert Levine, the co-creator of FX's The Old Man, is writing the series for Lionsgate. However, the project doesn't currently have a streaming service or a network attached to it. Assuming the show goes forward, it will be the second TV spin-off for the franchise after The Continental: From the World of John Wick. That three-part miniseries premiered on Peacock in 2023.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Advent Calendars with small pieces of chocolate to enjoy each day in the lead-up to Christmas are cool and all, but these days there are more exciting options. One such example is the Pokemon Trading Card Game's annual holiday calendar. The 2024 Pokemon TCG Holiday Calendar is now available to preorder for $50 at Best Buy ahead of its August 23 release. This is a pretty stacked collection of daily Pokemon gifts designed to appeal to fans of the official Pokemon trading card game. Inside, you'll find special foil cards, booster packs, and more, with each day bringing a new gift--unless you don't have the patience to wait and open them all at once. Preorder at Best Buy Pokemon TCG Holiday Calendar 2024Pokemon Advent Calendar 2024 Continue Reading at GameSpot

SteamWorld Heist 2 marks the seventh game in the SteamWorld franchise, which has built itself more as an anthology than a series. The name is a playground for different ideas, loosely connected around a cartoon-robot aesthetic, rather than a connected universe of familiar gameplay structures and stories. Heist 2 marks only the second direct sequel, after SteamWorld Dig 2. Since Dig was SteamWorld's breakthrough, it seems significant that the second true sequel is going to the more-modest cult-hit SteamWorld Heist. But the proof is in the pudding, as SteamWorld Heist 2 is a massive leap over the first game, expanding on virtually all of its systems without overcomplicating them or compromising its charm.Like the first game, SteamWorld Heist 2 defies easy categorization, as it really only plays like itself. You and your band of Steambots go on missions to tightly enclosed indoor spaces, and take part in turn-based tactical combat. While there is cover and abilities with cooldowns like you might find in a typical XCOM-like, the 2D perspective shifts more than just your point-of-view--in comparison to its genre contemporaries, Heist 2 plays extremely differently. Rather than flanking around enemies, there's a huge emphasis on verticality, as well as lining up trick-shots using laser sight-like aimlines to bounce your projectiles off the walls or objects to hit an enemy ducking behind cover. And like the first game, you can pick up bags of optional loot, typically including one especially well-hidden or well-guarded piece of epic loot, and then head for the evacuation point to end the mission. How long you stay to grab every last piece of loot is often pressed by an escalating alarm system, creating a nice tension between risk and reward.Where SteamWorld Heist 2 builds on the first game's structure is through a variety of new systems, each of which feels full-fledged in itself and complements the existing loop. Primary among these is a new job-class system, which is defined by your weaponry. Any Steambot can equip any job by simply switching their primary weapon during the mission loadout, and the requisite experience points they earn in that mission will go toward the equipped job. Each job has five levels to unlock, with a sequence of powerful abilities becoming available throughout.Continue Reading at GameSpot

House of the Dragon Season 2 left a lot of loose ends to explore when Season 3 inevitably rolls around. There are also plenty of lingering questions about where House of the Dragon will go next. But the show may have already reached its halfway point. In a new interview, series co-creator Ryan Condal indicated House of the Dragon will finish its run after four seasons.Condal was asked by The Hollywood Reporter if the series would run for five seasons as previously mentioned. In response, Condal said "I think it's four [seasons]." He also explained why the Season 2 finale ended without showing the Battle of the Gullet."When you're a showrunner, you're always in the position of having to balance storytelling and the resources that you have available to tell that story," noted Condal. "When you're trying to mount the show, which requires a tremendous amount of resources, construction, armor, costumes, visual effects we are trying to give The Gullet--which is arguably the second most anticipated action event of Fire & Blood--trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves."Continue Reading at GameSpot

The idea that Jar Jar Binks was secretly a Sith lord has been an amusing Star Wars joke and meme for years. But next month, the idea of Darth Jar Jar will finally be given form in the new miniseries, Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. At Comic-Con, the creative team behind the show explained why they decided to incorporate Jar Jar's dark side into the story.Rebuild the Galaxy writer and producer Dan Hernandez told GameSpot that the team was excited about the possibilities of remixing the Star Wars universe. And they also realized that this may be their only opportunity to bring Darth Jar Jar to life."We said, 'Maybe this is the only possible way to actually tell the story of Darth Jar Jar and what would that look like?' and just kind of take it seriously as a not just a meme joke," said Hernandez. "But to say, 'Okay, well what would cause him to become a Sith?' Where would he end up in this version of the Star Wars galaxy and writing it in such a way where we said, 'Can he actually be scary? Can he actually be something that people never thought that they would see?' And then to have on top of that to have Ahmed Best come back and be Darth Jar Jar and everything that he brought to that character, because he thoroughly embodies [Jar Jar]. We're such huge fans of his and of the character."Continue Reading at GameSpot

