Netflix has begun production of a series based on author Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books. The upcoming Netflix series is not directly related to the CD Projekt Red video game franchise aside from the similarities that the two will naturally share. 

That fact adds a slightly humorous twist to this announcement when you consider that Sapkowski recently spoke out against the artistic merit of the Witcher game saga by calling into question the medium's ability to properly tell such a grand story. Before that, Sapkowski also admitted that he chose not to take a percentage for the adaptation rights, which he later came to regret when the series went on to gross over a billion dollars. 

Apparently, the author has worked out a much better deal for the Netflix series, as he spoke quite fondly about the upcoming adaptation in the official press release. 

"I'm thrilled that Netflix will be doing an adaptation of my stories," said Sapkowski. "...staying true to the source material and themes that I have spent over 30 years writing. I'm excited about our efforts together as well as the team assembled to shepherd these characters to life."

While The Witcher games do take some liberties with the source material, this series should feature quite a few familiar faces and storylines. We should know much more once the cast is in place.

The Witcher Cast

The Witcher TV series has found the two female leads who will appear opposite Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia, reports THR. In stark contrast to the choice of its household name headliner, the co-starring roles are filled by newcomers.

Freya Allan will play the role Ciri. The young character, known for her grey hair and green eyes, is the prodigious descendant of royal blood from the fallen kingdom of Cintra, possessing innate powers to control time and space. Allan appeared on a recent episode of AMC’s Into the Badlands as a young version of Minerva/The Widow and will next appear in the BBC One The War of the Worlds miniseries.

Anya Chalotra will play Yennefer. The character is a sorceress and the love interest of monster hunter Geralt (Cavill), with whom she becomes the adopted parents of Ciri. Chalotra debuted on the recent Netflix/BBC One TV series, Wanderlust, which stars Toni Collette. She’ll soon appear in the joint Amazon Prime/BBC John Malkovich-starring Agatha Christie mystery, The ABC Murders.

Henry Cavill (Justice League) was recently tapped to star as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix's The Witcher. Read more about his casting here.

The Witcher Release Date

The WitcherTV series could hit the air as early as 2020, according to showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich:

The Witcher Story

Here's the synopsis from Netflix:

"The witcher, Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts."

The Witcher Episodes

Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher will reportedly start with an eight-episode first season. Lauren S. Hissrich, a writer working on the adaptation, confirmed the eight-episode first season on Twitter while addressing concerns that eight episodes aren't enough. Hissrich states that the smaller season allows the team to produce "tight, action-packed" episodes that are free of lagging story moments. She also states that the decision is not representative of any lack of faith in the series or any other financial concerns. 

The episodes will each be about an hour long - though Hissrich claims there might be a little variation in each episode's runtime - and that the show is being filmed in Eastern Europe. However, it seems that most of the episodes haven't been formally written as of yet and exist only as ideas. 

The Witcher Crew

To run the series, Netflix has brought on Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, writer and executive producer for other successful Netflix properties Daredevil and The Defenders. Hissrich joins the previously announced producing team of Sean Daniel (The Mummy) and Jason Brown (The Expanse).

Tomek Baginski, the man who directed the cinematics for the Witcher games, will also be involved with the project.

Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.

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This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

As Sheriff Leigh Brackett correctly stated in John Carpenter's slasher classic, "It's Halloween - everyone's entitled to one good scare!" And scare us Halloween did, along with any number of horror movies before and since. But, with the day of pumpkins, trick-or-treaters, and apple bobbing almost upon us, this got us wondering: at what point did video games become scary?

These days, we fully expect modern video games to have us cowering behind our sofas, with present-day computers and consoles able to render all sorts of things you need for a properly scary story: rain, blood, that sort of thing. But way back in the mists of time, at the dawn of the video game medium, that kind of realism simply wasn't possible.

Instead, the makers of early horror games had to come up with all kinds of creative ways to scare or unnerve players - and inevitably, some of these techniques worked better than others. So to celebrate Halloween, here's a look back at 10 games from the '80s and how they used blocky graphics and bleepy sounds to terrify the life out of us.

Haunted House (1982)

Memorable for its stunning box art (as were many Atari 2600 games), Haunted House was also one of the earliest - if not the earliest - attempts at interactive survival horror. Trapped in the title residence, you have to find an enchanted urn and head for the nearest exit, all the time avoiding bats, spiders, and the ghost of Mr. Graves, the mansion's owner.

Fear factor: 5

Although hamstrung to a certain extent by the Atari 2600's simple hardware, there's something oddly disturbing about Haunted House. Maybe it's because your on-screen character consists of nothing more than a pair of eyes, which glance anxiously about as you move from room to room. Or maybe it's the weird minimalism of the sound and the single-colored walls of the mansion itself - the act of repeatedly charging around almost identical screens being like a blocky recurring nightmare.

The Evil Dead (1984)

Palace Pictures distributed Sam Raimi's breakout horror classic The Evil Dead in the UK, and it was thanks to them that we ended up with Graham Humphrey's stunning poster illustration, with its appropriately lurid colors and approving quote from Stephen King. A subsidiary of Palace - Palace Software - also made this 1984 video game tie-in, which appeared on the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

Related Article: A Brief History of Retro Horror Gaming

Like Haunted House, it's essentially a top-down maze game, except you control Ash, who has to keep the demons from entering the infamous cabin in the woods. Tasks include closing windows to keep the demons out and killing possessed friends with an assortment of guns and sharp implements.

Fear factor: 3

Little touches, like the ominously moving swing on the veranda and the flickering embers in the fireplace, add atmosphere, as does the eerie absence of sound. Unfortunately, the tension's undercut by the ease with which the possessed monsters die, and also the appearance of the demons themselves: depicted as a gas-like miasma, all semblance of fear is lost once you realize that Ash looks as though he's running away from a deadly cloud of flatulence.

Alien (1984)

This belated film tie-in attempted to cram all the fear and suspense of Ridley Scott's 1979 haunted house in space into an 8-bit computer, and programming duo John Heap and Paul Clansey did a remarkable job. Alien takes the form of a strategy game, with the aim being to either flush the dreaded xenomorph out of the Nostromo's airlock or get to the escape ship with Jones the cat in tow.