Image credit: HBOWarning: The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon. If you haven't seen the final Season 2 episode yet, turn away now.Everything is coming up Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy), or so it seems, in the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale. The true heir to the Iron Throne started the season grieving her son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) and lost the war for the throne's first major battle. Things were looking very bleak for Rhaenyra after Rook's Rest, but the gods started to show her favor when it was revealed that you don't have to be of noble birth to be a dragon rider.The fierce dragon Sea Smoke started that revelation when he left the keep and adopted a small folk rider--Corly's (Steve Toussaint) second bastard-son Adam of Hull (Clinton Liberty). Rhaenyra put out the call to all small folk who believed they had a claim to Targaryen blood to come to Dragonstone and try their luck with the two remaining unclaimed dragons in the keep. Two King's Landing small folk, Ulf (Tom Bennett) and Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), rose to the challenge and claimed the last adult dragons in Rhaenyra's possession.Adding three more dragons to her cause was a necessary bolster in Rhaenyra's cause, and it put Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) on his heels in the last two episodes of the season. Team Green realized that Rhaenyra had the tactical advantage in the war, and multiple people, including Larys (Matthew Needham) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke), changed up their strategies in the final episode. Alicent went as far as traveling to Dragonstone to make a deal with Rhaenyra, allowing her into King's Landing to take both the throne and Aegon's head in exchange for letting Alicent and Helena (Phia Saban) escape.The season ended with Rhaenyra contemplating Alicent's offer. Meanwhile, everything is in motion for two major battles in Season 3. Corlys is heading to the Battle of the Gullet after Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) secured ships from Essos to break Corlys' blockade. Aemond is also planning to take Helena and her dragon with him to the River Lands to wipe out Daemon's (Matt Smith) forces, despite Helena's ominous warning about what would happen to Aemond if he continued down that path.The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale was a major setup for big events to come in Season 3. The tides have turned in the war, but we still have many questions after the open-ended events of the season finale. Let's get into it. 1. Will Rhaenyra accept Alicent's offer?Image credit: HBOAlicent essentially offered Rhaenyra the Iron Throne on a silver platter. All Rhaenyra has to do is allow her former best friend and her half-sister to go freely. Helena already had to watch her son be murdered in the Season 2 premiere, so I think we can all agree that she's been through enough and deserves a reprieve. Alicent even conceded that Rhaenyra could take Aegon's head where everyone could see so they would know the throne was hers. However, Alicent was the one to push Aegon to steal the throne in the first place, so there is a question of trust in the arrangement. It's unclear whether Rhaenyra is going to go straight for King's Landing when Aemond flies for the River Lands, or if she's going to use the intel Alicent gave her for a different plan. 2. Does a son for a son include Aemond?Image credit: HBOAt the end of Rhaenyra and Alicent's bargaining, Rhaenyra said that killing Aegon would be "a son for a son," meaning that Aegon's life would be a fair exchange for Lucerys'. However, where does that leave Aemond? He's the prince regent and the one on the throne. He's calling the shots while Aegon recovers from the Rook's Rest battle. Rhaenyra will also have to kill Aemond to take the Iron Throne, and then it would be two sons to avenge Lucerys' life. It feels weird that they would leave Aemond out of the negotiation when they both know he needs to die for Rhaenyra to have a peaceful reign. 3. Who is holding Otto Hightower hostage?Image credit: HBOOne of the big twists of the finale was that Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) wasn't wandering around his home kingdom or living up retirement in a brothel. He's been held captive somewhere and was being released at the end of the episode. Who has been holding on to the former hand of the king and what do they plan to do with him in the coming days? Someone from Team Green could use him to try to bring Aemond to heel. Team Black could use his knowledge to help them infiltrate King's Landing. He's a very useful power-player and an advantage to whoever has him on their side. It remains to be seen who that will be and why they think now is the time to put Otto Hightower back into the game. 4. Is Daemon really loyal to Rhaenyra now?Image credit: HBODaemon has been going through it at Heron Hall. He's been haunted by visions of his ex-wife, the teenage version of his current wife, and his dead brother. During the finale, he placed his hand on a bleeding tree and saw visions of the Night King and Daenerys hatching her three dragons. He knows the chaos that is coming and it seems to be enough to make him renew his vows to Rhaenyra. He swears that he's her faithful servant now and he's raised an army to fight for her cause but can we trust him? Daemon has spent the entire season gathering forces so that he could claim the throne for himself. Was the last set of visions really enough to align his loyalty with Rhaenyra again? Rhaenyra should keep an eye on Daemon in the coming weeks to make sure he is staying true to his word. 5. Are Larys and Aegon really going to Essos?Image credit: HBOLarys (Matthew Needham) convinced Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) to escape King's Landing with him before Rhaenyra arrives with her dragons under the guise that they would go to Essos and live off of Larys' squirreled-away family savings, but Larys is always thinking two to three steps ahead. If he has possession of the usurper, would they really go to Essos and wait, or would Larys use Aegon to gain him favor within Rhaenyra's court? Aegon should be careful with how much trust he has put into Larys, who has proven multiple times that he will do whatever it takes to survive. 