Fear factor: 8

Related Article: New Alien Video Game in Development at Fox

It might not look like much from the video above, but Alien is a quite brilliant exercise in slowly-building tension. The characters under your control - all named after the ones in the film - will sometimes refuse to follow orders if they get too scared. One of them's an android intent on protecting the alien. Jones the cat likes some characters, but not others. And all the while, the xenomorph's somewhere on the ship, waiting to pounce...

Go to Hell (1985)

A year after Evil Dead came this exceedingly strange horror game, which actually captures the gleeful Grand Guignol atmosphere of Sam Raimi's movie a bit better than Palace Software managed to. Having ended up in the depths of hell, you have to navigate your way around its ghoulish network of caverns and find seven crosses in order to escape.

Fear factor: 5

A simple maze game though it is, Go to Hell is livened up considerably by its macabre graphics. Bodies are stretched on racks, a gigantic saw grinds through a screaming crimson skull, and bloodshot eyes glower out of the screen. The crude nature of the sprite design makes Go to Hell more comical than frightening, but then again, the gaudiness also gives the game a sort of neon-drenched, nightmarish air to it - like Hotline Miami, but with crucifixes instead of shotguns.

Cauldron (1985)

Games don't come much more Halloween-themed than this little '80s curio from Palace Software (the ZX Spectrum version even included a copy of Evil Dead on the B-side, fact fans). Apparently, Cauldron was originally planned as a tie-in game based on John Carpenter's Halloween movie, but designer Steve Brown, unhappy with his work in progress, went off in an entirely different direction instead. A hybrid platform-shooter, Cauldron sees the player take control of a witch, who's on the hunt for six ingredients - once chucked in her cooking pot, these will form a spell which she can use to defeat her mortal enemy, the Pumpking.

Fear factor: 4

Taking place beneath a full moon, and with locations later extending to gloomy, bat-filled caves and haunted dungeons, Cauldron certainly had a decent atmosphere, and for the time, the graphics are really colorful and detailed. It's more like an interactive Saturday morning cartoon than a horror game, but its approachable sprite design masked an astonishingly high difficulty level, with bouts often ending in screams and blood-curdling howls of anguish.

The sequel, Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back, was even better, and the witch on the cover looked like Bruce Forsyth in a green wig. No, really.

Soft & Cuddly (1987)

Go to Hellprogrammer John George Jones returned two years later with a game even weirder and grotesque than its predecessor. A flick-screen arcade adventure, the aim is to retrieve all the parts of your dismembered android mother, all the while avoiding assorted floating monsters and admiring Jones' trademark nasty scenery, which this time includes conjoined babies, dismembered body parts, and a bouncing sheep.

Fear factor: 5

The "more comical than scary" comment from the Go to Hell entry also applies here, but it's worth mentioning that Soft and Cuddly was mildly controversial at a time when graphic gore in computer games was still relatively unusual. Remarkably, Jones once claimed in a Sinclair User interview that Soft & Cuddly was originally more gory and violent, but he changed the graphics before release.

Related Article: Silent Hill, BioShock, and the Art of Scary Games

Mind you, he did also state that "My game is the best game ever written," so maybe we should take this with a pinch of salt.

Fun fact: Soft & Cuddly's inlay art was created by fantasy illustrator Tim White, and also appeared on the cover of a 1985 H.P. Lovecraft story collection, Dagon and Other Macabre Tales.

Splatterhouse (1988)

Although better known for their cheerier output in the '70s and '80s, such as Pac-Man,Galaga, and Mappy, Namco took a trip to the dark side for Splatterhouse, a beat-em-up inspired by a legion of horror movies. The protagonist, Rick, is clearly modeled on Jason Voorhees, and the other film references are easy to spot, from demonic disturbances straight out of Evil Dead to mutated monsters from The Thing.

Fear factor: 6

More a straight action game than an exercise in creeping terror, Splatterhouse did still manage to throw in some moments to make unwary players jump. I still vaguely remember playing Splatterhouse in a coastal arcade and letting out a little yelp of fear when the hooded boss wielding two chainsaws leaped onto the screen.

Related Article: Revisiting Splatterhouse at 30

It's also worth mentioning Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti (1989), a cute, Nintendo Famicom-only parody starring a super-deformed version of Rick, and even more TV and film references than its arcade parent. A vampiric Michael Jackson lookalike leads a Thriller-style zombie dance at the end of the first level; a girl has dozens of Alien-like creatures spring from her chest, then shrugs and wanders off; and in one hilarious scene, the player fends off demonic roast chickens as they leap out of a haunted oven.

Wolfman (1988)

British developer and publisher CRL really pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in gaming through the latter part of the '80s, with the gory imagery in the likes of Jack the Ripper, Frankenstein, Dracula, and the subject of this entry, Wolfman, rewarded 15 or 18 certificates by the BBFC. Ironically, these claret-spattered graphics were largely extraneous, since all of these games were text adventures - interactive versions of classic tales or, in Jack the Ripper's case, a fictional story based on a true murder case.

Fear factor: 9

Although all of CRL's games were really good at creating a creepy atmosphere, Wolfman was, in this writer's estimation, the scariest from the opening paragraph. You wake up with your clothes torn, your hands covered in blood, and angry townsfolk gathered around the corpse of a woman outside.

Brilliantly written by Rob Pike, Wolfman casts the player as a monster who must find a way to control his killer instinct, and it's impossible to sit through the game without an occasional shudder - proof that the scariest encounters rely not on dazzling graphics, but the player's imagination.

A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday The 13th (1989)

In the late '80s, the US toy company LJN began firing out licensed games at a ferocious rate - if you wanted them, there were movie tie-ins as varied as Jaws, The Karate Kid, Warlock, and Back to the Future - in fact, look closely at the second-hand shop window in Back to the Future II (the movie, not the game), and you'll see a copy ofJaws for the NES prominently displayed.

Like most tie-ins in the late '80s and '90s, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th took the form of side-scrolling platform games. In the former, you rushed around in a dream world, punching rats and snakes and collecting the bones which formed Freddy Krueger's corpse. In the latter, you ran around Camp Crystal Lake, trying to find weapons to kill Jason Voorhees.

Fear factor: 3

Although based on decidedly adult properties, neither game brought with it lashings of gore or terror, though Friday The 13th did feature a gigantic, floating head of Mrs. Voorhees. Truly the stuff of nightmares.

Sweet Home (1989)

Widely regarded as the creepy parent of the Resident Evil series, and the modern survival horror genre as we know it, Sweet Home was a pioneering adaptation of the Japanese movie of the same name, as overseen by its director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa. A top-down RPG, Sweet Home sees five characters hunting for an escape route from a mansion with a grim history - and just to add to the fun, the building's teetering on the brink of collapse.

Fear factor: 8

Sweet Home was one of the earliest examples of a game that uses its mechanics to unnerve the player; weapons and supplies are in short supply, and once characters die, they're gone for good. In fact, the later Resident Evil shares several elements in common with Sweet Home, aside from its mansion setting - the switching of play between characters, the use of an inventory with limited space, and the use of notes and other items to relate the building's story.

Rather than attempting to pummel the player with jump scares, Sweet Home instead gradually builds a sense of claustrophobic unease. It may look like a basic game by current standards, but just look at how far video games traveled between 1982's Haunted House and the end of the decade: with its reliance on puzzle solving and suspense rather than combat, Sweet Home pointed the way ahead for a new generation of survival horror.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Some Fallout fans are upset that Fallout 76 will apparently seriously alter the history of the beloved Brotherhood of Steel faction. 

For those who don't know, the Brotherhood of Steel is a semi-religious faction that has been a part of the Fallout franchise since the very first game. Their advanced technology and somewhat ambiguous motivations (they're not outwardly hostile towards humans, but they're also not that interested in directly helping them) make them a fan favorite coalition that usually offers the best items in the franchise. For years, it's been suggested that the first recorded history of the Brotherhood occurred in California sometime around the year 2134. 

So how is it that The Brotherhood of Steel is featured in Fallout 76; a game that takes place in West Virginia in the year 2102? Fallout fans have been trying to answer that question ever since a scene in a recent gameplay demo of Fallout 76 seemingly confirmed that the Brotherhood is going to be in the game. Even if certain aspects of the Fallout lore are stretched a bit (who's to say the Brotherhood didn't actually exist in some form before 2134?) there seems to be no way that the Brotherhood could have made it from California (where they almost certainly began) to West Virginia in that time frame.

Bethesda has previously commented that they're really not tied to the lore of a game that "somebody wrote 20 years ago," but that they do plan on offering an explanation as to why the Brotherhood is in Fallout 76. A page on the Fallout wiki suggests that a detachment of soldiers was sent to the world of Fallout 76 to eradicate a creature known as the Scorchbeasts who are spreading a pathogen that turns people into mutants. 

Why does any of this matter? Well, it certainly matters to hardcore Fallout fans, but even more casual fans of the franchise see this as an indication that Fallout 76 is very much not a Fallout game. The recent footage of the game that emerged from some press demos was met with a decidedly mixed reaction. That is to say that it looked incredibly rough and left many with serious doubts as to what Bethesda hopes to achieve with this game. 

We'll have to wait and see how Bethesda explains this Brotherhood of Steel timeline problem. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Brazil's government is launching an investigation into Valve following the release of a new game that seemingly glorifies an extremely controversial alt-right Brazilian presidential candidate. 

The game, Bolsomito 2k18, is inspired by the campaign of Brazil presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro. For those unfamiliar with Jair Bolsonaro, you need to know that this man is pure evil. His actions and intentions go far beyond any traditional political divides. He once told a female member of Brazil's Congress that he wouldn't rape her because she is too ugly. He has subtly supported the eradication of homosexuals and minorities. He has suggested that the only solution to saving Brazil is to commit mass genocide. You can learn more about his policies via this excellent John Oliver report. 

Just days before a presidential election that Jair Bolsonaro might actually win, Bolsomito 2k18 appeared on Steam. The game is described by one Steam user as "Postal without sarcasm." It mostly consists of the player violently murdering women, minorities, and other people that Bolsonaro has spoken out against. It is appalling in every way that you can imagine.

Brazil's investigations into the game stem from the current administration's concerns that this game is not only incredibly controversial but that the timing of its release may have been orchestrated to somehow influence and "embarrass" the upcoming election. They're curious what role Valve played in the game's availability and why it hasn't been removed from the service as of yet. 

So far as that goes, Valve has recently announced that they will be more lenient when it comes to curating which games are allowed on Steam. While Valve will still prevent certain games from being sold on the service, the controversy surrounding their decision to regulate the sale of sex-filled games has seemingly inspired them to back off a little bit. 

That said, we're not sure how the sale of this game is being justified. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Star Citizen could very well be the space simulator to end all space simulators - if it ever actually comes out. The game has been in development at Cloud Imperium Games, founded by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, since it was successfully crowdfunded in 2012. Boasting an enormous massive multiplayer universe, elements of space trading, first-person shooter combat, Star Citizen is one of the most ambitious video games ever put into development. 

Several delays and an engine change later, the game is still in early Alpha state with no solid release date. Still, we've seen plenty of the game through trailers and gameplay videos.

There is still hope, though. Star Citizen continues to be developed by a large staff of talented creators who seem determined to produce the game that was promised at some point in the future. When, exactly, that future may come is just a matter of debate. 

Here's the latest from Star Citizen:

Star Citizen News

There's a new trailer for Star Citizen's Squadron 42 campaign that features the voice acting talents of Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Andy Serkis, Gillian Anderson, and more. You know, we're starting to think the Star Citizencrowdfunding scam (sorry...campaign) was started so that the devs could meet some of their favorite actors. 

Star Citizen Release Date

While Star Citizen's roughly playable builds regularly receive some kind of update, there's no word on when the game will be released. It's quite possible that Star Citizen's development team will release an Early Access model for the game that will continuously be updated for the foreseeable future. In any case, we'll be sure to update you as information regarding the game's fully-playable builds becomes available.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Star Citizen Trailer

The latest trailer for Star Citizen is designed to show off the game's upcoming Alpha 3.2 release. That doesn't bring the game any closer to its full release, but it does mean you get to watch yet another trailer for the timeshare of video games. 