6. Is that dragon gonna eat Rhaena?Image credit: HBORhaena (Phoebe Campbell) is making the case for being the most-underrated Targaryen at this point. She ditched her nanny duties to chase down a wild dragon. One of the closing scenes of the finale was Rhaena facing down the giant beast. We know from previous exposition that Rhaena was almost burned alive as a child when she first tried to claim a dragon. Will this adventure go better? If she does manage to seat the dragon, that'll give Rhaenyra a four-dragon advantage over Aemond and his fleet--though we expect that riding a wild dragon will be much more difficult than claiming one that's been raised and fed in a keep for most of its life. Rhaena may add a number to the fleet, but she'll have the most-unpredictable dragon out of everyone in Westeros and she's the most-inexperienced rider. Before we can get to how Rhaena will deal with battle, she needs to actually get on the dragon without being eaten first. We don't know for sure that she's going to make it. 7. Is Helena going with Aemond to the River Lands?Image credit: HBOAemond tried early on in the episode to force Helena on her dragon to ride with him to take down Daemon's forces, but Alicent put a stop to it. He approached Helena alone later on and she promptly called him out for trying to murder Aegon, and she predicted Aemond's death. He threatened to kill her and she said it wouldn't make a difference. It was the boldest we've ever seen Helena be, but it didn't answer whether she would join Aemond's cause. Having Helena with him is the only way that Aemond can overtake Rhaenyra's fleet, but Helena seems to have no interest in helping her brother. Having a psychic on the team would be really great if anyone would take Helena seriously, but it remains to be seen how Helena is going to factor into this next phase of the war. Does she go with Aemond? Does she leave with Alicent to escape all of the fighting? Or is there a third path none of them have been able to suss out yet? 8. What is Rhaenyra's current relationship status?Image credit: HBORhaenyra is really popular at the moment. Daemon has re-pledged his loyalty to her, seemingly putting their marriage back on track. Then there's Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), who Rhaenyra made out with in Episode 6. Alicent also offered for Rhaenyra to run away with her and Helena. So who has Rhaenyra's heart these days? Obviously, she has a lot on her plate with the war and trying to get her inheritance back, but Rhaenyra has also always made time for bedfellows. Is she married to Daemon but hooking up with Mysaria on the side? Is she going to continue hooking up with Mysaria? Did running away with Alicent sound appealing at all to the hopeful queen? We need to get some wine and figure this out, Rhaenyra. 9. Does Daemon have a connection to the three-eyed raven?Image credit: HBODaemon also sees a vision of a raven when he's getting the Song of Ice and Fire download from the bleeding tree. He's been having visions the entire time he's been at Heron Hall, but that final set makes it seem that Daemon may have a tie to the three-eyed raven. We know the three-eyed raven was one man until he passed the power of Sight on to Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) in Game of Thrones, but could Daemon end up in that haunted cave at some point during his journey to reclaim the Iron Throne for Rhaenyra (or himself)? 10. Are Sharako Lohar and Tyland just the first incarnation of Brie and Jaime?Image credit: HBOThe House of the Dragon Season 2 finale saw Tyland Lannister land in Essos to ask for ships to help him break the blockade held up by Corlys' naval forces. He was granted the ships after winning a mud-pit-wrestling match against Admiral Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn). After the match, the two struck up a bit of a friendship and ended the episode sailing their giant navy toward Corlys' armada. Their joking banter was very reminiscent of Tyland's future relative Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his knight best friend Brienne (Gwendoline Christie). Are Lannister middle siblings always drawn to powerful women? This seems to be setting up a pattern, but we can only hope that Tyland treats Sharako a lot better than Jaime treated Brienne in the end.

Sat down with the cast of Batman: Caped Crusaders. Hamish Linklater (Batman), Jamie Chung (Harley Quinn), Minnie Driver (Penguin)

We got a chance to interview the cast of Rings of Power: Maxim Baldry (Isildur), Tyroe Muhafidin (Theo), Ismael Cruz Cordova (Arondir), Sophie Nomvete (Princess Disa)

We want (most) characters to survive in The Boys Season 5. But if their character had to die, we asked the stars of the Prime Video show to pitch a dream death. Here are Chace Crawford (The Deep), Jack Quaid (Hughie), Jessie T. Usher (A-Train), Laz Alonso (Mothers Milk), Tomer Capone (Frenchie), Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko), Valorie Curry (Firecracker), Susan Heyward's (Sister Sage) responses. And we also asked showrunner Eric Kripke to weigh in.