Slowly but surely, Cloud Imperium is revealing more about Star Citizen's single-player campaign. This new look at Squadron 42 takes us to a dangerous gas cloud called "The Coil." Check out the video below:

And here are two more Squadron 42 trailers. This first one features a new look at Mark Hamill in the game:

And here's over an hour of gameplay:

During the CitizenCon 2947 livestream broadcast, Star Citizen designer Chris Roberts took the stage to present a video that shows off the massive size of the game's worlds. 

The footage specifically focuses on the ArcCorp planet which has been shown before, but never quite like this. Roberts described the planet's vast cityscape as "Blade Runner esque," which certainly does help capture the spirit suggested by the city's spewing flame towers and jam-packed structures. Impressively, Roberts also suggests that everything in the city can be interacted with by the player in some way. There aren't any instances of painted features designed to make the cities look larger than they are. 

Roberts described that particular planet as being similar to Star Wars' Coruscant, but also showcased another planet that seems to have been decimated at one point or at least hasn't been fully terraformed as of yet. 

The team certainly seems to be aiming for a shocking amount of variety in regards to the design of every major planet. That isn't to say that there won't be largely barren planets, but rather that they hope to make each new planet feel like a discovery. 

Thanks to this gameplay video update on Star Citizen's development, we do know that the game's first-person combat is coming along nicely. 

The purpose of this video, besides showing off the kind of stunning visuals millions and millions of crowdfunded dollars will buy you, is to showcase the progress that Star Citizen's Vision Stabilization engine has made. In short, this improved engine allows for developer Cloud Imperium Games to implement tighter and less visually jarring first-person combat. Previously, some of the game's early users had reported that the character motions dictated by these mechanics were far too loose and had a tendency to generate a floaty sensation. 

Currently on version 3.0, the most recent build of Star Citizen arguably stole the show at Gamescom with this nearly 52-minute long gameplay video that takes on the daunting task of trying to explain the almost incomprehensible scale of the game. 

Not to beat the No Man's Sky horse to death, but one of the most impressive things about this demo in comparison to other titles in this genre is how substantial the universe feels. While certain elements of the experience don't feel nearly as important as the presenter hopes they might come across as ("The elevators in this game really move! *clap, clap, clap*), Star Citizen's developers seems to understand that pretty environments and theoretically infinite content will not get you far if there is not a solid core of gameplay at the center of it all. Watching the demo players navigate a character to a new planet, accept a mission, and carry it out isn't mind-blowing on paper. But, in the context of the full scope of this creation, it does show that there's a promising traditional game at the heart of the title. 

We still eagerly await the day that all questions about Star Citizen will be answered by the retail release of the game itself, but, until then, it's nice to know that it's still capable of wowing people. 

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9. 

Lucasfilm has effectively shut down an ambitious fan remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. 

"It's with a great sadness that I'm posting today; I recently received a letter from Lucasfilm instructing Poem to end production on Apeiron,"said project lead and Poem Studios member, Taylor Trotter. "I recently received a letter from Lucasfilm instructing Poem [Studios, the team behind the remake] to end production on Apeiron. After a few days, I've exhausted my options to keep it afloat; we knew this day was a possibility. I'm sorry and may the Force be with you."

Trotter posted a copy of the letter Lucasfilm sent him. For a cease and desist letter, it was actually quite polite. The Lucasfilm representative noted "Poem Studios' affection and enthusiasm for the Star Wars franchise and the original KOTOR game" before noting that Lucasfilm "must object to any unlicensed use of Lucasfilm intellectual property." Effectively, it sounds like they are saying that they're not spiritually opposed to this project, but they do have to adhere to a legal precedent when it comes to these kinds of things.

Let's get one thing out of the way now: this remake was shaping up to be incredible. The footage of the game we've seen thus far highlighted the project's brilliant visuals (it was being made in the Unreal 4 engine) as well as how modern technology can help smoothe some of the original game's rough edges. We would have loved to play the final version of this game. 

From a legal standpoint, you could argue that this project's creators could have battled this notice in court. There is no shortage of Star Wars fan projects/mods out there, and many of them are allowed to be completed and eventually prosper. The Apeiron team could have argued that such precedents apply to their project, but the costs of such a legal battle were likely too great.

So why did Lucasarts go after this particular project? We'd like to believe it's because they might be interested in producing an official KOTOR remake/remaster. It's much more likely, though, that this has something to do with preserving the possibility of such a project or simply just preventing anyone else from working on KOTOR while The Old Republic MMO is still technically active.  

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

EA is teasing the possible release of Command & Conquer remasters. 

The noise started when EA producer Jim Vessella dropped in on the Command & Conquer subreddit to talk about the upcoming Command & Conquer mobile game. He was very...diplomatic concerning the franchise fanbase's reaction to the game and the call for a proper Command & Conquer title on PC. 

"As most of you may know, we recently announced Command & Conquer: Rivals, a mobile game set in the Command & Conqueruniverse," said Vassella. "Following the reveal of Rivals, we heard you loud and clear: the... community also wants to see the franchise return to PC. And as a fan of C&C for over 20 years, I couldn’t agree more. With that in mind we’ve been exploring some exciting ideas regarding remastering the classic PC games, and already have the ball rolling on our first effort to celebrate the upcoming 25th Year Anniversary."

Of course, Vessella is more than a fan of Command & Conquer. He's worked on some of the series most beloved previous entries. As such, he's kind of an authority concerning what makes the Command & Conquer series so beloved and what may be in store for the future of the franchise.

While his comments may be taken to mean that there is a Command & Conquer remaster already in development, we wouldn't get your hopes up just yet. The 25th anniversary of the franchise is still a couple of years away, meaning that getting "the ball rolling" on that celebration might just mean that they're trying to toss around a few ideas regarding how they can properly celebrate franchise. For what it's worth, though, it's enough of a confirmation to at least keep an eye out for a remaster announcement in the coming months. 

As for that Command & Conquer mobile game...yikes. Following its lukewarm E3 2018 reception, Command & Conquer: Rivals was thoroughly bashed by just about every fan of the series and gamers in general. It's a decent enough looking mobile game so far as that goes, but it bears no real resemblance to the Command & Conquerfranchise as it was in its prime. It's certainly not enough to compete with the best modern RTS games out there. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

West Virginia's board of tourism has decided to embrace Fallout 76. 

"Governor Jim Justice and the West Virginia Tourism Office today announced a partnership with award-winning video game publisher Bethesda Softworks for promotion of its upcoming release of Fallout 76, an online open-world video game set in post-nuclear West Virginia," reads a post on the West Virginia's board of tourism website. "The video game, which was announced in June via a trailer set to a 1940s-inspired version of John Denver’s famous “Country Roads,” is the latest game in the iconic Falloutseries and will be the largest and most ambitious yet."

Governor Jim Justice stated that he believes the "unique lens of this video game" can help to show the world "what a gem West Virginia is. We're a little surprised the governor of West Virginia is so eager to embrace Fallout 76's portrayal of West Virginia given that Fallout typically portrays an apocalyptic hellscape version of its various landscapes. However, it seems that the tourism board is actually quite impressed with the world that Bethesda has crafted.

“I think the world was caught by surprise when Bethesda released the trailer with an eerily beautiful post-apocalyptic West Virginia set to a slightly more futuristic version of our state’s anthem,” said Tourism Commissioner Chelsea Ruby. "Bethesda has been a terrific partner since day one. They’ve really embraced West Virginia and its beauty. We believe this unique partnership has tremendous potential to bring folks to visit the Mountain State.”

So far as that goes, it seems like there will be some kind of special promotions associated with this partnership. We imagine that will include some tours and perhaps some in-game content, but the full details of the promotions associated with this partnership will be revealed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the West Virginia tourism board has set-up a special Fallout 76 website. 

The basis of this promotion seems to be the belief that Fallout 76 will be popular enough to inspire people to visit the real West Virginia. So far as that goes, there are still some out there who have doubts concerning whether the game will be a worthy entry into the franchise. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Ok, who keeps giving money to the Star Citizen team?

Following the release of the star-studded trailer for Star Citizen's Squadron 42 single-player campaign, Roberts Space Industries (the game's parent company) reported that they received $379,254 on October 10 and $600,000 over the next three days. This brings the game's lifetime funding total to an astonishing $195,768,020. If you measure its untraditional funding and release structure against the funding and release structure of other games, then Star Citizen is currently the fourth most expensive game ever made. 

Before we go any further, it should be noted that this astonishing amount can be attributed to more than just the release of a trailer. Star Citizen's alpha 3.3 was released to the game's public test servers. It's a somewhat substantial release (at least in the context of this game) that not only kicked off the start of CitizenCon (arguably the world's largest fan convention for something that barely exists) but included the release of content like the ability to map voice and facial features as well as some new ships. 

It's certainly worth mentioning that one of those ships (the Anvil Valkyrie dropship) costs $330. Humorously, depending on your perspective, buying that ship doesn't grant you access to the game itself. 

Let's put aside the factual portion of our program in favor of returning to that question we started this article with that we really want people to answer. How does Star Citizen continue to make so much money? Star Citizen first appeared on Kickstarter in 2012 and immediately gained attention due to the involvement of Chris Roberts (designer of the Wing Commander series) and the campaign's promises of a truly epic space adventure that boasts nearly infinite gameplay possibilities. 

Since then, we've gotten impressive pieces of footage, some more promises, the opportunity to purchase ludicrously expensive pieces of in-game content, a lawsuit or two, and some playable pieces of content, but we arguably haven't gotten even 1% of what was promised in 2012. 

It's currently being reported that we will see a "development" roadmap of the Squadron 42 campaign sometime before the end of the year. For the sake of all you Star Citizen backers out there, we hope that's true. After all, the release of Star Citizen has at least 99 problems, but the studio's ability to continue acquiring a disproportionate amount of money for comparatively little content certainly isn't one. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Have you ever wondered why modern Rockstar games feature significantly fewer big name celebrity voice actors? Well, it turns out that Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser and others within the company simply got tired of dealing with their egos.

In an interview with Vulture, Houser recalled a time that he and Burt Reynolds argued about the direction of a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City scene. The argument apparently became quite heated and resulted in Reynolds yelling “Get the limey out of here.”

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, poor bugger,” says Houser, “but we don’t bring in name actors anymore because of their egos and, most important of all, because we believe we get a better sense of immersion using talented actors whose voices you don’t recognize.”

Houser also referenced the trouble he had working with Public Enemy’s Chuck D during the development of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Houser says that he thinks "rappers really want to do the work right" which may have resulted in he and Chuck D having some creative disputes during the voice acting sessions. In any case, Houser says that such incidents led to Rockstar moving away from focusing on casting celebrity voice actors. Of course, they'll still bring in outside talent (such as veteran actor Graham Greene who appears in RDR 2) if they think they're right for the part. 

"He [Greene] did such a brilliant job of bringing this chief character to life," says Houser. "The government is coming down on him hard. He’s losing his rights as an independent king, and he’s a gentle soul in that violent world."

We'd be lying if we told you that there isn't something appealing about playing a star-studded Rockstar game like GTA: Vice City (which featured performers like Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, andGary Busey), but we certainly understand how that process can impact Rockstar's ability to tell the kind of stories they want to tell in an effective and timely manner. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Eurogamer has uncovered some footage and new details of a Shenmue remake that was never finished. 

No, we're not talking about the recent HD remasters of Shenmue. We're talking about a fully-fledged remake of the original game in the style of the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake. That is to say that it would have completely updated the game's visuals and mechanics as opposed to simply glossing over the original titles with a thin coat of HD gloss. 

By comparison, the footage of this remake that Eurogamer has uncovered showcases a pretty stunning overhaul of the cult classic Dreamcast title. Why it doesn't look like the team behind this remake were trying to completely reimagine the original game (many of the original areas look roughly the same) they were clearly interested in making a version of Shenmue that stands tall next to the best looking games of the modern era. 

Truth be told, it appears that they were well on their way to accomplishing that goal. The environments showcased in this remake footage are stunning from a purely technical standpoint, but the games revamped visuals really do an excellent job of showing just how well the artistic design of Shenmuehas aged. We kind of got a taste of that in the HD remasters, but we saw nothing on the scale of this incredible remake. 

So why was this project canceled? Nobody seems to know the official answer to that question. However, the smart money is on the project just costing too much money. Remakes of this scope can sometimes cost as much as making a modern game from scratch, and the fact that this footage includes what appears to be a complete visual remake of Shenmue IImeans that you can double the size of that development bill. We imagine the final cost would have been just shy of the production costs of Shenmue III. 

Sega did indicate that this footage represents just a snapshot of their plans for a full remake of the original games, but it doesn't sound like they have any immediate plans to finish this project in the near future.

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

You might want to change your PlayStation message options to avoid a potential system breaking hack. 

Some PlayStation 4 users are reporting that they are receiving a message from an unknown party that is essentially "bricking" their consoles. A screenshot and some additional information provided by users on the PlayStation subreddit suggests that this message contains a series of characters that the PlayStation cannot properly process. It's not clear at this time whether just receiving the message can break your console or if you need to actually open the message. 

In any case, if you want to avoid this entirely, you can just go to Settings, Account Management,  Privacy Settings, Enter your password, Personal Info, Messaging, and set messages to either friends only or disable them entirely. If you have already been affected by this hack, you will likely have to perform a factory reset on your console to fix it. 

We should also note at this time that Sony has not confirmed the existence of this message hack or the way it might affect your console. However, multiple users from multiple sites have reported receiving similar messages fairly recently. If this is a hoax, it's one that we'd still advise buying into for the time being given that the downside of doing so isn' nearly as great as the potential downside of taking no action whatsoever. 

Besides, this is hardly unprecedented. There have been numerous reports in the past of phones being bricked due to messages that couldn't be properly processed by the device's software. It's not hard to imagine that something similar might happen to a console. 

It also sounds like some people are using this exploit - or one similar to it - in order to force people to drop out of competitive games and therefore receive higher rankings in games like Rainbow Six Siege. Again, that's hardly unheard of, but keep an eye out for more official information regarding this possible exploit. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

In an interview with New York Magazine, Rockstar's Dan Houser stated that he and some members of the team were working some very long weeks in order to finish Red Dead Redemption 2.

“We were working 100-hour weeks," says Houser. He then elaborated on the incredible amount of work that goes into a game like this by stating that they even made "70 versions" the game's trailers and television commercials with the team's editors probably working on "several hundred" versions of those spots. 

These comments caused some people to become quite concerned regarding what Rockstar expects of their employees. After all, we've heard quite a few stories in recent years about studios that will force their employees to endure hundreds of hours of crunch time in order to complete a project. More often than not, these hours are either mandatory or at least strongly encouraged. There are even times when this extra work is not rewarded with additional pay, time off, or any other benefits. 

In response to those concerns, Houser issued a separate statement that clarifies that the hours of work he was talking about were limited to a small number of senior staff and were not demanded of from any other member of the team. 

"After working on the game for seven years, the senior writing team, which consists of four people, Mike Unsworth, Rupert Humphries, Lazlow and myself, had, as we always do, three weeks of intense work when we wrapped everything up," said Houser. "More importantly, we obviously don’t expect anyone else to work this way. Across the whole company, we have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate about a project, or their particular work, and we believe that passion shows in the games we release. But that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this."

However, it should be noted that this is not the first time that Rockstar has been called over how many hours they require their employees to work. In 2010, spouses of members of the Rockstar San Diego team published an open letter in which they claimed that studio employees were being overworked at the same time that the studio was removing some of their benefits. They questioned how games like Grand Theft Auto could generate a billion dollars in revenue while the people who made the game were forced to endure worse conditions.  

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Retro console manufacturer Analogue has revealed a new piece of hardware that is going to make Sega fans very happy. 

Dubbed the Mega Sg, this $189 console is designed to play just about every Sega game released before the debut of the Sega Saturn. That means that it supports Sega Genesis titles from all regions (which includes games that were released on international variants of that console) as well as Game Gear games and titles from more obscure pieces of hardware. While it doesn't sound like the device will support 32x titles as of yet, you can attach a Sega CD to the console in order to play those games.

The versatility of the Sg is pretty exciting, but what really makes the Mega Sg such an appealing piece of hardware is how it brings these games into the modern era. 

In its simplest form, the Mega Sg lets you play these classic games on HD displays. You just hook the console up to your display via an HDMI cable, plug in a classic game cartridge (yes, the game lets you utilize actual classic cartridges), and enjoy playing pretty much whatever game you want from that era on a modern display. Yes, at a time when playing classic console games on a modern television is infuriatingly complicated, the Mega Sg just lets you play classic consoles with few barriers.

Even better, the Mega Sg actually allows for and implements certain technological improvements to these games. Nearly all titles are upscaled to provided pixel perfect 1080p gameplay (which means that most titles will look perfectly normal even when played on large screens) and the Mega Sg even replicates the original audio of these titles via modern sound systems. That last bit is particularly impressive given that few Sega hardware emulators have ever been able to get the sounds of these classic games truly right. As you see (and hear) in the video below, though, Sega games running on the Mega Sg sound, look, and feel just like they should. 

Given that Analogue is the team behind the incredible Super Nt (a console that does what the Sg does but for Super Nintendo games), we have few worries as it concerns the quality of this device. As such, feel free to pre-order this console via this website ahead of its April 2019 release date. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Battlefield V is the next game in the hit first-person shooter series from DICE. The game will be set during World War II as previously suggested. It's not entirely clear which theater of war the game's campaign will be set in, but some of the language the developers used suggested that it will span the globe and include quite a few stories of war. 

Here is what we know about Battlefield V:

Battlefield 5 Trailer

The latest trailer for the game is all about the single-player story campaign. Watch it below:

Another trailer for the game arrived at Gamescom. Check it out:

Be sure to gawk at this trailer, which shows off what it looks like running on Nvidia's latest hardware:

This trailer showcases the game's new Rotterdam map. Check it out below:

Here's a multiplayer trailer:

And here's the reveal trailer:

Battlefield 5 Release Date

Battlefield V has been delayed to Nov. 20 from an Oct. 19 release date. It's coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Battlefield 5 Beta

Battlefield V's open beta will begin on September 4th for those with Early Access through EA's Origins program and September 6th for everyone else. The beta will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. It will showcase the classic Conquest mode via the Rotterdam and Arctic Fjord map. The Arctic Fjord map will also play hose to the next Grand Operations campaign. There's no word on when this beta will end.

Battlefield 5 Multiplayer

Multiplayer wise, Battlefield V doesn't change the series formula too much. The big new addition is a 64-player Grand Operations mode that utilizes several different play modes in order to tell a multiplayer narrative. It's essentially an expansion of the Operations mode seen in Battlefield 1. There's also a Combined Arms 4-player co-op mode that allows players to participate in procedurally generated missions. Generally speaking, Battlefield V places a much greater emphasis on squad play and encourages players to join squads. 

Minor multiplayer changes include the ability to revive your teammates regardless of what class you're playing (and drag them to cover), the ability to tow stationary guns with vehicles, and a new prone option that lets you lay on your back. 

It's also been confirmed that there will be no Premium Pass in the game. While that doesn't seem to discount the possibility that there might be loot boxes in the game, the Battlefield V developers did indicate that player progress will largely be earned by playing the game. Said progress includes new abilities that allow you to fortify the area of play with sandbags, walls, and other structures. Ammo conservation and weapon selection will also reportedly play a larger role in the game. Those weapons will be affected by new bullet penetration physics and the elimination of randomized bullet deviation.

The Battlefield V Twitter account has also revealed a new mode called Airborne. The premise of this mode is that players will need to parachute onto the battlefield when they respawn. It seems that there will be an attacking team who need to take down anti-aircraft measures when they're on the ground and a defending team who are trying to keep the guns operational in order to fend off the airborne invaders. 

Battlefield 5 Tides of War

DICE has expanded upon how The Tides of War will work. In a new blog post, the developer describes Tides of War as a "catch-all" term used to describe Battlefield V's "true journey" through World War II. Based on their description of the idea, it seems that Tides of War will function as kind of an on-going content experience that will change every few months. For instance, the first batch of Tides of War content is titled Fall of Europe and will include special events such as multi-week grand operations and special assignments. 

Despite the changes introduced by these events, players will be able to keep the same company (essentially a faction or guild) and complete all associated events with them throughout the entire Tides of War run.

DICE reiterated that soldiers are fully-customizable this time around and noted that XP can be earned in multiplayer and co-op modes and then used to unlock new class specialization archetypes. It seems that new archetypes will be added to the game via Tides of War updates. 

We'll bring you more information on this mode as it becomes available.

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Bowsette fans hoping to one day challenge Calamity Ganon for the fate of Hyrule with their favorite meme princess are about to lose their minds. The fake Nintendo character that's taken the internet by storm is now playable in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, thanks to a new mod by Lynard Killer (via Kotaku). 

While some might say that this mod is an excuse to show Bowsette in her underwear (NSFW, we guess...), Lynard Killer has gone beyond a simple skin swap. You can check out the mod below:

The Bowsette mod for Breath of the Wildisn't downloadable yet, but if this is your thing, we're sure you'll get your hands on it eventually.

Just a few weeks ago, Bowsette was also made playable in Super Mario 64 by modder Kaze Emanuar. Declaring that someone paid him to "do this shit," Emanuar says that this isn't really something he wanted to do. However, he did put quite a bit of effort into this commissioned mod. Not only does Bowsette have her own voice lines, but she can also shoot a fireball that pretty much instantly destroys anything in her path. Emanuar left a download for the character here for any of the "fucking perverts" that wish to play Super Mario 64 as Bowsette. 

Elsewhere on YouTube, GandaKris - a creator known for her amazing custom creations - has turned internet darling Bowsette into an Amiibo. In a video, GandaKris shows you how to turn the standard Princess Peach Amiibo into a version of Bowsette. The process involves a fair amount of work (and some skills), but the final result really does look pretty good. Best of all, it still functions as an Amiibo. If you don't want to try to make once yourself, GandaKris is sending the one she made to a random user via a giveaway on her Twitter account. 

If you're not caught up on the Bowsette phenomenon...well, brace yourselves because this one is about to get weird. It turns out there's this item in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe called the Super Crown which transforms characters into some kind of version of Princess Peach (or at least they take on aspects of that character). What initially caught the internet's attention is the fact that when Toadette puts the crown on, she becomes Peachette. This raised many questions regarding the full abilities of this item and whether or not it is going to add some new characters to the Mario universe. 

The conversation became that much more interesting when people started asking, "What happens when Bowser puts on the Super Crown?"

We don't know the official answer to that question, but the people of the internet have decided that such an interaction should result in Bowsette. Who is Bowsette? She's the Princess Peach version of Bowser that has already developed quite a following despite the fact that she technically doesn't exist within the Mario universe. It's not entirely clear who is responsible for this concept, but Eurogamer and others are saying that artist aykk92 is responsible for popularizing the idea via a comic strip in which Mario leaves Peach for Bowsette. 

That's far from the only piece of fan art that portrays Bowsette, though. It seems that just about every internet artist has their own interpretation of what this character looks like. Most seem to agree that she'll sport a pair of horns and the general consensus is that she wears black. There are already people cosplaying as Bowsette and others who argue that her technical name should be "Peacher" (based on the Toadette to Peachette transformation). 

Before you start diving deep into this particular fan art well, you should know that the obsession with Bowsette (as we choose to call her) has already spiraled into fan art porn. Actually, it got there pretty quickly. So while we don't know exactly what happens when Bowser puts on the Super Crown, we can tell you that it probably won't look like some of the more recent images of Bowsette. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

A new Fallout 4 mod will at some classic Halloween songs to the game's radio stations. 

The Spooky Scary Radio mod (created by NexusMods user, Natezomby) adds a "lore-friendly" radio station called Spooky Scary Radio to your Pip-Boy. That sounds like a pretty simple addition, but the creativity and track quality featured in this mod is downright impressive. 

Halloween-themed tracks include a stunning variety of spooky sounds from the '20s through the '60s. While we're particularly partial to the classic (and often very corny) tracks from acts like Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters, there's something to be said for some of the other songs that escape the limits of the kind of music that is typically included in Fallout games. For instance, the radio station features spooky poem readings (such as Vincent Price reading The Raven) as well as songs from classic horror movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, and even The Exorcist). 

The full list of tracks included in this mod effectively doubles as the ultimate Halloween party playlist. Even the songs which don't necessarily directly relate to Halloween or horror (such as Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night) feel like they belong in a slightly scarier setting. In case you're wondering, definitive Halloween tracks like Monster Mash and Spooky Scary Skeletons are included on the tracklist. Best of all, the station is "hosted" by the one and only Alfred Hitchcock. 

All-told, this mod adds over 200 tracks to the game's current playlist. It's also compatible with many other radio mods in case you're really interested in expanding Fallout 4's selection of music by about a thousand tracks. 

After you've downloaded and installed the mod, you can access this station by tuning into radio station number 88.666. Sadly, this mod is only available for PC, but we suppose that console gamers could always make a playlist out of the game's tracks and just play it in the background. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Hitman 2's first Elusive Target mission will see you hunt down actor Sean Bean. 

Ok, you won't actually be hunting down Sean Bean. Instead, you'll be hunting down a character named Mark Faba who is portrayed by Sean Bean. Faba is described as a former MI5 agent who had become a freelance assassin. Apparently, Bean excels at faking his own death (hence his nickname "The Undying") which has apparently caused the CIA to put an "imposing bounty on his head." We're not entirely sure how faking your death leads to the CIA wanting to put a bounty on your head. Maybe they just felt it was becoming really annoying. 

Regardless, you'll be able to hunt down Sean Bean (or Mark Faba) when the Elusive Target mission "The Undying" releases on November 20 (just one week after Hitman 2's launch date of November 13). The mission will only be available for 10 days and will require players to take down Faba before he can complete a contract at the Global Innovation Race event in Miami. How does Sean Bean feel about being in the game? We hear that he's quite thrilled. 

“I’m thrilled to be a part of the upcoming Hitman 2 video game,” says Bean. “It’s always exciting to take on a new role, and I’m looking forward to everyone seeing my character in action when the mission launches.”

Well, there you go. We've got to say that the official trailer for this mission is a pretty great reminder of why Sean Bean is so very awesome. In fact, it really feels like he's trying to recapture those GoldenEye glory days with his portrayal of a calm, collected, and effective operative. After you've watched it, be sure to check out hop over to this website where you can vote to unlock an exclusive weapon for Hitman 2. 

We've got high hopes for this sequel considering how great the last Hitman game was, and reveals like this only make us that much more confident the game will live up to the hype. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

The wave of official Halloween updates to games has begun as the PUBG team have revealed a scary new in-game event. 

At the moment, it's not entirely clear what this event will be called (if it has an official name), how long it will run for, or even how much content will be included as part of it. However, it seems that the main draw of this event will be some new (and very creepy) character skins. Based on the information that has been revealed so far, it seems that said skins will include a creepy clown (which is totally not a rip-off of IT), a creepy sexy nurse (which is totally not borrowed from Silent Hill 2), and Purge-like masked characters (which are absolutely lifted from The Purge). 

Of course, having Purge characters in a battle royale game does actually make quite a bit of sense. 

Beyond that, this update will feature such thematic additions as a new night mode for the Erangel map, candles and pumpkins spread across the spawn area, scarecrows that appear when an enemy has been killed by an AKM, and a "spooky face" that appears when grenades detonate. The team promises that all of these updates are "coming soon" and that this event will also be playable on the iOS an Android versions of the game. 

We imagine that you'll be able to keep using the unlockable scary skins after the event has concluded, but it's always possible that this game will go the Team Fortress 2route by limiting those outfits to a once a year timeframe. We certainly don't expect that you'll be able to access them beyond this event. 

This event looks interesting, but we wonder if it's the kind of thing that will draw players who have left PUBG back to the game or if it's just a "that's neat" treat for those who still play the former king of the battle royale genre. With Call of Duty's Blackout mode taking off and gaining steam amongst the former fans of PUBG, it's starting to look like the PUBG team are going to have to dig pretty deep into their bag of updates and tricks in order to restore the game to its former glory. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

Developer Niantic Labs has made the shocking decision to add more Pokemon to the popular mobile title, Pokemon Go. 

In a stunning move, the Niantic team seemingly decided that making money is a good thing and that the best way to continue doing so would be to add more iconic Pokemon to the game all about capturing and collecting Pokemon. It's a truly bold creative decision that has led to the stunning news that Generation 4 Pokemon from Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum will soon be available to catch in Pokemon Go. 

This particular group of Pokemon will include creatures that sound like they were named by a development team who were about to leave the office for the weekend and realized they forgot to give the Pokemon names. As such, you'll soon be able to catch Pokemon like Chimchar, Piplup, and the almighty Turtwig within Pokemon Go's world (which is to say, your world). 

Those Pokemon will kick off this update, but Niantic has teased that additional Pokemon from this generation will be "released in waves." It sounds like some of those Pokemon will be roaming freely in the wild, but others can only be captured by hatching eggs and participating in raids.

The team is also teasing the addition of several new features related to the Sinnoh region, but don't go into specifics regarding what those features may be or when we can expect to receive them. However, it does sound like more than a few of those features will expand upon or improve existing mechanics.

So how is Pokemon Go doing these days? Pretty well, actually. The game reportedly made $104 million during May of this year and is currently enjoying a shocking 174% revenue increase over last year's figures (at least according to the most recent reports). While we doubt Pokemon Go will ever return to being the phenomenon that it was during its first couple of months of availability, Niantic has done a great job in terms of ensuring the game enjoys a steady stream of new content. 

Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014. 

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!